my superstitions had always been when I started to go any where, or to do anything, not to turn back, or stop until the thing intended was accomplished.  I have frequently started to go to places where I had never been and to which I did not know the way, depending upon making inquiries on the road, and if I got past the place without knowing it, instead of turning back, I would go on until a road was found turning in the right direction, take that, and come in by the other side.  So I struck into the stream, and in an instant the horse was swimming and I being carried down by the current.  I headed the horse towards the other bank and soon reached it, wet through and without other clothes on that side of the stream.  I went on, however, to my destination and borrowed a dry suit from my —­future—­brother-in-law.  We were not of the same size, but the clothes answered every purpose until I got more of my own.

Before I returned I mustered up courage to make known, in the most awkward manner imaginable, the discovery I had made on learning that the 4th infantry had been ordered away from Jefferson Barracks.  The young lady afterwards admitted that she too, although until then she had never looked upon me other than as a visitor whose company was agreeable to her, had experienced a depression of spirits she could not account for when the regiment left.  Before separating it was definitely understood that at a convenient time we would join our fortunes, and not let the removal of a regiment trouble us.  This was in May, 1844.  It was the 22d of August, 1848, before the fulfilment of this agreement.  My duties kept me on the frontier of Louisiana with the Army of Observation during the pendency of Annexation; and afterwards I was absent through the war with Mexico, provoked by the action of the army, if not by the annexation itself.  During that time there was a constant correspondence between Miss Dent and myself, but we only met once in the period of four years and three months.  In May, 1845, I procured a leave for twenty days, visited St. Louis, and obtained the consent of the parents for the union, which had not been asked for before.

As already stated, it was never my intention to remain in the army long, but to prepare myself for a professorship in some college.  Accordingly, soon after I was settled at Jefferson Barracks, I wrote a letter to Professor Church—­Professor of Mathematics at West Point—­requesting him to ask my designation as his assistant, when next a detail had to be made.  Assistant professors at West Point are all officers of the army, supposed to be selected for their special fitness for the particular branch of study they are assigned to teach.  The answer from Professor Church was entirely satisfactory, and no doubt I should have been detailed a year or two later but for the Mexican War coming on.  Accordingly I laid out for myself a course of studies to be pursued in garrison, with regularity, if not persistency.