The administration of President Tyler, then in power, was making the most strenuous efforts to effect the annexation, which was, indeed, the great and absorbing question of the day.

During these discussions the greater part of the single rifle regiment in the army--the 2d dragoons, which had been dismounted a year or two before, and designated "Dismounted Rifles"-- was stationed at Fort Jessup, Louisiana, some twenty-five miles east of the Texas line, to observe the frontier.

About the 1st of May the 3d infantry was ordered from Jefferson Barracks to Louisiana, to go into camp in the neighborhood of Fort Jessup, and there await further orders.

The troops were embarked on steamers and were on their way down the Mississippi within a few days after the receipt of this order.
About the time they started I obtained a leave of absence for twenty days to go to Ohio to visit my parents.

I was obliged to go to St.
Louis to take a steamer for Louisville or Cincinnati, or the first steamer going up the Ohio River to any point.