year; and that this is a subject more worthy of my attention than aught else, I am fully persuaded of from what service I have had in the Dragoons, and more especially from our Colonel's high opinion of the ends to be obtained by an examination of what a theatre of war must constantly present.

It is, sir, with extreme regret that I find myself without written intructions for myself, and directions to our Minister at this Court, to exercise his influence in my behalf, for I am thus obliged to go as a mere private officer traveling, instead of an accredited agent of the public, which throws in my path obstacles, where there otherwise would be none. Might I then ask for instructions, it would be. more satisfactory, as assuring me of your approval of such plans as I may have laid down, or giving me orders to pursue another course. I should think it most advisable for me, in the course of the ensuing summer, after my return, to be present at the Camp of Instruction at Lunéville, where, annually, five to six thousand cavalry are assembled; and, also, to visit the German and English Caralry. As the system of schools varies always essentially from the practices in regiments, I have refrained from sending communications to the Department which might be incorrect in their conclusions, as applied to the French Army generally, and wait until I have studied regiments in detail. Still I have seen sufficient to be convinced that though the French theory of tactics is the most perfect, and though (as they are allowed by all nations) their manner of going through a campaign is the least harrassing and destructive of soldiers, that here the study of their army stops. For their grooming and the state of their horses, their stables, and everything that refers to them, their quarters, and everything pertaining to high discipline in garrison and military neatness, are everywhere here wretched in the extreme-to a degree that would not be tolerated nor dreamt of in the most slovenly company of our whole regiment. These points must b studied in England, where, perhaps, they are carried to an excess, and in Germany where, both in the Prussian and Austrian cavalry, I believe it must be perfect.

Sir, I leave Paris to-morrow. The campaign was to have opened on the 20th April (to-day), and I indulge the hope of, by rapid traveling, not being more than a week behind hand.

GENERAL:-I take the liberty of sending you this letter at the same time that I transmit to you the letters of General CASS, Ambassador of the United States near His Majesty the King of the French, addressed, the one to yourself, the other to General Viscount DE RUMIGNY, in the hope that you will have the kindness to

obtain for me an anthorization from His Highness the DUKE OF ORLEANS, or from Marshal VALEE to join the first expedition which can take place during the time I can remain in Algiers.

I would not have taken the liberty to make this request if I was not an officer sent out by the Government of the United States, with the object of studying my profession in Europe in order to introduce improvements into our Cavalry. With this intention I have been attached for the last seven months to the Royal Cavalry School at Saumur; and I am one of the three officers admitted by the Government in last October. At present I have the permission of my Government to travel during the rest of the year, to observe the practicable working of the regiments themselves. In doing so, I am entirely free to dispose of my time as seems most advantageous to myself. Still as our ambassador has no positive instructions from our Government to prefer this request to the French Government, he considered that the letters addressed to you and to General RUMIGNY (with whom he had the honor of being acquainted) would be sufficient to obtain this authorization, if such a request was a proper one to be granted. A severe sickness prevented me from arriving in Africa before the departure of this expedition, but if it should last some time longer I would be happy to join it immediately. In any event, I request your intermediation to obtain for me an authorization to join the next, even if it consists of only a single regiment.

This request is not made with the intention of annoying you by joining the General's staff, which must always be sufficiently numerous, but to attach myself to some regiment of Cavalry which belongs to an Army Corps.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration,

Your very humble and very obedient servant,

P. KEARNY,

THE HONORABLE J. R. POINSETT:

Lieutenant Dragoons, United States Army.

ALGIERS, May 8th, 1840.

SIR-I have the honor to inform you that I arrived here yesterday, the 7th of May.

I was unable to leave on the 21st, as I had expected, General CASS changing his intention as to applying for me for an authorization from the French Minister of War to join the intended expedition; moreover, I was detained two more days, till the 24th of May [April], in waiting for the private letters he had offered me to Generals SCHRAMM and RUMIGNY, and which were necessary as introduction to their notice. This made me too late for the packet from Toulon of the 27th, and it only leaves weekly.

Our Consul here, Mr. JACROUS, has, since my arrival, exercised in my behalf the influence he has; but, as I had not an authorization from the Minister of War, the commandant of the place, Colonel DE MARENGO, did not feel himself entitled, though anxious to serve me, to grant me a pass to join the army, but forwards by to-day's express, my letters for me. As I find that the army left on the 26th, from Blida, and the communications are impracticable but for large convoys and escorts, I have little reason to be flattered with the hopes of an answer being in

time to be of the service I had hoped. As the letters General CASS favored me with to General SCHRAMM and to General RUMIGNY did not enter at all into the details of my having been sent abroad by Government, and the objects of my travels, I felt necessitated to accompany them by one from myself, applying to General SCHRAMM, who is Chief of the Staff of the Army of Africa, to obtain for me from the Marshal VALEE or the DUC D'ORLEANS (though he is here only acting as a subordinate General) an authorization to join any expedition that might take place whilst I remained in Africa--in fine, a permission to be at liberty to pass wherever I might please in Africa. I herewith send you a copy of the same.

