Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/278

Rh drawn out before the citadel as if to assault it. The First Division (regulars) stood at the left of this line; Quitman's brigade — the Tennesseeans under Campbell and the Mississippi riflemen under Davis — came next it, and Hamer with the Ohio regiment occupied the extreme right. Meanwhile the work of reconnoitring continued. Believing that he would meet with no serious resistance at Monterey, Taylor had apparently felt little or no anxiety to ascertain how the town had been fortified; but now he may have realized that such information was desirable.

In a general sense we are already aware what defences had been prepared in this quarter — particularly the barricaded streets and the stone houses turned into forts; but the situation must now be investigated more closely. West of the grand plaza and toward the northern edge of the city there was a large springs The outlet of this flowed toward the east, widened into a pond, then contracted into a stream, passed under Purísima bridge — a heavy structure of stone by which the Marín road entered the city proper — veered a little toward the right, and finally left the town at its northeastern corner. On the inner side of this watercourse below Purísima bridge there were two simple redans capable of holding fifty or seventy men each; and some distance farther down, on the top of a rather steep slope, stood a strong earthwork named El Rincón del Diablo (The Devil's Corner), commonly known by the Americans as El Diablo, which had two or three guns, and could accommodate a garrison of one hundred and fifty or two hundred.

On the outer side of the watercourse an irregular but strong fortification (tête de pont), armed with a 12-pounder, defended Purísima bridge. East and northeast of this lay a confused suburban district occupied in part with streets, lanes, houses and huts, and in part with orchards, gardens and yards enclosed with high stone walls. Near the edge of it all, some four hundred yards in front of El Diablo, was the most advanced Mexican position This, occupied by about two hundred men, consisted of a stone tannery building, often spoken of by the Americans as a distillery, the flat roof of which, protected with sand — bags in addition to the parapet, was held by a Competent garrison, and of an earthwork in front of it called the Tenería