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Show 486 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ogni~ed that of Governor Bent, who had been recently appointed by General Kearney. One poor victim we s~w, who had been stripped naked, scalped alive, and lus eyes punched o~t: he was groping his way through the streets, beseechmg some one to shoot him out of his misery, while his inhuman Mexican tormentors were deriving the greatest amusement from the exhibition: ~uch scene~ of unexampled barbarity filled our s.oldi.ers .b:easts :With abhorrence : they became tigerlike In thmr cravmg for revenge. Our general directed the desecrated remains to be gathered together, and a guard to be placed over them, while he marched on with his army in pursuit of the barbarians. Late in the afternoon we arrived at Pueblo, where we fou~1d the enemy well posted, having an ado be fort in thmr f~:ont. No atta~k was attempted that evening, and stnct orders were ISsued for no man to venture out of camp. In the evening I was visited by a man, who informe~ me that he had a brother at Rio Mondo, twelve miles distant, whom, if he was .not already killed, he wished ~o sav~ from massacre. I determined to rescue him, If possible, an~, having induced seven other good and trusty mountmne~rs to ·aid me in the attempt, we left the camp unperceived, and proceeded to the place indicate~. On our arrival we found two or three hundred Mexicans, .all well armed ; we rode boldly past them, and they disperse~, many of them going to their homes. ~ e reached the door of the Mexican general MontaJa, who styled himself the "Santa Anna of tl N h" d le ort ' an captured him. We then liberated the pris-oner we .were In quest of, and returned to Taos with ou~ captl ve general. At Taos we found our forces, whiCh had retired upon that place from Pueblo, after JAMES P. BECKWOUR'l'H. 487 having ·made an ·unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the enemy. We ·informed our general of our important capture, and he affected great displeasure at our disobedience of orders, .although it was easy to see that, in his eyes, the end had justified the · means The following m0tning a gallows was erected, and Montaja was swung in the wind. The correspondence that had been seized in Santa Fe had implicated him in some of the blackest plots; -and we thought that this summary disposal of his generalship would relieve us from all further danger from his machinations. Having procured • artillery to born bard the enemy's position,. our commander returned to Pueblo. We cannonaded in good. earnest, but the pieces were too small to ·be of much ·service; but we cut a breach with our axes half .way through the six-foot wall, and then finished the work with our cannon. While engaged in this novel way of getting at the enemy, a shell was thrown from a mortar at the. fort ; but our artillerymen, not being very skillful .in their practice, threw the shell outside the fort, and it fell among us. A young lieutenant seized it in his hands, and cast it through the breach; it .had not more· than struck before it exploded, doing considerable damage in the fort. We then stormed the breach, which was only big enough to admit one man at a time, and .carried the place without difficulty. The company of mountaineers had fallen back midway between the fort and mountain, in order to pick off any Mexican who should dare to show himself. We killed fifty-four of the defenders as they were endeavoring .to escape, upon the person of one of whom, an officer, we found one hundred and sixty doubloons. Some of the enemy fired upon us from a position at one corner of the fort, through loop-holes; and while look-f |
