July 27 (Tuesday). We marched nineteen and a half miles, and encamped again on Hams Fork, which we were obliged to ford four times during the day. The country looks more fertile. We beheld, during the day, unmistakable proof of the severity of Colonel Cook's march of last winter, in the immense number of dead cattle scattered along the road. We counted over three hundred carcasses of oxen and mules, and in some places as high as ten, twelve, and fifteen in one group.
July 28 (Wednesday). We remained in camp, the Commanding Officer having gone to Fort Bridger to ascertain if any orders were waiting for him. This afternoon three companies of volunteers passed our camp en route for the States; they were composed, we were informed, of the teamsters who came out last fall and winter. They looked as though they had seen some pretty hard service, but strode along nevertheless with the determination, apparently, not to allow distance, inconvenience, or other influence to retard their homeward progress. They regarded us with an expression which seemed to say, "God help you, poor fellows! We pity you, indeed."
July 29 (Thursday). We moved out at noon, and encamped on Henrys Fork, four miles farther. Lieutenant Alexander and eight men, with wagons, left us before daylight to go to the Fort for rations. When we reached our new camp we found them already there, awaiting our arrival. The move to-day was necessary in order to obtain a fresh supply of grass, it being closely cropped by the cattle belonging to the ox-trains which camp along these streams. A wagon load of soldiers passed our camp, going to relieve the guard at the bridge.
July 30 (Friday). No march to-day. Our herd was sent about a mile up the stream, half the guard accompanying it, relieved at noon by the other half. The Infantry detachment, which we left behind a few days ago to await the arrival of the Regiment, joined us this evening and pitched camp alongside of us. The Mormons are again in camp with butter, eggs, cheese, and onions.
July 31 (Saturday). We remained in camp all day. No duty was required of us and we enjoyed a good rest, a luxury we have had but once since our start from Leavenworth.
August 1 (Sunday). We moved on this morning and encamped within a half mile of Fort Bridger. The Fort, as it appears to us from our camp, resembles an extensive camp more than a fort, and is not inappropriately named "Camp Scott." It is situated very low in a fertile valley, directly at the foot of the highest chain of the Rocky Mountains we have yet seen, and watered by an intricate maze of mountain streams.
This is the termination of our outward journey. We are a hundred and thirteen miles from Salt Lake City, and very eager to proceed—tormented with impatience by the dilatory movements, continually anxious lest a peace should be concluded before we reach Salt Lake. Day and night we are absorbed with speculation as to whether we will proceed to join General Johnston or receive orders to return to the East.
August 2 (Monday). A party of us visited the Fort. It is composed mostly of tents of all shapes and sizes. Attempts have been made to render them comfortable for the winter by covering them with two or three thicknesses of canvas. In front is erected a substitute for a piazza, consisting of a sort of entry or hall enclosed with wagon covers, while in the rear is seen a huge stack of mud blocks, arranged as though a fruitless effort was made to get them into some kind of symmetrical form, probably to represent masonry. We inquired whether these appendages were intended for ornament or use, and were informed that they were chimneys. The garrison consists of three companies, one of cavalry and two of infantry, which are now engaged in erecting four log buildings to be occupied as quarters during the coming winter.
The fort proper is represented by a wall about twenty-five feet in height and three feet thick, built of cobblestones, whitewashed inside and out. Within stands the commissary and sutler's stores, together with a confused mass of rude buildings, in the pig-pen style of architecture. The stone wall is flanked by two well-built lunettes, with a relief of about fourteen feet, the gabion and fascine work being substantially made and placed. In the salient of one of the lunettes is a small brass four-pounder, mounted in barbette upon a wooden platform. The ditch is enclosed with an abatis, which, considering the material and means available, is quite an achievement in the art of field fortification.
Great numbers of ox and mule wagons were corralled about the Fort, having come out in trains from time to time. But the oxen that once plodded their weary way before them have long since furnished food for the garrison, and the mules have been sent to Salt Lake Valley. When the wagons accumulate in such numbers as to form an obstacle they are burned, being rarely sent back East.