Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to William Ramsey Investigates. This will be episode 10 in my reading of my confession, Recollections of a Rogue by Samuel Chamberlain.

And we're getting close to the end. So this will either be the last one or the second to last one, second to last episode.

You can read or listen to the whole book. You can find

the book, actually. It's out of copyright. You can probably find it at archive.org. And

you can listen to all the episodes on William Ramsey reads history along with some other

notable works that are also out of copyright.

So, episode 10, and we are on Chapter 36, Expedition to California.

The expedition intended for New Mexico and California was fitted out at Walnut Springs

in the most complete manner.

It consisted of D&E companies, Second Dragoons, Troop H of the Second Dragoons, three troops of the

First Dragoons, and Bragg's battery of LIDAR artillery, now under the command of Lieutenant Kilburn.

The cavalry was under the command of Major Lawrence P. Graham, while Prevet Lieutenant Colonel

John Washington commanded the entire detachment.

Our camp was alive with preparations, wagons were overhauled, tires reset, new horses and

mules purchased at Camargo, all drills discontinued, and everything done by the officers

to make the men satisfied of the change.

All of us who were enlisted for the war were now mustered out of the army and paid off.

I felt sorry to part with my comrades, who seemed to be my only friends, and I also had a strong desire to see California. I called on my friend, Miss

W.W. Chapman, whose husband was going along as quartermaster. Through her influence,

I obtained the position of Wagonmaster at $65 per month and two rations, a much better arrangement

than the $7 a month I had been receiving as a dragoon.

On the 18th of July, 1848, we bid farewell to Walnut Springs for the last time.

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