El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-04


learned our numbers, and ropes had
been provided to drag each man to the
City of Mexico. The rich had come in
carriages which we captured, together
with twenty wagon loads of provisions
and many cases of wine which had
been brought out to celebrate the vic
tory,
'.The valley, as we could see, was for
ing them to the left, and mounted the
table land. Here we quickly threw up
Notifications. and made a corral of the
AS wagon loads of goods which mer-
chants who accompanied us had
brought with them. The mules were
placed on the inside. This was done
so that in case we were whipped in the
onslaught which we intended to make,
we could retire to the shelter of the
wagons and fight to the bitter end.
When our cavalry formed in line on the
tableland. preparatory to an attack,
the Mexican forces came out to meet
u.s. We both fired about the same time.
A sharp fight ensued for twenty min
utes when the enemy retired to their
breastworks. A furious charge was
made by the Americans, who advanced
to within fifty yards of their breast
works before the Mexicans reached
them There we halted. Lieutenant
Dorm rode at the head of the artillery,
and at fifty yards from the breast
works his horse was shot in the fore
head and killed. At this point the ar
tillery unlimbered and. assisted by the
cavalry made their fight. The battle
lasted from 2:?o in the afternoon until
dark. We took 200 prisoners and killed
$50 men. The others retreated and
were not seen by us again. We could
not find out where they had gone. Our
loss was one killed and several wound
ed. The teamsters was all armed and
Major Owens was placed at their head
They fought desperately. tell you, and
Major Owens rushed upon their forti-
fications and was killed. 1 galloped to
within six feet of him when he fell.
Out ne was DEAD
THAT night we had a great feast.
On the following morning Colonel
Michel and 100 men took chihuahua.
and the balance of the force reached
this city in the evening and were
tered near the cathedral, afterwards
moving to the bull pen At sunset
we fired salute of twenty-eight guns
in the grove near the bull pen, which
furnished us shelter during our stay
here which was greatly appreciated.
We captured the ten artillery pieces
which the enemy had taken to Sacra-
mento. and took them back to Missouri
with us We also captured $4,000 in
money at Sacramento. They had pre-
pared for great frolic and we were
not sorry of it. for we were in need of
many things which we found
While in Chihuahua two of the
wounded died. The second sergeant
OF our company. young lawyer Of
Lexington, Mo-. who was shot through
the thigh. died in the San Francisco
was uscu ny DOtu SlOeS
as hospital. and was buried in a
graveyard here. We enjoyed our stay
in Chihuahua, where we remained for
six weeks and were then ordered to
report to General Wool at Buena Vista.
They had fought on the 23d of Feb
ruary and our fight took place five days
later.
We reached General Wools quar-
ters in May. The next morning the
general and his staff reviewed the lit
tie army and drawing his regulars up
read to them a very complimentary re-
port of our campaign and the great
satisfaction which it gave him to well
come the First Missouri The next day
we left for General Taylor's camp at
Walnut Springs. three miles from Mon
terey. and remained there for one day.
We had expected to see more service
hire. but. on the following morning
when he reviewed the regiment and
read highly complimentary report to
his entire command. he ordered us
home saying the First Missouri had
done enough.
We marched to Camargo, then to
the Rio Grande. where we lay in the