[II-25] Alluding to the terrible defeat of General Arthur St. Clair's army by Indians on a branch of the Wabash r., in present Darke Co., Ohio, Nov. 4th, 1791. This was the most disastrous battle ever lost by the whites to the Indians, surpassing Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela in 1755. On Dec. 25th, 1793, General Anthony Wayne, who had become commander-in-chief in 1792, and taken command of the Army of the West, sent a detachment of soldiers to take possession of the field where General St. Clair had been defeated, built a fort there, and named the place Recovery, because it was then first recovered from the Indians, who had retained possession after the disaster above named. June 29th, 1794, General Wayne sent troops with supplies to Fort Recovery from Greenville, where he was then stationed. The detachment reached the fort and deposited its supplies in safety, but was immediately attacked, and the fort itself was invested by Indians, assisted by whites from Canada. The battle raged June 30th and July 1st, when the assailants were repulsed, not without great loss on our side. Among those who fell was the gallant McMahon, who had commanded the expedition to Fort Recovery. For further information see: Howe's Hist. Coll. Ohio, under head of Darke Co.; Burnet's Notes of the N. W. Terr., chap. vii; Albach's Annals of the West, p. 642. Present Fort Recovery is a village in Mercer Co. O., on a branch of the Wabash r., close to the Indiana State line.
[II-26] Camp past Cimarron and Ingalls, but not far W. of the latter—5 m., perhaps. These are two towns on the N. bank, respectively 18 and 26 m. above Dodge City. Ingalls is the seat of Gray Co. The Amer. Sp. word cimarron means something wild, runaway, or unreclaimed, like maroon, and is applicable to an animal, a person, a place, etc. It designated the wild sheep of the Rocky Mountains (Ovis montana), gave name to one of the largest branches of the Arkansaw, and was early associated with a certain route from the Arkansaw to Santa Fé. The name of J. J. Ingalls was long prominent in Kansas politics and in national statesmanship, and at one time associated with the too-true statement that "purity in politics is an iridescent dream." Notwithstanding the injunction against truth-telling which the consequences of the scholarly senator's remark imply, I wish to speak as accurately as possible regarding the points at which the Cimarron route left the Arkansaw. There were two of these places, both of which Pike passes to-day, where the river was forded, and the road thus crossed from the N. to the S. bank. These became known as the Lower and Upper Crossings of the Arkansaw; they were 8 m. apart; the lower one was 18 m. and the upper one 26 m. above Fort Atkinson; they thus correspond to the positions of Cimarron and Ingalls, respectively. The river is now bridged at each town. The Lower Crossing was the earlier one, most used by the traders from 1834 till the closing of the Mexican ports in 1843; after the war the Upper Crossing seems to have been generally chosen. Thus, we find Gunnison and Beckwith saying in 1853, P. R. R. Rep. II. 1855, p. 26: "Seventeen miles from the fort [Atkinson] there is a ford, sometimes used by the trains and parties going to and from New Mexico by the Cimmaron [sic] route; but the principal ford for that route is 8 m. above this." Writing of 1846, Dr. Wislizenus speaks of moving "about 20 miles" up the Arkansaw from the Caches, and arriving "at the usual fording place," i. e., the lower one. "This track," says Gregg, Comm. Pra. I. 1844, p. 311, "which has since remained permanent, was made in the year 1834. Owing to continuous rains during the passage of the caravan of that year a plain trail was then cut in the softened turf, on the most direct route across this arid desert, leaving the Arkansas about 20 miles above the 'Caches.' This has ever since been the regular route of the caravans; and thus a recurrence of those distressing sufferings from thirst, so frequently experienced by early travellers in that unhospitable region, has been prevented." The first camp S. of the Arkansaw was usually made in the vicinity of the Sand Hills, at a place called the Battleground after 1843, in which year the defeat of the Mexicans by the Texans under Colonel Snively occurred on that spot; it was some 12-15 m. from the river. The roads from the two fords came together at no great distance from the Arkansaw (perhaps in the vicinity of Ulysses, seat of Grant Co.); having thus headed the Crooked Creek branch of Cimarron, the road crossed Sandy cr. not far above its confluence with the Cimarron, and so reached that river.
