hunters, and drank with them. Fanning and myself he promoted, on the
spot, to the rank of colonel.

We were giving the general a detailed account of the morning's events,
when a Mexican priest appeared with a flag of truce and several
waggons, and craved permission to take away the dead. This was of
course granted, and we had some talk with the padré, who, however, was
too wily a customer to allow himself to be pumped. What little we did
get out of him, determined us to advance the same afternoon against
San Antonio. We thought there was some chance, that in the present
panic-struck state of the Mexicans, we might obtain possession of the
place by a bold and sudden assault.

In this, however, we were mistaken. We found the gates closed, and the
enemy on his guard, but too dispirited to oppose our taking up a
position at about cannon-shot from the great redoubt. We had soon
invested all the outlets from the city.

San Antonio de Bexar lies in a fertile and well-irrigated valley,
stretching westward from the river Salado. In the centre of the town
rises the fort of the Alamo, which at that time was armed with
forty-eight pieces of artillery of various calibre. The garrison of
the town and fortress was nearly three thousand strong.

Our artillery consisted of two batteries of four six, and five
eight-pounders; our army of eleven hundred men, with which we had not
only to carry on the siege, but also to make head against the forces
that would be sent against us from Cohahuila, on the frontier of which
province General Cos was stationed, with a strong body of troops.