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

CUARGE ON E1L DIABOLO. 173
the enemy, and then the whole corps made a dash at the wall,
determined to dislodge the foe with the bayonet. No orders
were heard in that illdescribable din and uproar. Tle officers, first among whom were Generals Butler and HIamer,
-led, and the soldiers followed, as American volunteers I
trust will never fail to do. One had but to look at their
countenances, their set teeth and expanded nostrils, to be
assured that those men so recently taken from tkhe gentle
pursuits of peace, were now ready for the wildest work of war.
The enemy's fire was, in my inexperienced judgment, particularly heavy. The guns of Fort Diabolo belched I-orth an
unintermitting sheet of flame and smoke as we advanced, but
owing to the short distance, overloading, or the excited haste
of the cannoneers, they overshot us at times so widely, as to
cut off the highest branches of some lofty trees growing
thereal-out. A thick smole rolled over our men as they
crossed the square, and to the mounted officers, their serried
bayonets alone were visible, moving resistlessly on through
the flickering canopy like an verial stream. Before reaching
the wall our progress was unexpectedly, though but for a
moment, arrested by a wide ditch which was full of water.
Into this the men, notwithstanding their ignorance of its
depth, did not hesitate to plunge. The water was waistdeep, and flooded the cartridge boxes of some who unfortunately had neglected to raise them while crossing. BIy this
misfortune a part of the corps was rendered temporarily
unserviceable at a critical juncture. A few soldiers, who
halted in the water to slake their thirst, were there shot.
Adjutant Armstrong was severely wounded as he reached