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

THE NIGHTS IN MEXICO. 69
my attention more, during the many weary vigils of the campaign, than those glittering hosts, which at set of sun, were
ever seen in regular and stately march through that pure, unclouded firmament. No where else have'the lights that
rule the night" appeared so brilliant or lovely. On reaching the steamer, we mounted to the hurricane deck to enjoy
the night breeze, that laded with fragrance stole across from
the Texas bank. The scene around us that night, forms one
of those interesting pictures of the campaign which the
memory has retained more faithfully than the pen can delineate. On one side of us, the restless and turbid stream, rolled moaning to its' ocean-bed; on the other a vast expanse
of prairie and chaparral, o'er which comes the howl of
wolves and the answering bark of watch-dogs at the ranche.
The silent sentinels pace with ghost-like tread upon the
shore, as if fearing to disturb the last long sleep of their
departed comrade, over whose fresh grave the thick bushes
bending mournfully in the breeze, weep their dewy tears.
Stretched in slumber on the decks are whole ranks of men,
many of them with their greasy haversacks drawn over their
faces, to protect them from the mosquitos that swarm out
from the shore. But even these are not secure from the
insidious assaults of the pigmy enemy. For see how often
they start and wake,-how they shake their suffocating masks
as impatiently as hungry cavalry horses toss their empty nosebags,-how they smack right and left at the gray-coated gallinippers, "then swear a prayer or two, and sleep again."
While these are "' dreaming of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, a party of officers in the cabin are drinking