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

316 WHICH WE DECLINE.
had been captured. To this interrogatory, Langberg truthfully replied in the negative; a circumstance from which I
am disposed to infer that he is a soldier of more honor than
many of those with whom he has associated himself. Captain Keneally then demanded permission to consult his commander, which was immediately granted and a horse placed
at his disposal. The enemy also cheerfully agreed to a truce
of one hour, during which time he had proposed, doubtless,
to practice some of his perfidious arts. The men, who
seemed to guess at once, the purport of Captain Keneally's
message and the contents of the paper he delivered, swelled
with silent indignation at the bare idea of a capitulation.
But one however, ventured to make a remark, and that sotto
voce. 6' Boys,"'-said he to those next him in the line,"' boys, how would we look cracking pcandy-mice in Urrea's
camp to-night 2" 9
The commander of the escort, not intending to be duped
by the wily foe, became, after hearing Keneally's report,
doubly solicitous to concentrate his force without further loss
of time. The captain was forthwith sent back with a suitable reply to the enemy, and a word of encouragement to his
own company. Immediately upon the heels of Keneally
was dispatched Captain Bradley with the force previously
designated: so that if the Mexicans had calculated upon
at Monterey andCamargo. The generals so vauntingly alluded to, were Urrea,
the commander-in-chief, Romaro and Canales. But generals are as plentiful in
Mexico, as Colonels in the snaky counties of Virginia.
* The reader will perceive the kernel of this remark, when he is informed that the
Mexican soldiers, who are their own commissaries, subsist chiefly on "pan-demaiz," —corn bread:-which they make fiom corn coarsely bruised or cracked upon
flat stones.