Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

14-.t- n-EST BY THIE WATEIRS-rTIlE CAMP.
themselves to the bliss of rest in such a spot after a toilsome
march, Officeers enjoyed their cigars it olio czt2 dgnZitacte,
while the lmen, reclining in groups, chatted merrily with each
other, or were quietly engaged in bathing their swollen and
heated feet in the cool ripples of the brook. In good time,
however, tents were pitchedl, fires kindled, and guards posted,
the rustic deities flying the spot as MIars asserted his sway.
Those who have seen large bodies of troops in the field,
can not have failed to observe how rapidly andl strangely
rural scenes are transformed by encampment. There is,
perhilaps, some favorite landscape which you may have
known from childhood. Let yonder army, whose banners
and bayonets you descry in the distance, approach and halt
Yupon the familiar spot, the artillery on that broad hill-side,
the cavalry in the plain, and the infantry down by the stream,
and along the skirts of the silent and shadowy woods. In a
brief half-hour an extensive camp is established with a celerity, qluietness, and precision, that recall the story of Aladdin's lamp. Rows of tents arise as if by enchantment; these,
with batteries, wagons, horses: fires, arms, and men, so metamorphose the scene, that your eyes wander over it almost in
vain for a single familiar object.
Soon after encamping at AMarin, we learned that the enemy's corps of observation had been seen leaving the town as
our pioneers approached it. The absence of any hostile demonstration during so long a march, had induced many of
our impatient young soldiers to discredit the report that there
was a Mlexican force in our front. A lance-head, found in
the road, was the only'" sign which our Texan scouts had