Chapter 1: from the U. S.A. Into the C. S.A.
- Mormon War. -- return to West Point. -- the Plains in 1858. -- the signal system. -- Fort Steilacoom, 1860. -- leaving Steilacoom. -- at San Francisco. -- interview with McPherson. -- resign from U. S. Army. -- New York to Georgia. -- Captain of Engineers, C. S. A. -- impressions of travel. -- the first blow. -- instructions to Maj. -- Anderson. -- Anderson's second excuse. -- third excuse. -- Buchanan's excuse.
The year 1861 found me a second lieutenant of Engineers, U. S. A., on duty with Co. A, Engineer troops, at Fort Steilacoom, Washington Territory. I had entered West Point from Georgia in 1853, and graduated in 1857. For three years after my graduation I served, generally at the Military Academy, as an assistant instructor, but on two occasions was absent for six month at a time upon special details. On the first, with Capt. James C. Duane and 64 men of the Engineer Company, we were sent out to Utah for duty with Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in what was then called the Mormon War. In 1857 the Mormons had refused to receive a governor of the territory, appointed by President Buchanan, and assumed a hostile attitude. Johnston was sent with about 2000 men to install the new governor, Alfred Cumming of Georgia. The Mormons took arms, fortified the passes of the Wasatch Mountains, and captured and burned trains of supplies for the troops. The near approach of winter decided the War Department to halt Johnston and put him in winter quarters at Fort Bridger, east of the Wasatch, until he could be heavily reenforced in the spring. Six columns of reenforcements were ordered from
