that my career as a soldier was at an end.  After some four or five days spent in New York, I was, by an order of General Scott, sent to Washington, to lay before the Secretary of War (Crawford, of Georgia) the dispatches which I had brought from California.  On reaching Washington, I found that Mr. Ewing was Secretary of the Interior, and I at once became a member of his family.  The family occupied the house of Mr. Blair, on Pennsylvania Avenue, directly in front of the War Department.  I immediately repaired to the War Department, and placed my dispatches in the hands of Mr. Crawford, who questioned me somewhat about California, but seemed little interested in the subject, except so far as it related to slavery and the routes through Texas.  I then went to call on the President at the White House.  I found Major Bliss, who had been my teacher in mathematics at West Point, and was then General Taylor’s son-in-law and private secretary.  He took me into the room, now used by the President’s private secretaries, where President Taylor was.  I had never seen him before, though I had served under him in Florida in 1840-’41, and was most agreeably surprised at his fine personal appearance, and his pleasant, easy manners.  He received me with great kindness, told me that Colonel Mason had mentioned my name with praise, and that he would be pleased to do me any act of favor.  We were with him nearly an hour, talking about California generally, and of his personal friends, Persifer Smith, Riley, Canby, and others:  Although General Scott was generally regarded by the army as the most accomplished soldier of the Mexican War, yet General Taylor had that blunt, honest, and stern character, that endeared him to the masses of the people, and made him President.  Bliss, too, had gained a large fame by his marked skill and intelligence as an adjutant-general and military adviser.  His manner was very unmilitary, and in his talk he stammered and hesitated, so as to make an unfavorable impression on a stranger; but he was wonderfully accurate and skillful with his pen, and his orders and letters form a model of military precision and clearness.

CHAPTER IV.

MISSOURI, LOUISIANA, AND CALIFORNIA

1850-1855.

Having returned from California in January, 1850, with dispatches for the War Department, and having delivered them in person first to General Scott in New York City, and afterward to the Secretary of War (Crawford) in Washington City, I applied for and received a leave of absence for six months.  I first visited my mother, then living at Mansfield, Ohio, and returned to Washington, where, on the 1st day of May, 1850, I was married to Miss Ellen Boyle Ewing, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Interior.  The marriage ceremony was attended by a large and distinguished company, embracing Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, T. H. Benton, President Taylor, and all his