The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1847-04-07
Battle of Duena Vista.

Through the kindness of friend, we have been fur
nished with the following extracts from private letter,
written by Lieutenant Colonel Mansfield, of the corps Of
engineers to brother officer in this city, giving brief
and hastily written description OF the battles of the 22d
and 23d of February
To most of readers is, perhaps, useless to say
that Lieutenant Colonel Mansfield has served with the
army under General Taylor from its landing Corpus
Christi up to the present time and that for his dstn-
guished services and gallant conduct the Rio Grande
AMI at Monterey, he has been twice breveted:
s'EIGHrEEN MILES SoUTH OF SALTILLo,
cat Camp United States Army, Aqua Nueva,
"March /, 1s47
DEAR CAPTAIN: We are justrecoverng from the ia
tgues OF tremendous battle, fought by this little army
on the 2ad and 23d February at Buena Vista, place
about eleven miles IN our rear and seven miles this side
of Satllo,
''We had previously been on this very ground from
the 9th to the goth February, recommending the position
roads, &c. and ascertaning where the enemy was, and
his numbers. We found Santa Anna was at Encarna-
troops, of infantry and artillery, and that our left was
General Mhon at Eliorda, say twenty-five miles off,
with three thousand cavalry and lancers
"On the 2lst, al noon, broke up camp and fell
back TO good position at Buena VISTA to await the
envy On the 22d he came in sght-hs advance heavy
body OF lancers and cavalry followed by large bodies of
infantry and about eighteen pieces of artillery Skin
msh commenced in the afternoon, and the enemy gained
the mountain side left On right of the road
were impossible gues, deep and perpendicular, extend
ing across TO the mountains, say mile On our lett of
the road commenced steep to the tops OF the spurs
of the mountain, which united and formed beautiful
vest by half mile north and south There " were es, other
spurs the sde stretching along the road north
and south of us, with deep gules between, many OF
them lmpassable but none forming table land like this
"a ditch and parapet was Immediately thrown across
the road, and Washingtons artillery placed there sup
ported by two companies of volunteers behind another
para1Pet,
with his infantry and Iances to possess the table
the key to the whole position, and at the same time col
uinn OF infantry and cavalry advanced the road to-
wards Washngton's battery. A terrible fight ensued
Our left forced back off the table land and rallied
under the bank but our centre charged with tremen
dous fire of horse artillery {egh peces) and volunteers
and hurled them back against the mountain and broke
their centre so that large bodies OF infantry saved them
selves by moving into the avnes and the spurs Of the
ments and artillery to fight them and drive them back
across the same ground extreme left, which
they had been forced If we had had but single full
regiment OF regulars IN reserve we could have charged
their battery our extreme left and taken four five
thousand prisoners AS it was, could only hold our
own against such odds
ana rush, IN great force TO possess the table land and
were again repulsed with great slaughter and with much
loss on our part Night put an end to the scene, and
der the cover OF darkness the enemy rereated to this
place, lAgua Nueva0 where our light troops followed
them the next morning.
al was beautiful battle--not mistake made the
whole day; but every man perfectly exhausted Mt night
Our loss about 264 killed and $50 wounded The enc
mys loss about 1850 in killed and wounded and 900
at is said that Santa Anna in full retrea, TO Mata
hula and San Luis with his army, disprted and dsor-
ganlzed He is said to have lost many officers of high
rank You will, in due time, get correct accounts
"Nothing could exceed the gallant bearing of our
horse artillery and Dragons, the bravery and good
conduct OF the volunteers as body Not regular in
fantry soldier in this fight
1--WE have lost most valuable officers Capt Lincoln
was Killed IN the first charge Col Mckee and 1t Col.
clay, OF me kentucky regiment, and Col. Hardin
killed besides others, in the second charge of the enemy
we lost three pieces of cannon, which we had not the
men TO recover Our men actually sunk to the ground
from excessive exhaustion
ut has ever been the misfortune of our brave old gen
era to be obliged to fight the enemy with inferior mum
bers. But there is no backing out with him This. his
last battle, has done him credit than any OF his pre-
vous ones His case was not near desperate at Pao
Alto for there he had the best OF regular infantry
81 had almost forgotten to speak OF our corps We
endeavored to do our duty. Lieut. Benham behaved
WELL and was slightly wounded. As for myself. | was
more fortunate than at Monterey, and escaped unhurt