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.
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.