running to the no1·th-west, were unoccupied by the sol- diery. Repeated orders were given, and connter- ordered, to go in and take possession of these houses, from which thct·e was a hope of dislodging the enemy from the public square. The Texian commander, find- ing that the place could not be taken by noise alone, directed that the enterprize should be abandoned, and made the necessary p-reparation for raising the siege the following night, the 9th December, and retreat to La Dahia. 'l'his order was received with great indig- nation b~· the soldiers, particularly by the New Orleans Greys, who were very active in what follows. Two humlrctl and forty out of six hundred imme- diately volunteered to storm the public square, Colonel Neil being requested to cross the river with his cannon, for the pui·pose of making a diversion by an attack on the Alamo. .About two hours before day, the volun- teers entered the unoccupied quarter of the town in two divisions, having taken Col's Milam and Johnson from their own ranks to superintend and direct the attack. They proceeded down the river through a street in that. part of the town opposite the Alamo, to within fifty yards of the square. Here Johnson's division broke into a house upon the left, or river side of the street, at the same time that .Milam took others on the right. Ju the reat· of the first mentioned house in which I was, here was a yard with a stone wall on
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