These villages were very much the same in appearance, large bark lodges being occupied by the Indians in the summer. The villages swarmed with children, squaws, painted warriors, and yelping dogs. About the lodges were the corn fields, the scaffolds where the corn was dried, and the more mournful scaffolds where, wrapped in buffalo skins, reposed the bones of the hunters who had followed the milky way to the “Land of the Ghosts”.[225]
VI
GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE
What sort of a life did the soldier live in the barracks and on the parade ground, and in the world of prairies, rivers, and woods that lay about him? No person who was ever quartered within the walls of Old Fort Snelling seems to have left an account of what was included in the tasks and recreations of a day. Doubtless the routine duties repeated day after day were thought too ordinary to be worth recording. The pleasures were so simple and came so much as a matter of course that they also receive scant mention in the annals of the fort. It is from the General Regulations for the Army that one gets the daily program of a military post; and the few fragmentary pages of Taliaferro's diary and letters, together with the stray remarks of travellers and pioneers, indicate the joys and sorrows of a very human garrison.[226]
No sooner was dawn visible over the Mississippi bluffs than the musicians of the post were summoned to the parade ground and five minutes later the reveille was sounded. At the signal both officers and men arose. Soon the rolls of the companies were called in front of the quarters; the quarters were put in order; the ground in front swept; and the horses fed and watered. At eight-thirty the sick in the barracks were taken to the hospital, and at nine o'clock breakfast was served, preceded by a second roll-call. Then the various tasks of the day were performed under the direction of a captain or subaltern daily detailed as the “officer of the day”.
A party termed the “General Fatigue” swept the entire parade ground—unless there were enough prisoners in the guard house to perform this unpleasant duty. A police guard furnished sentinels to watch over the prisoners, the colors, the quarters of the commanding officer, and the arms of the regiment. Other soldiers were posted at the front and the rear of the fort. Certain detachments were formed for reconnoitering and foraging—the nature of the tasks depending on the season of the year and the needs of the garrison.
At three o'clock in the afternoon the third roll-call was followed by dinner; and thirty minutes before sunset the music called out the regiment for dress parade, where various maneuvers were gone through and orders were read. After the parade, when the regiment was again in its quarters, the arms were placed in the arm-racks, the horses attended to, a fifth roll-call endured, and tattoo sounded. Then the lights were extinguished and all were expected to be quiet for the night.
This monotony of the daily program was equalled only by the monotony of the meals. The regulation diet prescribed by Congress in 1802 consisted of a pound and a quarter of beef, or three-quarters of a pound of pork; eighteen ounces of bread or flour; one gill of rum, whiskey, or brandy; and for every hundred rations were supplied two quarts of salt, four quarts of vinegar, four pounds of soap, and one pound and a half of candles. In 1832 coffee and sugar were substituted for the liquor.[227]
During the early years of Fort Snelling these supplies were brought from St. Louis in flatboats. With the development of steamboat traffic, the steamboat was utilized, but it did not entirely displace the earlier method. Difficulties often hindered the transportation of supplies. The summer of 1829 was extremely dry. The average monthly rainfall was less than an inch, and steamboat navigation was impossible. Even keelboats found difficulty in ascending the river; sixty days were spent by Lieutenant Reynolds in bringing up a load of supplies. A sand bar at Pine Bend was impassable, so half of the load was taken off and the rest hurried up the river. When the crew arrived the garrison was upon its last barrel of flour.[228]
“Bread and soup”, runs a clause in the General Regulations for the Army, “are the great items of a soldier's diet, in every situation”.[229] The bread was made from the wheat grown by the soldiers, and was ground in the mill at the Falls of St. Anthony. For some reason the crop of 1823 had become mouldy and the bread was black and bitter. When forced to eat it, the troops almost mutinied, bringing it out upon the parade ground and throwing it down.[230] Nor does it seem likely that the soup was more appetizing when one reads the following recipe which guided the company cooks: “To make soup, put into the vessel at the rate of five pints of water to a pound of fresh meat; apply a quick heat to make it boil promptly; skim off the foam, and then moderate the fire; salt is then put in, according to the palate. Add the vegetables of the season one or two hours, and sliced bread some minutes, before the simmering is ended. When the broth is sensibly reduced in quantity, that is, after five or six hours cooking, the process will be complete.”[231]