rcm11inder, fixed their camp on the north of the town, within one hnlf of a mile from it, at a mill on the west side of the river, where the mill-race afforded us a breastwork. Mnch Yexatious delay in our operations wns occai;ioned by time unprofitably spent in waiting the arrival of a twelve-pound cannon, which was long on its way to us. From this acquisition we looked forwnrd to a speedy reduction of the place, and the accomplishment of all we desired. ·when it came, to make it more effectual, a night's toil produced a ditch and breastwork upon the west bank of the river, within two hundred and fifty yards of the Alamo, and three Jnmdred of the public square in the town. But all our hopes of an easy victory by such means were soon oYerthrown, for two days continual cannonading had accomplished nothing but the tumbling of a few rocks from the top of the walls of the Alamo. But this ineffectual kind of warfare cost us, or them, little more than the trouble and expense of making a great noise. For our balls were generally returned to us as good as they were sent, by friendly Mexicans in the town, but not exactly in the way that theirs were delivered back to them. During the siege, a correspondence was kept up with some Americans living in town, by means of :\Iexican friends, they not being permitted to leave. Through them we learned that some houses, in streets
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