the army, if not by the annexation
itself. During that time there was a constant correspondence between
Miss Dent and myself, but we only met once in the period of four years
and three months. In May 1845 I procured a leave for twenty days,
visited St. Louis, and obtained the consent of the parents for the
union, which had not been asked for before.

A TEXAN EXPERIENCE

From 'Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.' Copyright by Ulysses S. Grant,
and reprinted by permission of the family of General Grant

I had never been a sportsman in my life; had scarcely ever gone in
search of game, and rarely seen any when looking for it. On this trip
there was no minute of time while traveling between San Patricio and the
settlements on the San Antonio River, from San Antonio to Austin, and
again from the Colorado River back to San Patricio, when deer or
antelope could not be seen in great numbers. Each officer carried a
shotgun, and every evening after going into camp, some would go out and
soon return with venison and wild turkeys enough for the entire camp. I
however never went out, and had no occasion to fire my gun; except,
being detained over a day at Goliad, Benjamin and I concluded to go down
to the creek--which was fringed with timber, much of it the pecan--and
bring back a few turkeys. We had scarcely reached the edge of the timber
when I heard the flutter of wings overhead, and in an instant I saw two
or three turkeys flying away. These were soon followed by more, then
more and more, until a flock of twenty or thirty had left from just over
my head. All this time I stood watching the turkeys to see where they
flew, with my gun on my shoulder, and never once thought of leveling it
at the birds. When I had time to reflect upon the matter, I came to the
conclusion that as a sportsman I was a failure, and went back to the
house. Benjamin remained out, and got as many turkeys as he wanted to
carry back.

After the second night at Goliad, Benjamin and I started to make the
remainder of the journey alone. We reached Corpus Christi just in time
to avoid "absence without leave." We met no one, not even an Indian,
during the remainder of our journey, except at San Patricio. A new
settlement had been started there in our absence of three weeks, induced
possibly by the fact that there were houses already built, while the
proximity of troops gave protection against the Indians. On the evening
of the first day out from Goliad we h