CHAPULTEPEC.
At a council of war at La Piedad on the 11th, it was determined to establish batteries against Chapultepec, and carry it by assault, then to operate against the city as circumstances should dictate. This was General Scott’s proposition, and was concurred in generally by the officers present at the council. Accordingly, on the night of the 11th–12th batteries were commenced, one for two 18-pounders and one 8-inch howitzer on the road leading to Chapultepec, and one for one 24-pounder and one 8-inch howitzer near the foundry. These batteries opened their fire about eight A.M. on the 12th, Quitman’s division supporting on the right, Pillow’s on the left. About 2.30 P.M. a third battery, one 18-pounder, one 8-inch howitzer, and one mortar, was prepared also near the foundry.
The fire was returned with some spirit, and about eight A.M. on the 13th the order was given to commence the assault.
Chapultepec stands boldly out two miles from the City of Mexico, an eminence two hundred feet high, having on its summit an irregular work with a stone scarp ten feet high, the whole defended by the strong stone building used as a military college.
At the southwestern foot of the height is the venerable cypress grove of the age of Montezuma, extending to within four hundred yards of the mill whence Pillow was to direct the assault of his command. At its eastern base was a formidable battery sweeping the causeway of approach in the direction of Quitman’s command, the aqueduct and stone buildings affording cover to troops.
It was known, from a daring reconnoissance made by General Quitman on the afternoon of the 12th, that the enemy were in the occupancy of this base of Chapultepec, five thousand strong.
Quitman, with a select storming party from Twiggs’s division two hundred and fifty strong, commanded by Captain Casey and supported by Smith’s brigade, was to attack on the right, carrying the formidable position reconnoitred by him on the 12th, and thence sweeping up the hill to enter the citadel itself. Pillow, supported by Worth’s whole division with a select storming party from that division, headed by the gallant Captain McKensie, 2d artillery, was to break through the cypress grove, charge up the hill, and pour his men into the work in conjunction with Quitman.
At eight o’clock the commands advanced. In Pillow’s attack, the Voltigeurs, with Callender’s howitzer battery, ran forward, and, charging the wood, soon cleared it of the enemy’s skirmishers. His whole command now pushed forward with such unexpected vigor that, before the storming party could pass them to take the lead, the whole brow of the hill was covered by a dense body of men, who, finding cover behind rocks and in the inequalities of the ground, steadfastly maintained its position, swaying slightly in the effort to get better cover whilst endeavoring to advance. There they hung, like a cluster of bees, whilst a tremendous fire of artillery opened upon them from the work. The storming party with their ladders now pressed forward; soon they were planted, the gallant McKensie, with his hat on his sword, pressed forward, drawing after as by strings the whole command, who in a moment overleaped the work and drove the gunners down the eastern slope, where a fierce conflict still raged on the part of Quitman.
Quitman, at the preconcerted signal, moved forward the select storming party from Twiggs’s division, a light battalion under the gallant Major Twiggs, and a select storming party of forty marines under Captain Reynolds in the advance, followed by the Maine battalion, the South Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania volunteers.
The brigade of Smith was in the adjoining field on the right, and had assigned to it the duty of breaking through the aqueduct and taking the enemy in flank and rear. The command moved up the causeway, under a tremendous fire of artillery and musketry, till they reached some old buildings of adobe, where they were obliged to get a momentary shelter. From this position, a company of the rifles and portions of the storming parties being still further in advance, they opened an effective fire in return. As the volunteer regiments came up, they were turned off into the open field on the left, intersected with ditches, to the assault of Chapultepec.
The New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians made a detour to the left, and entering the cypress grove at an abandoned breastwork where some fifteen minutes previously portions of Pillow’s command had entered, pressed forward and became intermingled with Pillow’s command as it poured into the work, as did the Palmettoes, who pierced the stone wall at a partial breach made by a cannon-ball without scarcely varying from their direction.
Smith in his advance, finding two wide and deep ditches in his front without any adequate means to cross them, and his force too small to force the passage in presence of the immense force of the enemy, veered to the left, and sheltering his troops partially by maguey plants, opened a well-directed fire upon the enemy in conjunction with the storming parties and marines on the causeway.
Meanwhile Drum’s battery, a 9-pounder and a 16-pounder, came up and opened on the enemy, as did Hunt’s section of Drum’s battery.
For half an hour the contest was of unparalleled severity. Our troops, however, pressed forward, and, Chapultepec having fallen, the enemy fled to the city along the Tacubaya causeway, and a causeway entering the San Cosme causeway at the English cemetery, some six hundred yards outside the garita, yet not till some of the most resolute of their troops had maintained their posts even to the interlocking of bayonets and clubbing of rifles.
Quitman on the Tacubaya causeway, the rifles and 1st artillery of Smith’s brigade in advance, Worth on the San Cosme causeway, pressed forward in pursuit of the enemy.
Aqueducts supplying the city with water extended along both these causeways, resting on arches that afforded partial shelter to troops. The causeway of Tacubaya led directly into the city, and with a strong field-work midway was defended at the gate by another formidable battery, by the strong work of the citadel three hundred yards distant, and by cross-fires from a formidable battery on the paseo leading from the San Cosme to the Belen suburb, and on both sides were almost impassable ditches filled with water.
The San Cosme suburb extended even beyond the English cemetery, where there was a formidable field-work sweeping the main Cosme causeway and the causeway from Chapultepec. At the gate, and two hundred yards without, were two batteries for two guns each.
Quitman pushed forward his command with unexampled vigor. The rifles and 1st artillery in advance, closely followed by the Palmettoes, marines, and the remainder of the volunteer division, were in close contact with the enemy till possession was effected of the garita at twenty minutes past one. In this contest Drum’s battery, assisted by Captain Winder’s company of the 1st artillery as a fatigue party, was served with a vigor and enthusiasm unparalleled in this war. The iron men of Drum pushed it into the very teeth of the enemy’s fire, and made it send forth an iron hail that drove the enemy from all his positions, even the garita itself. Drum paused not at the garita. With a sublime devotion, he marched boldly up to the very citadel itself, and fell mortally wounded, together with his gallant lieutenant, Benjamin, two thirds of his company being disabled. In command of a battery only three weeks, he fell universally lamented, the first artillerist of the army.
The temporary pause in the pursuit on the capture of the garita, considered indispensable to get the command in hand in order to proceed against the enemy, who was still in force, gave time to reassure the troops at the citadel, who were at one moment struck with a panic, and on the eve of evacuating the position. Notwithstanding the heroic conduct of Drum and the gallantry of the rifles and Palmettoes, the terrible fire which was soon opened from that work and the battery on the paseo compelled Quitman to withdraw his troops to the shelter of the garita, where they sustained the tremendous fire of the enemy till nightfall.
The command of Worth, on the fall of Chapultepec, boldly pushed forward to the San Cosme suburb, Garland’s brigade and Magruder’s battery in front. A smart encounter was had with a considerable body of the enemy’s lancers, who were charging down the causeway. Magruder was vigorously pushing forward his guns, ably supported by the troops, and the battery at the English cemetery was about to fall into our hands, when the whole command was halted. Worth, on arriving at a cross-road leading to the Tacubaya cemetery, was attracted by the tremendous contest going on there, and in consequence halted his command to be in condition to lend a hand to Quitman in case of his being sorely pressed. Timely assistance was rendered by Duncan’s battery, which contributed materially to Quitman’s success. Meanwhile a reconnoissance by the engineers showed that the enemy had no artillery in position at the cemetery, that the infantry force there was not formidable, and the lancers hanging on the flanks were not worthy of regard. Soon the order was given to charge the works. Our troops pressed in, driving the enemy before them and with little loss, and pressed forward to the batteries at the garita and in advance. Worth, on his arrival at the suburb about half past twelve o’clock, finding that a continuous row of stone buildings put it in our power to make a permanent lodgment, and reduce the contest to the crowbar and pickaxe without exposing the lives of the men, recalled the troops, and awaited the arrival of the ordnance and engineer trains.
A reconnoissance having shown that the first battery could easily be carried and with little loss, the enemy was driven from it, and Hunt’s section was put in position behind it, and made to open on the enemy’s battery of two guns at the garita. But he was soon compelled to put his battery under cover in consequence of the superior metal of the enemy.
At four the trains arrived, and immediately the troops, armed with the proper tools, commenced making their way from house to house. One party, headed by the engineer company, reaching the top of a high building, forty yards from the garita, opened fire upon the enemy at the guns at the very moment a similar fire was opened from a party on the other side of the street led by the gallant McKensie. The enemy was driven from the garita, but took away one of their guns. At nightfall Worth’s whole command was lodged in the suburb, his advance within twelve hundred yards of the Alameda.
During the night Quitman, in the erection of batteries and infantry covers, was making every preparation to renew the contest in the morning and to carry his attack into the heart of the city.
The enemy, however, withdrew their troops, and at seven o’clock Quitman’s command entered the citadel, and, pushing forward to the main plaza, the marines cleared the palace of the leperos, or thieves, who were infesting it, and hoisted the star-spangled banner from its summit.
General Scott, who had been the master spirit of the whole operations, originating the plan of attacking Chapultepec, giving the order when the time had come to make the assault, from the extended position of Chapultepec ordering the movements upon the causeways, supporting each by an adequate force, and on a lodgment being effected in the Cosme suburb ordering the resort to the crowbar and the refraining from the bayonet,—General Scott at eight o’clock issued his orders from the national palace announcing his occupation of the capital of Mexico.
Still, a desultory contest was kept up throughout the day from the houses of the city by an intermingled body of soldiers and leperos led on by officers of the army. Scott took the most decided means to stop it, and ordered every house to be blown up from which a hostile shot should be fired. At night the city was tranquil and in the undisturbed possession of our troops.
Thus the crowning glories of Chapultepec and of the gates of San Cosme and Belen placed us in the undisputed possession of the City and valley of Mexico. The public force of the enemy, dispirited and demoralized, paused two or three days at Guadalupe and divided: Santa Anna with a portion repairing to Puebla to try his fortunes against Childs, the governor of that place, and to watch his opportunity to fall upon our reinforcements coming up from Vera Cruz; the remainder, a disorderly rabble, repairing to Queretaro, where the government was to be temporarily established.
The casualties to the American arms in this valley have been immense,—2703 out of a force of 10,737, over one fourth, equal to the English loss at the siege of Badajos.
General Scott’s movement against Chapultepec was masterly, and in his plans he was well seconded by his generals. The removal of the depot to Mixcoac, the concentration of the troops at La Piedad, and the reconnoissances in that direction, impressed the enemy with the belief that that point of the city was to be attacked; nor were they undeceived till the very last moment, fully believing that the operations against Chapultepec were only a feint.
In the attack upon Chapultepec General Quitman’s arrangements are open to criticism. His select storming party intended for the assault of Chapultepec, and armed with ladders to scale and implements to break through the walls, were kept on the causeway; whereas the whole volunteer force was sent in that direction, wholly unprovided in every particular, and that, too, at too late a period to be of much essential assistance, and in a direction which made it necessary to fall in with Pillow’s command, already supported in great strength by the whole of Worth’s division. The consequence was that General Smith found himself too weak to break through the enemy’s force at the aqueduct and take him in flank and rear. Had Smith been preceded by the storming party provided with plank to cross the ditches, and supported by two of the volunteer regiments, the slaughter of the enemy must have been immense, and large numbers must have been taken prisoners. The marines with their storming party, the light battalion, and one of the volunteer regiments with Drum’s battery would have been in place to encounter the enemy on the causeway.
At the garita Drum’s battery and the Palmettoes were pushed forward under the guns of the citadel, and large numbers were uselessly sacrificed.
On the whole, however, General Quitman exercised good judgment, and gave proof of extraordinary vigor, intrepidity, and firmness. And he deserves the greatest credit for his perfect mastery of his command.
General Pillow’s dispositions were good and well executed, excepting that the storming party did not move in season, in consequence of which the supporting force, pressing onward, gained the brow of the hill in dense masses, and were there detained some little time awaiting the storming party with their ladders, who in their turn found great difficulty in pushing their way through to the front, which only a small portion succeeded perfectly in doing.
General Worth, in his attack upon the city, unnecessarily delayed his advance to succor Quitman. Quitman was to be most effectually relieved by the vigorous attack of Worth on his own line. On the arrival of the trains, however, he proceeded with great judgment and efficiency, and his attack alone, in consequence of being able to work from house to house, must have of itself put the city into our hands. Had it not been for Worth’s vigorous movement towards nightfall, bringing him well into the city, the enemy would not have abandoned the citadel to Quitman without a severe struggle. Twiggs’s command did not have the prominence as a division that it had at Contreras and Churubusco in consequence of the brigades being separated. Smith’s brigade did good service in conjunction with Quitman, and Riley at La Piedad kept the enemy in check during the storming of Chapultepec, and, afterwards joining Worth, did good service in the streets on the 14th.
The engineers did good service during all their operations at Molino del Rey. Captain Mason made a most daring and successful examination of the front of the enemy’s position, and in the attack on the 8th was signally gallant, but the result showed that the right of the enemy should have been more particularly examined. The character of his defenses at this point was never known till our troops, in the full tide of battle, were hurled against them, to be repulsed with the loss of nearly half their number.
Without shining talents, and without any remarkable decision or independence of character, Captain Lee has rendered signal service on this line. Laborious, constant, firm, of good judgment, patient, and guarded in his conduct, of popular manners and address, he has been a safe counselor, and always efficient in the discharge of duty. Distinguished at Vera Cruz, the Cerro Gordo, and in this valley, both before and subsequent to the armistice, he continued at his post to the last moment, even when oppressed with illness and great physical fatigue. After the storm of Chapultepec he received a severe contusion in the thigh, which disabled him for the day.
Lieutenant Beauregard is one of the finest soldiers in our corps. Of great strength, accomplished in all manly exercises, well read in his profession, and of forcible and independent character, much self-reliance and confidence, he has established a good reputation throughout the service. On the day of the storm of Chapultepec, although struck several times and twice severely, he maintained his post, and in the night supervised the erection of the batteries and infantry covers, from which Quitman was to open his fires upon the citadel in case the enemy had continued the conflict on the following day.
Lieutenant Tower, for judgment, for an assured and natural self-reliance, great force of character, and great decision and intrepidity in emergencies, has no superior in our corps. Indefatigable at Vera Cruz and the Cerro Gordo, he was eminently distinguished at Contreras. Subsequent to the armistice he was efficient in the discharge of his duties, and the engineer officer of Quitman on the day of the storm of Chapultepec; he was remarkably intrepid under the fire of the enemy, and was at his post till a severe wound in the head compelled him to withdraw.
Lieutenant Smith, in command of the engineer company, has rendered the most distinguished service. He has shown great power of command. The engineer company has rendered the most distinguished service. The engineer company devolved upon him in a state of great despondency and discontent on the part of the men. By his judicious management he breathed into it the breath of life, raised the spirits of the men, and inspired them with hope and confidence. In his hands the company has acquired a great reputation in the service.
His lieutenants, McClellan and Foster, are both brave, intrepid, efficient, and devoted to duty. At Molino, Foster was dangerously wounded in the leg.
But perhaps no officer of engineers has rendered more brilliant service than Captain Mason. Of remarkable intellectual force, great quickness of apprehension, highly cultivated, an ambitious student, and frank and honest in his life, on the field of battle, in a reconnoissance of the enemy’s position, indeed in every emergency, he has been conspicuous for force, rapid decision, and the most daring intrepidity.
In my own case, delicate health has much diminished my efficiency. Our long rest in Puebla did something towards restoring my strength, and I entertained the hope that it would prove equal to any emergency. I rode in an ambulance to Buena Vista, and subsequently from Ayotla to San Augustin. My reconnoissance of the Peñon, in which I was employed seven hours in mud and water, and within almost point-blank range of the enemy’s guns, was highly satisfactory to General Scott. On the 19th, at Contreras, I was too much exhausted and in too delicate health to remain on the field exposed to the rain. I in consequence returned to San Augustin, and was not present in the splendid attack of General Smith on Valencia’s intrenched camp. At Churubusco I was the senior engineer officer of Twiggs’s division. At the close of that day I was almost wholly prostrated by my exertions, and I had not renewed the strength with which I left Puebla on the termination of the armistice. At Molino del Rey I accompanied the reserves to the field, and on Mason and Foster becoming disabled from wounds, did duty during the remainder of the action. Subsequently, in conjunction with Beauregard and Tower, I reconnoitred the southern front of the city. In consequence of physical exhaustion I was not assigned to duty in the establishing of batteries against Chapultepec, but on the day of the 13th was on duty till I was wounded, in the San Cosme suburb, about half past one o’clock.
September 13. At half past one o’clock I was wounded in the foot, whilst posting a picket at a little work at a village some five hundred yards beyond the English cemetery. Dr. De Lein cut out the ball. It struck close to the little toe, and crossing over a little obliquely to the rear, was cut out just in front of the instep. The bones are fractured and the tendons lacerated. About half past three o’clock I was taken to Tacubaya in an ambulance, and in the evening Dr. Barnes dressed my wound.
September 14. I was removed to the city this day, and placed in comfortable quarters in the palace. I suffered some little pain last night and through the day. I owe many thanks to Major Smith for his unwearied kindness.
September 15. To-day I am relieved of pain, though last night I got but indifferent rest. Dr. Barnes attends me, and has commenced applying poultices.
September 17. Dr. Barnes, on examining my wound this morning, observed, in a manner that showed he was relieved of much anxiety, “I can save the foot.”
September 18–30. During this period my wound has done famously. I have been in no pain whatever. News has come of large reinforcements pouring in from below, and many expect them to reach Mexico as early as the 10th proximo. It seems to me we cannot reasonably expect their arrival till the 20th or 30th proximo.
Santa Anna, some few days after our entrance, abdicated the presidency in favor of the chief justice, Peña y Peña, and announced his intention to go to Puebla, organize a force, and operate against Childs and reinforcements coming up from below. No one here is much apprehensive of the result.
The general has found it necessary to issue stringent orders in regard to assassinations of men, and to enforce the utmost vigilance on the part of our guards. In some of the regiments the police is bad, and the guards totally neglectful of their duty.
A large city is ruinous to the morale of troops. The officers in our army spend the nights at the gambling-houses (tigers), and the men indulge in women and drink as long as their money lasts.
A camp of instruction alone affords the means of putting troops in a high state of discipline and efficiency. Yet the occupation of cities has great advantages. The residents become familiar with our character and customs, and friendly relations grow up.
October 1. This day I have sat up the first time,—a most agreeable change from the recumbent posture. We hear news from below that Childs has been severely pressed. Here, we are firmly of opinion that he cannot be driven from his post. It is hoped and believed that no troops will march up from below except in a strong column, four to six thousand men. A small body might tempt the enemy. He might fall upon it with a large force and gain some success.
October 2–11. Rumors accumulate in reference to Santa Anna’s attack on Puebla. From all accounts, his troops are of poor quality, and he is not on the best terms with his subordinates. My wound is doing exceedingly well, and I have at length found an opportunity to write to my wife and father by way of Tampico.
October 12–24. My wound has been doing badly, and my general health has been poor. For several days the foot became much inflamed, and poultices had to be applied. The new flesh has sloughed off, and the process of granulation has to be gone over again. At the present time my wound is doing well, and the fever or flux, which has threatened me for many days, I have nearly driven off.
November 1. A train of six hundred wagons departed for Vera Cruz with a large number of wounded officers and men, on their return to the States; Generals Quitman and Shields, Colonels Garland, Andrews, and Morgan, Major Smith, and other distinguished officers being of the number.
General Quitman leaves behind him the most enviable reputation. Courteous in deportment, just in conduct, a man of business devoted to his duty, he is second to no commander of division in this army. As a military man he is said to be well informed, and to understand well the principles of his profession. He has extraordinary vigor, courage, and coolness, and he has exhibited great ability in the management of the volunteer division.
General Shields has all the dashing and enthusiastic bravery peculiar to the Irish race. There is no braver man in our army. Since entering the military service he has assiduously studied his profession, and is fast rising as a military man.
November 2. Yesterday and to-day have been festival (All Saints’) days. Word came from Colonel Childs that General Lane on the 29th set out from Puebla with a column to meet the train, and that General Patterson left Vera Cruz with five thousand men. There is still an impression that General Patterson will assume the command, and that General Scott will be recalled. But I discredit it entirely. Very few cases of stabbing now occur.
On the departure of Major Smith, with whom I have messed nearly the whole time I have been in the country, I find myself entirely alone. Colonel Watson (in command of Shields’s brigade) and staff occupied adjoining rooms, and we made a very pleasant little circle. Colonel Watson is a candid, sensible, and good man. I esteem him highly. Lieutenant Baker is a gentleman of much intelligence, considerable acuteness, and of the most friendly feelings. They are now all gone, and I am now installed in Colonel Watson’s apartment. I am in a spacious room, with three large windows hung in damask looking on the street, and having at one extremity a raised platform, carpeted, and canopied with damask. Here I have my bed, my table, and my armchair, as comfortable as all the world. Indeed, I now very much feel as if I were in the halls of the Montezumas. My brother officers have most kindly offered to do all they can for me.
November 3. Since the departure of the train the weather has been beautiful. Captain Naylor this morning very summarily dispelled my dreams of luxuriating in the halls of the Montezumas by saying that the room I now occupied was needed for a commission, and that he must ask me to remove to my old quarters. As they were exceedingly damp and uncomfortable, and totally unfit for an invalid, Captain Lee referred the matter to General Smith, the governor of the city, who decided that I should not be moved till a suitable room could be provided.
Captain Naylor is an enthusiast on the subject of the regeneration of Mexico through American intervention. As superintendent of the archives, he avails himself of his opportunities to understand this people. They are undoubtedly degenerating. The cities are falling into decay; the mechanic arts do not improve; misrule and anarchy have long been the every-day experience of this unfortunate people. In the City of Mexico not a new house has been built for years, and many structures are crumbling into ruins.
November 4. My friends, Captains Lee, Power, and Hardcastle, give glowing accounts of the scenic representations at the Santa Anna theatre,—more perfect in the mechanical contrivances, and more splendid in effect, than anything to be seen in our own country. I regretted to learn that Captain Lee’s man Peter was murdered in Ayotla after the arrival of the train on the evening of the 1st instant.
The officers are hard at work at their drawings, and hope to finish them against my going down in the next train.
November 11. During the past few days I have been ill and well again,—a bad cold and the wound inflamed. The doctor, however, still confines me to my room. He considers that rest is necessary to prevent my foot’s inflaming.
Information has come that General Patterson, on the 27th ultimo, left Vera Cruz. He will probably require twenty days to reach Puebla, and some twelve days more to make his arrangements there and his journey to Mexico. I shall not, therefore, look for a mail before the 17th instant.
November 14. Nothing of interest has occurred in the city. Anaya is said to have been elected provisional president. A piece of leather of the size of half a tlaco came from my wound to-day. It was cut out of my shoe by the ball and carried into my foot.
November 15. A general order was published to-day announcing the determination of the general to bring to trial and punishment all officers who shall, contrary to regulations, furnish for publication accounts of operations in the field, and censuring in the severest terms the authors of “Leonidas” and of the Tampico letter in the “North American.”
November 16. Colonel Duncan, in a letter breathing defiance to the general, announced himself as the author of the Tampico letter, and exonerated General Worth from all knowledge even of its having been written till it was well on its way. It was not written for publication, Colonel Duncan avers. Colonel Duncan was arrested in consequence of these matters.
November 18. The long-expected train arrived to-day, bringing me three letters from my dear wife, and news of my little family being in excellent health. Mr. Trist has been recalled, and it seems to be the determination of the government to abandon all attempts to negotiate a peace, and to prosecute the war unto the occupation of the whole country.
November 20. Much to my delight, I mounted my crutches to-day and moved about my room.
November 21. I made a call on my friend Major Kirby, and met several of my acquaintances.
