The point for establishing the siege battery was reached and the work performed without attracting the attention of the enemy.  At daylight the next morning fire was opened on both sides and continued with, what seemed to me at that day, great fury.  My curiosity got the better of my judgment, and I mounted a horse and rode to the front to see what was going on.  I had been there but a short time when an order to charge was given, and lacking the moral courage to return to camp—­where I had been ordered to stay—­I charged with the regiment As soon as the troops were out of the depression they came under the fire of Black Fort.  As they advanced they got under fire from batteries guarding the east, or lower, end of the city, and of musketry.  About one-third of the men engaged in the charge were killed or wounded in the space of a few minutes.  We retreated to get out of fire, not backward, but eastward and perpendicular to the direct road running into the city from Walnut Springs.  I was, I believe, the only person in the 4th infantry in the charge who was on horseback.  When we got to a lace of safety the regiment halted and drew itself together—­what was left of it.  The adjutant of the regiment, Lieutenant Hoskins, who was not in robust health, found himself very much fatigued from running on foot in the charge and retreat, and, seeing me on horseback, expressed a wish that he could be mounted also.  I offered him my horse and he accepted the offer.  A few minutes later I saw a soldier, a quartermaster’s man, mounted, not far away.  I ran to him, took his horse and was back with the regiment in a few minutes.  In a short time we were off again; and the next place of safety from the shots of the enemy that I recollect of being in, was a field of cane or corn to the north-east of the lower batteries.  The adjutant to whom I had loaned my horse was killed, and I was designated to act in his place.

This charge was ill-conceived, or badly executed.  We belonged to the brigade commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Garland, and he had received orders to charge the lower batteries of the city, and carry them if he could without too much loss, for the purpose of creating a diversion in favor of Worth, who was conducting the movement which it was intended should be decisive.  By a movement by the left flank Garland could have led his men beyond the range of the fire from Black Fort and advanced towards the northeast angle of the city, as well covered from fire as could be expected.  There was no undue loss of life in reaching the lower end of Monterey, except that sustained by Garland’s command.