stepped up to me, and said, "Look, general, yonder is the almightiest fight you ever did see." I turned in the direction to where he was pointing, and became an eyewitness of one of the most thrilling conflicts which the imagination can conceive. The guard which had been left with Berry the night previous, upon the east side of the Alcantra, occupied a small adoby house about six hundred yards distant, and on the declivity of the hill, which gave us a good view of their position. Here they had been impatient and anxious spectators of our battle for some seventeen hours, when a troop of cavalry, about sixty in number, passed near their house. This was too glorious an opportunity to let pass without their assistance; so their rifles and double-barrelled guns were brought to bear upon them with most deadly effect, killing their commander and eight or ten others, when the survivers fled in every direction. In a very few minutes after, several hundred cavalry and a field-piece were brought up. Berry's guard, well knowing that their adoby house could not withstand the force of the cannon-shot, determined at once to leave it, and charge through the lines of the enemy to our position. They accordingly charged, and broke the enemy's lines with the most dauntless bravery, each one killing his man, and some two, for several of them had double-barrelled guns. It was now three hundred yards to the river, to gain which [92] point they would be safe, for the enemy would not venture closer than that to our fire. Finding now their guns empty and no time to reload, the enemy pursuing in overwhelming numbers, their only defence was the butts of their pieces. The multitude prevailed, killing James Austin, son of Captain Henry Austin, of Brazoria county; Joe Berry, of do.; Wm. Hopson, and J. Jackson, of Ireland, one of the Santa Fé prisoners. Richard Kean, of Washington, Dr. J. J. Sinnickson, and D. H. E. Beasley, of Brazoria, were taken prisoners; while Bate Berry4 and Tom Davis, of Washington, succeeded in reaching our houses with empty guns, and hatless. To see the unequal odds which these brave men encountered, without the power to succour them, was painful and exciting beyond anything we had experienced. Poor Berry was bayoneted in his bed.

After their cavalry had prevailed over these eight men, they manifested their joy by the most antic capers. They went through every evolution which is not in the books; they fired guns, shouted, and blew their trumpets long and loud, always taking care not to approach within four hundred yards of our rifles.

About this time a column of the enemy charged down a street upon the north of the building we occupied. Colonel Fisher being at that point, threw himself, with some twenty men, suddenly into the street, received their fire, which severely wounded several of his men, cutting off, also, the ball of his [93] right thumb. They effectually returned their fire, when the party fled. Up to this time, for the last six hours, the artillery nearest us had been silenced, and no one of the enemy dared approach it. It had already, as we were afterward told, proved the death of fifty-five out of their sixty choice artillery company. To get it out of