November 22. To-day I got as far as the engineer office. General Pillow is in arrest.
December 4. Went into the streets to-day and was much rejoiced to be relieved from confinement. Called to see my friend Foster, and found him doing nicely.
December 5. Went to the theatre, and was charmed with Cañete. My friends had spoken of her in glowing terms, and I went prepared to find her overrated. She is remarkably natural, chaste, and graceful in all her impersonations, and I do not wonder that she is so very popular with the whole world of theatre-going people.
December 9. The train finally got off to-day, and proceeded as far as Venta Nueva. Foster and myself have a tolerable ambulance assigned to us. We got off late, the last wagons not leaving the city till towards noon. The mules were a good deal fagged, and the train will not probably get down so soon by two days in consequence of the length of this day’s march. Distance, main plaza to Ayotla, fourteen miles.
December 10. Proceeded to Rio Frio. Here I met my classmate, Colonel Irvin, in command of the 5th Ohio regiment. The night was quite cold, and, not finding a room, we were obliged to sleep in an ambulance.
December 11. This day went to San Martin, where we found some excellent pulque. Distance, fifteen miles.
December 12. Reached Puebla. Distance, twenty miles.
1847. The diary ends here.
Lieutenant Stevens’s wound was far more serious than he, in his cheerful way of making the best of everything, admitted. The ball ploughed across the bridge of the foot, breaking nearly all the bones. At first the surgeons were extremely doubtful of saving the foot. The wound was slow in healing, and the foot never fully recovered its strength and usefulness. Three times, at intervals of one or two years, the wound opened and expelled pieces of bone. For many years he had to wear a special shoe with extra-thick sole.
The chief of the robbers who served as spies for General Scott, a man of striking presence and romantic though blood-stained career, known as Don Juan el Diablo (Don John the Devil), formed a strong attachment to Lieutenant Stevens, and took care of him during a great part of his sickness, and was devoted and unwearied in his attentions to the wounded officer.
St. Charles, New Orleans, December 28, 1847.
My dearest Wife,—I have just reached this city after a four days’ passage from Vera Cruz, and a twenty days’ journey in all from the City of Mexico. I am in splendid health, although my wound still keeps me on crutches. We are all going up the river to-morrow, and I am full of the most blissful anticipations at the idea of seeing you, the children, and friends. You will not see me for eight or ten days after the receipt of this. I shall be obliged to stay in Washington some days. Love to friends, and to Hazard and Sue. I hope to see you soon.
Yours affectionately,
Isaac.
CHAPTER XII
HEROES HOME FROM THE WAR
Washington, January 23, 1848.
My dearest Margaret,—At the strong desire of the colonel, I must remain here a few days longer. He wishes me to go with him over all the reports in order to get at all the facts in relation to the services of the engineer officers in the recent campaign of Mexico. I am able to afford many explanations of the reports, presenting in a stronger light the services of our officers, which will enable the colonel to present a strong case to the Secretary in matters of brevets.
The colonel and his family have been very cordial to me, and nothing could be more grateful than the high appreciation they have for the services of our officers. The colonel takes great pride in the distinction which our corps has acquired. Indeed, the services of the engineers have been so conspicuous that the corps has become popular. Every one knows that the engineers have important functions in the field.
I have paid my respects to the President and Secretary, and was highly gratified with my interview. The Secretary had a half hour’s leisure, and I took the opportunity to express my sense of the great ability, wisdom, and patriotism of General Scott. The Secretary has the highest admiration for his military achievements, and is indeed a just and judicious friend to the service.
I am boarding at Mrs. Janney’s with my old friends, Gilmer and Woodbury. Woodbury married Miss Childs, a very pleasant lady. Her mother is also boarding at the same place, a highly intelligent person, and the wife of Colonel Childs, distinguished for his defense of Puebla.
You may be sure I am very impatient to see you and my little ones. Nothing but a sense of duty to my brother officers, who are absent in the field, could have induced me to remain. I hope to reach Newport within the week, certainly by next Sunday morning.
Affectionate remembrances to friends, and love, much love, to my Hazard and Susan.
Yours most affectionately,
Isaac.
My health is splendid, my wound improving.
The enforced visit to Washington was not without pleasant features. He was received with the gratifying attentions due an officer just from the seat of war, who had distinguished himself for gallantry and conduct, and enjoyed the congenial duty of explaining the military operations to his chief, and aiding in securing for his absent comrades the honors and rewards they had so well earned. A letter of February 6 from his friend, Captain Foster, is of interest in this connection:—
“On arriving at Washington I went immediately to Mrs. Janney’s. There I heard of you. They all spoke very highly of you, particularly Mr. Robbins, who was very much interested in you. I dined at Colonel Totten’s on Wednesday, and Mrs. T. told me all about your being here. They all paid you some very fine compliments. Mrs. T. said she gained more information from Mr. Stevens than from all the other officers who had come from Mexico, your manner of speaking of men and things was so frank and just. Miss Kate said she was delighted with Mr. Stevens; he was correct and reliable in all he said. The colonel seemed glad to see me, and proud of the reputation of his corps. The result of all this, I hope, will be that he will give us two brevets, make you a major in charge of a work, and send me as your assistant.... It made me right jealous to hear the flatteries that the ladies at Mrs. Burr’s bestowed on the ‘gallant Mr. Stevens.’”
It was a joyful reunion when he reached Newport, and enfolded his dearly loved wife and little ones in his arms. A fortnight later he visited Andover, and one may imagine how his father, brother Oliver, and cousins and fellow townsmen received the soldier, returned on crutches, with open arms, and lionized him to the full. The country had been at peace for thirty years, and the returning soldiers from Mexico, especially the wounded officers, were received with mingled feelings of awe and admiration. Writes a brother officer, “The boys look at me around the corner, remarking, ‘I see him.’ ‘There he goes.’ ‘The man that’s been to Mexico.’”
Newport, R.I., February 28, 1848.
My dear Father,—We reached Newport about half past eight o’clock in the evening the same day we left Andover. I am now in my office, and am devoting some six hours each day to official matters. My wound is improving; I go about the house with a cane simply, and through the streets with one crutch and a cane. In one month, or at least in two months, I hope to be able to dismiss my crutches entirely.
I hope in all sincerity that our difficulties with Mexico are in the way of a permanent adjustment. The general opinion is that the Senate will ratify the treaty. The only difficulty (and one which in my opinion is much to be apprehended) is that Mexico, in consequence of a pronunciamiento, may disavow her own act. I trust, however, that such will not be the case, though I think it incumbent upon our government to continue to raise and push out troops till the thing is settled. Should there be want of faith on the part of the Mexicans, we should be in condition to punish it with most exemplary severity. Let our war measures be all pushed through without delay, and let there be the greatest activity in raising troops. This course of procedure, whilst ratifying the treaty, will make the treaty an effective thing.
Remember me to friends. Margaret wishes to be affectionately remembered to you. Hazard has not forgotten your stories of King George and the Redcoats.
At this time he was being considered for the colonelcy of one of the new regiments, which, if the war continued, would have to be raised. A prominent member of Congress from Maine, Hezekiah Williams, writes him, “I think our delegation would unite in recommending you. It certainly would give me pleasure to aid in obtaining your appointment.” Mr. Stevens writes Oliver:—
“My policy is to get elected to the command of a volunteer regiment, and get a leave of absence, so as to hold on to my present commission. I should like to command a Massachusetts regiment and put it through some good service in Mexico, should we be obliged to resort to the alternative of renewing the contest.”
An incident occurred one day, when a light rifle that Mr. Stevens had taken to Mexico, but had never used in action there, stood in good stead. A mad dog ran amuck down Broad Street, frothing at the mouth and snapping at all he met. The people on all sides rushed into the shops and houses for refuge, with loud outcries of alarm and warning. Mr. Stevens, apprised of the danger, seized the light rifle, hobbled out on his crutches to the sidewalk, followed up the maddened beast, which had now dashed into the hall of a neighboring house, and shot him through the head, killing him on the spot.
He might now reasonably expect a little rest until he could recover from his severe wound and injury. He writes Oliver, March 15:—
“I am taking things very quietly in this most quiet of all places. There is no danger from dissipation or over-excitement, and I need not, therefore, be apprehensive of anything like inflammation in my wounded part. My wound is doing exceedingly well. I can now move a little about the house with a cane.”
That very day he received orders to proceed to Savannah, Ga., with the view of taking charge of the fortifications on the Savannah River. After his arrival there he writes Oliver, March 27:—
“I am here on temporary duty for a few days, and shall return home next week. This is to be my permanent station in the fall. The summer I shall spend in amusing myself. A portion of it will be passed in Andover.
“Savannah is an old-looking, handsomely laid out, and pretty well-built place, the most important town in the State, and the only one having much trade.
“Colonel Mansfield will relieve me in Bucksport during the latter part of April, at which time I shall bid adieu to my friends in Maine.
“I am tolerably well pleased with my new station. It is healthy throughout the year, and I have no doubt the change will prove highly advantageous so far as health is concerned.
“The duties are trifling. The large work, Fort Pulaski, is finished, and nothing remains to be done but to prepare a bridge-head of timber, and secure the island from overflow by the construction of dikes. The small work, Fort Jackson, will require an expenditure of something less than one hundred thousand dollars in the way of enlargement and repair.
“My duties will therefore be comparatively light. Nothing will be doing from June to October; so I shall be able to go North occasionally to pass the summer.
“The people are very hospitable, and I shall make many acquaintances before I leave. I have an old classmate just rising at the bar here, and many officers’ families reside here.”
His next letter to Oliver, from Newport, April 6, is interesting as presenting his view of Cromwell:—
“I am just back from Savannah after an absence of twenty days, and return thither to commence operations in November next. The intermediate time will enable me to get well of my game foot, and to pass some little time among my friends. I go down to Bucksport week after next to turn over the public property to Colonel Mansfield, and I shall probably be in Portland on Friday, April 21.
“I am rather late to answer the principal thing in your letter of the 25th ultimo. Both subjects are good. I should think that ‘Individuality of Character’ would be preferable, because its handling does not require so much reading as Cromwell. With ample leisure for investigation, I should prefer the latter. I do not know of a single unprejudiced authority. Foster’s Statesmen of the Commonwealth and Clarendon’s History are the best I have seen. Russell’s Biography is poor and inaccurate. Hume is very superficial. Catherine Macaulay is a great bigot. Carlyle’s Cromwell is good, because it consists principally of Cromwell’s letters and speeches. Babington Macaulay’s essays on the various statesmen of the rebellion are good.
“I like your idea of treating the subject of individuality. The greatest example of the influence of a strong, original character in moulding a great people in our own history is Franklin. It was the strong, original characters of our Revolution that achieved our independence. The many are always ruled by a few, frequently by one, the wise, the strong man, or men. I have found in this view many fine ideas in Carlyle’s Heroes.
“As regards Cromwell: he and he alone achieved the overthrow of the Stuarts. Without him there would have been no glorious restoration, as Burke calls the expulsion of James. The French monarchy would have still been absolute, and the French people would have still been in chains. Cromwell was bold, direct, far-seeing, a great governor of men. Cromwell was vastly superior in the elements of a great man to Hampden, to Pym, to Strafford, to Vane. A bold sketch of Cromwell’s actual part in the greatest drama of English history would be highly interesting. Dwell on his great foresight, grasp, directness, sincerity; his boisterous youth, his religious fervor in after years, his unswerving advocacy of the rights of his neighbors, which caused him to be called the Lord of the Fens; his unshrinking avowal of his opinions in his early parliamentary career; his extraordinary sagacity in organizing his Ironsides, the greatest soldiers of ancient or modern times; his self-denying ordinance, in which by a bold stroke he threw half-way, indecisive men from the army, and sent it forth to victory; his earnest efforts to settle matters with Charles after the forces of the latter were dispersed, and he a prisoner; his invincible opposition to all ecclesiastical tyranny, whether presbyterian or prelatical; his part in the execution of the king; his great Irish and Scotch campaigns, particularly the battle of Dunbar, where his famous rallying cry, as the sun shone through the morning clouds, ‘Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered!’ spread dismay through the ranks of his enemies, and brought a glorious victory to his arms.”
Now he enjoyed a month of the rest he so much needed. With his wife and little ones he occupied rooms in the old family mansion, a welcome guest to Mrs. Benjamin Hazard and her daughters, who always regarded him with the greatest affection and admiration. As spring opened, he took great pleasure in making a famous garden in the spacious yard behind the mansion, having the ground manured and cultivated in the most thorough manner, and planting the greatest profusion of vegetables. His friend Mason was also in Newport, recovering from his wound, and many were the accounts and discussions had with him and Mr. Brooks and other congenial spirits of the stirring scenes of the war.
Major Stevens was fully convinced of the justice and necessity of the Mexican war. The repeated depredations by Mexico upon Americans, and her long-continued refusal or evasion of all redress; her publicly declared purpose of conquering the republic of Texas after its independence had been established and acknowledged for ten years; her arrogant demand that the United States should not admit Texas to the Union, and her still more arrogant threat that she would regard such admission as an act of war; the departure of her minister from Washington; and the breaking off of all friendly relations instantly upon the passage by Congress of the resolution admitting the Lone Star State,—left no alternative but to bring the inflated and treacherous pronunciamientos to terms by force of arms, since they were amenable neither to justice nor reason, and to “conquer a peace” which even they would have to respect. And, glorious as were her arms, not less creditable were the moderation and magnanimity of the Great Republic, when Mexico, her armies destroyed, her capital taken, lay prostrate, in paying a large indemnity for the far-distant and almost tenantless regions of New Mexico and California, which, while ready to fall from Mexico’s feeble grasp, were essential to the expansion of the populous and fast-growing Republic of the North.
In the latter part of May he visited Boston and Andover with his little son.
The following month the Savannah orders were countermanded, the Engineer Department deeming it best that he should continue in charge of Fort Knox, and the other works in Maine and New Hampshire.
After a preliminary visit, he moved his family again to Bucksport, in June, and occupied a cottage at the fort opposite the town.
He gathered about him his former assistants, A.W. Tinkham and John Lee, and continued in charge of the works for upwards of five years.
Having a strong desire to own a home of his own, he purchased a house, with a generous lot of half an acre, overlooking the river. The house was of two stories, seven rooms, with a barn in the rear connected by a woodshed. The principal wharf was at the foot of the street, and here Major Stevens kept his boat. The house had an ill repute as being unhealthy, some of the former inmates having died from consumption. When cautioned on this score, he replied: “It is high time some one took the house who can give it a good reputation.” He had the cellar and grounds thoroughly drained, sunk a well, blasting through a ledge of rock, and put the grounds and garden in fine order. He took great pains with, and pleasure in, the garden, raising all kinds of vegetables. They kept poultry also, and among them was a flock of twelve ducklings that every day solemnly waddled down to the river in single file, and as solemnly waddled up the hill again after their daily bath and paddling in the river, an unceasing source of interest and pleasure to the children.
The government was contemplating the fortification of the more important points on the Pacific coast, and to an inquiry as to his willingness to be sent to that distant field, he writes the following characteristic reply:—
“As regards engineer duty on the Pacific coast for a year or two, I should be well pleased with it did I feel certain that I was physically in condition to undertake it. If the passage thither should be an easy one, as mostly by sea, I have little doubt that on my arrival at the scene of my duties my lameness would be essentially gone. If the journey should be overland, I should hardly be able to bear the fatigues of it in less than two or three months. If ordered, I should go without hesitation, and do the best I could. I must leave this matter entirely with you. No officer should feel at liberty to decline a distant duty of this kind, and in this case, as in all others, let the public interests alone have weight.”
Ambitious he was, but with a lofty ambition, not to aggrandize himself, but to serve his country, ever ready to sacrifice personal interests and feelings to the public service. In this and other letters he displays a certain impatience that personal convenience or interests should be consulted at all in matters of public duty.
When the brevets were announced, Lieutenant Stevens was brevetted “Captain, August 20, 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco,” and “Major, September 13, 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Chapultepec.”
He took great pains to secure justice to all the engineer officers in the way of brevets, conceiving that he was in a measure responsible therefor because, as adjutant of the corps in Mexico, the engineer reports had been made through him; he had had charge of the records, and had been closely consulted by the chief, General Totten, and spent no little time and effort in behalf of those who had been overlooked.
The engineers felt themselves treated with injustice in the matter of brevet pay, for while the officers of artillery, cavalry, and infantry were allowed full pay when assigned to duty according to their brevet rank, the former were denied the same right, although frequently placed in charge of works and assigned to duties above their nominal rank. They had other grievances, too, in the allowances for rations, horses, etc. One so disinterested and indefatigable in behalf of his corps and brother officers as Major Stevens would be sure to be often called upon. He took great interest in these matters, and even more in the general reorganization of the army, upon which he corresponded and consulted largely with able and public-spirited young officers of other corps as well as his own.
It was not until November that his friend and classmate, Lieutenant J.F. Gilmer, relieved him of the vouchers and papers relating to Savannah forts. Writing from Washington, November 6, Gilmer says: “Captain Fred. A. Smith would like much to have you here this winter. It is possible you may do the corps a great service by being in Washington this winter.”
A call for service in any direction always appealed strongly to him, and accordingly he determined to visit Washington, as he writes his brother Oliver, under date of Bucksport, December 8, 1848. This letter displays a humorous vein not usual with him, and gives his view of the character and public policy of General Taylor, then just elected President:—
My dear Brother,—I rejoice to learn that you are still in the land of the living, and that that severe and noble pursuit, the law, does not prevent your seeing the lions of the town. But you are very cruel to triumph over us benighted creatures in this region of frosts and snows. In truth we lead a quiet, rational, country life, perhaps as much to be envied as the more attractive life of the great city. I wish you, however, distinctly to understand that we do not suck our paws during the winter, and I feel bound to disabuse you of this misapprehension. That is done still farther down East, I believe. We do not sleep more than twelve or at most fourteen hours a day. We manage to eat three meals per day. But it is hard work; they approximate rather too closely. We drink tea nights, and eat apples mornings. We get the newspapers generally every day, and expect to read the Message to-morrow. By way of diversion, we slide down hill on a moonlight evening. Then there are prayer and conference meetings ad libitum. What a consolation these latter privileges would be to one of your serious turn of mind! I can almost see your grave countenance lighted up with heavenly radiance on such an occasion.
By the bye, I hope to see you in about four weeks, as I pass on to Washington. There I shall probably remain till after the inauguration. I find in the election of General Taylor the great fact indicated that we poor devils in the army are citizens of the country, and eligible to civil offices of trust. I should have voted most cordially for General Cass, had I a vote to throw. His election I vastly preferred. But there has been in this canvass a vast deal of nonsense about the camp not being the place to find our Presidents, and I am much mistaken if General Taylor, in his own person, does not prove a happy instance of the mingling of military and administrative ability. And those miserable hacks of party, who have sought to depreciate his military services and talents, have now the consolation to reflect that their efforts at detraction served to promote his election, as it did that of General Harrison.
“I unhesitatingly believe that General Taylor will administer the government in an able, impartial, and patriotic manner, and if during his presidency an emergency arises, he will prove a hero-President as he has proved a hero-soldier. The Democratic party ought not to prejudge him. Let them maintain a firm attitude in Congress, and keep well organized everywhere. The Whigs cannot carry any of their favorite measures through Congress for two years at least. We may then have a Democratic Congress, and, my word for it, there will be no collision between such a Congress and General Taylor. On that great cluster of questions, the public lands, the encouragement and protection of distant settlements, the development of the great Pacific coast, the old man will be right. If the Democratic party will show candor and liberality towards General Taylor, he may be their nominee four years from this time.”
As one result of his visit to Washington, Major Stevens took hold of the brevet pay question in his usual thoroughgoing and indefatigable manner. He first corresponded with every brevetted officer of the corps whom he had not already consulted personally. Having thus learned their views, he prepared a strong memorial on the subject, which, after being submitted to, and warmly approved by, Colonels Thayer and Mansfield and Major Tower, was sent to all the officers for their signatures. And in July he transmitted the memorial to General Totten, signed by every brevetted officer of the corps save one, with an urgent letter asking his interposition with the War Department in their behalf.
It was the intention, in case the department denied the application, to appeal to Congress, but the manifest justice of the cause as presented was unanswerable. The department, after some doubts, concluded that it had the necessary authority under the law regulating brevet pay, and at length the engineers were placed on an equality with the other arms in this respect. His brother officers conceded that the gratifying triumph was due to the well-directed and persistent efforts of Major Stevens, and showered upon him their warm thanks and applause. This success, however, was followed by more and more frequent applications from them and others for assistance and advice in their own personal matters. He never failed to expend his thought, energy, and time in every deserving case as promptly and freely as, ay, far more than, if he was working for himself, and he never shunned, nor complained of, these gratuitous tasks, which in the next few years became a great burden, but always seemed to take real pleasure and satisfaction in helping others, even many who had little or no claim upon him.
In April writes Captain George B. McClellan, who was stationed at West Point with the engineer company, an urgent appeal to Major Stevens to use his influence to have the company ordered away from the Point, and to Fort Schuyler:—
My dear Stevens,—The detachment of artillery (laborers) stationed here are to be transferred to the engineer company,—at least so many as may be necessary to fill up the company. On our company then will it devolve to do all the police of the Point, to make the roads, drive the carts, feed the oxen, work in the blacksmith and carpenter shops, etc., etc.,—in plain terms, the engineer company is destroyed; it has become a company of mud-diggers; it will no longer be an engineer company, for it will be impossible to do military duty, and no instruction in the duties of engineer troops can be given them. The object of the whole business is to get Shover’s company of light artillery ordered on here, and we are sacrificed to attain that object.
This is a matter that concerns equally all the officers of our corps. We are disgraced if this order is allowed to remain in force, and I beg of you to use whatever influence you may possess in Washington to have the order rescinded, and the company ordered away from here. I am in haste,
Truly your friend,
George B. McClellan.
Partly in response to this letter, but more to express his own views as to the true policy in regard to engineer troops, Major Stevens writes at length to General Totten. It is characteristic that he does not treat the matter from McClellan’s narrow, personal standpoint, but at once elevates the whole subject to a discussion of the requirements of the service. After referring to his intimate association with the engineer company in its organization and in Mexico, he continues:—
“I think every one owes something to his profession. Something is due to my profession, not inferior certainly in dignity to any other. I would endeavor to discharge it according to my ability. It will be in this spirit that I shall submit the following observations. In this spirit will I from time to time communicate with the department on this and other topics appertaining to the noble profession of arms, not doubting that my suggestions will be kindly received.
“By law, the engineer company is restricted to one hundred men, a number entirely inadequate even to the duties of peace.... The remedy I would propose is this: Let the utmost care be exercised in enlisting men. Let no man be enlisted who cannot in due course of time be made a non-commissioned officer. Let there be in no case transfers from other branches of the service. Let the whole strength of the officers of the company be applied to discipline and instruct the men, so that in time of need we shall have a band of splendid non-commissioned officers, the peers of Everett and Hastings and Starr,—men who have received commissions for their gallant services in Mexico, and each of whom, had Smith and McClellan and Foster fallen, could have gloriously led on the company to its duty.
“I would propose a complete system of practical instruction six or seven months of the year, sapping, mining, and pontooneering, and the whole subject of field-works, at some suitable place, say Fort Schuyler, and a course of theoretical instruction the remaining five months, embracing an elementary course of mathematics (including drawing, surveying, and the use of instruments) and of engineering. There should also be a good general and military library. As regards the library, the corps could be applied to for aid, if necessary. I will for one, and I doubt not many officers would, liberally make donations.
“Even if the engineer arm were increased to four companies, which I trust will be done the next session of Congress, I would recommend this course. The fine practical education which would thus be secured would induce men to enlist. And we shall have the satisfaction that in the next war with England, and when the question is to besiege Montreal, Quebec, and Halifax, our four companies can be soon converted into twenty companies.”
