right angles, and then bends, at both ends, in the shape of a
horse shoe. The low portions of the gully are generally filled with
water, forming long and winding ponds through the prairie, whilst, in
the rainy season, these pools unite across the ridge which forms the
road and flow off towards the Rio Grande. Along the banks of this ravine
the thickets of chapparal, nourished by the neighboring water, grow more
densely than elsewhere, and, at the period of the battle, formed a
solid wall penetrated only by the highway.

It was along the edges of this hollow that the Mexicans, led by Arista
and Ampudia, had posted themselves in two lines,--one under the front
declivity, and the other entrenched behind the copse of chapparal which
shielded the bank in the rear. In the centre of each line, on the right
and left of the road, a battery was placed, whilst other batteries were
disposed so as to assail us in flank. In this strongly fortified
position, supported by infantry, cavalry and ordnance, several thousand
Mexicans stood around the curving limits of the ravine, ready to rake us
with their terrible cross-fires as we advanced by the road between the
horns of the crescent.[109]

It will be perceived, from this description, that the character of the
action was essentially changed from the affair of the 8th. Almost
entrenched as were the Mexicans behind the ravine and chapparal, they
now stood on the defensive resolutely awaiting our assault, whilst, at
Palo Alto, they had assumed an offensive attitude, aiming either to
capture or destroy our army.

In the passage of our troops between Matamoros and Point Isabel, the
practiced eye of our military men often remarked the value of this
ravine as a point of strength; and it had been already supposed that
when the enemy halted, to resist our march, they would avail themselves
of it for a battle ground. Hence this excellent position was not unknown
to General Taylor, and he promptly prepared a combined attack of
infantry, artillery and cavalry by which he might succeed in driving the
American army like a wedge, through the narrow but only aperture that
admitted its transit to our fort.

Accordingly, as soon as Captain McCall received his orders, in the
earlier part of the day, he advanced with his men, and directed Captain
C. F. Smith, of the second artillery, with the light company of the
first brigade, to move to the right of the road, whilst he proceeded on
the left with a d