Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/204

172 Colonel Childs, with three companies of his artillery battalion, three companies of the 8th infantry under Captain Scriven, and two hundred Texan riflemen, under Colonel Hays and Lieutenant Colonel Walker There were faint gleams of morning light dancing on the summits of the hills, but the sky was curtained by a thick veil of clouds, and the valley still in deep shade. Proceeding cautiously along, the party picked their way up the steep hill, among the rocks and thorny bushes of Chaparral, and at daybreak were within one hundred yards of the breastwork on the summit. Here they encountered a body of Mexicans who had been stationed in a cleft of rocks on the night previous, in anticipation of an attack. Three men of the artillery battalion, having advanced with too much haste, came unexpectedly upon the enemy. They instantly yielded, but were shot down with the very pieces which they had surrendered. It did not require this act of cruelty and outrage to kindle the zeal and fire the ambition of their comrades. With aloud fierce shout for vengeance they sprang up the height. A deadly volley from their guns, and a charge with the bayonet, placed them in posse of the work; the enemy delivering an ineffectual file s they retreated. The next object of attack was the Bishop's palace, about four hundred yards distant. The Mexicans had withdrawn their guns from the battery, and the detachment were obliged to wait for their own cannon. Lieutenant Rowland, of Duncan's battery, was ordered from the main rank with a twelve-pounder howitzer, and in two hours his men had dragged and