Ever since his return from Mexico, Major Stevens was deeply interested in the reorganization of the army. Even while so vigorously fighting for his corps in the matter of brevet pay, in discussions and correspondence with Mansfield, Mason, Tower, G.W. Smith, F.A. Smith, Beauregard, Hunt, and others, after disposing of this particular grievance he would enlarge upon the reorganization of the whole army, giving his own ideas, and urging them as a patriotic duty, not as members of any corps, but from the standpoint of the whole army, to prepare memoirs, or letters, giving their views.
He advocated an organization that would admit of fourfold extension in case of war; the keeping of at least one third of the troops in camps of drill and instruction in order to maintain the highest degree of military knowledge and discipline; and the raising of the standard of the rank and file, attracting thereby American-born young men as soldiers by increased pay, better instruction, and greater opportunities for advancement, even to conferring commissions in meritorious cases. These letters and replies, particularly a memoir by Hunt (afterwards the distinguished general, Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac), are full of interest and instruction. The army, with all the improvements adopted in recent years, has not yet reached the standard set by these patriotic and able young officers fifty years ago. How Major Stevens followed up these preliminary efforts will appear hereafter.
CHAPTER XIII
COAST SURVEY
During the summer Professor A.D. Bache, the distinguished scientist, chief of the United States Coast Survey, found himself obliged to obtain a new “assistant in charge of the Coast Survey Office,” the second position on the survey, in place of Captain A.A. Humphreys, of the topographical engineers, who under the labors of that office had become broken down in health and was obliged to relinquish it. It was no light tribute to the rising reputation of Major Stevens that so wise and sagacious a man as Professor Bache, and so excellent a judge of men, should have selected him out of the whole army as his right-hand assistant and executive officer. He tendered the position, August 7, in a letter well calculated to appeal to a patriotic and ambitious young man, dwelling upon the important character of the duties of the office, and the opportunities it afforded “to build up a name for executive ability,” and “to reflect credit upon the corps,” etc., and stating that the chief engineer (General Totten was an intimate friend of Professor Bache) would look favorably upon his acceptance.
At first Major Stevens was disposed to decline the post; but after several interviews with Professor Bache in Cambridge and Boston, he reluctantly decided to accept it, but upon condition that he should retain charge of the Bucksport works in addition to the new position for a year longer, with the right then to retain either the Coast Survey or Fort Knox, as he might prefer, and relinquish the other. This unique condition, by which an officer about to undertake new and arduous duties stipulated to retain also his former ones, thus voluntarily adding to his labors instead of diminishing them, was at once accepted by Professor Bache and agreed to by the engineer department, a convincing proof of the esteem in which he was held by both.
The concluding part of the following letter to his brother Oliver shows that it was the wider field for his energies and ambition, the better opportunities for service and for putting in force his ideas of reorganizing the army, of performing his “duty to his profession,” that really caused him to accept the onerous position:—
My dear Brother,—I am ready at once to give you a decided opinion as to the course you should pursue, and I know it will be in accordance with your own judgment.
Remain in Cambridge a year and a half longer. Then go to Boston. Throw yourself into the arena of the strongest men in the State. Contend with strong men, the stronger the better, and rise above them all.
I have watched your progress with the anxiety and tender solicitude which an older brother must feel in a younger and only brother. This is one of the turning-points of your life.
I have not the slightest doubt, in one year from being admitted to the bar, you will be able to marry and have a home of your own.
Don’t trouble yourself about the cost. If things go right with me here, I have no doubt I shall be able to let you have, from July, ’50, to July, ’51, all you will require.
I write with the earnestness of deep conviction. I am proud of your talents, but you have a weight of character which gives to talent its force. Let me hear from you soon. I beg of you not to give way to despondency, and the least as to the bold course I have indicated.
You and I both do best by taking bold, self-relying courses. I never once failed in my life from the boldness of my course. You will not.
I feel I have come to Washington at the right time. The Coast Survey needs me to overhaul it. I feel that the army has a representative in me which it has not had in Washington in years. I know my position,—my strength,—and I swear by the Eternal, to use Jackson’s expression, I will put it forth.
In the following he gives his views on Coast Survey and other matters.
Washington, D.C., October 22, 1849.
My dear Brother,—To-day I enter upon my duties. I see no particular difficulty. There is no need of being a mere office drudge. All the work can be done without any one’s breaking down. The Coast Survey is a large operation, and the charge of the office here can be made an agreeable duty. The responsibility will be considerable. But all details can be thrown upon subordinates. The fact is, the work in the world has got to be done. But it can be done by proper distribution and arrangement in an easy, quiet manner. This will be my study in my new duties.
We shall have a great session of Congress the coming winter. The whole subject of our communications with the Pacific will be discussed, railroad and ship canal across the Isthmus,—railroad through our own border. I have no doubt Congress will direct the necessary explorations and surveys to determine the practicability of the various schemes.
I am now boarding at a private house. But in a few days I shall occupy rooms, and take my meals at one of the public houses. This is the favorite mode with gentlemen that can afford it. A good parlor with sleeping-room adjoining, in a good situation, will cost me twenty-five dollars per month, the rooms being furnished, and provided with fuel, light, and attendance. And board simply, at the best public houses, will cost about twenty dollars more. This mode of living is free and easy. You go into retiracy when you choose, and can again at any moment mingle with the crowd.
I am becoming acquainted with our Maine and Massachusetts congressmen. Duncan, of Haverhill, I find quite an agreeable gentleman. Hamlin, one of the Maine senators, seems to be quite a clever fellow. Maine, however, has a mediocre representation in both branches. I was present last evening at a reception at the White House. The President looks hardy, and as though he would survive the attacks that are being made upon him. His nonchalance is by many mistaken for vacuity. The old man has an iron will and most inflexible resolution, and I assure my Democratic friends, who say that he is in the keeping of others, that before his four years are through they will be convinced of it. Take my opinion for what it is worth, brother Oliver.
The Democrats, as regards General Taylor, are pursuing the very course to reëlect him. What did the Whigs gain by representing General Jackson to be in leading-strings? Can’t we learn from our enemies?
The Coast Survey Office was indeed “a large operation.” All the maps, charts, computations, drawings, printing, engravings, instrument-making, and business administration of the survey were done here under the management and supervision of the assistant in charge. The force immediately under him comprised from sixty to seventy persons, including several army officers. The office occupied a large brick block of houses on New Jersey Avenue, corner of B Street, the house at the northeast end being the residence of the professor. The Coast Survey now occupies the other end of the same square.
The first step taken by the new chief was to organize the force into separate bureaus, each under a responsible head, and performing a particular branch of the work. This had not yet been done, although the difficulty, or impossibility, of the head of the office personally directing and supervising so many employees singly, and the details of such multifarious and complicated work, was daily becoming more evident, and doubtless was the prime cause of Captain Humphreys’s breakdown.
“On entering on my duties,” he remarks in his first report, “I saw at once that my only hope of filling the situation, with satisfaction to the survey and to myself, was in at once applying my exertions to enlarging and adapting the organization of the office to the increasing wants of the survey. The office work would necessarily increase for two or three years without any increase of field work. But it was manifest that the field work of the survey itself must increase, and thus involve a still greater increase of office work.”
Accordingly he established the Departments of Engraving, Drawing, Computing, Publication and Distribution of Maps, Archives and Library, and Correspondence. To these were soon added Electro-plating, Printing, and Instrument-making. The best-fitted men were selected from the force, or new assistants were employed and put in charge of the departments. The arrears of work were rapidly brought up; the geographical data were collected and indexed; the registry of land work was improved; volumes of observations were bound; and the register, two years behind, was brought up to date. In his first report, the new assistant in charge announced that the Drawing Department would be up to the wants of the survey in one year, and made many useful recommendations for the improvement of the service.
Professor Bache warmly acknowledged the efficiency of his young assistant in his reports. December 5, 1851, he declares:—
“For the development of the plans of office work, the urging to completion the list of geographical positions, and the increased rapidity of publication, the Coast Survey is indebted mainly to the zeal and industry, guided by knowledge and intelligence, of Brevet-Major Isaac I. Stevens, of the corps of engineers, in acknowledging which, in connection with the remarks on the speedy completion of the results of the survey, I feel that I am doing simply an act of justice.
“Every department of the office has, under his able supervision, continued to improve, and has filled the full measure required by the increasing number, amount, and variety of results returned by the field work of the coast. It is due to Major Stevens to acknowledge the promptness which is secured in the publication of results, and the maturing of a system by which sketches and preliminary work of charts are made in every case to precede the more finished work, furnishing valuable results to the navigator as soon as obtained by the survey.
“The rapid execution of the engraved charts of the Western coast reconnoissance is a proof of the perfection of this organization, and of the zeal of those who administer it. Three well-executed sheets of reconnoissance were engraved and ready for publication within twenty working days after the beginning of the engraving.”
During Captain Humphreys’s illness the work had fallen greatly in arrears; many of the employees had become careless and idle, some of them dissipated; and great disorder and confusion prevailed. It was common report that the Coast Survey was the worst-conducted office in Washington. Major Stevens set himself to correct this state of things with a vigor, at times a severity, that admitted no delay and brooked no opposition. Strict punctuality, prompt compliance with orders, and complete and exact performance of duty, he required and exacted with military discipline. There was great discontent and indignation among the old officers and employees, and no little ridicule at the idea of the young major enforcing army rule in a scientific institution. Even the professor feared he was carrying it too far, and rather pettishly remarked, “Since Major Stevens took hold, there has been a continual jingling of bells all over the building, but I suppose it won’t do to interfere with these army officers.” It seems that Major Stevens had caused bells to be placed in the various offices with wires running to his own room, so that he could summon his subordinates without delay when he wished to see them.
But the new assistant pursued the course he had marked out unswervingly, without fear and without favor. He summarily dismissed several of the worst offenders. Others he degraded in pay or position. He made himself master of every branch and detail of that great institution. The old computers, engravers, draughtsmen, topographers, and others, who had passed years in the office, were astonished to find that the new chief fully understood their technical work, and was watching, criticising, and directing it with expert skill and judgment. As usual, he took a warm interest in the men under his charge, ever ready to encourage and reward the deserving, and to assist them in their personal affairs. He caused one of the messengers, who had lost both arms in an explosion, to learn to write with his foot, and gave him copying to do to eke out his scanty pay. One of the higher employees was addicted to periodical attacks of intemperance utterly beyond his power to resist, but otherwise was a respectable and useful man. Major Stevens quietly told this gentleman to come to him whenever he felt one of these attacks coming on too strong for him to withstand, and he should have a leave of absence for a few days, enough to have, and recover from, his spree, and on this footing he continued on the survey for years.
Under his firm, masterful, and exacting but generous treatment the outraged feelings of the office soon changed. They could not but respect a chief who, if he required good and full work, appreciated and acknowledged it; and their respect changed to admiration, and finally to affection, when they saw how he was building up the efficiency and reputation of the office, and realized that his strict rule was characterized by justice and impartiality, and tempered by the kindness of a warm-hearted and generous man. Professor Bache found in his new assistant not only relief from the cares of the office and of administration, but one whose ideas in most subjects agreed with his own, and whose strong, bright, and well-instructed mind could travel with his own through other fields. A warm and generous friendship grew up between them, which lasted unbroken during life.
The task he had undertaken at the Coast Survey made this a very laborious winter for Major Stevens, but one that gratified his ambition for public service. He met many of his brother officers, “the men of Mexico,” and discussed with them the questions of army reorganization, fortifications, etc. He also made the acquaintance of members of Congress, and freely impressed upon them his views of these measures. General Shields was now a senator from Illinois, and was always ready to adopt and advocate the ideas of the young major of engineers, and was glad of his aid in preparing his reports and bills. Always and emphatically a national man, believing that the preservation of the Union was essential to liberty and national existence, Major Stevens took great interest in the compromise measures so ably carried through by Henry Clay, in support of which Webster delivered his noted 7th of March speech, and fully approved the measures of these great statesmen to allay sectional strife and preserve the Union.
The plans and hopes of the Southern leaders were cruelly disappointed by the action of California, which adopted a free constitution, and knocked at the doors of Congress for admission as a free State. Consequently they refused her admission unless additional safeguards were thrown around the “peculiar institution,” as slavery was termed; and many of the fire-eaters openly advocated disunion as the only means of preserving it against the free ideas of the North, and the preponderating increase of free States. For a time the difference seemed irreconcilable, and disunion and civil war imminent; but at length, by the wise counsels of Clay, Webster, and the more broad-minded men of both sides, a compromise was effected, and California entered the Union a free State.
The old Puritan in Andover, in his abhorrence of slavery, condemned all compromise, and writes the son he so much loved and admired a pathetic and reproachful letter, marked, too, by a sublime faith in the ultimate triumph of right:—
Dear Son,—I have been confined to the house since the 22d of last November, but am now very well, excepting a weak leg. I have thought much of my daughters during my sickness, especially of the two youngest, who were ever ready to wait upon me by night or day.... I was sorry you should so much commend D. Webster’s speech, and thought no man could commend it who was opposed to slavery. I do think Webster to be a demagogue; that he is so lost to every good principle as to court slaveholders’ approbation, and vote shame on the descendants of the men of ’7.
I believe the great Being who rules the destinies of nations has ordained that we remain united, that we extend the area of freedom, not slavery, that other nations may copy our example,—too late in the day for Liberty to take a backward march in our country, however much she may swing to and fro in the old country.
Isaac Stevens.
His wife and family remained in Bucksport during the winter, not wishing to break up the comfortable home until he decided to remain on the Coast Survey permanently. Early in April he visited Bucksport, where, on the 28th of that month, a daughter was born to them, named Gertrude Maude.
This winter Major Stevens’s wound broke out afresh, and discharged several small fragments of bone, causing considerable suffering and much inconvenience. This recurred several times during his stay in Washington, and it was over four years before the wound permanently healed. Sometimes, when walking, his foot would give out entirely, and he would have to hail the nearest omnibus or carriage. He used to wear a shoe with very thick soles, which best protected and served the injured member.
A letter to Professor Bache, written from Newport while on his way to Bucksport, shows that he had decided at this time to relinquish the Coast Survey, a decision which he afterwards reconsidered:—
... “In Baltimore I met Colonel Lee and Captain Foster. Colonel Lee was kind enough to go over my article on the Mexican war. His suggestions and criticisms will very much improve the article. The colonel thinks I have made a mistake in determining not to remain on the survey.
“I saw General Scott in New York. He went over many of the operations in the valley, and you may be assured it was a great pleasure for me to meet my old chief.
“I need not say to you how very gratifying to me was your letter in reply to mine communicating my intention to retire from the survey; and in answer to the concluding paragraph, you may rely upon me to do all in my power to respond to your wishes. I have been growing stronger every day since I left Washington. I hope to return in condition to do more satisfactory service than was in my power for some weeks previous to my leaving.”
So it would seem that his hard work and close application were telling upon his health and strength.
In the spring he moved his family to Newport for the summer. In August he paid off four hundred dollars of the debt on the Bucksport house. Plain, simple, and even frugal in personal habits and expenses, and careful in money matters, he saved this sum from his pay. Yet he never cared for money-making; and notwithstanding the straitened circumstances of early life, and the lessons of economy so diligently inculcated by his father, he was very generous, a free giver, a great provider, and inclined to spend money freely.
He was obliged to spend most of the summer in Washington, making occasional visits North to look after the Bucksport works and see his family. He now definitely decided to stay on the Coast Survey. After a short visit at Newport in August, he returned to Washington, and spent no little time during the next month in hunting up suitable quarters. How thoroughly sick and tired he was of being separated from his wife and children; how he longed to live united with them; how lofty and noble were his ideals of woman, of marriage, of duty, of ambition; and what success he was gaining on the survey,—are graphically depicted in his letters to his wife:—
Washington, September 5, 1850.
My Dearest Wife,—I began to-day seeking for a boarding-house. I find great objection is made to children coming to table. I think a great deal of our children taking their meals with us, and I think I had rather go to the second table myself than to be deprived of the pleasure....
I regret I did not remain a week longer. I found on reaching Washington that there was no necessity for my hurrying back. We should all of us have enjoyed the bathing. It is mighty lonesome here, particularly from sundown till about eight in the morning. It spoils a man on some accounts to be married, particularly if he gets a good, lovable wife. He is not good for much away from her. I assure you I will never be separated from you again another winter unless it is an absolute impossibility for us to be together. We are young, and let us not renounce the comfort and support of each other’s society unless the necessity is imperative. I know you will say amen to this....
Washington, Saturday, September 6, 1850.
My Dear Wife,—... A devoted, loving, tender, sympathizing wife is the greatest element of my success in life. It adds to my strength in all respects. Think of this, Margaret. If I achieve what may be truly called success, it will be due mainly to you. I have no desire for place, or wealth, or station. But should I do something for my kind, should it be said of me when I am gone that the world owes something to my memory, that my fellow-men are happier and better for my labors, this is what I call success. It can be achieved only by constancy, by nobility of purpose, by a self-sacrificing spirit. Your example and your affection for me will help me to cultivate these virtues.
Yesterday the House passed by ten votes the Texas Boundary and the New Mexico Territorial Bill. You cannot imagine the gratulation which was shown by all persons, both in and out of Congress, when the result was announced. The feeling was that all the danger which had menaced us had been averted. If necessary, a great many members would have changed their votes. On Wednesday the measure was defeated by a majority of forty-six votes; on Thursday by a majority of eight votes; and yesterday it passed by a majority of ten. All the other measures will be rapidly pushed through, and Congress will rise early next month.
In my judgment the most dangerous crisis that has occurred since the foundation of the government has been happily passed. Henry Clay has been throughout the master spirit of the times. His services the present session are enough to immortalize his name. It is the crowning triumph of his civic life, and he will descend to posterity as one of the heroes and benefactors of his age and generation. He has not his peer in Congress. No man that combines his intrepid soul, his extended views, his large American heart, his admirable tact and presence of mind, and that quality of leadership which enables him through doubt and defection, in spite of unexpected difficulties and notwithstanding repeated defeats, to undauntedly pursue his course and finally achieve the ultimate triumph. This is Henry Clay in his seventy-fifth year. He has not his peer in our whole parliamentary history.
Sunday, September 8. Yesterday the California and Utah bills passed the House. Last evening a salute of one hundred guns was fired, and a large multitude assembled in front of the National to listen to a serenade to Henry Clay. But the glorious old man had gone out to enjoy a quiet Sunday in the country, and was not to be seen.
Little Sue must, I know, miss me very much. She is a great pet of mine. I never feel as if I could be put out with her, let her be ever so whimsical. Tell Sue she shall see her papa in a few weeks, and then we shall keep together for many months. Our long separation, dearest wife, is drawing to a close, and we shall be again united. My last visit was an oasis in the desert.
I saw the doctor in relation to my sore throat. He says it has very much improved. The only precaution I must take is not to expose myself to the night air. My general health is quite good, and is still growing even better. My foot gives me very little trouble. It has not been so strong for eight months as for the last ten days. I now am not obliged to make much use of the crutches. You may be sure I feel very much encouraged about my health, and I have no fears as to its being perfectly reëstablished. I eat well, sleep well, and am not worried by work. Remember me, my dear wife, to all the friends. Kiss the little Sue and Maude.
Your ever affectionate husband.
Washington, September 29, 1850.
My Dearest Wife,—You must not think I have forgotten you. I have been very much occupied the last few days. Our appropriations were in danger, and both Professor Bache and myself have been hard at work to save them. We have carried everything,—secured no less than one hundred and ninety thousand dollars for the Western coast.
A portion of this appropriation we carried in the House in the teeth of the Committee of Ways and Means. They opposed it vehemently, yet we went to work on Friday, worked hard all day, and carried it two to one nearly against them.
The professor is in one respect a most skillful manager, but his skill consists in his perfect directness, truthfulness, disinterestedness, and good temper. He is perfectly frank and open. Margaret, such men have most influence with all men of sense, whether members of Congress, or men in official station, or in private life. This is the secret of his getting along so well. You know I have always insisted that such a course was the most sure and reliable. You stand on the solid rock, and nothing can move you when you cast aside all intrigue and low cunning, and pursue an open, truthful, manly course. Cunning men cannot cope with you. This is my experience.
My duties in the office are becoming more and more pleasant. The office is becoming systematized, the back work is all coming up, and in the spring I have no doubt everything will be in the best possible condition.
Every department is improving, and a very fine spirit pervades all the employees. I am bringing to bear upon the men my personal weight, and you know I rarely ever fail whenever I am brought into direct personal contact with men. All the men are beginning to know me. They know I am firm and steadfast, but that I am as true to them as I am to the work itself. Every man will find that he can have entire confidence in my justice, and in my judgment of his merits. I am determined to be deserving of their confidence, and, if so, I shall most assuredly gain it.
The professor’s confidence in me seems to be greater every day. This makes my position pleasant. It makes me more efficient. My judgment is all the clearer for it. The truth is, I take the same general view of things that he does, and my judgment almost invariably brings me to the same conclusions. Thus, in operating to secure our appropriations, we agreed perfectly in the mode of proceeding. Indeed, the professor left the management entirely to me in the first instance. When things were prepared for him, I sent an express to his camp to bring him in. All my arrangements entered admirably into his plans. This was pleasant. My part was, of course, a subordinate one, but it was in harmony with all that was done.
In the latter part of 1849 appeared the “History of the Mexican War,” by Major Roswell S. Ripley, of the 1st artillery, who had served in Scott’s campaign, and who had been given a year’s leave of absence to enable him to write the work. The history is fairly well written, and accurate for the most part, but marred by the constant effort to depreciate the character and services of General Scott, and to extol Generals Worth and Pillow at his expense. The former of these officers, a fine soldier, and deservedly of high standing in the army and before the people, needed no encomiums; the latter was unworthy of them. Some of Ripley’s statements, too, were deemed erroneous by many of the ablest officers who participated in the contest, and there was a strong sentiment among them that these errors ought to be exposed, and the truth vindicated before the public. None felt this sentiment more strongly than Major Stevens. An admirer of Scott’s military talents, and a member of his staff during the famous campaign, his sense of justice and truth outraged by the attempt to disparage the general’s great services, and to heap unearned honors upon Pillow, he deemed it his duty, even in the midst of his arduous labors at the Coast Survey, to give to the world a tame and just account of these events, thus defending his former chief, and vindicating the truth of history.
He labored upon this work with his usual energy and thoroughness, submitted it in manuscript to Mason, Mansfield, Robert E. Lee, and other officers, by whom it was highly approved, and early in 1851 published his “Campaigns of the Rio Grande and of Mexico.” In the preface he says:—
“His object in appearing before the public was to testify to the services of those heroic officers and soldiers who were in his judgment depreciated in the work of Major Ripley. He felt impelled to this course by a sense of duty, and he appeals to all the actors in those scenes to bear testimony in vindication of the truth.”
It is a strange instance of the foibles of a really great man that this work, inspired by the noblest and most disinterested motives, and the ablest defense of Scott’s course in Mexico, was the cause of an estrangement for years between the writer and the commander he so well vindicated. Immediately on the publication of the book, Major Stevens presented General Scott with a copy with his compliments, fully expecting the warm thanks and appreciation of his former chief. To his astonishment, a few days later General Scott returned the book by the hands of General Totten, with the message that Major Stevens was to observe that the leaves were still uncut, thus implying that he disdained even to read it. This affront he offered to the officer whom for bravery and services in Mexico he had highly commended and recommended for brevets, whose advice he had listened to in councils of war and followed on the battlefield, whom, hand upon his shoulder, he had presented to the shouting multitude in Washington as ‘My young friend, Major Stevens, to whose courage and ability I owe much of my success in Mexico,’ and who was his warmest and ablest defender against the aspersions of his enemies.
