When Garrells rose he spouted like a whale, and swam for the opposite shore. Every few yards of progress he was checked by the rope, which threw his head under water. When he came near the bank on which I stood, he exclaimed, "Major, damn you, do you think I'm a goldfish or a dolphin?"
I signaled to the sergeant to pull him back, and by the time he returned he was thoroughly sobered.
I had heard very little from my brother. The stage line was irregular on account of hostile Indians. One evening when it drove up, it brought my brother, W. W., and Judge Watts, neither of whom I had seen for four years. They could only remain the night with me, but shortly after I procured leave and joined them in Washington.
Judge Watts and my brother had an interview with President Johnson in regard to Federal appointments in New Mexico and Texas. The President had a Texas vacancy on the board of visitors to West Point, and proposed to appoint W. W. Both Judge Watts and my brother preferred I be given the place, as I was a military man; and I was appointed.
Adjutant General Townsend protested to the President that my appointment was illegal because the regulations of the academy provided that no one who had failed at West Point should be made a member of the board for ten years after such failure.
Learning this failure was nine years past, the President sent for Colonel Townsend and asked if there was any other objection to me except my failure at the academy, and what my standing was. Townsend had no other objection, and said my standing was good, when the President said, "Well, if the faculty discharged a man who nine years after has become a captain in good standing in the regular army, I think it best that Captain Mills should be sent there to see what's the matter with the academy!"
General Grant was anxious to have the superintendency of the military academy (by law confined to officers of the engineer corps) opened to the line of the army, and Senator Nesmith, a member of the board, promised to try to secure a recommendation from the board to this effect. I felt the engineer corps conducted the academy too much as a purely scientific institution. While they made every effort to produce high-grade engineers, less attention was given the absolute requirements of officers of the line, so I was glad to promise General Grant my assistance. At his suggestion, I made the acquaintance of Senator Nesmith, who set about the accomplishment of his task immediately upon the organization of the board of sixteen members. An animated and somewhat bitter discussion continued during our whole session, finally resulting in a vote of eight to eight, so the resolution was lost. General Grant later submitted the matter to Congress, which changed the law so that any line officer could be made superintendent.
While the board was at the academy, General Scott died there, and the board as a body were his pall-bearers.
At the expiration of my leave, I was ordered to the command of Fort Bridger, Utah, where my company had arrived in my absence.
The volunteers, under General P. Edward Connor, were being relieved. The posts and the territory were both in a chaotic condition, the soldiers harassing the Mormons and encouraging the Gentiles in unlawful persecutions.