eady stated that in 1844 President Tyler stationed an army of
observation under General Taylor, at fort Jesup, as soon as he
negotiated the annexation treaty.[73] This corps, but poorly sheltered
from the weather, and in an inhospitable climate, was, for a long time,
left inactive on the banks of the Sabine. In midsummer of 1845, after
the joint resolution was passed, and when our difficulties with Mexico
began to thicken, it was at length ordered to advance, under the same
commander, towards the southern frontier of Texas. The army then
consisted of but two regiments of infantry, one of dragoons, and a
single company of artillery, in all about fifteen hundred efficient men.
As the climate was known to the sickly, the war department despatched
only such an unacclimated force as was deemed absolutely necessary to
protect a tropical region in the month of July, awaiting the colder
months before its numbers were increased. This body was called the army
of occupation, whose appointments seem to have been extremely imperfect.
"The dragoon regiment had just been formed from a rifle corps; half of
its men were raw, undisciplined recruits, and many of them unable to
ride, while their recently purchased horses were small, weak and
undrilled. The infantry regiments were enfeebled by their long
exposure, in miserable tents, to the withering heats and drenching rains
of a low southern latitude; and the artillerists were without their
guns. Towards the end of June, 1845, a company of the last mentioned arm
of the service, equipped as infantry, at fort Moultrie, was ordered to
New Orleans. This body, armed only with muskets, sailed from Charleston
on the 26th of the month, and on its arrival in Louisiana on the 19th of
July, found that it was destined for service in Texas. The instructions
to the commanding officer informed him that his company was to be
mounted and equipped as flying artillery for the campaign under Taylor;
that horses would be sent him and a battery shipped from New York, upon
the arrival of which he was to join his general at the mouth of the
Sabine."[74] Fortunately for these troops they encountered General
Taylor in New Orleans, though they were obliged to depart without their
ordnance, which did not reach them for two months afterwards, while
their horses were even still longer in attaining their destination.

The war in Texas, and the unsettled state of that country, had prevented
the preparation of an accurate