Whether General Scott, whose overweening vanity could ill brook the least criticism, was inflamed by some remark in the work, which seems incredible, or whether his mind was poisoned by one of those parasites that ever hang upon the great, is uncertain. In truth, his movements and entire course are highly commended, and in only a few instances is he criticised. Major Stevens pronounced his attack of Molino del Rey a mistake, and also the not insisting upon the surrender of Chapultepec when the armistice was granted after the battle of Churubusco. Major Stevens was not in the least cast down by this unwarranted rebuff. He simply pitied the foibles of the man, while he retained his admiration for the general’s military talents. He always made it a point to call upon him on New Year’s, and to show him the respect due the head of the army. But the cordial personal relations were broken forever.
CHAPTER XIV
LIFE IN WASHINGTON
In October, 1850, Major Stevens moved his wife and little ones to Washington, and took quarters at Mrs. Kelley’s on Eighteenth Street, opposite Lafayette Square, in a large, spacious brick house, known as the club-house. Here also lived General Talcott, of the ordnance, Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Senator McWillie, of Mississippi, and Representative Burt, of South Carolina, with their families, and Commodore Matthew C. Perry, soon to become famous for opening Japan to the commerce and intercourse of the world. The latter took a great fancy to the little Sue, a sprightly, graceful child, and used to keep a store of candy in his room for her especial benefit. They were all cultivated and agreeable people, who lived together harmoniously and pleasantly, and with social calls, receptions, and parties the winter passed off rapidly. They enjoyed, too, the pleasant intimacy and cordial sympathy of their Portsmouth friends, Mr. and Mrs. Hayes, and Mr. and Mrs. Coues, who were now living in Washington.
During this winter Major Stevens took up the fourteen years’ bill, a measure to promote lieutenants of engineers, topographical engineers, and ordnance to the rank of captain after fourteen years’ service, with the same energy and thoroughness that characterized his efforts to procure for officers on duty according to brevet rank the full pay of such rank. He first induced the officers of these corps in Washington to agree upon the proposed bill, and to unite in actively supporting it, no small task, for there was much jealousy between them, and different schemes for benefiting one or another corps. How he enlisted the coöperation of officers at other stations will be seen from the following letter to Lieutenant M.C. Meiggs, afterwards major-general and quartermaster-general of the army:—
Dear Meiggs,—The inclosed memorial, asking that lieutenants of engineers, topographical engineers, and ordnance be promoted to the rank of captain after fourteen years’ service, was introduced into the Senate yesterday and referred to the Military Committee.
We are all of us determined to do our best to get this measure through. We are all acting with great unanimity. The idea is not to touch the question of the increase of either corps, or the equalization of the third corps. It is simply a measure of relief for the old lieutenants, and we ask for it for the reasons stated in the memorial.
We must urge the measure especially on the ground that there is no characteristic duty for the particular grades, but that with the proposed promotion not only will all our captains, but many of the lieutenants, have the same duties essentially as field officers.
The chiefs of our three corps have been consulted and approve our course. The Secretary of War is also favorable and advises us to this action. General Shields will strongly support it.
Every man must help in this business, if he approves of it. The committee desires each officer to correspond without delay with such members of Congress as he personally knows, and lay before them at length the grounds why this measure of relief should become a law.
Let me hear from you soon, and let us all put our shoulders to the wheel. If each officer can carry conviction to the understanding of one member of Congress, the measure will prevail.
His friend, General Shields, then senator from Illinois, presented the memorial and advocated the bill in the Senate with hearty goodwill. The young major of engineers lost no suitable opportunity of impressing other members with the justice of the measure, and his earnest and forcible language, straightforward sincerity, and rising reputation for character and ability made him always listened to with attention and respect. He enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing the bill become a law in 1853, and of receiving the well-earned thanks and plaudits of his brother officers.
The subject of the reorganization of the army, which ever since the Mexican war held first place in his thoughts and correspondence, now engrossed his attention more than ever. His enlarged views, patriotic spirit, and generous nature abhorred the personal and corps jealousies too rife among army officers. He was emphatically an army man, not a corps man, seeking the best for the whole army and the country, and not the advancement of his corps or himself. Accordingly he corresponded on this subject with officers of every branch of the service, and especially with those who had served on the frontier; for he rightly foresaw that the most important duties devolving upon the army would be the exploration of the vast regions acquired by the Mexican war, and the protection of the settlers thereon. By this correspondence he sought to draw out and gather the views of the ablest and most experienced officers, in order to unite them upon, and to formulate, a sound scheme of army reorganization, and to impress it upon the country and Congress. He wrote very many letters setting forth his own views, and urging other officers to treat upon one or another branch of the subject, or to pursue some line of inquiry, and called upon them freely to look up authorities and collect information. Thus he induced Major H.J. Hunt to prepare valuable papers upon artillery and army reorganization in general. He begs Captain Kendrick to prepare a memoir on the New Mexico military problem; Lieutenant-Colonel W.J. Hardee, on the defense of the frontier; Captain G.W. Smith, on “General Camp of Discipline, where all the army come together to learn the military art;” Captain George B. McClellan, on engineer troops; Captain G.W. Cullum, subject of military instruction; and others. Most of these officers responded readily and favorably to his appeals. In the following letters his ideas are clearly stated:—
My dear Hunt,—We must move quietly as well as firmly in this matter [army reorganization]. We must make up our minds to encounter a violent opposition. The bureaucracy of Washington will probably be against us. We should first endeavor to get their aid, at least their neutrality in whole or in part. If they combine against reform, we must resolve to accomplish reform in spite of them. But time is necessary. A right direction to public opinion is necessary. Many men in Congress, the able men, must understand the question and be ready to act. We must first, then, enlighten public opinion, and enlighten members of Congress. We must bide our time, and, when it comes, act.
Let it first, then, be stirred quietly in the army. Let a great many officers in all good time, all discreet and sensible men, be interested, and let them write for the papers....
We must work to get public men informed. I would not have the movement partake in the slightest degree of a party character. But we must act on the known fact that the Democratic party is the only party that can govern the country. The Whig party is totally incompetent. We must throw our strength chiefly on Democrats. Douglas would be a tower of strength in the Senate. Would it not be a good idea to address a series of letters to him, and request him, if he approves of their general spirit, to publish them in the “Washington Union”? This he could do without pledging himself to the particular views of the letters. In the House is Fuller, of Maine, a new member but a rising man, a particular friend of mine. There is Bissel, of Illinois. There is Rusk, of Texas. General Bayly, Stanton, of Tennessee, and others I might mention, are strong, reliable men. The Southern disunion men will look coldly on all attempts to improve the army. Mr. Burt will be lukewarm. I am somewhat fearful of Jefferson Davis. But they are both strong, good men, and we should act on the presumption that sectional views will not sway them from their duty.
Yours, etc.,
I.I. Stevens.
He urged the elevating of the personnel of the army by—
“enlisting none but intelligent, respectable men, a fair representation of our people, attracted by increase of pay, and by opportunity of promotion to the grade of commissioned officer; that by care in selecting men, by schools, by libraries, and by camps of instruction, we can actually make of the common soldier a pretty good military man, so that going into civil life he may do good service in the militia, and in time of war be an important element in rapidly organizing armies. In this way the influence of West Point can be felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, in peace as well as on the breaking out of a war. It should be a settled principle to officer the infantry and mounted regiments in part from the rank and file. I know of no measure which is so calculated to elevate the service, and impart to it a greater efficiency. Young men of character would enter it, and our own citizens would fill up the ranks.
“Commanding officers on the frontiers should have entire discretion in matters of clothing, subsistence, and transportation. Officers of the administrative departments would in this case make their usual returns and reports to their chiefs in Washington. But the directions from Washington should be to the commander, and should be of the most general character; else there will be divided, discordant government, there will be a want of unity of purpose, there will be feebleness and delays in action. It may be said that this involves great judgment, energy, and foresight on the part of the commanding officer. Undoubtedly, and none but officers of high qualities should be placed in command. This is one of the most important duties in the direction of affairs at Washington. Send the most competent man to take command. Throw the responsibility upon him. Build him up, or break him down. In the latter case, promptly supply his place by another officer.”
He also suggested planting military colonies:—
“Farmers and artisans to be enlisted, heads of families as well as young men, all intelligent, sober, moral men, at advanced rates of pay, and with their families be located at important points in the Indian country, the whole to be organized in a military manner; heads of families as the stationary infantry force, and the young men as the dragoon force, always in the saddle, and making up in mobility for paucity of numbers.
“I know well some of the prominent members of the Military Committee. My opinion is sometimes asked, and I wish to communicate sound, practical views. Here I am, and in my intercourse with members of Congress I intend to be, an army man and not a corps man. Let me tell you that truthful, intelligent officers have weight with Congress. The prominent members will give heed to their suggestions, and will be apt to adopt their views. There is a strong feeling in Congress that things are not managed rightly. Officers here must not only show what things are managed well; they must also show wherein things are mismanaged, and they must suggest the remedy. It is time for officers having a common purpose to act together, and do something for their profession. I am at all events determined to do my duty. If we will act in concert, compare views in a fraternal and generous spirit, merging the arm in the army, and taking views as large as our country, and occupying the whole ground of the public defense, and thus come to conclusions, we shall be right, and Congress will act accordingly, I care not what opposition be made in interested quarters.”
In a letter to Captain G.W. Smith, he declares—
that the experience of our corps is too confined in time of peace, and that a portion ought to serve with troops in the West. This has always been my opinion, and the first year I entered the army I corresponded with Halleck in relation to it, and was in favor of a strong effort being made by our officers to get a change in our duties.... Were I not tied up on the Coast Survey as I am, I would make a great effort to get ordered to New Mexico or Texas. There is a field for such of us as will go there with a determination to carve one out, if it is not, in consequence of the stupidity of superiors, offered us.”
Major Stevens followed up this subject with great diligence, expending a vast amount of thought and work upon it for three years, and until the engrossing duties of the exploration of the Northern route to the Pacific in 1853, and of the governorship of Washington Territory, the making of Indian treaties, and the conduct of the Indian war in the Pacific Northwest occupied his whole time and energies. Some of his ideas bore fruit, and have since been adopted, notably the raising of the standard of the rank and file by increasing the pay of the private soldier, improving his opportunities, and allowing him to compete for a commission. And the thoroughgoing and comprehensive plan he suggested of deciding upon the best system of national defense by the study and conferring together of the ablest military men, the appeal to patriotic and intelligent citizens, and the enlightening of public opinion, is as wise and practical now as then, and as necessary. For the dear-bought experience of our four great wars is entirely unheeded, indeed almost unknown to the mass of the people; and the army to-day, in organization as in numbers, in its influence upon the military ideas and aptitudes of the nation in peace as in its capacity for expansion in time of war, is inadequate to our needs as a great nation.
Upon this subject the following characteristic letter of McClellan is of interest:—
Friday.
My dear Stevens,—The inclosed are the result of a search through the libraries of the War and Eng’r Dep’ts. I hardly feel satisfied that they are precisely what you need.
If they do not suit you, inform me of it, and I will gladly renew the research.
I had another conversation with the general this morning about the sappers. It’s of no use whatever,—his mind is made up to detail fifty men on the Coast Survey. He says the duty I propose for them in Texas is not legitimate and belongs not to them. Amen! I have said my say. I’ve done what I could. Some one of more influence than I possess must convince him,—my words are idle breath and of no avail.
Truly your friend,
George B. McClellan.
It should be remembered that he was undertaking this great task of reorganizing the army, expending so much thought, labor, and time upon it, in addition to the incessant labors of the Coast Survey and the cares of the fortifications in Maine. It was his lofty and patriotic ideals, his noble ambition to do his duty by his profession and his country, that spurred him on, and his untiring energy and power of concentration that enabled him to throw off work so rapidly and effectively. His great ambition was to accomplish results, and he was careless and indifferent as to claiming credit for himself, or pushing himself in any way.
Notwithstanding all these engrossing labors, he responded as promptly and generously as ever to the personal calls of his friends and others. He writes and interviews the War Department and Generals Scott and Totten in behalf of another brevet for Captain G.W. Smith, aids McClellan in regard to the engineer company, obtains information for H.L. Smith, has the accounts of Sergeant Lathrop, of the engineer company, passed, and is ever ready to lend a helping hand to any deserving man or cause.
Early in 1851 Major Stevens moved to Mrs. Janney’s, an excellent and well-known boarding-house on Eighth Street, next the Avenue. Here lived several members of Congress and government officials, and also the Turkish ambassador, a grave, quiet man in a dark red fez, with whom Major Stevens occasionally played checkers in the evening. At this establishment breakfast was served at eight, dinner at four, with a lunch at noon, and at nine in the evening tea and thin sandwiches were handed around in the parlor.
In June Major Stevens carried his family to Newport for the summer, where leaving them, he visited Bucksport to look after the works at Fort Knox, which still remained under his charge. He hastened back to Washington before the month was out. Passing through New York, he again sat to Professor Fowler for his “phrenological character,” but this time was not accused of being a poet. Whether informed by the bumps or other means, the phrenologist seems to have drawn his characteristics pretty accurately, with some glaring exceptions.
Desirous of keeping house, Major Stevens now leased a roomy brick house, one in a block of two, on the west side of Third Street, and only a block north of the Avenue. This house had a large garden fronting on the street, and in the rear of it was a stable opening on an alley behind. Having obtained a position on the Coast Survey for his cousin, George Watson Stevens, a son of uncle William, a young man of nineteen, Major Stevens invited the youth to become a member of his family.
Washington, July 27, 1851.
My dear, good Wife,—I have read your last letter over three times, and it has done me a world of good. I love to have you write so from your heart. You know that in marriage, in my wife and children, are centred all my hopes of earthly happiness. I am conscious it occupies too large a space in my youthful longings. It seems to me, with a devoted, loving, and lovely wife and lovely children, I might shut out the cares of life, and give myself up to happiness and joy. But we have duties to perform, trials to encounter, victories to achieve. Life is a warfare. We must contend with evil. We must accomplish good. I feel that I have done something, but that I have just begun; that I am entering upon the great field of useful exertion. I feel that the past has simply given me the experience and the knowledge to wisely conquer the present, and thus achieve a future. I feel there is something heroic and noble in this view of life. I feel that the greatest support, next to the consciousness of well-doing, is the sympathy and support of you, my dear companion and friend, and the confiding, tender helplessness of our dear babes.
I like George in the house very much, and, so far as I am concerned, I should like to have him a member of our family. I think, moreover, it would be to his advantage. Charging him simply the actual outlay to us, it will diminish his expenditures. Moreover, I shall be absent on inspections more or less, and you will thus have some one to call on.
He is studious, attentive to his duties, is impressing every one favorably with whom he is brought in contact, and is advancing steadily and quite rapidly. I feel highly pleased with his progress. With economy his pay will, the first year, pay his expenses.
I fear, if I am off in August, it will embarrass me very seriously in the fall. Our reports are still coming in, and now is the time to put things in a successful train. I do not wish, by inaction or delay now, to make trouble hereafter. My health is remarkably good. I have never had a better appetite, or more ability to work, than I have now. I am surprised at my vigor. I don’t care how hot the weather is. The perspiration will drop from my face and hands, and I will feel neither languor nor fatigue. The other men in the office complain and have to slacken in their exertions, whilst I seem to have, with every hot day, fresh strength and force.
Give my love to the bairns. I want very much to see them.
Yours affectionately,
Isaac.
Washington, July 28, 1851.
My dearest Wife,—I was very glad to learn that you were so well, and that the visit to Tom’s was so pleasant. The farm is the place for children. On their account I wish I could pass four months every summer in that way. Hazard should go to school seven or eight months. I am delighted with his doings,—learning to swim, and do all kinds of work. Maude, too, learning to walk,—yes, actually walking, little darling. She must have forgotten me, but she will soon recollect me on seeing me again. And Sue learning to ride on horseback! Why, verily, Margaret, you have a hopeful family, one of which you may well be proud. Whether I go on to Tom’s farm this summer is doubtful. I am glad they are doing so well. Daniel is a first-rate business man, and, as he likes farming, why not make it his business? I believe he could in a few years clear from debt a large farm, going upon it without a cent in his pocket. This is my opinion, and in a pecuniary point of view it is much better than a salaried place,—far better.
You may be assured my health is remarkably firm and good. I never knew it better. This warm weather does not affect me in the least. I bear labor better than any man in the office. Not a man in the office can do as much as I can.
Well, as to the book. It is said to sell pretty well. Most of the copies have been disposed of. Very good notices have appeared both in the “Intelligencer” and “Republic.” The notice of the “Intelligencer” I sent you. The notice in the “Republic” was short, but very good. Some of my friends think it will excite a controversy. Others think it will be found a very hard thing to reply to. The fact is, whilst I have endeavored to clearly discern errors, I have sought to look charitably on all that was done. This seemed to me the only true wisdom. Some of my friends think I have carried this spirit too far, and that I have not censured enough. The general criticism is that I am too favorable towards Ripley. I think I have simply done him justice.
Washington, August 8, 1851.
My dearest Wife,—My health is remarkably good, my duties multifarious, and I must not spend time in recreation which my health does not require. I have not had such health for years, and have enjoyed this summer.
We are getting on famously with our housekeeping. The woman is a neat, respectable, honest person, who tries to do her duty, a very respectable washer and ironer as well as cook. I think you will be pleased with her. I shall send a boy whom we have had for a month away in the morning. One of the messengers comes to the house every evening to attend to the garden. So we are getting along. To-day we put six chickens into our coop, and to-morrow eight hens will be admitted. You will find us getting on swimmingly when you come on in October.
Friday morning. I have just received two very gratifying letters, one from General Shields, which I send you. Don’t show it to any one, for he is very extravagant in praise of my book, and his suggestions are made in a corresponding spirit. But I value what he says very much, because he writes from his heart and in the spirit of friendship. I feel, too, there are many points of sympathy between him and me, and I value his friendship and words of encouragement.
The other letter is from Major Pitman. His article on my book in the “Providence Journal” of August 6 is altogether the best that has appeared. He has presented his own views with clearness and force on certain points of difference. This is what I want. I don’t want eulogies, but discriminating notices. I want to see my errors exposed, otherwise I shall not learn to correct them.
Taylor & Maury have sold out all the copies of my book, and in consequence I loaned them half a dozen that I still had on hand. They think they will sell a great many more.
I am pushed exceedingly, and can write no more to-day. Love to the children.
Affectionately.
In the latter part of September Major Stevens made a hasty visit North, spent a few days at Andover and Newport, and brought his family back to Washington. His wife’s youngest sister, Miss Nancy Hazard, accompanied them and spent the winter with them. He still retained charge of the works at Bucksport, although the second year of duty on the Coast Survey was near its close, and writes full and explicit instructions to Mr. A.W. Tinkham, C.E., concerning it. At a later date he obtained a good position for Mr. Tinkham on the Coast Survey, and also secured a situation in the same service for Mr. John E. Lee, whom he had employed in Bucksport as clerk.
The family this winter was increased by George W. Stevens and Miss Nancy L. Hazard. There was the colored cook, and Bridget Sullivan, the children’s nurse, and Sampson Ingraham, a most faithful, capable, and respectable colored man and a free man. Sampson had one cross to bear which sorely tried his devotion to the family, and that was milking the cow and taking care of it, which Major Stevens compelled him daily to do; for Sampson, never having done any farm work, regarded this as derogatory, and was much distressed and mortified thereby. But finally Major Stevens, perceiving his trouble, relieved him from this duty. In the next house, on the south side, lived the family of Captain Simon F. Blount, of the navy. Nearly across the street Senator William Gwin, of California, and family occupied a roomy mansion, where they dispensed a generous hospitality. After breakfast, at eight, Major Stevens usually walked down to the Coast Survey Office, and walked back in time for dinner at four in the afternoon. In the evening there was tea at eight o’clock.
Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited Washington this winter, and attracted the greatest attention and admiration. He was a man of noble presence, a finished orator, speaking English with great purity and ease. The Democratic Jackson Club gave a banquet on January 8 in honor of Kossuth, which was attended by Webster and many of the first men of the country. Major Stevens was called upon to respond to the toast of “The Army and Navy,” and spoke as follows:—
Gentlemen,—In the name of the army I return my thanks for the honor of this toast. I speak in behalf of the American army,—that army which presents its breast to the enemy, which pours out its blood, which lays down its life. A weighty significance already attaches to these words, “the American army.” For, first, it achieved the independence of these States against the most powerful nation of modern times; second, it waged against the same power the second war of independence to maintain the freedom of the seas, the war the culminating glories of which we this evening celebrate; and, third, when a contiguous republic interfered with the domestic concerns of one of our States, the vindication of the law of nations, thus trampled under foot, was placed in its hands, and the stars and stripes soon waved over the ancient seats of the Montezumas. The American army will never forget what is due to its past renown and its future glory. We feel that, citizens alike with you, we are the army of a free people. We know, too, that our country possesses elements of military strength scarcely appreciated by the inattentive observer of events,—elements that have been nurtured by the wonderful growth, the trials and vicissitudes, of our young nation struggling into manhood. No other people so combines command and obedience, is so subordinate to law, yet is so much a law unto itself. No other people of ancient or modern times possesses such elements of military power. It is the profound conviction of my heart that in a just cause we could meet the world with a million armed men, each man a tried and true soldier, surpassing even the iron men of Cromwell, those men who feared God but not man; those men stern in fight yet merciful in victory; those men who achieved the great triumph of English independence, and transmitted to us its glorious recollections.
The members of both services, which you have honored to-night, see that the American people are marching forward to mighty destinies, and that upon them heavy responsibilities will rest. We mean to do our whole duty. We mean at all times to be in harness and at our posts. We know not when the time may come,—probably in our lifetime, and perhaps to-morrow. We feel no despondency, but are filled with joy and hope. When our beloved nation, “a power on earth,” shall determine to measure its strength with other powers in the maintenance of right, and in vindication of violated law and outraged humanity, the army and navy will carry their country’s flag in triumph over all seas and through all lands.
Congress was disposed then as now to starve the coast defenses, appropriating scarcely enough to maintain the works already built. Major Stevens, deeply interested in the proper fortification of the coast, both from his professional knowledge and experience and his enlarged and patriotic views, with his accustomed zeal and energy undertook the task of inculcating upon the country and Congress sound ideas in regard to this important subject, and of obtaining the appropriations necessary to keep up and complete existing works. In this, as in everything he undertook, was evinced his prominent characteristic of going to the bottom of a subject, of basing his action upon broad principles; and so, instead of being satisfied with simply securing the needed appropriations for the time being, he treats of the whole system of fortifications required for national defense, both present and future. He had repeated conferences with General Shields on this subject, who in March, as chairman of the Military Committee, brought into the Senate a favorable report and bill. In support of this, and advocating a proper system of coast defenses, Major Stevens wrote a number of articles, which were published in the “National Intelligencer” of Washington, the “Boston Post,” Portland “Eastern Argus,” “Bangor Democrat,” and papers in New York, Richmond, New Orleans, and other places. He caused these articles, with Shields’s report, to be sent to many officers and influential men in different parts of the country, urging them to advocate the matter on patriotic grounds. These articles were much commended, especially by his brother officers of the engineers.
He also at this time published in the “Boston Post” an article on the lighthouse system.
In April, 1852, Major Stevens was appointed a member of the Lighthouse Board, which was considered no slight honor, and which added much to his responsibilities and his duties. His colleagues on the board were all men of talent and reputation, the association with whom was congenial and gratifying. In May he visited Wilmington on this duty.
The Bucksport house had remained on his hands all this time, a source of more care than income; but in April a purchaser was found in Mr. Knox for $1350, evidently quite a sacrifice.
He took his two elder children, Hazard and Sue, to Newport for the summer; but his wife and Maude, the youngest child, remained in Washington.
