valry were sent to Taylor's rear to intercept the American
retreat, but they were beaten back after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, led
by Taylor himself. Santa Anna made his first attack in three columns. Two
of these combined and turned the American left. The third, thrown against
the American right, was forced to retreat, the Americans having formed a
new front. Again the Mexicans sought to gain Taylor's rear, but with two
regiments supported by artillery and dragoons, the American commander drove
them back, firing into their heavy mass.

[Sidenote: Taylor's order to Bragg]

[Sidenote: Conflicting claims of victory]

At one point in the engagement, an Indiana regiment, through a mistaken
order, gave way, thereby placing the American army in peril. But the
Mississippians and the Kentuckians threw themselves forward; the Indiana
troops rallied, and the Mexicans were repulsed. General Taylor, standing
near Captain Bragg's battery, saw signs of wavering in the enemy's line.
"Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg," he exclaimed--a command
which was repeated all over the United States during the political campaign
two years later. The Mexican column broke, and Taylor drove it up the slope
of the eastern mountain. By means of a false flag of truce the endangered
wing, however, escaped. Santa Anna, forming his whole force into one
column, advanced. The Americans fell back, holding only the northwest
corner of the plateau. When morning broke, the enemy had disappeared. The
Mexican loss was 2,000, that of the Americans 746. Henry Clay, a son of the
Kentucky statesman, as he lay wounded, was despatched by a Mexican
vacquero. Colonel Jefferson Davis commanded with distinction a regiment of
Mississippi riflemen. Buena Vista was Taylor's last battle. Its fame was
heralded throughout America. Both sides claimed the victory. The Mexicans
chanted Te Deums. In the United States the poet Kifer sang:

From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine,
Let us all exult! for we have met the enemy again.
Beneath their stern old mountains we have met them in their pride,
And rolled from Buena Vista back the battle's bloody tide;
Where the enemy came surging swift, like the Mississippi's flood,
And the reaper, Death, with strong arms swung his sickle red with blood.

After the battle of Buena Vista, General Taylor returned to the United
States, his task finished. The exploit shed such lustre on his name that he
w