hree 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 b