We Immediately Communicated This Intelligence To
Our Cavalry And Allies At Headquarters, Warning Them To Keep On The Alert.
In Pursuance Of This Plan, We Were Attacked Both In Front And Rear For
Several Successive Nights, From Midnight To Day-Break.
Sometimes the enemy
came on with a prodigious noise of shouting and military instruments, and
at other times stole upon us in profound silence; but their night attacks
were never made with so much resolution as those during the day.
Yet we
were harassed to death with continual watching, fatigue, and wounds, and
constantly exposed to cold winds and almost incessant rain. Our post was
reduced to a mere splash of mud and water, and our only food was maize and
miserable herbs. When we complained, the only comfort given us by our
officers, was that such is the fortune of war. Yet all our efforts,
fatigues, and privations, were of little avail; as the parapets we
destroyed and the ditches we filled up during the day, were uniformly
replaced next night by the enemy.
The destruction of the aqueduct of Chapoltepec, from which so much had
been expected, by cutting off the water which supplied the city of Mexico,
was unavailing, neither could we starve them into a surrender, as they
were regularly supplied with every thing they wanted by means of their
canoes from the towns around the lake. In order to prevent this, two of
our brigantines were ordered to cruize every night on the lake, to
intercept these supplies.
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