General Franklin Pierce, having been nominated for the presidency by the Democratic party, was outrageously assailed by the unscrupulous press and partisans of the other side on account of his services in Mexico, and even his personal courage was impugned. Major Stevens, having met Pierce in Mexico, and having been favorably impressed by him, was indignant at these slanders, and felt called upon to aid in refuting them. Accordingly he published six letters in the “Boston Post” and two in the “Republic,” a Washington paper, warmly, but in a temperate and courteous style, vindicating the unjustly assailed public man. He takes pains in these articles to eulogize the military talents of General Scott, the rival candidate nominated by the Whig party, quotes his favorable mention of Pierce in his reports of operations in Mexico, and shows that the rival candidates entertained warm feelings of esteem for each other, thus ingeniously making Scott a witness to refute his own reckless partisans. He concludes the last article as follows:—
“You well know, Mr. Editor, my exalted appreciation of the conduct and services of General Scott in Mexico. It has been a pleasing reflection that the standard-bearers of the two great parties were warm personal friends, each possessing in an eminent degree the respect and confidence of the other. The friends of General Pierce have never claimed that he was a great military man. They concede with pride and gratification that General Scott is, and that he is a judge of military qualities. They simply claim that General Pierce in his service in Mexico did his whole duty as a son of the Republic, that he was eminently patriotic, disinterested, and gallant, and that it has added a laurel to his beautiful civic wreath: as a citizen he has been ready to make sacrifices for his country; as a soldier and commander, he has shown gallantry before the enemy, and was eminently the friend and father of his command.”
Colonel Charles G. Greene, editor of the “Post,” writes that General Pierce was much pleased with, and highly commended, these letters.
Major Stevens always took great interest in public affairs. He was emphatically a national man. He held the Union as the noblest work of our Revolutionary patriots, and as indispensable to liberty and national greatness. An ardent Democrat from boyhood, he regarded the Democratic party as preëminently the national party, the party of progress. He fully justified the Mexican war, the great Democratic measure, and believed with full faith in the future growth and destiny of the Great Republic. The slavery question, destined in a few brief years to wreck that party and so nearly destroy the nation, was still in abeyance, and it was almost universally believed that the compromise of 1850 had averted all danger from that quarter.
Not content with vindicating Pierce in the papers, Major Stevens now concluded to support him on the stump. He wrote Gayton P. Osgood, and other friends in Massachusetts, as to the advisability of this step, but received rather discouraging replies, one correspondent even taking him to task for speaking so highly of General Scott in his articles, and recommending him to become a thoroughgoing partisan if he took the stump. But as usual he held to his own opinion, and in August addressed a large public meeting in Hillsborough, N.H., in support of the Democratic principles and candidate, and later, in October, spoke in Andover, Newport, and Portsmouth. His brother officer and friend, Colonel James L. Mason, also addressed the meeting in Newport, and Hon. Charles Levi Woodbury spoke with him in Portsmouth. In his speeches Major Stevens took pains to do full justice to General Scott as a military man, without disparaging him as a statesman or otherwise. His arguments were drawn from the ideas and objects of the two parties,—a contest of principles, not men.
It appears that the course of the young army officer in stumping for Pierce, and as in Mason’s case even stirring up other officers to do likewise, excited no little commotion in the War Department, for it was a Whig administration. On his return, the Secretary of War, Charles M. Conrad, undertook to take him to task for it, and wrote Major Stevens a severe letter, demanding an explanation of his conduct. This was soon bruited about Washington, and many of his friends and brother officers came anxiously to advise with him about it. They felt that he was in an embarrassing position, and one from which he could hardly hope to extricate himself with credit, and they were not a little troubled as to the outcome.
At length Major Stevens prepared his answer to the Secretary, and, before sending it, read it to a group of his anxious brother officers. In a direct, forcible, but courteous style, he reminded the Secretary that, in becoming an officer of the army, he had not forfeited his rights as a citizen, nor become relieved from his duties as such; that, while he had never failed in the respect due his superior officers, he had the right of an American citizen to advocate such public measures as he deemed best for the country, and to vote for the public servants best fitted to carry them out; and he concluded in a somewhat sarcastic but perfectly respectful way by calling the Secretary’s attention to the fact that General Scott himself was a candidate for the presidency, and was setting the example of that participation in politics which the Secretary so severely reprobated, and suggested that his animadversions would have greater weight with the service, and be more worthy the dignity of the War Department, if launched against the senior major-general of the army instead of a simple lieutenant and brevet major; that they were more applicable to the former than the latter, and might well be deemed an attempt to scourge General Scott over his back.
As Major Stevens read aloud this letter, the faces of his friends cleared up; soon they began to applaud it, and as he finished they crowded around him with cheers and laughter and exclamations,—“That’s good! that covers the ground!” “You are right, Stevens. You are perfectly right.” “He can’t answer it,” etc. Sure enough, the Secretary did not answer it, and attempted no further action.
In fact, Major Stevens had now become quite a leader among the able young officers. They were constantly calling at his house, and discussing with him the measures he was pushing forward for the improvement of the army, fortifications, etc. He was always ready to assist any of them, too, and it was known that his aid was frequently effective. He obtained a detail on the Coast Survey for his friend, Captain J.C. Foster, and secured for several others lighthouse inspectorships. He also had a number of the engineer company detailed on the Coast Survey, although his friends Cullum, G.W. Smith, and McClellan strenuously opposed it.
Writes a young man on the survey, whose pay Major Stevens had tried to increase but without success:—
“Having been informed to-day that you did not succeed in your efforts to make my compensation $1500 per annum from October 1, 1851, and consequently was obliged to pay out of your own pocket $50 to make your word good, I believe it unbecoming a gentleman to remain a moment longer in possession of said money. The inclosed check will indemnify you for your loss sustained for my sake, and joyfully I return my heartfelt thanks for the efforts you have made in my behalf.”
Writes Cullum from West Point:—
“Your feeling and commendatory remarks on the death of private Logan were read to the company [engineer], and will doubtless produce an excellent impression.”
In truth, these personal demands grew to be a grievous burden upon his time and energies, yet he never refused his aid to any claim of friendship or desert. Among others a lady, who had long prosecuted a claim before Congress in vain, was introduced by his corps chief, General Totten, to Major Stevens, as the only man who could win her cause. Although the latter felt that this was a task altogether outside of his sphere of duty, and one which should not have been thrust upon him, he cheerfully undertook it, and succeeded in having it allowed by Congress.
The friendship between Major Stevens and Professor Bache grew stronger the longer they were associated together. They appreciated and admired each other. Both were gifted with uncommon powers of mind, uprightness and purity of character, and disinterestedness. Bache was more the philosopher, the student; Stevens, the man of action. Major Stevens also saw much of Professors Henry and Baird, of the Smithsonian. He took pains to meet the able men in Congress, and other men of talent and reputation who visited Washington. Occasionally of an evening he would take his little boy by the hand, and make the rounds of Willard’s and other hotels, meeting and chatting with old army and other friends and acquaintances.
With but little intermission, Major Stevens was an indefatigable worker, and never so well content as when driving his work at high pressure; and his sound judgment guided his energy so well that he would throw off an enormous load with astonishing rapidity. He had the faculty of getting a great deal of work out of his subordinates. But, not realizing that others lacked equal ability and power of labor, he was at times too exacting and severe. He was also inclined to overrate both the good qualities and the ability of others, and too often had cause to regret having done so from the ingratitude of many whom he befriended.
The two elder children, Hazard and Sue, returned to Washington in October, and Miss Mary W. Hazard, Mrs. Stevens’s sister, also came on and spent the winter with them.
The youngest daughter, Kate, was born in the Third Street house on November 17, 1852.
In September Major Stevens with Professor Bache was appointed on a commission for the improvement of the James, Appomattox, and Cape Fear rivers, and in November visited Richmond and Wilmington on this duty.
But all these additional duties and pursuits made no impairment of his vigorous hold upon, and improvement of, the Coast Survey. The character and standing of the office was steadily rising, and able young officers were glad to accept details in it under Major Stevens. Lieutenant John G. Foster became his principal assistant. Professor H.E. Hilgard, who afterwards rose to be chief of the Coast Survey, had charge of the computing; Lieutenant Richard C. Rush, and afterwards Lieutenant A. A. Gibson, of drawing; and Lieutenant E.B. Hunt, of engraving. The field work, as fast as it came in, was given to the public in preliminary sketches, or charts, which served as a great incentive both to parties in the field, who saw at once the fruits of their labors, and to the office force in affording a better opportunity to train the younger members, and prepare them for the finished charts; and for the first time the annual report was illustrated by these sketches, giving all the field work done to date. He greatly facilitated the sale and distribution of Coast Survey maps, declaring that “they should be carried to every man’s door having an interest in commerce, navigation, geography, or science.” He took every means to encourage and reward the deserving, and opened the office to young men to learn the art of engraving, for there was a scarcity of skillful engravers, most of whom were foreigners. He reports:—
“The system of teaching the art of engraving to youths of promise is succeeding admirably. By combining lessons in drawing, instructions at night schools, with engraving, the best spirit is excited, and the greatest excellence attained. There are now six lads in the office, whose terms vary from two to nineteen months.
“During the past year there has been a visible improvement of the office in all its branches, and it is my pleasure and duty to bear unqualified testimony to the zeal and efficiency of the several assistants in charge of the departments, and of the numerous employees under them. Each man has shown an honest purpose to do his duty, and I have been much oftener obliged to moderate exertion than to rebuke indifference and neglect.”
And Professor Bache in his reports declared:—
“The office under the charge of Major Stevens has improved in the system and order of every one of its divisions; and the zeal and ability of the assistant in charge has been reflected in the spirit of the officers under him, and in the general diligence of the employees. The office is characterized by a very marked spirit of industry, of working to results, and of progress. Every encouragement, as it should be, is afforded to those who endeavor to advance in their several occupations.
“The office work has, by great diligence on the part of the persons employed, and by the excellent administrative arrangements of Major Stevens, been kept close to the field work. In no former year have so many preliminary sketches been promptly issued, and so much information of various kinds been published, or furnished to the officers of government or to individuals.”
CHAPTER XV
GOVERNOR, WASHINGTON TERRITORY.—EXPLORATION, NORTHERN ROUTE
The triumph of the Democratic party in November, 1853, and the election of General Franklin Pierce as the next President insured a more vigorous policy of exploration and settlement of the vast domain stretching from the Mississippi to the Pacific. Major Stevens was strongly attracted to this field. It appealed to his ambition. It afforded a greater opportunity for public service and achievement. Prominent and gratifying as was the position and standing he held in Washington, he realized its limitations. He knew, too, that with the army on a peace footing and filled with young officers, no promotion in his corps could be expected for years. In brief, feeling the powers and ambition of a leader, he was not content to remain longer a subordinate.
In March Congress formed the new Territory of Washington out of the northern half of what was then Oregon, being the territory extending from the Columbia River and the 46th parallel northward two hundred and fifty miles to the British Possessions and the 49th parallel, and from the crest of the Rocky Mountains westward six hundred miles to the Pacific, an area larger than New England and New York combined. Save a handful of settlers on the lower Columbia and the shores of Puget Sound, and a few missionary and trading posts in the interior, the whole vast region was unsettled, and much of it unexplored by civilized man. It contained many thousands of Indians, some of whom had lately been at war with the whites, and regarded their approach with jealous and hostile eyes; the Indian title to the land had not been extinguished; and there were troublesome questions with the Hudson Bay Company, which still held its posts in the Territory, and claimed extensive rights as guaranteed by treaty.
On March 3 Congress appropriated $150,000 for the exploration and survey of railroad routes from the Mississippi to the Pacific, to be expended by the Secretary of War under the direction of the President. Jefferson Davis entered the new cabinet as Secretary of War, and it was early determined to survey four principal routes to the Pacific.
Early in the year Major Stevens applied for the governorship of the new Territory, to which was attached, ex officio, the superintendency of Indian affairs, and also for the charge of the exploration of the Northern route. Either of these fields was enough to fully task the most able and energetic man, but his ambition reached for both. Equally characteristic was the high ground upon which he based his application. He asked the appointment, not as the reward of political services, nor for the sake of personal or political friendship, but because he was the fittest man for the place, the one who could best serve the public interests. He told General Pierce that if he could find any one else better qualified for the position, who would accept it, it was his duty to appoint him. There was no question on that score. But his wife and many of his friends thought that he was making a great personal sacrifice in relinquishing the enviable position he had attained in Washington for the toils, hardships, and dangers of the Western exploration and governorship. Professor Bache was of this opinion, and deeply regretted to lose his efficient assistant and friend.
One of the first acts of the new President was to send the name of Isaac I. Stevens to the Senate as governor of Washington Territory; he was confirmed, and his commission was issued March 17. He was just thirty-four years old, in the prime of life and of mental and physical powers.
Major Stevens’s letter of resignation from the army and General Totten’s reply show the cordial and appreciative feelings of both.
Washington, D.C., March 21, 1853.
Brigadier-General Joseph G. Totten,
Chief Engineer.
Sir,—I herewith resign my commission of lieutenant of engineers and brevet major United States army, to take effect on Wednesday, the 16th instant.
This resignation is tendered with a profound sense of the high honor, intelligence, and sentiment of duty which is characteristic of the officers with whom I have been associated the best years of my life, whom I have known and honored in peace and war, in sunshine and in storm, and whose equals I can scarcely expect to find in the new career upon which I have entered. I shall carry into civil life the conviction that the country owes the army a debt of gratitude, and is yet to receive signal benefits at its hands.
This conviction, rest assured, will show itself both in words and deeds whenever the service has to be vindicated or maintained.
To yourself, both personally and officially, as a friend and as a superior officer, permit me to acknowledge the kindness and confidence which I have received at your hands. It has had no hindrance or interruption during the period of nearly fourteen years, many of them years of weighty responsibilities and perplexing cares, during which I have served under your command.
And to me, sir, not only my commanding officer, but my honored friend, it is the completest of satisfactions to be able to say that during my service in the army I have not had a serious difficulty with a brother officer, and that I am not aware that between me and any officer in or out of the service there is the slightest feeling of unkindness.
Very truly and respectfully,
Your friend and obedient servant,
Isaac I. Stevens.
Writes General Totten in reply:—
While regretting that the corps of engineers are thus deprived of the future services of an officer whose high traits of character have, both in peace and war, so fully vindicated its position, I anticipate the more unhesitatingly that these characteristic qualities will continue to procure for you, in the new and wider scenes on which you have now entered, all the rewards which they so justly merit....
For myself, I have to make acknowledgment for great assistance rendered in every form, and under all the circumstances that your military duties admitted,—at all times fulfilling my wishes, abridging my cares, and exalting the usefulness and reputation of the corps. And in all our personal relations you have observed a kind consideration which I have fully appreciated. These things have created a warm interest in your welfare, and make me feel that, while the service is losing a most valuable officer, I am parting from a friend.
I remain with high respect,
J.G. Totten,
Bvt. Brig.-Gen. and Col. Engineers.
Major Stevens turned over the charge of Fort Knox to Colonel John L. Smith, and was succeeded on the Coast Survey by Captain H.W. Benham. Major Stevens had long since overcome the ill feelings excited by the vigorous and drastic way in which he had reformed the office, and had long since won the confidence of the force, and their admiration as well. They deeply regretted his departure, and in token of their esteem presented him with a beautiful service of plate, consisting of a large silver pitcher and salver, with two goblets, in repoussé work.
PRESENTED TO
ISAAC I. STEVENS,
GOVERNOR
OF THE TERRITORY OF WASHINGTON,
LATE BREVET MAJOR, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, U.S. A.,
AND ASSISTANT IN CHARGE OF THE OFFICE OF THE
U.S. COAST SURVEY,
AS A TOKEN OF ESTEEM, BY HIS
FRIENDS ON THE SURVEY,
WASHINGTON, D.C.,
MARCH, 1853.
In his next annual report after Major Stevens had left the Coast Survey, Professor Bache remarks:—
“The gain to the country in his appointment, and especially to that new region to which he has been called, will no doubt be great, but our loss is proportionably great. An administrative ability of a high order was joined to unceasing activity and great force of character; varied general and professional knowledge to great clearness in discerning ends, and fixedness of purpose in pursuing them; remarkable knowledge of men, and easy control of those connected in business with him, to personal qualities which rendered official intercourse agreeable to those about him. The system with which he followed up plans, complicated as well as simple, insured success in his administration, and was felt in every department of the office, of which he had thoroughly mastered the details as well as the general working. The experience acquired by such an officer is invaluable to the work, and not soon to be replaced, whatever may be the resources of his successor.”
A remark of Benham’s, soon after he assumed charge, well illustrates his egotistic and assuming character: “Major Stevens grew up with the office from its infancy, but I grappled the lion when full-grown.” Benham did not long remain on the survey.
Scarcely was the ink dry on his commission, when Governor Stevens set to work to obtain charge of the exploration of the Northern route, and the rapid and masterly way in which he effected it, and planned the survey and increased its magnitude and importance, must have astonished the red tape officials of Washington. As usual, all his recommendations were based upon the highest grounds of public welfare and public service. On March 21 he writes the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, a strong letter, proposing to conduct an exploration to determine the emigrant route, and the route for a railroad from the sources of the Mississippi to Puget Sound, and submits a memoir for accomplishing it by means of three parties, with estimates of organization and cost in detail, and concludes, “Should an expedition be intrusted to my charge, I pledge the devotion of all my force, energy, and judgment to its accomplishment.”
The following day he addresses the Secretary of State, William L. Marcy, submitting his project, and showing that he could best promote the interests of the new Territory by exploring the route to it, obtaining a large amount of useful information in relation to the agricultural, mineral, commercial, and manufacturing resources, and publishing the information thus obtained, thereby inviting emigrants, filling up the Territory, and developing its resources. He shows that this duty need not greatly delay the organization of territorial government, and calls attention to—
“the great influence which this exploration will exercise over the Indian tribes, the exceeding efficiency which it will give to me in discharge of my duties as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and the interesting information which it will enable me to collect in regard to their numbers, customs, locations, history, and traditions. This I design making the subject of a special communication to the Department of the Interior. Should my views meet the approbation of the department, I will earnestly request that the necessary communication be had with the War Department to arrange the exploration in conformity with the plan which I have thus rapidly sketched. I ask that it be done with the least possible delay, so as to insure its complete success. I think it important that my arrangements here should be brought to a close in sixteen days, that previous to that time competent men be dispatched to the Mississippi River to assure the expedition, and thus we shall all be hard at work in the field the first week of May.”
As governor he was under the jurisdiction of the State Department. On the same day he addresses a similar letter to the Secretary of the Interior, Robert McClelland, for, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, he came under that department. Governor Stevens enforced his views by personal interviews with the secretaries and the President; and his earnestness, zeal for the public service, sound judgment, and strong, convincing way of expressing his views, carried all before him. Within four days his proposal to lead the expedition was accepted, and all his suggestions adopted. The administration were only too glad to find such a man to head the most important of the explorations and insure its success. Perhaps no part of his career more clearly stamped Governor Stevens as a born leader of men than this. At a time when the new President and cabinet were overwhelmed with the pressing questions and personal claims ever engrossing the incoming administration, a mere subordinate, not content to simply await the instructions of his superiors, surveys the whole field of Western exploration intrusted to him, and its attendant problems of white settlement, Indians, etc., with comprehensive and far-sighted vision, decides upon the measures and action required by the needs of the country and the public service, and then so impresses his views upon the President and three great departments by sheer force of character, earnest patriotism, and sound, good sense, that all his recommendations are adopted without delay, and he is given carte blanche to carry them out. The bare conception, if broached in March, when the new administration assumed charge, of obtaining both the governorship of Washington Territory and the charge of the Northern Pacific exploration, of inducing three secretaries to adopt his measures, of completely organizing and outfitting and starting in the field a great expedition for the survey of two thousand miles of wilderness, and all to be accomplished within two months, would have seemed not merely bold, but visionary and presumptuous, and nothing could have relieved Governor Stevens from such reproach but the fact that all this he actually accomplished.
The following letter to Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, shows how energetically Governor Stevens was already gathering information and assistance for the exploration. The last part touches upon a delicate question, the placing army officers under the command of a civilian, as Governor Stevens now was, a thing repugnant to all military ideas and usages, and almost without precedent. But Governor Stevens held that his case was altogether exceptional, and found no difficulty in securing the voluntary services of as many able officers as he needed. It is believed that there is no similar instance in our history where twelve army officers came under the command of a civilian:—
Washington, March 25, 1853.
Hon. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War.
Sir,—I am now quite certain that a sufficient number of army officers will volunteer to go with me on the proposed exploration from the headwaters of the Mississippi to Puget Sound, as will much reduce the force of civilians to be employed. Several accomplished officers would be glad to be detailed, and would do effective service as astronomers, engineers, artists, naturalists, draughtsmen, etc. I can make arrangements both with the American Fur and Hudson Bay Company for active coöperation and assistance. The distinguished geologist, Dr. J. Evans, who has gone over the greater portion of the country between the Mississippi and the Pacific, has explored two of the passes in the Rocky Mountains north of the South Pass, and has received much information of the topography of the country, has kindly given me much valuable information, and is ready to coöperate with all his energy in a plan whereby each shall render to the other every possible facility, and best promote the public service without an unnecessary expenditure of means.
I think it exceedingly important that the whole exploration from the Mississippi River to Puget Sound, including a thorough examination of the passes of the Cascade Range, should be placed under the charge of the same person, he, under general instructions from the department, giving the necessary direction to the several parties, thus securing united and energetic action, and guarding against the almost certain failure of the expedition should it be divided into two independent commands. As soon as the department shall decide upon the scale of the operations, and shall issue its orders assigning me to the duty, which I presume from the correspondence with the Department of State to be definitely decided upon, I will at once submit a more detailed plan of operations, and make the necessary requisition for the detail of officers, and for the various facilities which may be extended by the administrative branches of the service. As in the Coast Survey, I propose no assignment of officers except by their own desire, and of officers who have especial adaptation to the particular duty.
Very respectfully your obedient servant,
Isaac I. Stevens.
Among his first acts Governor Stevens, on March 31, applied for Brevet Captain George B. McClellan, then in Texas, to be “at once assigned to duty with me as my principal officer. I design to put him in charge of the exploration of the Cascade Range, and I can not only speak with confidence of his great ability for the particular duty, but as his friend can say that the duty will be in the highest degree agreeable to him.”
My dear McClellan,—I have succeeded in securing your detail to take charge of the Western party in the Northern Pacific Railroad survey.
You will get the orders to-day, and be directed probably to repair to New Orleans, and there await instructions. The route is from St. Paul, Minn., to Puget Sound by the great bend of the Missouri River through a pass in the Rocky Mountains near the 49th parallel. A strong party will operate westward from St. Paul; a second but smaller party will go up the Missouri to the Yellowstone, and there make arrangements, reconnoitre the country, etc., and on the junction of the main party they will push through the Blackfoot country, and, reaching the Rocky Mountains, will keep at work there during the summer months. The third party, under your command, will be organized in the Puget Sound region, you and your scientific corps going over the Isthmus, and will operate in the Cascade Range, and meet the party coming from the Rocky Mountains.
As soon as my force is at work in these mountains, I shall push forward with a small reconnoitring force and find you, and, after conference with you, arrange the entire plan of operations.
Your scientific corps will consist of a physician and naturalist, an astronomer, a draughtsman and barometer man, and an officer of the artillery, Johnson K. Duncan, who, I am informed by Foster, is a strong friend of yours, and will work under you. You will have authority to call upon the officers and troops stationed in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, and I have no doubt you will be able to secure valuable assistance. At the same time funds will be placed in your hands to hire suitable guides, hunters, etc. A complete set of instruments and appliances will be sent with the necessary instructions.
Your friend, Professor Baird, is arranging the natural history part of the business. The expedition will be altogether the most complete that has ever set out in this country, and if we are true to it, the results will be satisfactory to the country. The amount of work in the Cascade Range and eastward, say to the probable junction of the parties at the great bend of the north fork of the Columbia River, will be immense. Recollect, the main object is a railroad survey from the headwaters of the Mississippi River to Puget Sound.
