Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/415

Rh the intrenched camp of Valencia, General Smith ordered a halt, and directed the brigades to close up. It was now six o'clock. The men examined their pieces, and replaced the loads which had been wetted. Colonel Riley formed his command into two columns, and advanced further up the ravine. He then gave the word, and in an instant his men ascended the bank on their left. A slight acclivity still remained between him and the enemy. That was surmounted, and the camp lay beneath him. Throwing out his leading divisions as skirmishers, with a swoop, like that of the eagle darting on its prey, he dashed down the slope. The sappers and miners, and the rifle regiment, had been thrown across an intervening ravine under the brow of the slope, and now swept it in front of his column. General Cadwalader hastened to the support of Colonel Riley, and Major Dimmick, with the remaining regiments of General Smith's brigade, was ordered to face to the left, and engage a body of the enemy's cavalry under General Torrejon, hastily forming on that ﬂank.

The boldness and daring of this manœuvre took the enemy by surprise. Colonel Ransom, of the 9th infantry, in command of the brigade of General Pierce, who had been severely hurt by a fall from his horse among the rocks, on the 19th instant, together with the detached companies of the rifles and the 3rd infantry, diverted their attention in front, until Colonel Riley appeared above the crest of the hill in rear, when they also sprang forward to join in the attack. Pouring a heavy fire into the enemy's camp, as they rushed down the declivity, Colonel Riley and his men gained the intrenchments, unchecked by the torrents of grape and musketry which they encountered. Portions of the other commands likewise joined in the immediate