mental drills and other military exercises, and the preparation of supply and outfit for the march on Chihuahua.

Events in New Mexico caused the detention for several weeks. of the artillery. At length Colonel Price found himself in a position to comply with Colonel Doniphan's order, and despatched Major Clark with one hundred and seventeen men, and six pieces of cannon, which, after extraordinary exertion and toil through the deserts and deep snows, reached El Paso on the 1st of February. On the 8th, the column was on march for Chihuahua. It was an enterprise pre-eminently perilous; and the national heart beat. more quickly in suspense for the fate of the heroic army, thus thrown out upon their own unaided resources, in the very centre of innumerous foes, and encompassed by natural obstacles still more to be dreaded.

We must not stay to record the hardships they endured, and the dangers they encountered from the deserts, the flinty cañons, and fire on the prairie. The force consisted of nine hundred and twenty-four effective men; of whom one hundred and seventeen officers and privates were of the artillery, ninety-three of Colonel Mitchell's escort, and the remainder of the 1st mounted volunteers, all of Missouri. The merchant-train under their escort numbered three hundred and fifteen wagons; and, at the recommendation of Colonel Doniphan, the merchants and teamsters organized themselves into a well-armed and highly efficient corps of about one hundred and fifty men, in two companies, commanded respectively by Captains Skillman and Glasgow, with Samuel C. Owens elected their major. On the 25th, they reached the shallow, brackish Laguna de Encenillas, about twenty miles long and three miles wide, two hundred and seven miles below El Paso, and seventy-four from Chihuahua. Previous rumours now shaped themselves into intelligence, that about twenty-five miles in advance, and near the margin of the lake, the enemy was in force at Inseneas, the country-seat of Don Angel Trias,

governor of Chihuahua. Arrived at Inseneas on the evening of the 26th, they found it evacuated by the military; and on the following evening, at the Fort of Sans, they learned from their spies that the enemy, in great force, had fortified the pass of the Sacramento river, about fifteen miles north of the city.

By the authorities of Chihuahua the approach of the American troops had been for a long time expected, and extensive preparations made to obstruct their advance. In full confidence of the result, the legislature of the department had in session determined that Doniphan's men, when captured, should be stripped of arms and money, and sent bound, on foot, to the city of Mexico; and that no delay might occur, a quantity of cord was provided, and cut into suitable lengths, for tying the prisoners. Governor Frias strenuously promoted the arrangements made under direction of Don José A. Heredia, commandant-general of Durango, Chihuahua, Sonora, and New Mexico, aided by Generals Garcia Condé, Justiniani, and Uguarté.

The position commanding the road and pass was well chosen. Two rivulets, rising in the mountains westward of the valley of the Sacramento, cross the valley in an easterly direction; then the northern of these streams, the Arroyo Seco, bending to the south, meets the other, the Arroyo Sacramento, and with it forms the Rio Sacramento, which flows into the Conchas, a tributary of the Rio Grande del Norte. Across the peninsular plateau formed by these rivulets, the main road leads from north to south: on its left the ground abruptly rises in a bench, sixty feet high, sloping upwards from all directions to the north-east corner, where it is crowned by the rocky height of the Cerro Frijoles, one hundred and fifty feet above the plain. The sierras south of the Arroyo Sacramento come at right angles in upon that stream, their easternmost advance, the Cerro Sacramento, narrowing the valley to a breadth of one mile. From the Cerro Frijoles along the northern front of the eminences, and thence southwardly

BATTLE OF THE SACRAMENTO.

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along the whole bench overhanging the road, was erected a continued line of redoubts and intrenchments, under the superintendence of General Condé, formerly Mexican Minister of War, and a man of science and skill. On the Cerro Sacramento also there was a strong battery, commanding the road as it approached the ferry below. In this seemingly secure position, the enemy, under command of the experienced officers before named, awaited the approach of the American troops. Their infantry was protected behind the redoubts and intrenchments; their cavalry was drawn up in front of the redoubts four deep, and in rear of the redoubts two deep, so as to mask them as far as practicable. Their force consisted of twelve hundred cavalry from Durango and Chihuahua, with the Vera Cruz dragoons, twelve hundred infantry from Chihuahua, three hundred artillerists, and fourteen hundred and twenty rancheros, badly armed with lassos, lances, and machetoes, or corn-knives; ten pieces of field-artillery, and six culverins, or rampart-pieces.

At sunrise, on the 28th of February, Colonel Doniphan took up the line of march. The traders' commissariat, and company wagons, more than three hundred in number, were arranged in four parallel columns, with intervals of fifty yards. In the central interval marched the artillery, the first battalion in the interval on the right, the second battalion in that on the left. In advance of all rode two hundred cavalry proper. Thus was the force rendered more compact, and its numbers effectually concealed, while the wagons could be at a moments notice converted into a câral, to encompass and bulwark the troops. When arrived within one mile and a half of the formidable intrenchments, Colonel Doniphan, pushing still further forward the cavalry in advance, suddenly diverged to the right, so as to gain the easier though narrow ascent to the west. This the enemy perceived, and promptly endeavoured to prevent, by pushing forward in that direction one thousand cavalry, masking four pieces of cannon in their rear.

These were, however, anticipated, and by a rapid movement the elevation was gained and the line formed before the enemy came within reach of the guns. The American line was now parallel with the main road, and fronting the enemy's defences on the west of the heights, with a marsh protecting its rear. Embarrassed by this well-conceived and quickly executed movement, the enemy halted, and a brisk fire from the now unmasked American battery, at the distance of nine hundred and fifty yards, commenced the action. The enemy unmasked his guns and replied. Then rapidly deploying into line, he brought up additional artillery from his trenches, and opened a heavy fire, mainly directed against the battery under Major Clark, but with little effect. Not so with the fire from the American line—that proved effective, killing fifteen, wounding many, and dismounting one of the enemy's guns. At length, thrown into confusion and driven from his position, he slowly retreated behind his intrenchments, while Colonel Doniphan moved forward his whole line obliquely to the right, to obtain a more advantageous position. In this way they reached the southern edge of the plain, and within five hundred yards of the Mexican army, posted in a round battery and trenches, extending along the crest of the bench to the right. From this bench three trenches and a stone câral completed the connexion with the ford, and with the fortified rancho on the southern bank, beneath the Cerro Sacramento. Between the two armies, and beneath the Mexican works on the height in front, ran a deep gully, impassable for cannon, and greatly strengthening their position. To the right of the advancing American line, on an abrupt bench of the Sacramento Hill, a strong fort was occupied by a battery supported by cavalry, the balls and grape from which raked with a plunging fire the flank of the line, the whole of the passage down to the ford, and the ravine in front of the trenches.

And now with greater fierceness the hot battle is renewed;