We must rely upon the ordinary astronomical observations in the field, upon the odometer and barometer and the compass, for getting the direction, length, and profiles of routes. With the sextant for determining height along the route, and with a good sketcher and draughtsman, you will be able to get good results. I may get for you a small detachment of sappers, and I shall try to get you assigned to duty according to your brevet rank.
I telegraphed you some days since, asking your views, but in consequence of your great distance from Washington it was essential to act at once. Knowing your views so intimately in relation to such service, and venturing on our long acquaintance and mutual friendship, I have in the strongest terms pressed your case, on the ground that, could you be consulted, the duty would be sought by you. In my telegraphic message I informed you that I was put in charge of the duty in consequence of my civil position. It has been done at the joint desire of the War Department, of the Department of State, and of the Department of the Interior. Officers have volunteered for the service, and I shall receive the services of several very valuable and experienced men. I have in the strongest terms taken the ground that my having left the army and standing in a civil position would not, under the circumstances of the case, be any objection on your part to acting under my direction.
As your friend, and knowing the opportunity for distinction it would give you, I would not hesitate for a moment.
One word more as to the railroad survey. We must not be frightened with long tunnels or enormous snows, but set ourselves to work to overcome them. When you reach New Orleans you will find your instructions.
Truly your friend,
Isaac I. Stevens.
The warning in the last paragraph seems almost prophetic; for, as will be seen hereafter, McClellan’s fear of deep snows caused him to fail in an important part of his survey of the Cascade passes, viz., the determining the depth of winter snow.
Governor Stevens also obtained the detail for his survey of Lieutenant A.J. Donelson, of the engineer corps, and ten non-commissioned officers and men, of the engineer company, also known as sappers and miners, and of Lieutenant Beekman Du Barry, of the 3d artillery. He also obtained from the War Department authority to call upon the several army administrative departments for transportation, subsistence, and arms, and even the pay of two civilian surgeons and naturalists, thus providing for all the expenses of the expedition except those pertaining to civilians employed as a scientific corps and their assistants, which were to be defrayed by the funds allotted to the Northern route out of the civil appropriation, viz., $40,000 out of the $150,000 thus appropriated. By these arrangements he vastly increased the extent, thoroughness, and value of his exploration.
On April 7 Governor Stevens sent Lieutenant Donelson to Montreal armed with letters from the British Minister in Washington to Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Company, to obtain all the information possible relative to the country from the Great Lakes to the Pacific, the location of the trading-posts, the amount of supplies obtainable from them for the exploration party in case of emergency, the names of hunters and half-breeds who might serve as guides and interpreters, and to learn all possible about the geography, and examine all books and maps, making copies of the latter if necessary, etc.
“The information we already have of this region,” he writes Donelson, “is based upon the following works: Lewis and Clarke’s Travels; Irving’s Astoria and Rocky Mountains; Travels by the Missionary De Smet, Nicollet, and Pope; Governor Simpson’s Journey around the World; and some information, not yet published, obtained from Dr. Evans on his geological survey of those regions. A book recommended by the British Minister, ‘Hudson Bay Company,’ by Montgomery Martin, I wish you to obtain. He suggested it might be obtained from Governor Simpson. As soon as you have finished your inquiries at Montreal, which I think you can do in a week, return to Washington, and report to me in person.
“In reference to the detachment (sappers), it is necessary that the men be selected with great care. None should be taken who cannot assist the scientific corps as sketchers, draughtsmen, or collectors, etc. It is necessary that they should be put under special training. Captain Seymour, perhaps, might be willing to take charge of one, and Lieutenant Du Barry of another, giving them instructions in the use of the barometer and astronomical instruments used in the field.”
This is interesting as showing how little was then known of the region to be explored, and how few and meagre were the works describing it.
Governor Stevens had thus been driving the work of preparation and organization for a fortnight, when, on April 8, the formal order placing him in charge and giving full instructions was issued by the War Department. These instructions exactly embody his own suggestions, much of them in the very language of his letters and memoir to Secretary Davis. In fact, he really prepared his own instructions. The following brief synopsis will give some idea of the scope and magnitude of the exploration, of the task Governor Stevens had set himself:—
1. The exploration and survey of a route for a railroad from the sources of the Mississippi River to Puget Sound is placed in charge of Isaac I. Stevens, governor of the Territory of Washington, to whom all officers detailed for the same will report for instructions.
2. To operate from St. Paul, or some eligible point on the Upper Mississippi, towards the great bend of the Missouri River, and thence on the table-land between the tributaries of the Missouri and the Saskatchewan to some eligible pass in the Rocky Mountains. A depot to be established at Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, with a subsidiary party to await the coming of the main party. A second party to proceed to Puget Sound and explore the passes of the Cascade Range, meeting the eastern party between that range and the Rocky Mountains, as may be arranged by Governor Stevens.
3. To explore the passes of the Cascade Range and Rocky Mountains from the 49th parallel to the headwaters of the Missouri River, and to determine the capacity of the adjacent country to supply, and of the Columbia and Missouri rivers and their tributaries to transport, materials for the construction of the road, great attention to be given geography and meteorology of the whole intermediate region, to the seasons and character of freshets; the quantities and continuance of its rains and snows, especially in the mountain ranges; to its geology; in arid regions the use of artesian wells; its botany, natural history, agricultural and mineral resources; the location, numbers, history, traditions, and customs of its Indian tribes; and such other facts as shall tend to develop the character of that portion of our national domain, and supply all the facts that enter into the solution of the particular problem of a railroad.
4–7. Assigns to survey, in addition to those already assigned, Captain John W.T. Gardiner, 1st dragoons; Second Lieutenant Johnson K. Duncan, 3d artillery; Second Lieutenant Rufus Saxton, 4th artillery; Second Lieutenant Cuvier Grover, 4th artillery; and Brevet Second Lieutenant John Mullan, 1st artillery; and twenty picked men of the 1st dragoons and two officers and thirty men to Captain McClellan’s party.
8. The administrative branches of the army, on requisition approved by Governor Stevens, to supply the officers, soldiers, and civil employees of the expedition (except the scientific corps and their assistants), with transportation, subsistence, medical stores, and arms, and to furnish funds for the same when not supplied in kind.
9–10. After completion of field work, the expedition to rendezvous at some suitable point in Washington Territory to be designated by Governor Stevens, and reports to be prepared. Officers and enlisted men to be sent to their stations and employees to be discharged.
11. $40,000 set apart from the appropriation for the survey thus intrusted to Governor Stevens.
It is difficult to realize the magnitude of the task here outlined. It was to traverse and explore a domain two thousand miles in length by two hundred and fifty in breadth, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, across a thousand miles of arid plains and two great mountain ranges, a region almost unexplored, and infested by powerful tribes of predatory and warlike savages; to determine the navigability of the two great rivers, the Missouri and the Columbia, which intersect the region; to locate by reconnoissance and to survey a practicable railroad route; to examine the mountain passes and determine the depth of winter snows in them; to collect all possible information on the geology, climate, flora and fauna, as well as the topography, of the region traversed; and finally to treat with the Indians on the route, cultivate their friendship, and collect information as to their languages, numbers, customs, traditions, and history; and all this, including the work of preparation and organization, to be accomplished in a single season.
It was Governor Stevens’s plan to effect this vast work by means of two parties operating simultaneously from both ends of the route, the principal one starting from St. Paul at the eastern end, under his own immediate charge; and the other, starting from the western end, under McClellan, to meet on the upper Columbia plains between the two great mountain ranges; and two subsidiary parties,—one, under Lieutenant Donelson, to ascend the Missouri to Fort Union with a stock of supplies, and there await the coming of the main party; and the other, under Lieutenant Saxton, to proceed from the lower Columbia to the Bitter Root valley, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, with an additional stock of supplies for the main party. The subsidiary parties were also to examine the country traversed by them, and collect all the information possible bearing on the various objects of the expedition. By this plan McClellan was required simply to explore the Cascade Range, or about 200 miles of the route; while Governor Stevens allotted all the remainder, some 1800 miles, including the great plains, the Rocky and Bitter Root Mountains, to the parties under his immediate charge.
During the next four weeks Governor Stevens drove forward the work of preparing and organizing the expedition with tremendous energy. He applied for and obtained the assignments of officers and men from the army; made requisitions upon the administrative branches for supplies and funds for the several parties; obtained $6000 from the Interior Department for the purchase of Indian goods and for treating with them; employed A. W. Tinkham, his former assistant at Fort Knox, and Fred. W. Lander, afterwards the Brigadier-General Lander who was wounded at Ball’s Bluff and died of his wounds, as civil engineers; appointed George W. Stevens as secretary and astronomer; placed Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian, in charge of the zoölogical and botanical collections, and of preparing the outfits and instructions for field work; made Isaac Osgood, his former clerk at Bucksport, disbursing officer; Dr. John Evans, geologist; Drs. George Suckley and J.G. Cooper, surgeons and naturalists; J.M. Stanley, artist, and engaged a number of other subordinates, including six young gentlemen who went as aides.
Early in April Lieutenant Saxton and Lieutenant Duncan started for the Columbia via the Isthmus and San Francisco, with detailed instructions, that no time might be lost in organizing the western parties, and were followed by McClellan as soon as he reached Washington from Texas and received his instructions. He was also furnished by Governor Stevens with letters from Sir George Simpson to the officers of the Hudson Bay Company’s posts, and with letters from the governor to many of the prominent American settlers in Washington and Oregon, and also a circular letter bespeaking their goodwill and support for Captain McClellan.
Governor Stevens also placed under McClellan’s charge the construction of a military wagon-road from Fort Steilacoom, on Puget Sound, to Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia, for which Congress had appropriated $20,000, and which the Secretary of War had placed in Governor Stevens’s hands, with authority to assign an officer or a civil engineer to its construction, as he deemed best. The governor gave very full instructions in regard to this road; furnished the names of prominent citizens and advised McClellan to consult with them as to the best location for the road, and gave him full notes of his correspondence with them bearing on the matter.
Sir George Simpson having proposed to forward an extra stock of supplies to his posts in the interior for the expedition, Governor Stevens made haste to decline the proffered assistance, not wishing to incur such an obligation to a foreign company, assuring Sir George that his own government would provide ample supplies, and that he merely wished to know what the company’s posts could spare from their usual stock in case of emergency. On this point he is emphatic in his instructions to Saxton and McClellan:—
“I am exceedingly desirous no exertion should be spared to have means of our own for our expedition, and shall much prefer to be in condition to extend aid than to be obliged to receive aid from others. Whilst we will gratefully receive aid from the company in case of necessity, let it be our determination to have within ourselves the means of the most complete efficacy. I am more and more convinced that in our operations we should be self-dependent, and whilst we exchange courtesies and hospitalities with the Hudson Bay Company, the people and the Indians of the Territory should see that we have all the elements of success in our hands. The Indians must look to us for protection and counsel. They must see that we are their true friends, and be taught not to look, as they have been accustomed to, to the Hudson Bay Company. I am so impressed with this fact that I wish no Indian presents to be procured from British posts. I am determined, in my intercourse with the Indians, to break up the ascendency of the Hudson Bay Company, and permit no authority or sanction to come between the Indians and the officers of this government.”
The Hudson Bay Company still held trading-posts in the new Territory at Steilacoom, Vancouver, Walla Walla, and Colville, and claimed extensive but ill-defined rights and possessions, and its officers lost no opportunity to cultivate the goodwill of Governor Stevens, hoping to win his favoring view, if not support, of their claims.
Lieutenants Donelson and Mullan, with part of the sappers, were sent to St. Louis to prepare the supplies, etc., for ascending the Missouri to Fort Union. Governor Stevens had already ascertained by correspondence the character of the river boats at St. Louis and at Pittsburg, and the cost of purchasing or chartering them, but was unable to find one of sufficiently light draught and power, and therefore decided to send the party by the American Fur Company’s boat.
Captain Gardiner was dispatched to St. Paul to select the dragoon detachment, establish a camp, and make preliminary arrangements for starting the main party afield as early as possible. The civil engineers, Lander and Tinkham, were also sent to the same point to examine the crossings of the Mississippi and their approaches.
Lieutenant Grover, as assistant quartermaster and commissary of the expedition, was also sent to St. Louis, assisted by a civilian employee, to procure supplies and forward them to St. Paul. Lieutenant Du Barry was directed to push on beyond St. Paul to Pembina to procure guides.
The most detailed and careful instructions were furnished all these officers; requisitions and arrangements made with the officers of the army administrative branches in Washington, St. Louis, St. Paul, San Francisco, and Vancouver for the outfit and supply of the different parties; all existing information in the way of maps, reports, etc., was copied and furnished, and full instructions for the making and preservation of natural history collections, and for the astronomical and meteorological observations were prepared and printed, and placed in the hands of all those having charge of those branches.
The very full, carefully considered, and complete instructions given these various officers by Governor Stevens would fill two hundred pages. They are not only a remarkable monument of industry, but show a complete grasp and mastery of the whole field, great foresight of the conditions and difficulties to be encountered, and are remarkably clear and precise in stating the objects to be obtained, but leave much to the judgment of the officer addressed in the ways and means of attaining them.
Not content with omnivorously devouring all the books, reports, and maps upon the field of operations, and seeking information by correspondence with the officers of the Hudson Bay Company and citizens of Oregon and Washington, Governor Stevens procured and studied all the available works on the steppes of Russia and Asia, as throwing light upon the formation and characteristics of the great plains.
During these four weeks the Third Street house was filled with clerks and draughtsmen, hard at work on instructions, requisitions, maps, etc., with officers and civil employees conferring as to their duties and making preparations, and with many others anxious to accompany the expedition and seeking positions upon it; and was crammed from garret to cellar with books, maps, papers, instruments, arms, and other paraphernalia incident to such an undertaking. Professor Baird took the greatest interest in the scientific collections, preparing rules, and getting up panniers and apparatus, and made that feature so important that Governor Stevens was impelled to say, “I want you to understand, Professor Baird, that my exploration is something more than a natural-history expedition.” The fitting out of the expedition attracted much attention in Washington, and the parlors were filled every evening with gentlemen connected with or interested in it. Among them was Fred. W. Lander, a tall, athletic young man, confident in bearing, frank and ready in conversation, and fond of relating the adventurous experiences and escapes, especially with horses, into which his daring not to say reckless disposition often led him. Lieutenant George B. McClellan, afterwards the well-known commander of the Army of the Potomac, was of charming manners and personality. On being asked how he liked being under Governor Stevens, he replied, “At any rate, I shall serve under a man of brains.” Lieutenants Saxton and Grover rose to be major-generals in the Civil War. General Joseph Lane, who represented Oregon in Congress, was a frequent caller. He was a man of native grace and dignity of manner and fine character,—one of nature’s noblemen.
The energy and capacity for effective work displayed by Governor Stevens during this time astonished his friends. His labors with the pen alone were enough to fully occupy any man. Besides this, he was incessantly engaged in consultations, conferences, and interviews with the subordinates and others, and was embracing every opportunity of talking with men who had experience on the plains or the Pacific coast. George Stevens declared that no human being could stand such a strain, and on another occasion exclaimed, “The major is crazy, actually crazy, or he never could work as he does!”
In just a month from the date of the order placing him in charge, Governor Stevens had effected the whole work of organization and outfitting, and on May 9 left Washington for St. Paul to start the expedition. During the same month he also broke up housekeeping, disposed of his furniture, and moved his family into private lodgings. His wife was seriously ill, and was obliged to remain in Washington with her young child and her sister Mary until sufficiently recovered to stand the journey to Newport.
He also at this time selected and purchased of D. Appleton & Co., of New York, the Territorial Library,—for which $5000 had been appropriated by Congress,—and had the books sent out by sea around Cape Horn. This was no small task, for he went over the lists of books and made the selection with great pains. He stated in his first message to the legislature that he had taken care to get the best books in each department of learning, and had applied to the executive of every State and Territory and to many learned societies to donate their publications.
This work is not the place to narrate the progress and results of that great exploration and survey. They are ably and fully recorded by Governor Stevens himself in three large volumes, comprising 1500 pages, with many views and illustrations, published by Congress, being the first and twelfth volumes (the latter in two parts) of “Reports of the Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.” And it is only from these pages that one can learn and appreciate with what thoroughness and completeness Governor Stevens executed the vast work intrusted to him. For years these volumes were the great storehouse of information relating to the region treated by them, the source of innumerable reports and articles, and are to-day full of interest and valuable information. These reports really embody the results of three years’ labors. And it will be related farther on how Governor Stevens, not content with having most successfully conducted his exploration across the continent in one season and fully performed his instructions, did, of his own patriotic devotion to the public interests, carry on that great work for two years longer, using the Indian service and the volunteer forces under his command, and gave the full and final results of his labors in vol. xii., published in 1860.
CHAPTER XVI
THE PARTY.—THE START
Leaving Washington May 9, and, after spending a day in New York to complete arrangements, going by way of Detroit and Chicago, Governor Stevens reached St. Louis on the 15th. Here he was disappointed in finding the outfits not so far advanced as he expected, and was even seriously alarmed at the mules furnished by the St. Louis quartermaster, which were only three or four years old, and perfectly wild and unbroken. This was the more inexcusable from the fact that he had previously sent Mr. Charles Taplin to St. Louis with instructions that only well-broken and serviceable animals were to be procured. Consequently he remained there a week hastening the necessary outfits, during which time he started Lieutenant Donelson’s party up the Missouri on the American Fur Company’s steamboat with Lieutenant Mullan, Mr. William H. Graham, and six sappers, and 10,000 rations. Dr. John Evans and Mr. Alexander Culbertson also accompanied them. The latter, having spent twenty years on the upper Missouri as a fur-trader and married a Blackfoot squaw, had great influence over that warlike tribe. He was appointed by Governor Stevens as special agent for these predatory and intractable savages, and sent forward to prepare the way for the expedition through their country by securing guides and hunters and arranging for a council.
Leaving St. Louis on the 23d and proceeding up the Mississippi, Governor Stevens, in order to repair the neglect of the quartermaster, purchased at the several landings and at Galena a number of teams of strong, well-broken mules and horses, in some instances taking them off the wagons where they were at work. Four days were spent on the Father of Waters.
“Leaving Galena on the 25th,” says the governor, “on the steamer Nominee, we proceeded up the river, and were enabled to make short stops at Dubuque, Prairie du Chien, Lansing, La Crosse, and other places. Intervals of leisure were employed in reporting fully to the War and Interior Departments my proceedings thus far, and the arrangements in contemplation for the execution of my several trusts. The scenery on the Mississippi is bold and at times beautiful, though but little variety is presented. Bluff banks on both sides, topped with trees, line its banks, and occasionally marked views occur, among which I might mention as most prominent Lake Pepin, Maiden Rock, Barn Bluffs, etc.
“St. Paul is beautifully situated upon a high bluff on the east bank of the river, and is rapidly growing in size and importance.”
St. Paul is said in the report to have then had a population of 1200.
While on the Nominee, Governor Stevens writes a letter of eight pages to his wife’s brother, Mr. Daniel L. Hazard, who had had much experience with Mississippi boats,—but was then at Newport recovering from malarial illness,—on the draught, power, and size of steamboats suitable for the navigation of the upper Missouri, and suggests to him the opportunity for steamboating on Puget Sound, concluding with the following remarks, showing his own feelings towards the new country, and how completely he was adopting it:—
“I have no doubt that it is one of the most delightful and salubrious regions in the whole country, with all the health of Newport, but with a grandeur and largeness of scenery far surpassing it. It is just such a place as I have for many years proposed to myself, one of these days, to carve out a home. I am satisfied my family will all be pleased with their new home, and that we will be willing to settle down there for life.”
Long before daylight the next morning after reaching St. Paul, Governor Stevens was in the saddle, riding to the camp established by Captain Gardiner two days before, and had the pleasure of rousing the gentlemen of the expedition from their sleep. The camp was situated on the borders of Lake Amelia, about nine miles from St. Paul and about three northwest from Fort Snelling, and, in honor of the President, the governor named it Camp Pierce.
“About a quarter of a mile to the eastward lay another lake, connected with Lake Amelia by a creek, which was very convenient for watering our animals, and formed a fine meadow on which they grazed. These lakes furnished us with fish in abundance, consisting of bass, pickerel, and sunfish.
“The mules presented a fine appearance, and were apparently strong and healthy, though young, and even more unbroken and unserviceable than I had feared. Not a single full team of broken animals could be selected, and well-broken riding animals were essential, for most of the gentlemen of the scientific corps were unaccustomed to riding. I felt that time was precious and a great difficulty to be overcome, so at once resolved that the whole force should set to work to break them. Fortunately, my purchase of mules along the river enabled me to break in the animals rapidly to the teams, by which they were started several days earlier than otherwise could have been done.”
A letter of George W. Stevens gives the following amusing account of the scenes which occurred when every man, by the governor’s order, set to work to break his own mule:—
“Of the 200 mules received, much to the chagrin and disappointment of the major, not ten of them were broken. But though the unbroken and unqualified age of our young mules presented a hindrance, the major has the more vigorously cut out his plans. In a week’s time, of very hard labor on the part of the men, we were able to move. Even the members of the scientific corps put their shoulders to the wheel, and each gentleman broke his own riding animal. The operation of breaking these most stubborn of creatures was highly exciting and interesting. First they were tolled into a corral by leading in the bell mare, which they follow with the most laughable devotion. Then lassos were thrown over their necks, and after a long process of choking and hauling they were sufficiently exhausted to allow themselves to be led out and tied to a long picket rope stretched across stakes some four feet high. They did not at all relish the feeling of the rope about their necks, and such capers as they cut up, turning summersets ‘both before and behind,’ throwing themselves upon the ground, and jumping and doubling themselves with all the agility of the cat. At length nearly all of the 200 were tied to the picket rope, and, after a sufficiently elapsed interval to regain their minds and strength, the same antics were gone through with again. Some leaped over the ropes, some tangled themselves with their lariats. Breaking them to the saddle proved highly interesting. After breakfast each morning we all went out and saddled our own animals, and spent an hour or two in a pleasant drive. Behold some fifteen or twenty of us mounted; off we start, and in a moment all sorts of scenes are being enacted. Here one is thrown headforemost; here one is borne through the air with lightning speed, fortunate if not brushed off beneath the scrubby oaks. Some of the mules lie down, and some persist in running among a number of picketed animals, and tangling themselves in the lariats; the riders—however good—are sent ‘bounding through the air.’ I had a truly tough job in breaking my animal. Every time I mounted her I was sure to be thrown, and it was not until some weeks’ march that she became well trained, but afterwards there was not a better-broken mule in the train. Many were badly beaten and bruised in the breaking operation, and certainly a whole month’s delay in our arrival at Fort Union was the result of the selection of these young, unbroken animals by the St. Louis quartermaster.”
The next few days the rains were almost incessant; but, says the governor, June 1:—
“Although it rained heavily all day, every one in camp was engaged in breaking mules, causing many an amusing scene. Several of the party were thrown repeatedly, but the determination they evince must overcome all obstacles; and I feel not only pleased to see their spirit, but to congratulate myself and them that no accident has occurred worthy of mention. Much hilarity was produced by the efforts of different persons, and each fall occasioned a laugh. Thus what I had seriously expected to prove a great difficulty was, in the midst of heavy rains and gloomy weather, a source of mirthful enjoyment.”
