END OF HOSTILITIES. When the Mexican battery was silenced, hostilities ceased. The Third Indiana advanced some distance and took a position in the head of a short ravine, some three hundred yards north of the ravine from which the Mexicans came upon the Second Indiana in the morning. The only firing done after we took this position resulted from the efforts of the Mexicans to get possession of a horse attached to a caisson. The horse was about the same distance from where we were that he was from the ravine where the Mexicans were, being about one hundred and fifty yards from each. They sent out several squads toward the horse, and when they would get within a short distance of it our boys would fire on them, when they would return the fire and run back into the ravine. This was kept up until almost dark, when the Mexicans abandoned the task. The Third remained in that position during the night and waked up in the morning to find the Mexicans gone, very contrary to our expectations and I must confess, greatly to our satisfaction, for we had expected an attack by an overwhelming force in the morning. So that, when our sentinels came in and said they had gone we all felt decidedly relieved. My reason for asserting so positively that DAVIS' Mississippi regiment was not nearer the repulse of the Lanciers than I have stated above is that I had the assurance from a number of his men with whom I had become acquainted, one of his lieutenants with whom I often talked being an old acquaintance was a neighbor boy before he went to Mississippi. I also had that assurance from men of the Second Indiana who were at the hacienda among the troops organized out of DAVIS' men – a portion of the Second Indiana and the four Indiana companies under Major GORMAN. It was necessary to retain troops at the hacienda to protect the army stores, for it was threatened more or less during the greater part of the day by Mexican cavalry, bodies of which were between there and the city of Saltillo during most of the time. The facts I have stated above were well known and admitted on all sides by the soldiers, who had no motive to lie, and no vaulting ambition to gratify. Without intending to criticize the generalship that placed the Second Indiana Regiment from a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards from the ravine, instead of immediately on the brow of it, so that they might have attacked the Mexicans while they were yet in the ravine, and the first ones appeared there, I could not and can not but think that if the latter had been done, a very different result would have followed so far as the Second Indiana was concerned. That the Second Indiana Regiment was composed of as brave men as ever stood before an enemy their bloody line, as it appeared six weeks after the battle sufficiently testified. The statement of Jefferson DAVIS that he found some of them at the hacienda in an utterly disorganized condition is true. That he found his own men there it the same condition is equally true. That he had the skill to reorganize them and put them in fighting trim, thanks are due to West Pint, which educated him at the expense of the Government." THE FRUSTRATED DUEL BETWEEN GEN. JOE LANE AND COL. JIM LANE. The author of the foregoing account of the battle of Buena Vista (Edward T. DICKEY) also furnishes the facts concerning the encounter between Gen. Joe LANE and Col. Jim LANE, which occurred at Agua Neuva a day or two before the army fell back and took position at the pass of Angostura, near the hacienda of Buena Vista. Mr. DICKEY was an eyewitness of this affair, and the facts may be relied on as accurate. This incident was well-known and often discussed among all the Indiana regiments; but as far as the writer hereof has observed is not referred to in any authentic history of the Mexican War. Had it not been for the prompt interference of friends on that occasion a different result of the battle of Buena Vista might have been recorded in history, as these two men were among the most courageous and efficient officers of Gen. TAYLOR's little army and the death of Gen. LANE would have left him with only one other General officer (Gen. John E. WOOL, of the Regulars) to manage and assist him in the battle. All agree that, had the two LANES fought as they had agreed to fight both would have been killed. I will here mention that Gen. LANE and Col. Jim were not related. "Why the General did not call on the Colonel for a report of the action of his regiment was well understood by the Indiana soldiers. They had come to blows on the Saturday before the battle, followed by a challenge from General LANE which had been accepted by Colonel LANE and was then pending. There had been ill-feeling and jealousy between them from the time the Third Indiana left Matamoras ahead of the Second Indiana, which was in December, 1846. The Second was General LANE's regiment before he was promoted to Brigadier, and was therefore his favorite regiment. The relations between these two officers grew more strained by other moves of a similar character at Camargo and again at Monterey. On Saturday preceding the battle of Buena Vista, after regimental drill, Colonel LANE formed his regiment into a hollow square, and he and the other field officers of his regiment were discussing some troubles that had arisen among them, growing out of an effort of Colonel LANE, Adjutant DALLY and Capt. T. Ware GIBSON to continue the Third Indiana in the service, leaving out Lieutenant-Colonel McCARTY and Major GORMAN. After the regimental officers had made their statements, Gen. LANE, who had been standing just outside the square listening to the talk, stepped inside and proceeded to make a statement of his understanding of the matter. In doing so he said something that Colonel LANE said he did not believe. To this General LANE replied he 'did not care whether Colonel LANE believed what he said or not.' The Colonel retorted by saying that 'a man who did not care what he did say was not likely to care whether what he said was believed.' The General asked 'if the Colonel meant to say that he (the General) was a man who disregarded his word.' The Colonel's reply was 'I do, by ----, sir.' At this the General struck at him. The Colonel dodged the blow and struck the General in the face. They were then separated by the officers near them. The General started away, saying as he went: 'Colonel LANE, prepare yourself.' The Colonel brought his regiment into line facing toward the camp, and while he was saying to his men that the trouble was his own, and that he wished the men to take no part in it, the General was seen coming through the camp with his rifle on his shoulder. Colonel LANE's back was to the camp, within perhaps 30 yards. At about that distance the General stopped, and calling to the Colonel, asked: 'Are you ready, Colonel LANE?' The Colonel looked around, and seeing the General, ordered a man in the ranks to load his musket, and replied: 'I --- soon can be.' That man and many others loaded their muskets without delay. Just as the Colonel reached to take the musket the guard surrounded the General and led him away, probably saving the lives of both officers, for had they exchanged shots I have no doubt the General would have killed the Colonel, and as little doubt that 50 musket charges would have found lodgment in the General's body, knowing as I do the temper of the men of the Third Indiana at that time. The challenge immediately followed. This all occurred at Agua Nueva. On the next day the army fell back to Buena Vista, followed promptly, as everybody knows, by the Mexicans, who pitched their tents that night just where ours had stood the night before."