The day after the action at San Jorge and along the road between that town and Rivas, the Allies received fresh troops, and also brought across the lake one of the old 24-pound pieces the Spaniards left in the country. They took a position on a slight eminence, about 1,200 yards from Rivas, just beyond the Cuatro Esquinas; and, on the 22d of March, planting the twenty-four pounder there, they opened a scattering and irregular fire on the town. The 24-pound balls were, at long intervals, sent into the place, doing, however, little or no damage. They were picked up by the men and carried to the arsenal; and Swingle afterward melted them into 6-pound balls and sent them back to the enemy. But the cannonade—if such it might be called—of the 22d, was preliminary to an attack the Allies made early on the morning of the 23d. On Monday, the 23d, just before daybreak, a body of some four or five hundred of the enemy crept under the thick shades of the cacao walks, behind the Maleaño house, and getting almost to the back gate of the hospital before they were discovered, made a vigorous attempt to get within the building. But Dr. Dolman, with a few half-sick men, resisted the enemy with such firmness and composure, that time was afforded Dr. Callaghan, who had charge of the point, to get the hospital ready for defence. The Allies thus foiled in their efforts to surprise the Maleaño house, were driven back with much loss and more disgrace: for they had unsuccessfully, no less than cruelly, attacked a building occupied almost exclusively by the sick and wounded. The attack on the hospital was, however, part of a general assault on the positions held by the Americans. On the north side of the town, Cañas, with some six or seven hundred men, tried to get up to the houses near the barricades, but his men were driven back by the deadly fire of the riflemen stationed behind the adobe defences. Finding the efforts of the infantry to approach the barricades ineffectual, Cañas had a four-pounder, in charge of an Italian, pushed within less than two hundred yards of the American lines. This was a bolder movement than the enemy were in the habit of making with their artillery, and it was the result of a mistake rather than of design. The gun was fired two or three times; but when it got within range of the Mississippi Rifles the men at the piece began to fall rapidly, and finally abandoned it. The Italian commanding the piece was dangerously wounded and made prisoner; and Rogers, with a few of the native Nicaraguans, took the gun and dragged it into the town. Cañas was forced to retire, leaving many of his wounded, as well as a large number of his dead, on the field.