ve received [appointments]".

When it became generally known in the army that the Mexican Government
had agreed to the proposed treaty of peace, and that the formal
ratification would soon be consummated, I requested the senior engineer,
Captain R. E. Lee, to direct me to sell the tools, etc., of the engineer
train, in the city of Mexico: order me to proceed to the coast by the
first opportunity, for the purpose of looking up, and accounting for, a
large amount of engineer property for which the estate of the late
Captain A. J. Swift was responsible; and authorize me to turn over the
command of the engineer company to Lieutenant McClellan, when I started
for the coast.

In compliance with Captain Lee's instructions, the tools were sold. They
brought more than they had originally cost in the United States. I left
the city of Mexico the day the treaty of peace was signed on the part of
the Mexicans; and accompanied General Persifor F. Smith to Vera Cruz, at
which place he was charged with making all preparations for the
transportation of the army to the United States. Before leaving the City
of Mexico I turned over the command of the engineer company to
Lieutenant McClellan. I was detained in Vera Cruz about two weeks,
obtaining information in regard to, and making disposition of, the
public property in that vicinity, for which Captain Swift's estate was
then held responsible.

The accounting officers of the government in Washington, had charged
against him, on their books, the value of large amounts of property
which had been shipped to, but never received by him. Several vessels,
partly loaded with portions of that property, were shipwrecked by
northers during the siege of Vera Cruz. In the time I spent at that
place after the war ended, I obtained knowledge which enabled me to
clear up all accounts against the estate of Captain Swift. The amount of
that nominal indebtedness far exceeded the value of his property; which
would have been unfairly sacrificed to the government, and have left his
name unjustly tarnished as that of a defaulter, if conclusive evidence
of the facts in the case had not been furnished to the accounting
officers.

The engineer company, under Lieutenant McClellan, accompanied by all the
engineer officers from the City of Mexico, left that city on the 28th of
May, 1848, and marched to Vera Cruz. From the latter place the company
was transported by steamer to New York City; arrived at West Point,