The main party here organized, including a few members who joined soon after starting, consisted of Governor Isaac I. Stevens; Lieutenant Cuvier Grover, 4th artillery; Lieutenant Beekman Du Barry, 3d artillery; detachment of four sappers; detachment of twenty men, 1st dragoons; Fred. W. Lander, A.W. Tinkham, civil engineers; Dr. George Suckley, surgeon and naturalist; Isaac F. Osgood, disbursing agent; J.M. Stanley, artist; John Lambert, topographer; George W. Stevens, secretary and astronomer; James Doty, A. Remenyi, astronomical and magnetic observations; Joseph F. Moffett, meteorologist; T.S. Everett, quartermaster and commissary clerk; Elwood Evans, Thomas Adams, F.H. Burr, Max Strobel, A. Jekelfaluzy, B.F. Kendall, —— Evelyn, aides; C.P. Higgins, wagon-master; William Simpson, pack-master; Pierre Boutineau, Le Frambois, Belland, Henry Boulieau, Paul Boulieau, guides; Menoc, hunter; and sixty teamsters, packers, and voyageurs, numbering altogether one hundred and eleven members. Captain Gardiner was relieved from duty in consequence of illness, and did not accompany the expedition.
The pay was certainly moderate: $125 for Mr. Stanley, the artist; $100 to the civil engineers, Lander and Tinkham; and $25 to each aide, per month.
The subsidiary party, ascending the Missouri to Fort Union, where it was to join the main party, consisted of Lieutenant A.J. Donelson, engineer corps; Lieutenant John Mullan, 1st artillery; six sappers; William M. Graham, astronomer; Dr. John Evans, geologist; Alexander Culbertson, special Indian agent.
The other subsidiary party, which met the main party in the Rocky Mountains, consisted of Lieutenant Rufus Saxton, 4th artillery; Lieutenant Robert Macfeely, 4th infantry; Lieutenant Richard Arnold, 3d artillery; Mr. D.L. Arnold; Mr. D.S. Hoyt; detachment of eighteen soldiers; twenty-nine packers, herders, etc.,—in all, fifty-two.
The western party consisted of Lieutenant George B. McClellan; Lieutenant Johnson K. Duncan, 3d artillery, astronomer, etc.; Lieutenant Henry C. Hodges, 4th infantry, quartermaster and commissary; Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry, 3d artillery, meteorologist; George Gibbs, geologist and ethnologist; J.F. Minter, civil engineer; Dr. J.C. Cooper, surgeon and naturalist; Mr. Lewis, interpreter; detachment of twenty-eight soldiers; thirty civil employees,—in all, sixty-six in number.
The entire force under Governor Stevens’s command for the exploration comprised eleven officers and seventy-six enlisted men of the army, thirty-three members of the scientific corps, and one hundred and twenty civilian employees, teamsters, packers, guides, herders, voyageurs, etc.,—altogether, some two hundred and forty.
Governor Stevens’s general plan was, while surveying a continuous compass and odometer line with the principal train, to keep detached parties far out on the sides of the route, examining the topography of the country, and gathering all possible information concerning it, and thus to embrace the widest possible field in the exploration. The following pages will give simply the governor’s personal experiences on the expedition, and largely in his own language, referring the reader to his reports, especially the final report in vol. xii., for the details of this most interesting exploration.
“As rapidly as the breaking-in of the mules and heavy rains for half the time allowed, the expedition moved seventy miles up the Mississippi in detachments, crossed to the west bank, and on June 10 were again assembled on the Sauk River, two miles above its mouth, in Camp Davis, so named in honor of the Secretary of War. In this first movement of the expedition on the 31st, Lander was sent ahead to explore, and Tinkham to run the survey line. Doty on June 3, and Simpson on 4th, took the route with small trains, with such animals as were sufficiently broken in to be worked, and on the 6th Camp Pierce was broken up, and the remainder of the force followed in three parties, Grover with the scientific men and instruments by steamboat, Du Barry with Stanley, Dr. Suckley and sixteen dragoons, and Everett with the train, both these by land up the east bank of the river. Thus, despite the mules and the weather, the least possible time was lost in starting afield, and the young subordinates were being taught to command and operate detachments, which the governor regarded as of great importance, ‘in order to infuse hope into the whole party, and avail myself of the present high spirit of the camp.’”
Having seen the several parties started off, and the camp broken up, the governor continues:—
I remained at St. Anthony until noon of June 7 to secure the services of several voyageurs, and particularly of the guide Pierre Boutineau and the hunter Menoc, in which I was successful, and starting about noon, and taking a rapid conveyance, I pushed forward the same day forty miles, overtaking at Rum River Lieutenant Du Barry, and, some miles beyond, both Doty and Simpson, and reaching Sauk Rapids, a distance of thirty miles farther, by eleven A.M., found Mr. Tinkham actively engaged in the survey of that portion of the river. The crossing at St. Anthony is by a rope ferry, its motive power being the action of the current, having a short rope at the bow and a longer or slack rope astern. On the west side of the Mississippi, about three miles above Rum River, there was a large encampment of Winnebago Indians, consisting of about one hundred lodges. These are constructed of oak bark, fastened by strips of buckskin over arched poles, resembling in shape the cover of a wagon; they are about eight feet high, and from ten to thirty feet long, according to the number of families to be accommodated. The chief’s lodge in the centre is much larger, and distinguished by the flags upon it, two British and two American colors. The shores are lined with canoes, and the village extends an eighth of a mile along the river. The country, for the first seven miles after leaving camp and striking the St. Anthony road, is a wet prairie. After leaving St. Anthony the country appears to rise towards the north; the road lies on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, along the plateau, which is generally timbered with the smaller varieties of oak, in some places forming beautiful groves. On the road, and at Sauk Rapids, several additional men were engaged, among them some Canadian voyageurs. These men, being sometimes half-breeds, speak a jargon of patois French, Chippewa, and other Indian dialects. They are a hardy, willing, enduring class, and used to encounter all sorts of difficulties in their journey between different posts of the fur companies. They must be treated with kindness and a certain degree of familiarity, and, their confidence and affections being secured, they are the most obedient and hard-working fellows in the world. This morning I learned that Lieutenant Grover and his steamboat party had landed late last evening about five miles below Sauk River, and had there encamped. In the afternoon, accompanied by Boutineau, I crossed the Mississippi to find him, and went three miles in a drenching rain without reaching his position.
I dispatched Henry Boulieau in search of Lander, and he returned with the information that Lander was about eighteen miles ahead at Cold Spring, and that he had made there a good crossing for wagons.
June 9. I went to Mr. Lander’s camp, and examined the crossing, which I find to be practicable, and the work well done.
June 10. I returned to Lieutenant Grover’s camp, which was beautifully situated on the north bank of the Osakis or Sauk River, about two miles from its mouth. The grass was indifferent and backward, but, with half rations of oats, abundant for the animals; water excellent. In honor of the Secretary of War, we named it Camp Davis. Lieutenant Du Barry arrived this afternoon with his party, as did the small trains of Doty and Simpson. A very severe thunderstorm, with heavy rain for about five hours, occurred at night, amounting in the rain-gauge to 6.1 inches.
My acquaintance with the voyageurs, thus far, has impressed me favorably. They are thorough woodsmen, and just the men for prairie life also, going into the water as pleasantly as a spaniel, and remaining there as long as needed; stout, able-bodied, and willing to put their shoulders to the wheel whenever necessary; no slough or bog deters them.
Camp Davis, two miles west of the Mississippi River,
June 10, 1853.
My dearest Wife,—We are getting on finely. Camp Pierce was broken up on Monday, and in five days we have gone up the river seventy miles, and the bulk of the party is now west of the Mississippi. Yesterday I rode forward twenty-six miles to the crossing of the Sauk River to make arrangements for the advance of the civil engineer party. I had previously traveled rapidly from St. Anthony to Sauk Rapids in a carriage, passing all the parties on the road. It was a beautiful ride all the way, and I had a most interesting companion in Pierre Boutineau, the great guide and voyageur of Minnesota. He is famous as a buffalo-hunter, is a Chippewa half-breed, and surpasses all of his class in truthfulness and great intelligence. Not only is he experienced in all the vicissitudes of travel and frontier life, being the hero of many interesting events, but he has the broadness of view of an engineer, and I am confident he will be of the greatest service to us in finding our way. At the Falls of St. Anthony, where he resides, he is greatly esteemed, and is known throughout the Territory. I breakfasted with him Monday morning, and was delighted with the affection and respect with which he inspired his whole household. There was his old Indian mother; his four children by his first wife, a half-breed; his second wife and babe; his sister; his brother and wife; and the wife of an absent brother. We all sat down to a breakfast of two roasted sucking-pigs, eggs, beefsteak, etc. He is a natural gentleman, and in his family I saw exhibited the most refined and courteous manners.
He drove a pair of very spirited horses, and on the road, seeing some plover, he called them to him and shot one. He understands, as Mr. Sibley in Washington told me, everything from shooting a bird or paddling a canoe to hunting buffalo, and conducting a large party through a long extent of difficult country. I have also secured Menoc, the best hunter of the Territory. He joins the party to-morrow, and will in ten days be able to supply us with deer and elk.
June 12. Messrs. Osgood and Kendall reached camp this morning with the barometers and india-rubber boats. At St. Louis I was telegraphed that many of the barometers had been broken, and they could not be supplied short of New York. They were absolutely indispensable. I sent Mr. Kendall there immediately, and in thirty days the boats and instruments were made and brought to my camp, eighty miles on our way. Mr. Everett also arrived about noon to-day. I regretted to observe that many of his animals were in very bad condition. Of our whole number some forty were disabled, and eight or ten so much so as to give very little hope that they could do any further service. I refused, however, to sell even these to the many applicants who expressed a willingness to take them off our hands below the cost of purchase. Assembling both officers and men to-day, I caused to be read the camp regulations, which I had prepared for the government of the party, and made a short address, in which I informed them that every man would be expected to look to the safety of his comrades; that all alike, whether soldier or civilian, would be expected to stand guard, and in case of difficulties to meet them promptly. I exaggerated the difficulties which lay before us, and represented that the country through which they would pass was intersected by bogs, marshes, and deep morasses; that rivers were to be forded and bridged, mountains and valleys to be crossed; that the first one hundred and eighty miles of the journey was reported to be through a continuous marsh, barely practicable, where every man would have to go through mud and water and apply his shoulders to the wheel; that in ten days we would reach the Indian country, where heavy guard duty would have to be performed to protect property and preserve lives; that still farther on we would probably be compelled to force our way through the country of the Blackfoot Indians, a tribe proverbially treacherous and warlike, that then the snows of the mountains would have to be overcome, and that every man would be expected to follow wherever he might be led; that no one would be sacrificed, nor would any one be subjected to any risk which I would not freely incur; and that whoever was not willing to coöperate with us had better at once retire. After these remarks the camp regulations were read by Mr. Kendall, and my views were cordially approved. I dispatched Lieutenant Grover with a picked party of fifteen men, with instructions to reconnoitre the country north, and in the vicinity of White Bear Lake.
June 13. Continuing the project of sending off the train in detached parties, and thus gradually breaking up the camp, much of the day was spent in preparing a party to be placed in charge of Dr. Suckley. All was effected by four P.M., when his party, consisting of Belland the guide, Menoc the hunter, a cook, Corporal Coster, and two dragoons, with two led horses and two led mules, two men in charge of them, Belland’s riding horse, and a Pembina cart in charge of Henry Boulieau, started from camp. He was instructed to follow Lieutenant Grover’s trail in easy marches, looking carefully to his animals, and paying particular attention to the collections in natural history.
To-day I issued an order creating assimilated rank in the expedition, by which certain gentlemen of the party were appointed to the grade of lieutenant, and others to the grade of non-commissioned officer, for convenience in detailing guard. By this course the relative position of each man was fixed; and, whether in the main or detached parties, it was known whose duty it was to give orders in case of necessity. Military organization is in some degree indispensable, and the idea of an escort has been entirely abandoned. All are soldiers in the performance of guard duty, and the soldiers accompanying us are on fatigue duty, and not merely to escort us by day and to stand guard at night. Several of the Pembina carts purchased by Dr. Borup arrived in camp to-day. They are made entirely of wood, having no iron at all about them, very roughly constructed, and the wheels usually wrapped with rawhide or buffalo skin in place of an iron tire, to prevent their cutting through the marshy ground so extensive between here and Pembina. They are drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, one person usually driving from two to six carts, and when loaded they will carry from six to eight hundred pounds. They look as if made for only one trip, and the creaking of the wheels on the wooden axle does not give the idea of their standing much service. Their first appearance, to those of the party unaccustomed to the sight, with the oxen harnessed in them, caused much merriment, and as they moved over the prairie, the singular noise produced by their wheels assured us that, with such an accompaniment, no need existed for any musical instrument or players, for these discoursed most sweetly.
“There is no such thing as an escort to this expedition. Each man is escorted by every other man,” begins this order. It required each man habitually to go armed; arms to be inspected morning and evening; no march on Sundays, on which days thorough inspection of persons and things to be made, and each man to bathe his whole person; each member of the scientific corps to take care of his own horse, and to take from and place in the wagons his own personal baggage; no firing on the march; personal baggage reduced to twenty-five pounds per man. By the strict enforcement of these stringent but salutary regulations, and the extreme care with which all were required to treat the animals, Governor Stevens conducted the entire expedition without the loss of a man, save one who shot himself by accident, and the animals actually improved on the march.
June 14. Spent the day in making the necessary arrangements to push forward the whole camp, to be organized for the present in detached parties under separate heads, and all under my general direction. Lieutenant Du Barry was placed in general charge of the meteorological observations and of the train, as executive officer. Everything now presents a favorable aspect, and all will be ready to move off to-morrow morning. Procured several more Pembina carts. Engaged to-day Paul Boulieau, a half-breed Chippewa of collegiate education, who has filled a seat in the territorial legislature with credit, and also been long in the service of the fur company. He was placed in charge of the Pembina train, so called, which, consisting at first of five carts, each drawn by an ox, was this day increased by a very superior wagon team, drawn by two yoke of very large and serviceable oxen. It may here be observed that the Pembina train, managed entirely by the voyageurs, invariably moved by itself, crossed all the streams without additional assistance, gave us the least trouble in supervision, and was altogether the most economical and effective transportation we had. A pioneer wagon containing rations for the advance party and the india-rubber boats, loaded lightly in order in case of necessity to be pushed rapidly forward to the advance parties, and a wagon of Indian goods, were with the train. The arrangements thus made left me free to be either with the advance parties or with the train, or to make personal examinations of important features of the country off the lines of the trail.
Again sending on detached parties, under Lieutenant Grover, Dr. Suckley, Lander, and Tinkham, the march was resumed to Pike Lake, a distance of eighty-one miles. The season was unusually backward, the rains frequent and heavy, and great labor was required in crossing the swollen streams,—some by bridging, others by means of the india-rubber floats for ferrying over the goods while the animals swam across. The wagons, bogged in the miry ground, had to be frequently unloaded and loaded again; but many soft and marshy places were made passable by covering the road deep with cut grass, for which purpose the governor, with his usual foresight, had provided scythes. The country, with its beautiful prairies, groves, and lakes, and many streams and bogs to be crossed, and the incidents of the march are graphically described in Governor Stevens’s report, with many views taken along the route. The following extracts will show the character of the country and the difficulties overcome:—
June 16. Three miles from Camp Davis we passed through a belt of woods for two miles, where the flies were excessively annoying, persecuting our animals so that it was hard to keep them in the road, as they constantly attempted to rush into the bushes. The country to Cold Spring has a rich alluvial soil, with scattered groves of timber. It is mostly level prairie, occasionally broken by a small stream, and is excellent for agricultural purposes. Passing through Lieutenant Du Barry’s camp, I went on to Dr. Suckley’s, on the west side of the Sauk. Sauk River at our ford is about one hundred and twenty feet wide, though, owing to the obliquity of the banks and rapidity of current, the ford is near three hundred feet wide and the water five feet deep.
June 17. This morning I started with Dr. Suckley and went on to Lake Henry, nineteen and a half miles. The country was a rolling prairie, interspersed with small sloughs filled by the recent rains; the soil is rich and black, grass good, and occasionally gravelly hillocks. In the crossing of the Sauk by the main train, the india-rubber boats were for the first time used. The larger one is about twelve feet long and four wide, weighing seventy-five pounds, the other about one fifth smaller. A rope was stretched across the stream, and the boats ferried across by means of a ring attached to their bows, and sliding along the rope. They succeeded admirably, and a birch canoe, managed by one of the voyageurs, was also used in crossing. Some of the men were in the water for hours, but worked faithfully and efficiently. Lieutenant Du Barry effected the crossing in one day, and encamped on the west side of the river, six miles from Cold Spring.
June 18. Left camp about seven o’clock, and in about three quarters of a mile crossed a bad place, requiring some grass. The water was two feet deep, and the bottom miry. Our road lay through a beautiful prairie. The shores of Lake Henry are heavily wooded. In two and a half miles farther we found two very wet places, one hundred yards apart. In two miles farther we came to a long marsh, where the ground was very soft, and where our wagons stalled. Three quarters of a mile beyond we encountered a very deep, muddy slough, to cross which we had recourse to a long rope, and all our force pulled on it. A branch of Crow River is then reached in a mile, or a little more. It is about twelve feet wide and two deep; both sides are overflown marsh, making the place very difficult to cross. To avoid breaking bulk, we again used the long rope, and attaching three pairs of mules to it, all our men pulling on it at the same time, we got the wagon through. We arrived about noon at Crow Wing River, nine miles from camp. It was four or five feet deep and twenty feet wide, and at this time overflowing its usual banks. Broke bulk here, the men packing our stuff across. Passing Crow River, we find a continuous grove of oak-trees on our left, and in five miles a series of small lakes on our right, not wooded but abounding in game. Arrived at camp on Lightning Lake about half past eight P.M. Distance traveled, eighteen miles and three quarters. The frequent sloughs and bad crossings in our march to-day added much to the labors of the men and animals. After the hard day’s march we enjoyed our supper of game, cooked in hunter’s style on sticks before the fire, although it was midnight before we could have it ready.
June 19, Sunday. Lightning Lake is a very beautiful sheet of water, so called from the fact that during Captain Pope’s expedition, while encamped here, one of those storms so fearfully violent in this country occurred, during which one of his party was instantly killed by a stroke of lightning. Its northern shore is thickly studded with timber, and the southern side, upon which we are encamped, affords an ample supply for all camping purposes. Pickerel, pike, and bass fill the lake, numbers of which our parties caught; and ducks, geese, swans, plover, and prairie chicken abound in the vicinity. The day of rest was enjoyed by the whole party; some fishing, washing and mending their clothes, others trying various modes of cooking the game and fish which abounded. Evans succeeded admirably in roasting a fish in the ashes, first rolling it up in brown paper dampened, which, when removed, brought off the scales with it, leaving the meat clean and well done. Early after dinner Mr. Osgood arrived, informing me that Lieutenant Du Barry, misconstruing my instructions, had declined to allow him to bring forward the two wagons which I had ordered for the use of the advanced parties.
June 20. Started at 3.30 A.M. to go back to the main train, which I met five miles west of Lake Henry. Taking charge of the train myself, I directed Boutineau to explore in advance for the most practicable route. The bad crossing referred to in the narrative of the 18th was, by great exertion and the united force of the whole party, effected without accident, and the whole train reached Lightning Lake by 4.30 P.M.
Lieutenant Du Barry appears to have felt affronted at the action of the governor in taking the personal charge of the train, and indeed the latter was apt to be pretty severe and decided if anything went wrong. It will be observed how summarily he weeded out and sent back inefficient men:—
June 21. In compliance with his own request, I relieved Lieutenant Du Barry from duty with the expedition, and ordered him to report in person to the Adjutant-General in Washington. He was desired to call upon the Secretary of War and acquaint him with the whole history of the expedition up to this point; and, to enable him to reach the settlements with some degree of comfort and expedition, I dispatched Mr. Kendall and two of the voyageurs to accompany him as far as Long Prairie on his return, whence there would be no difficulty in his procuring transportation to Sauk Rapids.
Captain Remenyi and his assistant, Mr. Jekelfaluzy, were discharged to-day, as they did not perform their duties to my satisfaction.
All these matters detained us until 4.30 P.M., when I pushed forward with Dr. Suckley’s and the scientific parties. The clouds were gathering and indicated a severe gust. We reached a beautiful lake about three miles distant, called by us Lake Stanley, in honor of the artist of the expedition, and had just time to get into camp to save ourselves from a very severe storm, which continued with great violence till near seven P.M. June 22. My party, leaving Dr. Suckley, got off about six A.M. We arrived at White Bear Lake, about nine and a half miles from the morning’s camp, at 10.15 A.M. Leaving Lightning Lake the country seems to change its character, and is no longer a flat, undiversified surface, with occasionally a gentle undulation scarcely attracting attention. It has gradually changed to a heavy, rolling prairie, which, before approaching White Bear Lake, becomes broken up into hills, valleys, and basins varying from thirty to fifty feet in depth. Boulders and stones, from the size of pebbles to paving-stones, are very numerous. Our route to-day appears to be gradually ascending at a probable rate of eight or ten feet per mile. White Bear Lake is a beautiful sheet of water, bordered with timber, about fourteen miles long and two wide, with high, swelling banks, running back a mile or so, and rising to the height of about one hundred and fifty feet. As the animals looked so fresh, and the day was cool and good for traveling, we halted only for a rest. About five miles from the lake we came to a stream, apparently running into it. Other bad places occurred; soft bogs, marshes, and brooks impeded our progress so much that we did not get into camp until three P.M., making nine and one third miles from our halting-place, and eighteen and three fourths for our day’s march. Our camp was on a very rapid stream, with steep, high banks. We called it Lambert River, in honor of our topographer, who received a sad overturn as he crossed it with Lieutenant Grover’s command.
The main train in charge of Mr. Osgood moved from camp on Lightning Lake at seven o’clock, after settling a difficulty of a very serious aspect growing out of a strike of all the teamsters, in consequence of a discharge by him of six of their number, according to my directions, because their services were not required. They threatened to shoot the first driver who moved out of camp. Mr. Osgood declared that he would drive out each wagon himself. Finally, after some discussion, the discharged men moved off cheerfully, and the main train pushed forward to White Bear Lake.
June 23. Our first labor this morning was to cross the stream at a point half a mile from our camp, from which we moved about six. This crossing delayed our little party some two hours. Grass had to be cut and placed on both sides of the stream. The banks were steep and soft, and it required the presence of a man or two at each wheel to keep the wagons in motion and prevent their being stuck in the mire. The country to-day appears admirably adapted to grazing purposes, and the bottoms, of frequent occurrence, are of a very rich character. Marshes and little streams, bordered by soft places, occur frequently. In one of these places, fully one hundred feet in length, one of our wagons got mired, making it necessary to remove part of its load to get it through.
About ten A.M. I left the train in charge of Mr. G.W. Stevens, and, pushing on, reached Lieutenant Grover’s camp about twelve. The train arrived at half past one, crossed a marsh and a small stream, and encamped opposite the camps of Messrs. Grover, Lander, and Tinkham. Lieutenant Grover’s camp is beautifully situated on the shores of Pike Lake. The main train and Dr. Suckley’s party arrived about half past eight, and the whole expedition was again brought together. This I consider the real starting-point of the expedition, and named our camp here Camp Marcy, in honor of the Secretary of State. We remained here a day in order to give the animals a chance to rest. They appear to be in very good condition, and the grazing is fine. Received of the various scientific chiefs reports of their labors to this point.
