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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
from our camp it turned out to be about one hundred & fifty Mexican Cavalry who had been sent out of Town for the purpose of procuring grass for their horses Bowie immediately commenced an attack upon and ordered his men to dismount and take a Bank the Mexicans also dismounted & took a ditch and sent back to Town for a reinforcement at the time Bowies guns commenced firing the Infantry had just ar- rived at a creek which was about waste deep, and about a mile in a direct line from where Bowie commenced the fight, but about two miles the way we had to ma[rch] some Qavalry had been seen a moment before Bowies engagement commenced and something was said about taking a favorable position to fight them but on hearing the commence- ment of the firing the men jumped in & waded the creek and ad- vanced at a run to reinforce Bowie When we got in half a mile of him the firing ceased We advanced rapidly but with very little ex- pectation of getting into a fight the grass party had [r] etired and got into a ditch & were waiting for the reinforcement from town which w[as] then coming, consisting, from the best information I could gather of about five hundred men & one piece of artillery I think a six power. 24 We were not apprized of the position Bowie occupied, and marched in between the grass party & the reinforcement who were apprized of our situation, and we not of theirs they waited very quietly until we passed a little eminence that was between us and them & they gave us a general fire which threw our men in to confusion an order was given to lie down followed immediately by an order from some one to retreat it is due to Burleson to say this order was not given by him, nor do I know by whom at the same time. an order was given to charge, & about fifty of our force did charge in the charge we got in some forty yards of where the grass party were lying concealed on our right & the reinforcement rather to our left the grass party then opened a fire on us which was repeated before we could discover where they were their force was about a hundred & thirty, Bowie having killed and wounded about twenty fifteen of our men charged on them & routed them from the ditch, killing & wound- ing several of them they ran entirely off this field & I do not believe that they again joined in the fight. our forces were by this time scat- tered over about one hundred acres of ground & in small parties, every man fighting pretty much on his own hook. we however kept advanc- ing upon the enemy & they falling back. w[e] got in about Eighty yards of the Cannon when it was discharged on us with grape & can- ister & run back a short distance when they halted & fired· again they then attempted a charge with I think about a hundred & fifty cavalry on about forty of our men who were occupying a little eminence o[n] the field to prevent the enemy bringing their cannon to that point, which would have given them [the] advantage. the cavalry came up at a beau[ti]ful charge until they got within about one hundred yards when they broke their ranks and fell back they twice repeated· this attempt at a charge but failed to get any nearer us than about one hundred yards about this .time the M[or]ales Battalion was brought up to drive our men from the eminence these men advanced with great
04 Written "power," but probably meant for "pounder."
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