Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/268

262 including several of the quartermaster's department—numbering in all thirty-two men of all grades—all mounted on spirited horses. The soldiers who went with this daring party are Morris Stemler, Alburtus Welsh, of our company (C), Mr. Priest of Co. I, Mr Longstaff of Co. K—all of the First Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. Several others and myself wanted to go along, but were unable to procure horses and saddles to be ready in time to go with them.

The party formed in front of our quarters, and after everything was ready, they started off under the command of a wagon-master and Lieutenant Sperry, of the Second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. They passed on through the city in the direction where the guerillas were last seen. The blanket gentlemen were of course all standing on the street corners and the National Road and on tops of houses and church steeples, watching the movement of our men. They hadn't gone far before our men met a large force of well mounted lancers and guerillas. We could, from our quarters, plainly see our men following the lancers. At last they charged on the lancers, who then fled.

Most all of our men were on the ramparts, and we could see our men going in hot pursuit of our stolen mules. When our men had arrived at a small stream, which crossed the road, they found out that the guerillas had driven the mules up through the water for the purpose of avoiding detection. Our men followed them until they came to the foot of a steep hill, when suddenly five or six guerillas sprang out from behind a cluster of trees and fired upon our men, but doing no damage, except wounding one horse. The guerillas ran into a wild brush of trees, where horses could not follow. Yet we on the ramparts could see the guerillas retreating down on the other side of the hill, towards an old building at the foot.

Here we noticed our men were forming into line of battle, and charged after the guerillas who were in a terrible terror, and being ignorant of the field of our observation, gained on the lancers at every jump the horses made. They kept following them in