394 MARCH, AND CAMP SCENES. Book II. 
character of the general, and my acquaintance with several 
officers of the brigade, Colonels Langberg and Justiniani, 
made this a pleasant task, the fulfilment of which gave 
me an opportunity of seeing a part of the State which I 
had not yet visited, for the prevailing drought on the 
direct road to Carrizal compelled us to go round by El 
Carmen. 
The detachment consisted of 500 infantry, 50 or 60 
cavalry, and 6 or 8 guns. The larger number of the 
soldiers were well dressed, and looked respectable; but 
there were some of doubtful character and appearance, 
who resembled more nearly a band of gipsies than any 
portion of the military power of a state. This rabble, 
with the crowd of women and children which always hangs 
on the skirts of a Mexican army, gave our march and 
camp scenes a most motley and grotesque appearance. 
Here was one whose whole uniform consisted of a shirt 
and a straw hat ; another who had wrapped his naked body 
in a gay-striped blanket, and adorned his stiff hair with a 
regular shako ; a third, who having only a pair of trousers, 
had found even these superfluous, and had rolled one leg 
up above the knee. Here a woman with one child in her 
arms, and another at her side, following the long day and 
night marches without complaint ; there another carrying 
two large gourd-shells full of water, balanced on each 
hand above her head for miles from the last spring, ready, 
in spite of weariness, to share her supply with the thirsty. 
The devotion and endurance of these women are wonderful ; 
for it is solely their desire to be near their husbands, and 
to assist them on the road as well as in the camp, which 
induces the desperate resolution of accompanying them 
upon a march, during the first forenoon of which, many of 
the soldiers were struck down bv sunstroke. 
