Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/129

Rh all forming the first brigade, and commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Belknap. The wagon train was strongly parked near the water in rear of the right wing, under the direction of Captains Crossman and Myers, and protected by Captain Ker's squadron.

At two o'clock the army took up the march by heads of columns, all moving with the utmost regularity and promptitude, and the stillness broken only by their measured tread, the firm tones of command, the heavy tramp of cavalry, the rumbling wheels of the artillery, and the shrill notes of martial music. While they were advancing, Lieutenant Blake, of the topographical engineers, volunteered a reconnaissance, which he executed in the most daring manner, to the admiration of all who beheld it. Approaching to within rifle shot of the enemy's line, he dismounted, and coolly surveyed their position with his spy-glass. He then remounted, and galloped along the whole line, discovering the artillery, which had been previously masked by the tall grass of the prairie, and estimating the number of their cavalry and infantry with singular accuracy.

General Taylor halted his columns, and deployed them into line, within seven hundred yards of the enemy, whose artillery began to pour forth its warlike music. Their guns were by no means skilfully served; the balls almost invariably bounced over the heads of the Americans, and ricocheted along the plain in the rear, or ploughed deep furrows in the prairie, and filled the air with clouds of dust. On both sides the battle was mainly confined to the artillery. The guns of Ringgold, Churchill, and Duncan, were finely managed.