[II-27] Past Pierceville, a village and station on the A., T., and S. F. R. R., just over the line between Gray and Finney cos.; camp 3 or 4 m. short of Garden City, seat of the latter county.
[II-28] Past Garden City and Sherlock; camp on or near the boundary between Finney and Kearney cos., in the vicinity of Deerfield, a place on the railroad. Most of the older maps mark hereabout the large island in the Arkansaw called Chouteau's, somewhat W. of the 101st meridian, and apparently near Deerfield.
[II-29] Vicinity of Harland, seat of Kearney Co. In saying that the Spanish road had been "on the outside" of the party, Pike gives us to understand that it had run along to his left, a little further from the river, though since the 30th of Oct. he had been also traveling on the S. side of the Arkansaw, having that river on his right. Nevertheless, the map marks the two trails as identical, the Spanish camps alternating with the American all along. There has been little to note along this stretch of the river, where no stream of any consequence falls in on either side. Pike here remarks a change, in the beginning of hilly country; extensive sand-hills are skirting the river on the S., in Kearney Co., and thence into Hamilton.
[II-30] Vicinity of Syracuse, seat of Hamilton Co.
[II-31] Last day's journey in Kansas, passing from Hamilton Co., over the inter-State line, into Prowers Co., Colorado. Pike's mileages along the whole course from Great Bend are remarkably close. I designedly ran them off day by day, without any checking by known positions, to see when he would strike the inter-State line, about 5 m. beyond which is the first identifiable named stream; expecting then to hark back, much as usual, and make the requisite adjustments of camps by proportionate lengths of each. But I find no occasion for this; his own mileages fix his camp of the 11th as nearly as possible on the line, and we have three identifiable streams in the course of his march on the 12th. To-day's camp is between Coolidge, Hamilton Co., Kas., and Hollys, Prowers Co., Col., 2 m. W. of the former, 4 m. E. of the latter, in lat. 38° 02´ N., long. 102° 02´ W.
[II-32] In Colorado Pike first comes opp. Hollys, a village on the N. bank and station of the A., T., and S. F. R. R. Below this are some small runs on the N., among them one called Cheyenne cr.; and Wild Horse cr. falls in on that side a mile above Hollys. He then crosses Two Butte cr., a much larger stream, from the S., arising in Las Animas Co. about the elevations from which it takes name, running through the N. W. corner of Baca and traversing Prowers to fall in a mile above the mouth of Wild Horse cr., opposite the large island there. Continuing, Pike crosses Granada cr., from the S., which falls in where the railroad crosses the Arkansaw and runs into the station named Adana. If he held straight on the best road, keeping to the left of the extensive bottoms along here, he went through the present sites of Granada, a village 4 m. W. of Adana, on Wolf cr., and of Manville, a station 2 m. further along. Camp was set about halfway between Manville and Carlton, a place 4 m. beyond. Several runs or washes make in along here on each side, but seldom carry as much water as the ditches which have been brought from the Arkansaw through and by Granada. Pike charts Two Butte cr., and one that answers either to Granada or Wolf cr.: notice the pair he lays down, S., with the legend "Cotton Wood becomes frequent" lettered across Two Butte cr.
The Wild Horse cr. above mentioned appears on Gregg's map by the name of "Lit. Sand Cr."
[II-33] No mileage to-day; and the omission is not easily supplied. On the 15th Pike camps at the mouth of Purgatory r., and it took him 34 m. by his reckoning to get there from his camp of the 13th. Therefore, camp of the 13th was about 12 m. from that of the 12th, and thus within a mile or two of Lamar. I shall so suppose it to have been. This sets Pike past the "point of red rocks and one large [Big Sandy] creek," which he speaks of as having passed on the 14th, but it agrees with the map, which sets a camp-mark for the 13th past Big Sandy cr. There is evidently a confusion of the record of the 13th and 14th, perhaps in the flurry of the Indian sign; all things considered, I shall set camp of the 13th, hypothetically, 2 m. short of Lamar: and that of the 14th at the station Prowers, 10 m. further; whence it is about 24 m. for the 15th to Purgatory r. The points passed on the 13th and 14th are most conveniently discussed together: see [next note]. The site of Fort Aubrey (named for or by F. X. Aubrey?), on the N. bank, was probably passed on the 13th.