Seeing Reynolds at some distance, I called out lustily and brought him to me.  He soon mended the bridle and saddle, which had been broken by the fall, helped me on my horse, and we followed the coarse of the hounds.  At first my arm did not pain me much, but it soon began to ache so that it was almost unendurable.  In about three miles we came to a negro hut, where I got off and rested till Reynolds could overtake Poyas and bring him back.  They came at last, but by that time the arm was so swollen and painful that I could not ride.  They rigged up an old gig belonging to the negro, in which I was carried six miles to the plantation of Mr. Poyas, Sr.  A neighboring physician was sent for, who tried the usual methods of setting the arm, but without success; each time making the operation more painful.  At last he sent off, got a set of double pulleys and cords, with which he succeeded in extending the muscles and in getting the bone into place.  I then returned to Fort Moultrie, but being disabled, applied for a short leave and went North.

I started January 25,1845; went to Washington, Baltimore, and Lancaster, Ohio, whence I went to Mansfield, and thence back by Newark to Wheeling, Cumberland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, whence I sailed back for Charleston on the ship Sullivan, reaching Fort Moultrie March 9, 1845.

About that time (March 1, 1845) Congress had, by a joint resolution, provided for the annexation of Texas, then an independent Republic, subject to certain conditions requiring the acceptance of the Republic of Texas to be final and conclusive.  We all expected war as a matter of course.  At that time General Zachary Taylor had assembled a couple of regiments of infantry and one of dragoons at Fort Jessup, Louisiana, and had orders to extend military protection to Texas against the Indians, or a “foreign enemy,” the moment the terms of annexation were accepted.  He received notice of such acceptance July 7th, and forthwith proceeded to remove his troops to Corpus Christi, Texas, where, during the summer and fall of 1845, was assembled that force with which, in the spring of 1846, was begun the Mexican War.

Some time during that summer came to Fort Moultrie orders for sending Company E, Third Artillery, Lieutenant Bragg, to New Orleans, there to receive a battery of field-guns, and thence to the camp of General Taylor at Corpus Christi.  This was the first company of our regiment sent to the seat of war, and it embarked on the brig Hayne.  This was the only company that left Fort Moultrie till after I was detached for recruiting service on the 1st of May, 1846.

Inasmuch as Charleston afterward became famous, as the spot where began our civil war, a general description of it, as it was in 1846, will not be out of place.