We next took a soldier, but he deserted, and carried off my double-barreled shot-gun, which I prized very highly.

To meet this condition of facts, Colonel Mason ordered that liberal furloughs should be given to the soldiers, and promises to all in turn, and he allowed all the officers to draw their rations in kind.

As the actual valve of the ration was very large, this enabled us to live.

Halleck, Murray, Ord, and I, boarded with Dona Augustias, and turned in our rations as pay for our board.
Some time in September, 1848, the official news of the treaty of peace reached us, and the Mexican War was over.

This treaty was signed in May, and came to us all the way by land by a courier from Lower California, sent from La Paz by Lieutenant-Colonel Burton.
On its receipt, orders were at once made for the muster-out of all of Stevenson's regiment, and our military forces were thus reduced to the single company of dragoons at Los Angeles, and the one company of artillery at Monterey.