The severest
point of the crisis was over, for he had already bidden his family
farewell. His spirits appeared to have risen with the occasion. He was
evidently in his element; nor, to say the truth, dangerous as was the
path before him, could it be regretted that his life was now to have the
opportunity of that species of success which--in his youth, at least--he
had considered the best worth struggling for. He looked so fit to be a
soldier, that it was impossible to doubt--not merely his good conduct,
which was as certain before the event as afterwards, but--his good
fortune in the field, and his fortunate return.
He sailed from Newport on the 27th of May, in the bark Kepler, having on
board three companies of the Ninth Regiment of Infantry, together with
Colonel Ransom, its commander, and the officers belonging to the
detachment. The passage was long and tedious, with protracted calms, and
so smooth a sea that a sail-boat might have performed the voyage in
safety. The Kepler arrived at Vera Cruz in precisely a month after her
departure from the United States, without speaking a single vessel from
the south during her passage, and, of course, receiving no intelligence
as to the position and state of the army which these reenforcements were
to join.
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