110
TEXAS STATE LIBRARY.
a position on the left, and Jordan on the right.- Jordan enquired if there was any water on the right? He was given to understand that there was none. He then said that he should go to the left where there was water-and Lopez said he would do the same- The force now marched together on the left, until they came to a small ranch where the Americans deposited their horses, pack mules and amuni- tion, and then retraced their steps to :1 plain where they intended to make a stand; whilst Lopez with his cavalry advanced to another point for the purpose of bringing on the fight. The enemy was displayed in front ¾ miles off; and proved to be ten times stronger than had been represented- The Americans, however, were nothing daunted, tho' few in numbers. When all things were ready for the engagemt, and all were waiting for Lopez, to open upon the enemy, the treachery of this per.fideous Coward and that of his infamous Leader Malino was suddenly displayed- Lopez fired off his guns in the air, ¾ of a mile from the enemy and exclaimed. Long-live the Republic of Mex- ico and death to the Americans- The shout rang through his whole line, & in a moment he and his men blended with the enemy in a common strife against us, with the exception of Gonzales and a few faithful followers, who scorning the part of traitors, yet dispairing of success, sought their safety thro' the mountains- The first movemt of the enemy was an attempt to cut us off from our horses. We, however, foiled him in the attempt, by flying back to our horses; which we had scarcely reached, before the enemy upon our heels; we turned and a general fight ensued- We were with in 50 paces of each other- we 100 strong with nothing but our rifles & scarce of amunition and they 73 hundred in numbers, with infantry cavalry and cannon-We were repeatedly charged, but the enemy was uni- formly repulsed altho' he sometimes came within a few f~et of us-- The fight in this manner continued from 3 Oclk until the setting of the sun when the enemy sounded a retreat. We then mounted our horses and attempted to escape through pass in a mountain; but en- countering some cavalry which had been placed there for our inter- ception, we turned our direction and ascended the mountain, and found an enemy upon the brow of it who rec'd us with a hot fire- They were volunteer infantry composed of some of the best citizens of Saltillio-By one well directed fire upon them, we killed many and put the ballance to flight- The passage was now open to us; but it was night & we were without a guide & wholly ignorant of the country- We pursued our course over mountains, not knowing whither we were going, until we came to a valley where some boys were tend- ing sheep- They gave us no information and we proceeded onward a short distance further we halted for the night- Early in the morn- ing we moved forwd. to a ranch, where we were told that we had been wandering circuitously and were only 7 miles from Saltillio. Here we got some directions and on the next day we captured a pione and made him co'nduct us to the Monclover road, where we were greatly sur-- prised as well as gratified at finding 3 of Gonzalez men had been left by their leader hid in the Chaperel to watch for such of us as might have ecaped from Saltillio, and to conduct us to him- In our progress we unexpectedly came upon 12 hundred of the enemy, a reinforcemt
Powered by FlippingBook