CHAPTER II.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA.
1846-1848.
In the spring of 1846 I was a first lieutenant of Company C,1, Third Artillery, stationed at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina.

The company was commanded by Captain Robert Anderson; Henry B.Judd was the senior first-lieutenant, and I was the junior first-lieutenant, and George B.Ayres the second-lieutenant.

Colonel William Gates commanded the post and regiment, with First-Lieutenant William Austine as his adjutant.

Two other companies were at the post, viz., Martin Burke's and E.D.Keyes's, and among the officers were T.W.Sherman, Morris Miller, H.B.Field, William Churchill, Joseph Stewart, and Surgeon McLaren.
The country now known as Texas had been recently acquired, and war with Mexico was threatening.

One of our companies (Bragg's), with George H.Thomas, John F.Reynolds, and Frank Thomas, had gone the year previous and was at that time with General Taylor's army at Corpus Christi, Texas.
In that year (1846) I received the regular detail for recruiting service, with orders to report to the general superintendent at Governor's Island, New York; and accordingly left Fort Moultrie in the latter part of April, and reported to the superintendent, Colonel R.B.Mason, First Dragoons, at New York, on the 1st day of May.