Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/412

Rh and some field pieces proceeded toward La Hedionda. The latter saw a cloud of dust in the direction of Potosí, fell in with a Mexican deserter! — who said Miñón was near and Santa Anna at La Encarnación — and reported at Agua Nueva before sunrise, February 21. At first his party were taken for Mexicans; and when the alarm subsided, it was followed by a solemn stillness, amidst which groups of officers could be seen talking eagerly in low tones with mysterious gestures.

Suddenly at about noon a solitary horseman on a jaded steed came down from the mountain, and made straight for the General's tent, bringing word that a great Mexican army had been seen at La Encarnación. The combination of this report and May's was understood to mean that Santa Anna intended to turn Agua Nueva, and before two o'clock the Americans took flight — that is the polite phrase — for Buena Vista. Colonel Yell with his mounted Arkansas regiment was left behind to guard the stores, should Santa Anna permit this, until they could be removed; the Second Kentucky and some guns were detached at La Encantada to support him; and the First Illinois under Colonel Hardin was posted at La Angostura. About midnight Yell's pickets at Carnero Pass were driven in. Upon this, firing the buildings and the last of the stores, and abandoning some wagons, the troops hurried off, lighted on their way by roaring flames that filled the air with piles of lurid smoke and the mountains with fantastic shadows; and by morning all except Hardin's command and the advanced pickets were at Buena Vista. Taylor, meanwhile, entrusting to Wool the disposition of the troops, marched with a strong escort of the three arms for Saltillo, to provide at this late day for the defence of that city against Miñón.