A day or two after my arrival at Corpus Christi a train of Government wagons, loaded with subsistence stores and quartermaster’s supplies, started for Laredo, a small town on the Rio Grande below Fort Duncan.  There being no other means of reaching my station I put my small personal possessions, consisting of a trunk, mattress, two blankets, and a pillow into one of the heavily loaded wagons and proceeded to join it, sitting on the boxes or bags of coffee and sugar, as I might choose.  The movement of the train was very slow, as the soil was soft on the newly made and sandy roads.  We progressed but a few miles on our first day’s journey, and in the evening parked our train at a point where there was no wood, a scant supply of water—­and that of bad quality—­but an abundance of grass.  There being no comfortable place to sleep in any of the wagons, filled as they were to the bows with army supplies, I spread my blankets on the ground between the wheels of one of them, and awoke in the morning feeling as fresh and bright as would have been possible if all the comforts of civilization had been at my command.

It took our lumbering train many days to reach Laredo, a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles from Corpus Christi.  Each march was but a repetition of the first day’s journey, its monotony occasionally relieved, though, by the passage of immense flocks of ducks and geese, and the appearance at intervals of herds of deer, and sometimes droves of wild cattle, wild horses and mules.  The bands of wild horses I noticed were sometimes led by mules, but generally by stallions with long wavy manes, and flowing tails which almost touched the ground.

We arrived at Laredo during one of those severe storms incident to that section, which are termed “Northers” from the fact that the north winds culminate occasionally in cold windstorms, frequently preceded by heavy rains.  Generally the blow lasts for three days, and the cold becomes intense and piercing.  While the sudden depression of the temperature is most disagreeable, and often causes great suffering, it is claimed that these “Northers” make the climate more healthy and endurable.  They occur from October to May, and in addition to the destruction which, through the sudden depression of the temperature, they bring on the herds in the interior, they are often of sufficient violence to greatly injure the harbors on the coast.

The post near Laredo was called Fort McIntosh, and at this period the troops stationed there consisted of eight companies of the Fifth Infantry and two of the First, one of the First Artillery, and three of the Mounted Rifles.  Just before the “Norther” began these troops had completed a redoubt for the defense of the post, with the exception of the ditches, but as the parapet was built of sand—­the only material about Laredo which could be obtained for its construction—­the severity of the winds was too much for such a shifting substance, and the work was entirely blown away early in the storm.