Successful or not in this or any other endeavor I may make whilst abroad to obtain those ends for which Government has sent me, believe me, Sir, as always actuated by the truest zeal for the service, and it is in this that I rest the hope, in some degree, to make up the deficiencies of knowledge and the want of experience. I have the honor to be, Sir,

SIR:--I have the honor to report myself as just returned from the late expedition in the province of Algiers, Africa, under the orders of Marshal VALEE, and at the same time transmit, to be forwarded to the Secretary of War, a letter -[letter and report both lost]-detailing some observations made whilst with the French troops.

Adjutant General United States Army, Washington, D. C.

CHAPTER IX.

FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

THE SOUTH PASS.

"Well pleased, could we pursue

The Arno, from his birth-place in the clouds,

So near the yellow Tiber's-springing up
From his four fountains on the Apennine,
That mountain-ridge, a sea-mark to the ships
Sailing on either sea.'

ROGERS' "ITALY."

In the fall of 1840, Lieutenant PHILIP KEARNY returned from his European mission, having done honor to Mr. POINSETT's selection of him as well as to the American name. He was almost immediately appointed aid-de-camp to Major-General ALEXANDER MACOME, COMmander-in-Chief of the United States Army. This distinguished officer is best known to the American people for his decisive victory at Plattsburgh, 11th September, 1814, when, with one thousand five hundred Regulars, aided by a body of three thousand militia and volunteers-under Generals MOERS, a soldier of the Revolution, and STRONG-from New York and Vermont, he repulsed and defeated an army of from fourteen thousand to fifteen thousand British veterans, fresh from triumphs over the troops who had conquered Europe, under the leading of NAPOLEON and his chosen Lieutenants. KEARNY retained this position until the death of General MACOMB, which took place, at the Headquarters of the Army and Capital of the nation, 25th June, 1841. From October to December of that year he was on duty at the United States Cavalry Barracks at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Thence he returned to Washington as aid-de-camp to Major-General WINFIELD SCOTT, next Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army. With him KEARNY remained-" dispensing elegant hospitality"-from December, 1841, to April, 1844, when he was relieved and ordered to join his company. On 12th May, 1844, he was with his regiment. at Fort Leavenworth, and was enabled by his experience in Africa

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to prepare his immediate command for efficient service against the Indians, and the projected display of our military strength upon the plains.

In May, 1845, Colonel STEPHEN WATTS KEARNY, with five companies of his regiment, the First United States Dragoons, made a march to the South Pass at the summit of the Rocky Mountains. This was the first military expedition which struck out so far from the settlements into the Indian country. Its object was to awe the savages and thus afford protection to the emigrants who were crossing the plains in great numbers on their way to settle in Oregon. The writer is indebted for some particulars of it to Major ALEXANDER SARANAC MACOMB, brother-in-law to General, then Lieutenant, PHILIP KEARNY, whose tent-mate he was on this occasion.

The incidents of this military promenade are the more familiar to his mind, and afforded the Major greater pleasure, since he found himself once more among old friends and associates, having served three years with the First Dragoons before he was transferred to the Second Regiment, and thence as aid-de-camp to the staff of his father, Major-General MACOMB. The many agreeable reminiscences connected with the novelty of the trip, the jokes among comrades on the march and by the camp-fire, would naturally make all who survive look back with pleasure to the period when they were still young and fresh enough to enjoy an excursion which was accompanied with just enough danger to season it.

The staff of this expeditionary column consisted of:

Lieutenant HENRY S. TURNER, Adjutant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General of the Third Military Department on the expedi- · tion through the Rocky Mountains, and at the headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, 1845; Captain First Dragoons, April 2d, 1846; in the war with Mexico, 1846-'47, as Acting Assistant Adjutant-General of the Army of the West, participating in the combat of San Pascual, California, 6th December, 1846, where he was wounded by a lance; Skirmish of San Bernardo, California, 7th December, 1846; Passage of the San Gabriel River, California, 8th January, 1847; and Skirmish on the Plains of Mesa, 9th January, 1847. He resigned, 21st July, 1848. This gentleman is (1868) President of the Union National Bank of St. Louis, Missouri, and the author has to thank him for much interesting information.

He was Acting Assistant Adjutant-General on the Staff of Brigs