Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/553

Rh but General Bustamente immediately moved with a division from Guanajuato, where he had been stationed to keep down the disafectionn in that quarter, and arrived at San Luis Potosi on the 27th of March. The revolutionists made attempts to tamper with his fidelity, but finding him firm in his adherence to the administration, they abandoned their projects, for the pressentpresent [sic].

In the meantime, the American army had made no new movement of importance; except, that in the month of February, Orizaba was occupied by Colonel Bankhead, of the 2nd artillery, with 1,200 men, consisting of the 13th infantry, the Alabama battalion, and a detachment of cavalry. Several skirmishes, however, took place with the guerilleros, who persisted in committing their depredations on the line of the National road.

On the 1st of February, 1848, Captain Lamb, with his company of the 5th Illinois, encountered a Mexican reconnoitering party near Tampico; but at the first discharge, the enemy fled, leaving a number of horses, and their commanding officer and one of his men, in the hands of the Americans. On the 4th instant, Lieutenant Lilly, of the Louisiana cavalry, attacked twice his force, in the neighborhood of Puebla, and soon routed them; killing fifteen of the party, and capturing the remainder, with their arms, horses, and accoutrements. Lieutenant Colonel Biscoe, of the Louisiana rangers, left Vera Cruz, on the 19th of February, for Orizaba, with a detachment of Georgia and Louisiana cavalry. About four o'clock in the afternoon, between forty and fifty guerilleros were discovered in the road, near a place called Matacordera. Captain Wafford, in the advance, with twenty-five of the Georgia men,