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

306 BETWEEN PAPAGALLOS AND CERRALVOo
The dreadful objects passed during the day, and the prospect
of a conflict before reaching Camargo, afforded topics for
conversation to the men who sat around their fires cooking,
or cleaning the dust from their arms. It was late in the
night before silence stole over the camp; and toward dawn
it was again broken by the clatter of hoofs on the road in
advance of our position; which sounds, the officer of the
guard reasonably supposed, proceeded from a scouting party
of the enemy. These increasing signs of danger, caused
uneasiness for the safety of the wagons alone. The troops
were abundantly able to protect themselves from many times
their number of Mexican cavalry; but the experience and
observation of the two past days had convinced us that the
train when in motion, was never in any other than a bad
position and only perfectly safe when closed in mass. But
the interminable thickets which skirted the road,-while they
were intersected by many paths and little glades favorable to
the operations of an attacking party,-presented but few
openings spacious enough to contain our wagons. Especially
is this the case between Papagallos and Cerralvo, a distance
of twenty-eight miles, which we marched on thd third day,
7th of March. The solitary rivulet with which nature occasionally gladdens the first twenty miles of that journey, was
dried up. But at the " Robbers' Rancho,"-eight miles from
Cerralvo,-which we reached early in the afternoon, a supply
of water was obtained. The scorching heat and rough road
had so jaded both men and animals, that the commanding
officer had concluded to encamp there; but on learning from
the wagon-masters that they were short of forage, he deter