Fighting in the open on a dusty mountainside in a foreign land a thousand miles from home, facing an enemy many times its own strength, the Mississippi Rifles displayed a rock-like defense against a Mexican attack in response to the command, "Stand Fast, Mississippians!" Earlier, the battle had reached a critical stage when the Rifles (in the action depicted) were ordered to attack Mexican cavalry and infantry advancing on the Americans. The "hard-fighting Mississippi gentlemen" moved up, fired, then drew Bowie knives and closed in. The Rifles--the 155th Infantry of the modern Mississippi Army National Guard--thus wrote another chapter in the proud National Guard tradition.