Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/376

370 prisoners, to join his espia company, now numbering one hundred and twenty-three men, and is recruiting fast.

Late in the evening some of our soldiers made another charge on Capt. Webster's tobacco warehouse and soon had the plaza in front of our quarters stored full of tobacco bales. It looked like the levee at New Orleans; but they carried the business on too boldly, and the officers and guard came and stopped it, and arrested several of the soldiers, and afterwards went around the different quarters and gathered some of the tobacco.

Later, rumor has it that the tobacco captured during the siege, and stolen from the quartermaster, does not belong to the Mexican government, but to a private firm named B. J. Domercqu & A. Porte, and that they are going to make claim against our Government for every pound lost. This rumor, probably, was the cause of the officers and the guard going around the quarters and gathering up the tobacco. Uncle Sam will have to pay for it.

Sunday, October 24, 1847.—This morning it is rumored through our quarters that we would accompany Col. F. M. Wynkoop's command back to Perote Castle. We were all anxious to know the truth of this report, as we have a great many things to get rid of—in fact, we are so well fixed that we don't care about moving, and in particular in that direction; for we all want to march on to the city of Mexico before we go backward.

Sure enough, this afternoon we received general orders to pack up and move in the morning. The question now was, what shall we do with our things on hand? The only remedy was to get to work and get rid of them the best way we could. So we set up a regular auction sale—selling our beds, bedding, glassware, cut decanters, pictures (some of the finest and rarest kind), britannia ware, damask and cane-bottom chairs and a large lot of tobacco (this was mostly taken by the officers), also clothing of every description—all captured from the Mexicans during the siege of Puebla. Our terms of sale were caxa (cash), no confior (trust) or pocatampo, as we used to call it. You can