Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/197

168 the extreme right; the rest of the army made corresponding changes; and as a Whole the line diverged now thirty or forty degrees from its original direction, while the wagons came nearly up to it.

But the Mexican left had not yielded, and so Taylor found when he sent a squadron of dragoons to open the way. To avoid being enfiladed, Arista swung his line forward in excellent order, using the Fourth Infantry as a pivot, and again it stood firm under an artillery fire more destructive than at first. Indeed our Fourth Infantry began to suffer a galling cannonade, and Torrejón again assumed the offensive. Canister from the 18-pounders checked him, however, and after sharp musketry exchanges between the Mexican line and our Artillery Battalion, which had advanced and formed a square, Serious infantry operations in this quarter came to an end. As for the artillery, Arista had now used up his 650 cannon balls; but the Americans kept at work until nightfall.

On our left, however, important events occurred. From the first Captain Duncan's battery, which made two fire-units because handled in sections, played a brilliant and effective role, supported by the Eighth Infantry and either Kerr's or May's dragoons, and advancing or retiring as the course of the battle dictated. When Arista's change of front threw his right forward nearly 700 yards and seemed to threaten a flank attack, these pieces became more active and more daring than ever, and under their blasting discharges, aided more or less at this time by the 18-pounders, the Mexicans fell rapidly. Again they grew impatient — not principally because they were suffering so terribly, but because they were inactive, and because hints that Arista had sold them began to arrive from Ampudia's quarter; and finally the extreme right wing broke.

After a time some of the officers and Arista, who expos€d himself bravely throughout the battle, induced these troops to go back, and as they were still in much confusion, the remnants of Noriega's corps, reinforced with 200 men from Torrejón, were ordered to support them. The cavalry, however, badly demoralized themselves, dashed blindly at a trot against the infantry; the resulting disorder extended even to the Tampico men; and these desperate corps, ordered to charge