Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/205

176 quite five miles in the rear. May's dragoons had been used up. Apparently no effort had been made to communicate with Fort Brown, and have its defenders? now tired but not exhausted — sally forth to help reap the fruits of the expected victory, Taylor only claimed to have captured "a number" of this utterly broken army facing a difficult river. Even badly wounded men got safely across, it would seem; and very soon, in spite of everything, nearly four fifths — that is to say, about 4000 besides those under Canales — of the troops commanded by Arista on the first of the month appear to have been in safety on the south shore. He lost on May 9, according to his official report, 160 killed, 228 wounded and 159 missing, but the accuracy of the figures may be doubted. Fourteen officers, eight guns and a large amount of property were captured by the Americans, while their casualties were only 33 killed and 89 wounded.

During the whole week so dramatically concluded, Fort Brown had been under attack. On May 3 it replied vigorously, though with trifling results, to the guns of Matamoros; but as Taylor, with more than a month of good weather and about 300 wagons at his disposal, had neglected to bring up a stock of ammunition, it fired only occasionally after that in order to notify both friend and foe that its courage still held good. On the 4th Canales occupied the road, and on the next day Ampudia arrived with four guns and nearly a thousand men. Arista, however, believing his cannon were not heavy enough to breach the wall and confident that hunger would soon reduce the garrison, forbade assault, The besiegers made themselves extremely disagreeable; but by this time the Americans had bomb-proofs and "gopher holes," and, aside from the death of Major Brown, met with no serious losses. Taylor's profound silence, after as well as before the battle of Palo Alto, caused intense anxiety; but when the cannon began to "bark" again on the 9th, and especially when a throng of panic-stricken fugitives could be seen rushing past, haggard faces put on smiles. Finally a solitary messenger approached at a gallop with his reins on the horse's neck, waving Cap and sword, and shouting "Victory!" and the long strain ended in exultation.

The Mexican army was now hanging like a plum, overripe, shaken by the wind and ready to fall. To the British consul