The North-Carolina standard., 1847-10-20

BY means of his scouts, Gen. Worth had fouhc
a path round the left of Lake Chaico. which led
us to the Western gate iofthe City, and which, uf
TO that hmey had not been fortified. On the 18th
the other divisions commenced their march, while
we brought up the train and the rear In the
morning. ithe train was sent in iadvance, while
Smiths brigade acted as rear guard 1t was
composed OF the Rifles, list Artillery, and the Sd
Infantry, with .Taylor's battery AS the rear
guard, marching slowly along, came up with the
train, word came to Gen. 1'wiggs that1a force oil
about five Thousand men were trying to cross the
road between them and the train in orderto cut il
Ief'f We were then passing through small vii.
lage which by curious coincidence was called
Buena Vista: On our left were large fields ol
hafgrown barley, through which @hs seen ad.
yancing in splendid order, the ehemS's column.
L was the most splendid sight had eyer seen.
The yellow. cloaks, rcd caps and jackets of the
lancers, and the bright blue and white uniforms OF
the infantry, were most Beautifully contrasted with
the green Of the barley fields yObrilne of battle
was soon formed, and we deployed throhgh the
grain 10 turn their left and cut them off from the
mountains. few Shots however, from the bat
terry, soon showed them that they were observed,
and countermarchins ia haste, they left their dead
on the field Thus ended our 6ghtof Buena, Wis
Ia. That night we STAYED at Chalco.
The next day we made long and toilsome
march over "a horrible road, through which, with
the utmost difficulty, we dragged our Wagons
by, the assistance of both men and mules The
next was nearly the same. except that the road
was, if possible, worse than before, as the Mexi-
cans had blocked it up with large stones, rolled
down the neighboring hills. This night we en-
eamped at a most beautiful olive grove, of i'm
mense size and accommodating at once both divis-
IONS In the town, as well as in Chalco there
are still standing the churches of the Indians
where the fre-worshipers assembled before Cortez
had introduced a new religion: They are large
and sombre edifces, differing but little from The
churches of this country, and being the city,
are said to have been formerly resorted 10 by the
ancient kings .at Mn III .s4,a =
The next day we arrived in sight of the rest of
the army, and heard the guns with which Worth
was preaching the walls of San Antonio. That
night the news of the death of Capt Thornton,
of the second sdrngoons, reached US He twas a
brave officer, and a thorough gentleman, but was
always unfortunate in his military carcer. e~..
On the morning of the 10Th, we left the little
village where we had heard This sad news and took
the road to San Juan, about seven miles TO thew
and only about ten miles from the cityg When
we arrived here, we heard The sound OF General
Worths guns, who; was said to have attacked San
Augustine, village three miles nearer the Capt.
tai, where Santa Anna was said to be with 20, 900
men, When we arrived at San Juan, the!men
ero told sling their blankets across their shout
to put two days bread and beef in their haversacks
When this order CAME all knew that the time had
come. The officers arranged their effects put on
their old coats and filled their haversacks and
TASKS. Soon were all ready for anything but
a thrashing. We here heard the position of the
enemy, which was nearly as follows: Santa Anna
with 10000 men was a, San Augustine; Valen-
cia with 10000 men was at hill called Contre-
ras, which commanded another road parallel with
The San Augustine road, but which led into it be-
tween the city nd Santa Anna. Now, by cut
ling a road across, if we could whip Valencia,
we could then follow the road up and thus get in
between Sanru Anna and Mexico, and whip him
100. Gen. Worth supported by Gen. ,Quitman
was TO keep Slna Anna IN check, while Twiggs
backed by Pillow, was TO try and astonish Valen-
cia, which, you will see he did very effeetuaily.
Pillow with some of the ten regiments was 10 cut
he road We left San Juan about o'clock, not
particularly desiring fight SO late in the day, but
still not stunning it in case we could have re-
spectacle chance
About 2 p NJ as we had crawled to the top of
q hill whittier we had been ourselves pulling Ma
gruder's battery and the Mountain howzers, we
suddenly ,espied Valencia fortified on hi n about
200 yards off, and strong " reinforced by column
which had Just come out of the city We lay
down close, 10 avoid drawing their fire, while the
battery moved past at full gaElop. Just then
Gen. Smiths manly voice rung out Forward
lhe Rittcs-so support the battery" On they
went till they got about 800 yards from the work
when the enemy opened upon them with his long
guns which were afterwards found to be sixteen
and eight inch howitzers. The ground was the
worst possible for artillery, covered With rocks
large and small, and prickiy pear and cactus, in
tersected by ditches filled with water and lined
with maguey plant, itself imperviable TO cavalry,
and with patches of corn which concedled the enc
my's sxirnishers, while it impeded our own pas
sage. The artillery advanced but slowly under
q most tremendous fire, which greatly injured it
b. fore could be got in range, and the thickness
ofthe underground caused lheskirmishers thrown
forwardho lose lhe1r relative position, as 'we'a
the column About the battery got in position
under most murderous fire Of grape, canister and
round shot. Here the superiority OF the cnemys
pieces rendered our fire nugatory. ,
: We could get but Three pieces in bdttery, while
they had tsrs1ty!se1esy all ofthcm three times the
caIibre of ours. For two hours our aroops stood
the storm of iron and lead they hailed upon them,
unmoyed At every discharge they lay flat down
to avoid The storm and then sphang UP to serve the
guns. At the end of that lime, Two of the; guns
were disnounted and we badly hurt thirteen of
pbc horses werekilied and disabled and fifteen of
the eannoneers killed and wounded The nregi-
,mt mt was then recalled r., The .,lancers had been
reneiled in three successive charges. The 3d In
f,ntrv and fst Artillery had also engaged and
successfully :epefied the enerry's skirmishers
without loss Of either officers men, Isl The great-
est loss had been at the batteries, Officers looked
oIootnJ Eorthe first days l6ght, bdtSt the Brigade
was for med and Gem Srhith in1pehsep Took com
mand. All felt revived and followed him with
veIFas creening low to avoid the grape, which