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

198 THE MEXICANS ABANDON EL DIABOLO.
and would have embraced my knees. He supplicated loudly
for his release, declaring that he was not an enemy of the
Americans, and had been captured while pursuing a journey
of business. A promise that his case should be looked to
as soon as soon as leisure permitted, and a tender of some
little comforts due to his gray hairs and misfortunes, elicited
from him nzuc/os graciwas.
Earls on the morning of Wednesday, September 23d, it
was discovered by General Quitman's brigade occupying the
Teneria, that the enemy had, during the night, evacuated
fort Diabolo, and abandoned all their exterior works on the
north, except the citadel.~ General Taylor immediately
ordered the troops to advance cautiously, and the batteries to
* The following account of the abandonment of these works is given by the
Mexican historian, in the " I-Votes:"
" This unlucky event, the loss of the Bishop's Castle, infused a silent fear which
comes before defeat. With few exceptions, the officers of corps felt this; and it
infected the General-in-chief himself, who was not endowed with dispatch and
energy. The possessors and disseminators of these sentenents, we are acquainted
with, but whose names, from shame, we hastily dismiss.
" An order was sent to concentrate the army in the interior line, by abandoning
all the works more advanced at the north, east, and west; and still preserving the
citadel and a few works to the south on the balnkl of the river. These dispositions
were executed at eleven at night, in the midst of a noisy confusion arising from
the troops refusing to abandon their positions without fighting. The grumbling and
discontented showed themselves openly, and the military morale suffering by it in
a manner beyond description. On the commencement of the 23d, it was discovered that the enemy's column, attacking from the west, had occupied the Quinta
de Arista, Campo Santo, and other contiguous positions. At the points we had
abandoned in the night, in the midst of fiightful disorder, some drunken soldiers
still remained, discharging their pieces in the ail, committing excesses, and giving
a clear idea of the want of concert that prevailed. General Ampudia now issued
from the cathedral, where he had remained during the action, and repaired to the
defenses. The azoteas were topped with sacks, and various houses pierced for
musketry. At ten in the morning, the enemy occupied the posts we had deserted,
and at eleven invested with firmness, generalizing their fire, which grew warm, to
the very houses on the principal plaza."