ith only one hundred and
fifty rounds of ammunition for each eighteen-pounder while the
six-pounders were as badly provided!

The silence of our guns in the presence of an assailing foe,
disheartened our men for an instant, but they immediately betook
themselves energetically to their task on the defences, though the
enemy's shells exploded in every direction about them. On the 4th the
Mexicans again resumed the fight and continued their vollies until
midnight. At nine o'clock on that evening irregular discharges of
musketry were heard in our rear apparently extending a mile up the
river, and continuing until near the termination of the cannonade. Every
soldier in the fort therefore stood to his arms all night long, manning
each battery and point of defence in expectation of an assault from the
forces that had crossed the river and filled the adjacent plains and
thickets. But the anxious night passed without an attack at close
quarters, and, at day-light, on the 5th, the enemy again commenced their
fire from the distant batteries. The sound of war was gratifying to the
Mexicans, but its conflicts were safer from behind the walls and
parapets of their forts, with an intervening river, than in dangerous
charges against the muzzles of our guns! As soon as the cannonade
recommenced, it was immediately returned by a few discharges from the
eighteen-pounders and six-pounder-howitzer; and the voice of our guns
once more exhilarated the men, though their shots were ineffectual. Both
batteries ceased firing simultaneously, and our indefatigable soldiers
again set to work on the defences, completed the ramparts, and made
rapid progress in the construction of a bomb-proof and traverse in rear
of the postern.

These were anxious days and hours for a garrison short of ammunition,
assailed by an enemy equipped with every species of deadly missile,
probably surrounded by superior numbers concealed on the left bank of
the river, and yet forced to labor on the very fortifications which were
to keep off the foe. During all this time, however, no one desponded.
Day and night they toiled incessantly on the works amid the shower of
shot and bombs, nor was a sound of sorrow heard within the little fort
until its brave commander fell, mortally wounded by a shell, on the 6th
of May. The game was kept up during all this day; mounted men were seen
along the prairie, while infantry were noticed creeping through the
thickets; but a few rounds of