General Hornsby, with his command, was ordered from the Meridional Department to Granada; and thus nearly the whole force of the Republic was concentrated at this point. The effective strength was about a thousand men, including those employed in the several departments of the army, as well as those in the line. A very large proportion of these, however, were newly arrived in the country; many of them had no military training whatever and still more had never seen an enemy during the whole course of their lives. Nevertheless it was necessary to strike a blow at the Allies, if for no other purpose than to show them that the Americans were not thrown entirely on the defensive. Accordingly, as soon as the howitzers were mounted on their rather clumsy carriages, and the new men, suitably armed and equipped, were distributed in the several corps, orders were issued for a march. On the morning of the 11th October, Walker marched to Masaya with about 800 men. It was near midday when the First Rifles formed in the Jalteva and thence proceeded along the middle road to Masaya. In advance of the Rifles was Major Waters, with two companies of Rangers, and in their rear was the Cuban body-guard of the general-in-chief. Next after the guard came Capt. Schwartz with the howitzers; then the ammunition mules. The Second Rifles followed; and after them were the two Infantry battalions, under command of Gen. Hornsby. A small body of Rangers brought up the rear. The march was quiet and uninterrupted; and a little after nine o’clock in the evening the force encamped on the edge of the town of Masaya, occupying the high ground flanking each side of the Granada road as it enters by the plazuela of San Sebastian. Some irregular firing took place during the night, between mounted scouts of the enemy and some of the American pickets, but the skirmishing was slight and unimportant. Soon after daybreak on the 12th, Capt. Schwartz threw a few shells into the plazuela of San Sebastian, and then Capt. Dolan, with his company of rifles, proceeded at a brisk pace, to occupy the square, finding it entirely abandoned by the enemy. Belloso had withdrawn his whole force into the houses near and around the main Plaza; and the mouths of all the streets leading into the large square were strongly barricaded. After the main body of Nicaraguans had reached the plazuela of San Sebastian, a few sappers and miners who had been hastily organized by a civil engineer, Capt. Hesse, were ordered to cut through the walls of the houses on both sides of the main street leading from the plazuela to the Plaza. Hesse worked quite vigorously, supported by the Rifles on the right side of the street and by the Infantry on the left. From time to time Capt. Schwartz tried to throw shells into the midst of the main Plaza, but the fuses were too short-timed, and the shells, for the most part, burst in the air. Besides the unfitness of the fuses, one of the howitzers was