For six months before graduation I had had a desperate cough ("Tyler's grip" it was called), and I was very much reduced, weighing but one hundred and seventeen pounds, just my weight at entrance, though I had grown six inches in stature in the mean time.

There was consumption in my father's family, two of his brothers having died of that disease, which made my symptoms more alarming.

The brother and sister next younger than myself died, during the rebellion, of the same disease, and I seemed the most promising subject for it of the three in 1843.
Having made alternate choice of two different arms of service with different uniforms, I could not get a uniform suit until notified of my assignment.

I left my measurement with a tailor, with directions not to make the uniform until I notified him whether it was to be for infantry or dragoons.

Notice did not reach me for several weeks, and then it took at least a week to get the letter of instructions to the tailor and two more to make the clothes and have them sent to me.