It is probable that all the most important people of the territory occupied by our army left their homes before we got there, but with those remaining the best of relations apparently existed.

It was the policy of the Commanding General to allow no pillaging, no taking of private property for public or individual use without satisfactory compensation, so that a better market was afforded than the people had ever known before.
Among the troops that joined us at Matamoras was an Ohio regiment, of which Thomas L.Hamer, the Member of Congress who had given me my appointment to West Point, was major.

He told me then that he could have had the colonelcy, but that as he knew he was to be appointed a brigadier-general, he preferred at first to take the lower grade.

I have said before that Hamer was one of the ablest men Ohio ever produced.

At that time he was in the prime of life, being less than fifty years of age, and possessed an admirable physique, promising long life.