around the fort opposite Matamoras, in the hope of effecting its reduction before it could be relieved. The firing was renewed from his batteries, on the morning of the 6th, with increased vigor. Owing to the scarcity of ammunition in the fort, Major Brown ordered his men to cease firing, but to be prepared for resisting an assault. Soon after giving this order, he was struck by the fragments of a shell which exploded near him. The injury proved to be mortal, and terminated his career on the 9th of May. His loss to the service was a severe one, and, as General Taylor afterwards remarked, to the army under his orders it was "indeed irreparable."
After the fall of Major Brown, Captain Hawkins, of the same regiment, assumed the command. From the fact that the guns of the fort had ceased playing, the Mexicans supposed them completely silenced. About noon they also stopped firing, and every thing remained quiet for two hours, when one of their batteries commenced a slow fire. The light companies near the fort moved within musket range, as if preparing for an assault, but were soon driven away by Captain Lowd's battery, which opened upon them. At five o'clock the Mexicans sounded a parley, and two oflicers approached the fort, with a written communication from General Arista, summoning the garrison to surrender, to which a reply was to be returned within one hour. A council of his oflicers was convened by Captain Hawkins, and the summons laid before them. The stern and unanimous response was — to defend the fort to the death![1] The reply of the American commander was
- ↑ The reply of Captain Hawkins to that part of Arista's note summoning him to surrender, was so brief, and yet so pertinent, that it deserves to be copied: "Your humane communication," said he, "has
