Page:Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Volume I.pdf/94



ADVANCE OF THE ARMY—CROSSING THE COLORADO—THE RIO GRANDE. T last the preparations were complete and orders were issued for the advance to begin on the th of March. General Taylor had an army of not more than three thousand men. One battery, the siege guns and all the convalescent troops were sent on by water to Brazos Santiago, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. A guard was left back at Corpus Christi to look after public property and to take care of those who were too sick to be removed. The remainder of the army, probably not more than twenty five hundred men, was divided into three brigades, with the cavalry independent. Colonel Twiggs, with seven companies of dragoons and a battery of light artillery, moved on the th. He was followed by the three infantry brigades, with a day′s interval between the commands. Thus the rear brigade did not move from Corpus Christi until the th of March. In view of the immense bodies of men moved on the same day over narrow roads, through dense forests