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

202 THE BOMBARDMENT AT NIGHT.
suffering agonies, their tongues swollen with thirst, and their
gashed and festering flesh devoured by worms. Among
these dead bodies and helpless, wounded men, now prowled
the fierce, ravening wolves of the chaparral, tearing some,
limb from limb, and perhaps lapping the warm blood of others
" ere life be parted."
The mortar, which had proved so inefficient on the north
side of the city, had been sent around to General Worth, and
now, from the vicinity of the Campo Santo, played with no
trifling effect upon the enemy crowded in the plaza mayor.
Many of us had never before witnessed the operation of shellfiring at night, and found it a most interesting pyrotechnic
exhibition; especially upon this occasion, when the excitement it produced within the enemy's lines assured us (as a
brother officer, who lay on the ground at my side, remarked)
that General Don Pedro de Ampudia was about "' to cave."
The first few bombs that were discharged, exploded high in
the air, revealing the whole shadowy outline of the city and
mountains in a ghastly glare that was quickly swallowed up
in darkness. A slight increase of the projecting charge
deposited them in the Grand Plaza, with an explosion that
shook the city, and a blaze that for an instant obscured the
stars, and caused the heavens to blush upon the scene. The
service of this battery during tLo night was admirably
managed by 2Major Munroe, and exercised a decided influence upon the final result. It is a noticeable fact, that
Ampudia's proposal to evacuate the city, is dlated within an
hour after the mortar opened its fire. And there can be no
question but that the same proposition would have been