Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/118

100 unfinished state of his field-work, and the necessity of placing it in a good condition for defence, had hitherto prevented General Taylor from acting on the offensive; but as his own ammunition and provisions were becoming reduced, and his principal dépôt was menaced, he determined to march to the Point with the main body of the army as soon as possible, and put an end to the land blockade which the enemy appeared disposed to enforce against him. The troops were employed without intermission, on the ﬁeld-work, until the morning of the 1st of May, when it appeared to be capable of being defended by an inferior force, and orders were then issued to prepare for the march.

The seventh regiment of infantry, with Captain Lowd's and Lieutenant Bragg's companies of artillery, numbering, in all, about 600 men, were detailed to garrison the field-work, and complete its defences. Major Brown, of the 7th, was left in command. At half-past three in the afternoon of the 1st, the main force marched under General Taylor, leaving all their sick behind them at the post; and at eleven o'clock on the same evening bivouacked in the peen prairie, about ten miles from Point Isabel. The march was resumed the next morning, and they reached the dépôt early in the day, without discovering any indication of the enemy.

The departure of General Taylor, with the greater part of his army, was hailed in Marathons with every manifestation of joy. His march was pronounced a hasty retreat, and it was said that he hat shut himself up in the fort, and lacked sufficient courage to meet the Mexicans in the field. The newspapers published in Matamoras abounded in declarations to this effect; and El Monitor Republicano boastfully announced, that the American general "dared not resist the valor