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

1772 UNDER THE FIRE OF EL DIABOLO.
that battery, which at the time was enlgaged in a spirited
contest with Fort Teneria, then in the possession of our
troops. The artillery captured in the last named work was
being skillfully served by Captain Ridgely, and as these now
opposing batteries were not more than two hundred yards
apart, the cannonade just in that vicinity was deafening. This
lot or square was separated from the broad area around
El Diabolo by a wall and a ditch. Between these two
obstacles was a lane, leading, (as we too late discovered,)
from an angle of the tete-de-pont on the right. As the
regiment entered this open place, we observed a number of
the enemy's skirmishers hurriedly taking position behind the
wall. The next moment a line of flane flashed above it,
and almost at the same instant the diabolical battery in its
rear saluted us with a terrible discharge of grape. A few
men of the leading companies were killed or disabled, and
our colors riddled and cut down by this first discharge. We
were now evidently "1 in for it." There, within sixty yards
of us, were some of the olive-colored gentlemen with whom
an interview had been so long and earnestly sought. The
appearance of the regiment in the square was followed by
startling explosions from every house and battery in that
part of the town. There, and then, by that bloody baptism,
did the 1st Ohio regiment obtain a name to which no pen
has yet done justice. Never will the writer forget the gallant bearing of those courageous and obedient young troops
at that place and period of the battle. There was no hesitating or wavering, no turning, or even looking to the right or
left. A few of the foremost files discharged their pieces at