CHAPTER XVII
PIKE LAKE TO FORT UNION
From Pike Lake the expedition pursued a general course westerly by ten degrees northerly in order to clear the great northeastern bend of the Missouri, and reached Fort Union in thirty-eight days, traversing a distance of five hundred and fifty miles. A compass and odometer line was run with the main party. Pursuing his system of exploring a wide scope of country by means of detached parties, Governor Stevens dispatched Lieutenant Grover with a picked party to survey a separate route south of that of the main body as far as Fort Union, and kept Lander, Tinkham, Dr. Suckley, Lambert, Doty, and Adams, with small parties of the voyageurs, examining the country within forty miles of the route by frequent side trips. The main train crossed the Red River near the town of Breckenridge, the James River some distance north of Jamestown, and skirted the Mouse River near Minot, on the Great Northern Railroad, from which point to Fort Union, and for hundreds of miles beyond, that railroad follows Governor Stevens’s route. It is characteristic of the governor that in sending officers on the detached trips he always furnished them the best men and animals of the party, frequently allowing them to select them themselves. On July 12 he overstrained himself in his exertions to prevent a herd of buffalo from stampeding the train, and the old rupture, which had given him so much trouble in Mexico, broke out afresh, and obliged him to ride in an ambulance for many hundreds of miles. But his spirit and energy were no-wise quelled by this grievous physical disability. The graphic descriptions of the country, the incidents of the march, the encounter with countless herds of buffalo, and the meetings with the Red River hunters and Assiniboine Indians are given in the final report with a fullness of detail which cannot be attempted here, but the following extracts will give a fair idea of this stage of the exploration:—
June 24. I directed Lieutenant Grover to select a party of twenty picked men, twenty-six mules, three horses, and twenty-five days’ provisions, including an ox, with which to go forward on the Dead Colt Hillock line. In thus giving to Lieutenant Grover his own selection of animals and men, my purpose was to make him in the highest degree effective in the means at his disposal, and to demonstrate by the success of his undertaking the entire feasibility of operating in detached parties. Messrs. Lander and Tinkham moved forward this afternoon to Chippewa River.
On counting rations, it was found that for the main party there was a supply for twenty days, while it might take forty-five to reach Fort Union. But with the eight oxen in the carts, and the known abundance of game, I feared no scarcity. The men showed some anxiety, and talked of a strike, but, seeing the confidence of the officers, abandoned any open demonstration. I had ordered a reducing of rations whenever the quantity of game would justify it, and henceforward I gave the most particular attention to it, so that, although we did not reach the Yellowstone for thirty-eight days, there was at no time a scarcity of provisions.
June 25. To-day the expedition may be considered fairly under way. Lieutenant Grover started at 7.30 A.M. The main party, under my own direction, moved forward at about the same time. In ten miles reached the Chippewa River. The india-rubber boats did good service, carrying over each time more than half a wagon-load. The whole train was all well encamped two miles further on at a fine lake by sunset.
June 26. The main party moved to-day to the camp of Mr. Tinkham of last night, and the whole command was over the river and in camp by six o’clock. As we were now approaching the Indian country, I systematized all the arrangements of camp and guards, and the details of duty on the march. The dragoons were distributed as follows: two for the pack-train; two with a led horse each for reconnoitring duty; two to strike and pitch tents; two to catch fish; two with the howitzer; Sergeant Lindner and seven men with the main column. The sergeant was, moreover, charged with the duty of laying out the encampment under my direction. For the care of the camp, an officer of the guard, who also served as officer of the day, two non-commissioned officers, and six privates were detailed.
Cook-fires to be made at two A.M.; the cooks and teamsters called at three, and the animals to be put in good grass; reveille to be sounded at four, and all the officers to be called by name; the whole camp to breakfast about four, and the teamsters immediately to commence harnessing up; tents struck by half past four, and camp in motion by five; the sentinels instructed to fire upon any prowling Indians.
June 27. Camp roused at four A.M. While at breakfast, Lieutenant Moffett gave me notice that we had but four minutes left to eat in, and, as we failed to get through, he had the tents struck over our heads. The train moved at five o’clock. About eight miles from camp passed Elbow Lake, fourteen miles reached Rabbit River, followed the stream to where it empties into Bell’s Lake, and, going along the beach through water eight inches deep with a pebbly bottom, we found a good crossing, though a ridge has to be ascended before getting upon the plain where our camp is placed. The grass is most excellent, and the animals, accustomed to each other, are visibly improving.
Tuesday, June 28. At half past ten A.M. the advance had crossed Rabbit River, fifteen miles from camp, and halted until the arrival of the main train. Leaving the train to rest, the advance started at two. In three miles met Mr. Lander, whose camp was with Mr. Tinkham’s, and went into camp at five on the Bois de Sioux, and were joined by the whole party at nine o’clock, after a march of twenty-seven miles over a country that had been invariably reported the very worst of the whole route. Our animals, though somewhat tired, immediately went to feeding. There were some soft places between the Rabbit River and the Bois de Sioux, in which the animals were mired and wagons stalled; but we were agreeably disappointed in having comparatively a very comfortable day’s journey.
Numerous large catfish were caught this afternoon, some weighing from twelve to twenty pounds. At half past eleven P.M. we sat down to a supper of ducks, catfish, and coffee, and all the men were in fine spirits. The Bois de Sioux had been a great point to reach,—the end of bad roads and the commencement of the buffalo country. Here we may take a general review of the country since leaving St. Paul.
Between Camp Pierce and Sauk Rapids, seventy-nine miles, the road passes through beautiful prairies and oak openings, with occasional meadows, wet at this early season, and, at some distance to the right, groves of tamarack, varying the landscape with their light and feathery foliage.
From the crossing at Sauk Rapids to Lightning Lake most of the country is rolling prairie, with the wooded banks of Sauk River on the south, and numerous small ponds and lakes with trees on their banks, abundant and excellent pasture, and swarms of water-fowl, supplying plenty of fresh provisions.
A similar delightful country continues to the Bois de Sioux River, with some decrease in the amount of timber, until the banks of that river are reached.
After leaving Lightning Lake the country seems to change its character; no longer a flat, undiversified surface, or with gentle undulations scarcely attracting notice, it has gradually changed to a heavy, rolling prairie, and at White Bear Lake becomes broken up into hills, valleys, and basins. Boulders and smaller stones are numerous.
This whole dividing ridge, then, separating the waters of the Mississippi from those of the Red River, which flow into Hudson Bay, is not the lofty range of mountains which might be supposed to separate the sources of two such great bodies of water flowing in opposite directions and to outlets so widely distant, but is a gently undulating and exceedingly rich prairie country, abundantly wooded and watered, having a width of one hundred miles, and an elevation not exceeding six hundred feet above the river and about sixteen hundred above the sea. There is a very slight rise in the general level in going westward, the Bois de Sioux being at the crossing only thirty-one feet higher than the Mississippi at Sauk Rapids. Undulating and level prairies, skirted by woods of various growth, and clothed everywhere with rich verdure; numerous and rapid streams, with innumerable small but limpid lakes, frequented by multitudes of wild fowl, most conspicuous among which appears the stately swan,—these, in ever-recurring succession, make up the panorama of this extensive district, which may be said to be everywhere fertile, beautiful, and inviting.
The most remarkable features of this region are the intervals of level prairie, especially that near the bend of the branches of Red River, where the horizon is as unbroken as that of a calm sea. Nor are other points of resemblance wanting: the long grass, which in such places is unusually rank, bending gracefully to the passing breeze as it sweeps along the plain, gives the idea of waves (as indeed they are); and the solitary horseman on the horizon is so indistinctly seen as to complete the picture by the suggestion of a sail, raising the first feelings of novelty to a character of wonder and delight. The flowing outlines of the rolling prairies are broken only by the small lakes and patches of timber, which relieve them of monotony and enhance their beauty; and though marshes and sloughs occur, they are too small and infrequent to affect the generally attractive character of the country. The elevation of the rolling prairie is generally so uniform that even the summits between streams flowing in opposite directions exhibit no peculiar features to distinguish them from the ordinary valley slopes.
Wednesday, June 29. The advance parties crossed the river before seven o’clock, but the train was not started till eleven, so as to give the animals rest. The ford, very good for a small train, became very muddy towards the last, and though we unloaded all the wagons and carried the loads over in boats, the wagons and animals were badly stalled at the edges and on the soft and steep banks of the river. The country from the Bois de Sioux to the Wild Rice River is a broad, level prairie, covered with luxuriant grass eighteen inches high; the distance eleven miles, with occasional sloughs. The heat to-day was excessive, and the mosquitoes very annoying to men and animals. At four o’clock, profiting by our experience in crossing the Bois de Sioux, I sent Mr. Lander with a select force of axemen to cut timber to bridge the Wild Rice. The train came up slowly, the last wagons not reaching camp till midnight.
Thursday, June 30. Part of the men were employed in carefully currying and washing the animals, and in catching fish; the remainder were detailed to build the bridge, which was completed by one P.M. It was made of heavy logs, filled in with cut willow-brush and mown grass. Moved at two o’clock; in three miles came to a small creek, which was quite marshy, and caused delay to cross. Moving a mile and a half farther we again struck the same stream, and encamped at half past four P.M. During our march we encountered a very severe storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning. Boutineau brought in an elk, which furnished about two pounds of excellent fresh meat to each man, and was much enjoyed. Kendall and the two Boulieaus overtook us to-day, bringing supplies and five Indian ponies.
July 1. I determined to push forward with the engineer party to the Sheyenne, and, if I found it necessary, have it bridged. Smooth prairie extended all the way, road good, and the distance twenty-six and a half miles. A very severe thunderstorm occurred this morning, lasting an hour, and wetting us thoroughly. At eleven A.M. we met the train of the Red River traders, and visited their camp, six miles distant. We were very hospitably received, purchased some pemmican, common moccasins, and articles of dress worked with porcupine quills. Bought also some carts and oxen, being very deficient in transportation.
The main train only proceeded thirteen miles, and I returned to them about three P.M., accompanied by Kittson, Father Delacour, Roulet, and Cavilaer. Kittson and Roulet were members of the territorial legislature from Pembina; Cavilaer, the collector of customs; and Delacour is a very clever, shrewd priest. They are on their annual trip to St. Paul with robes, skins, pemmican, and dried meat of the buffalo, collected by trading with the half-breeds of the Red River settlements. We found that they had bridged the Sheyenne, saving us considerable trouble and delay. Their company proved very agreeable, and we were glad that a heavy thunderstorm coming on obliged them to be our guests for the night.
July 2. Struck camp at seven o’clock and parted with our new friends, sending back with them Strobel and two teamsters, who proved inefficient. The whole train crossed the Sheyenne bridge safely by noon, and camped on the other side. We had apprehended that possibly the heavy rain of last night would swell the river and carry away the bridge, but hurrying up the wagons, we made the crossing just before the water had risen sufficiently to flow over the bridge. I called this camp McClelland, intending to halt here over Sunday and make up dispatches for Washington. I sent Lander and Tinkham to reconnoitre both up and down the river.
July 3, Sunday. Lander came back from his reconnoissance, having been as far south as Dead Colt Hillock. He met with a singular adventure, which afforded us a great deal of amusement. Riding along with his four voyageurs, whom he used to call his “men of iron,” at some distance ahead they saw a skunk moving leisurely through the grass, with tail erect and defying their approach. Lander leveled his glass at it, and, satisfying himself that it was an Indian watching their movements and trying to hide himself, gave the order for his gallant band to “charge.” They did charge, and at the same time firing their revolvers, the poor skunk fell, riddled with balls and weltering in his blood; when coming up, they discovered the extent of their bold exploit. Joking in camp is one of the pastimes to relieve the annoyances of the march, and every little thing is seized upon to feed the disposition.
Fourth of July. The train started at six A.M. I remained behind to get off a mail. Started about ten and followed the Red River trail some twelve miles, when we left it altogether. Crossed Maple River, and camped on its banks. About dusk we raised the American flag, made of red and white shirts, contributed by the party and sewed together by Boulieau. As it went up, the assembled command gave it three hearty cheers, and then indulged in some refreshments in honor of the day, ending the evening with songs and story-telling.
July 5. Traveled twenty miles over a high, firm, and almost level prairie, camping on a small branch of Maple River without any wood near it. The pack-train requiring more attention and care of the animals than has been given by the man in charge, who does not take sufficient pains with the disabled animals, I to-day directed Mr. Kendall to oversee them and have them properly attended to.
July 6. Went twenty miles farther, making a noon halt of two hours, when Mr. Tinkham returned from a long and rapid reconnoissance ahead. Prairie more rolling, but road good. A high butte to the left of our course enabled me to get a fine view of the surrounding country. Two Indians were seen by Boutineau, who was out after buffalo, which he did not find; but abundance of ducks continue to supply the camp with fresh meat.
July 7. About 8.30 we struck the Sheyenne six miles from camp, and rested an hour. Keeping the Sheyenne on our left, we moved forward ten miles and camped about a mile and a half from the river on the banks of a fine lake. To-day Le Frambois and Menoc killed an old buffalo bull, and also brought in some dozen geese. Several of the messes supplied themselves with frogs, which have been most abundant on our march for the past two days. The whole command took supper off of buffalo, and the meat, though old and tough, tasted very good, and saved us an ox which had been destined for the slaughter. Several antelopes and wolves were seen to-day.
July 8. Started this morning at 6.30, and arrived at the crossing of the Sheyenne River after a march of fifteen miles. Buttes in considerable number are seen ahead, among which the Horse Butte and the Butte Micheau are plainly visible. Mr. Tinkham, Paul, and Henry were out again to-day, making a reconnoissance on the Sheyenne. We went into camp about one o’clock on the east and south side of the Sheyenne, and a party was at once detailed to cut wood and prepare charcoal. The magnetic tent was put up, and the astronomical and meteorological parties went immediately to work. I called our camp Camp Guthrie, in honor of the Secretary of the Treasury, and determined to remain here all day to-morrow.
Boutineau and Henry Boulieau went out this afternoon, and returned with the choice pieces of a fine, fat, young buffalo bull, and we made a delightful meal, around the fire, of the ribs, marrow-bones, etc., cooked hunter’s fashion. Towards evening, on the coteau on the other side of the river, a herd of some twenty elks made their appearance. Numerous wolves were also seen, which, during the night, kept up a constant howling. We planted flags on high hills in the vicinity as signals to Lander, who may follow the Sheyenne River to find our crossing-place.
July 9. An accurate return was made of the provisions on hand, so as to regulate its weekly distribution. Our flour is fast diminishing, and the issue was reduced to half a pound per day to each man. This state of affairs caused considerable grumbling in camp. We are fast approaching the buffalo country, and then shall be expected to do with much less. About 2.30 P.M. the main train under Mr. Osgood crossed the river, and moved forward to a good camping-place. The astronomical, magnetic, and meteorological parties, with the detail of three men attending to the coal-pit, and Mr. Evans and myself, remained at Camp Guthrie, intending to join them before they moved in the morning.
July 10. After partaking of a cup of coffee at three o’clock, our little train, consisting of an ambulance and spring wagon with a cart loaded with charcoal, had crossed the Sheyenne by sunrise. About seven o’clock we reached the main train, encamped some seven miles off. The train was preparing to move, and soon after we came up it started; at eight o’clock we followed and passed them. About five miles from camp we ascended to the top of a high hill, and for a great distance ahead every square mile seemed to have a herd of buffalo on it. Their number was variously estimated by the members of the party, some as high as half a million. I do not think it is any exaggeration to set it down at 200,000. I had heard of the myriads of these animals inhabiting these plains, but I could not realize the truth of these accounts till to-day, when they surpassed anything I could have imagined from the accounts which I had received.
The timber bordering on Lake Jessie was distinctly visible ahead, and between us and it were countless herds of buffalo, through which we were compelled to pass. The train moved on till eleven o’clock, when we all halted, drew up in line, and picketed the loose animals. Six of the hunters, Boutineau, Menoc, Le Frambois, the two Boulieaus, and Rummell, were mounted upon the best horses in the command, some of which were specially reserved, and rode off in fine style, keeping together till ready to dash in among the herd. The immense sea of flesh remained quiet until their approach, and then, separating, they rode in among them, selected the fat cows, and, riding around until the proper time to do execution, the quick succession of shots announced the fact that our supplies of meat were fast being added to. In less than an hour a wagon was called into requisition to collect the choice pieces of nine buffalo cows. While we were resting, several small bands came within firing distance of our train. One or two dragoons on foot gave one a chase, but the buffalo, of course, distanced them. The most amusing scene was the dog Zack, of the dragoon detachment, dashing into a whole herd, and following them a considerable distance. Paul Boulieau and Rummell were both thrown by their horses stumbling in one of the numerous holes with which the prairie abounds. They were considerably, though not seriously, hurt.
We arrived at Lake Jessie at three P.M., the bluff shore on which we encamped being sixty-four feet above the level of the lake. The water of Lake Jessie is considerably saline in its character; but about three quarters of a mile from camp, an excellent spring of good, fresh water was found by Henry Boulieau and myself while out on a reconnoitring trip.
Between one and two o’clock at night a herd of buffalo approached our camp, and it required all the exertions of the guard, assisted by many of the men, to prevent an entire stampede of all our animals. As it was, some got loose, though none were lost. The buffalo were followed a considerable distance, and some ten or a dozen shots were fired before the animals without were entirely driven off.
July 11. Having proceeded about four miles, a small band of buffalo started off ahead of us. Le Frambois’s horse and four loose mules near the head of the column started in pursuit, the horse taking the lead. Boutineau, Le Frambois, Menoc, Guy, Lindner, and Paul Boulieau, all well mounted, gave chase in hopes of recovering them. By this time they had mixed up in the herd, and, though they were followed some twelve or fifteen miles, all efforts to secure them were unavailing. About a mile farther we encountered a very severe slough, the approach to which was marked by a very great curiosity in the form of a buffalo trail; at least 100,000 must have crossed here by the footprints and marks visible, and I determined on crossing the slough at the same point which the instinct of these animals had selected.
July 12. In company with Tinkham and some of the guides, I started from camp this morning at five o’clock, designing to be in advance of the train some miles, to reconnoitre and pick out a good road, our route lying over high hills.
At about eight o’clock I sent off Mr. Tinkham, accompanied by the two Boulieaus, well mounted, with instructions to go southward, determining the position of the headwaters of Bald Hillock Creek, and thus connecting his work with Mr. Lander’s reconnoissance; thence westward in a line nearly parallel with our route of to-day, making a reconnoissance of the tributaries of the Jacques River (James), leaving it to his discretion whether to join our camp to-night or the next day. By this we would secure the reconnoissance of a belt of country forty miles wide, lying between the Sheyenne and Jacques (James) rivers.
About eleven miles from camp we crossed a deep slough. About a mile farther on we crossed a fine little stream which I took to be Beaver Lodge Creek. Shortly afterwards Boutineau killed a fine buffalo cow, not twenty feet from the compass line. The dispatch and dexterity with which these men cut up buffalo is truly astonishing. Before the cart came up, the animal was entirely butchered, and had only to be thrown into the cart. We moved forward to-day some sixteen miles, and camped on the side of a small lake. We had scarcely got into camp before we were visited by a very severe storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Our fires were put out by the rain, and during a temporary cessation were built up again; but it soon came on with increased violence, and our fires were again washed out. About six o’clock two of Mr. Lander’s party who left us on the 4th arrived in camp, announcing that Mr. Lander and the rest of his men were only some three or four miles behind, with considerable difficulty bringing in the horses, which were giving out.[3] I dispatched two men with led horses to meet them, and about sundown they came up. We found great difficulty in keeping up our fires so as to get our supper cooked. The rain fell in torrents, our supply of wood was limited, and the buffalo chips were so wet as to be entirely useless.
Towards the close of the day’s march I became disabled from my exertions in endeavoring to keep off a herd of buffalo from the train, causing an old wound to break out, which compelled me to ride many hundred miles in the ambulance.
July 13. A very heavy fog this morning delayed our getting off as early as expected, and the hope of Tinkham and his small party joining us made me less hurried about starting. Sixteen miles from camp we struck James River, and crossed over a good ford, from which point I sent Mr. Lander down the river to examine it. Noticing that the river ran very nearly in the course of our compass, we followed it, and again crossing it some five miles above, we encamped. I had a large amount of rushes collected, with a view of building as large a camp-fire as practicable, in order to give notice to Tinkham of our position, he not having returned.
July 14. The missing party not having arrived, three rounds of the howitzer were fired at sunrise, and we started later than usual. It was evident that the whole camp was in a great state of anxiety for the safety of our comrades. Many believed that they had fallen in with Indians, and were deprived of their horses and their lives. Taking everything into consideration, I deemed it best to leave a party at this point so equipped as to combine great energy and force with promptness of movement, so as to be able to overtake the main train without difficulty. Accordingly Mr. Lander was left in charge of the engineer wagon and the wagon belonging to the mountain howitzer, which was made light enough to be moved with ease forty miles in a single day. The howitzer was also left with him for the purpose of making signals. Mr. Doty, with three voyageurs and three men to manage the howitzer, together with the teamsters of the ammunition wagon, remained with Mr. Lander, having abundance of arms, provisions, animals, etc., to supply any emergency. This party was instructed to keep up fires, to fire three rounds with the howitzer at noon and at sunset should the party not arrive, and to communicate with us if any casualty occurred.
A party of four brave and thorough woodsmen, whose knowledge of the prairie life was derived from experience in many expeditions, and who well understood the Indian character, were sent out on the route traveled yesterday, and were directed, after traveling some eight or ten miles, to leave the road, and, going in different directions, to plant signals and scour the country. I felt certain that Mr. Tinkham would be found by these men, if found at all.
The remainder of the train left about seven o’clock, pursuing the same course as yesterday. The first ten miles was over a level plateau. We encamped about 4.30 o’clock at the bank of a fine lake, having made to-day a distance of little over twenty miles. The mosquitoes were exceedingly annoying, flying against the sides of the tents with a noise like the pattering of rain, while the inside was perfectly black with them. Their constant humming drove the men out into the open air, and rendered it almost impossible to sleep.
July 15. At daybreak Broadwell went back to Lander’s camp, and I dispatched Osgood and Kendall to a high hill to reconnoitre and look for a new camp. The guides and hunters were also sent on to the Sheyenne to ascertain the distance, and if not too far we would go to it. Being very unwell, I laid by all the morning, and the delay of the train was employed in shoeing the animals, equalizing loads, and arranging them in such a manner as to give about nine hundred pounds to each wagon, and so distributed in bulk that a portion of each wagon could be appropriated to the conveyance of wood and the meat killed each day.
The men are much interested in the labors of Dr. Suckley, the naturalist. It is amusing to see each one making his contribution of snakes, reptiles, birds, bugs, etc.
Near noon Osgood and his party returned, having been to the Sheyenne, where they found no wood, poor grass, and swarms of mosquitoes. Soon after the guides returned, announcing that they had seen a party of Sioux of a thousand lodges, not more than nine miles in advance of us. Boutineau’s manner was full of fear, and his public announcement spread alarm through the whole camp. I at once gave orders to make ready, with the intention of visiting their camp; and, calling Boutineau to my tent, asked him whether they were not the Red River hunting party. He assured me indignantly that “he knew half-breeds from Indians, and that they were certainly Sioux.”
I suggested that they might be friendly Sioux, who, being engaged in the hunt and hearing of our approach, were coming forward to meet us, to receive the usual presents and gratify their curiosity. He still insisted that they were hostile Sioux, and saw in their presence the explanation of the cause of the absence of the missing party. We were, in his opinion, to be surrounded and cut off.
After dinner, as the alarm was spreading throughout the command, the arms were inspected and ammunition distributed, and orders given to have the train in readiness to move at once. I sent Boutineau, Le Frambois, and Menoc to the top of a high ridge as a lookout, while a flag was prepared to be sent forward if necessary. Word soon came that the country was alive with Indians, who were fast surrounding us; and I sent scouts to hills on the right and left, having the lake to protect our rear. Mounting my horse, I rode to the hill in front, and saw two horsemen rapidly approaching. Our flag-bearers rode forward to meet them, and soon discovered that they were two of the Red River hunters, and that their camp was three miles beyond the Sheyenne. Having discerned our party, they came to invite us to visit them, and expressed their kindly feelings for us. The train, which before this was in motion, arranged in a double line, with the pack and loose animals between, proceeded two miles, where there was better water, and encamped.
The agreeable disappointment established a fine feeling throughout camp; and, half an hour after, Boulieau and Lindner arrived in camp with news of Tinkham’s safety, which was received with three cheers. The men to-day showed a good spirit, and although there was naturally some anxiety, they obeyed every order with alacrity. Thus ended the apprehensions of the command concerning Indians.