of dragoons and a battery of light artillery, moved on the 8th.  He was followed by the three infantry brigades, with a day’s interval between the commands.  Thus the rear brigade did not move from Corpus Christi until the 11th of March.  In view of the immense bodies of men moved on the same day over narrow roads, through dense forests and across large streams, in our late war, it seems strange now that a body of less than three thousand men should have been broken into four columns, separated by a day’s march.

General Taylor was opposed to anything like plundering by the troops, and in this instance, I doubt not, he looked upon the enemy as the aggrieved party and was not willing to injure them further than his instructions from Washington demanded.  His orders to the troops enjoined scrupulous regard for the rights of all peaceable persons and the payment of the highest price for all supplies taken for the use of the army.

All officers of foot regiments who had horses were permitted to ride them on the march when it did not interfere with their military duties.  As already related, having lost my “five or six dollars’ worth of horses” but a short time before I determined not to get another, but to make the journey on foot.  My company commander, Captain McCall, had two good American horses, of considerably more value in that country, where native horses were cheap, than they were in the States.  He used one himself and wanted the other for his servant.  He was quite anxious to know whether I did not intend to get me another horse before the march began.  I told him No; I belonged to a foot regiment.  I did not understand the object of his solicitude at the time, but, when we were about to start, he said:  “There, Grant, is a horse for you.”  I found that he could not bear the idea of his servant riding on a long march while his lieutenant went a-foot.  He had found a mustang, a three-year old colt only recently captured, which had been purchased by one of the colored servants with the regiment for the sum of three dollars.  It was probably the only horse at Corpus Christi that could have been purchased just then for any reasonable price.  Five dollars, sixty-six and two-thirds per cent. advance, induced the owner to part with the mustang.  I was sorry to take him, because I really felt that, belonging to a foot regiment, it was my duty to march with the men.  But I saw the Captain’s earnestness in the matter, and accepted the horse for the trip.  The day we started was the first time the horse had ever been under saddle.  I had, however, but little difficulty in breaking him, though for the first day there were frequent disagreements between us as to which way we should go, and sometimes whether we should go at all.  At no time during the day could I choose exactly the part of the column I would march with; but after that, I had as tractable a horse as any with the army, and there was none that stood the trip better.  He never ate a mouthful of food on the journey except the grass he could pick within the length of his picket rope.