Personal Memoirs of General Sheridan | Page 8

joining their regiments. Here I remained
from September, 1853, to March, 1854, when I was ordered to join my
company at Fort Duncan. To comply with this order I proceeded by
steamboat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans,
thence by steamer across the Gulf of Mexico to Indianola, Tex., and
after landing at that place, continued in a small schooner through what
is called the inside channel on the Gulf coast to Corpus Christi, the
headquarters of Brigadier-General Persifer F. Smith, who was
commanding the Department of Texas. Here I met some of my old
friends from the Military Academy, among them Lieutenant Alfred
Gibbs, who in the last year of the rebellion commanded under me a
brigade of cavalry, and Lieutenant Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, of the
Mounted Rifles, who resigned in 1854 to accept service in the French
Imperial army, but to most of those about headquarters I was an entire
stranger. Among the latter was Captain Stewart Van Vliet, of the
Quartermaster's Department, now on the retired list. With him I soon
came in frequent contact, and, by reason of his connection with the
Quartermaster's Department, the kindly interest he took in forwarding
my business inaugurated between us--a lasting friendship.
A day or two after my arrival at Corpus Christi a train of Government
wagons, loaded with subsistence stores and quartermaster's supplies,
started for Laredo, a small town on the Rio Grande below Fort Duncan.
There being no other means of reaching my station I put my small
personal possessions, consisting of a trunk, mattress, two blankets, and
a pillow into one of the heavily loaded wagons and proceeded to join it,
sitting on the boxes or bags of coffee and sugar, as I might choose. The
movement of the train was very slow, as the soil was soft on the newly
made and sandy roads. We progressed but a few miles on our first day's
journey, and in the evening parked our train at a point where there was
no wood, a scant supply of water--and that of bad quality--but an
abundance of grass. There being no comfortable place to sleep in any of
the wagons, filled as they were to the bows with army supplies, I
spread my blankets on the ground between the wheels of one of them,

and awoke in the morning feeling as fresh and bright as would have
been possible if all the comforts of civilization had been at my
command.
It took our lumbering train many days to reach Laredo, a distance of
about one hundred and sixty miles from Corpus Christi. Each march
was but a repetition of the first day's journey, its monotony
occasionally relieved, though, by the passage of immense flocks of
ducks and geese, and the appearance at intervals of herds of deer, and
sometimes droves of wild cattle, wild horses and mules. The bands of
wild horses I noticed were sometimes led by mules, but generally by
stallions with long wavy manes, and flowing tails which almost
touched the ground.
We arrived at Laredo during one of those severe storms incident to that
section, which are termed "Northers" from the fact that the north winds
culminate occasionally in cold windstorms, frequently preceded by
heavy rains. Generally the blow lasts for three days, and the cold
becomes intense and piercing. While the sudden depression of the
temperature is most disagreeable, and often causes great suffering, it is
claimed that these "Northers" make the climate more healthy and
endurable. They occur from October to May, and in addition to the
destruction which, through the sudden depression of the temperature,
they bring on the herds in the interior, they are often of sufficient
violence to greatly injure the harbors on the coast.
The post near Laredo was called Fort McIntosh, and at this period the
troops stationed there consisted of eight companies of the Fifth Infantry
and two of the First, one of the First Artillery, and three of the Mounted
Rifles. Just before the "Norther" began these troops had completed a
redoubt for the defense of the post, with the exception of the ditches,
but as the parapet was built of sand--the only material about Laredo
which could be obtained for its construction--the severity of the winds
was too much for such a shifting substance, and the work was entirely
blown away early in the storm.
I was pleasantly and hospitably welcomed by the officers at the post,
all of whom were living in tents, with no furniture except a cot and
trunk, and an improvised bed for a stranger, when one happened to
come along. After I had been kindly taken in by one of the younger
officers, I reported to the commanding officer, and was informed by

him that he would direct the quartermaster to