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Show io FROM FORT KEARNEY. Fort Kearney, as I said before is one of the oldest posts on the plains, and the effects of time are plainly visible on the buildings, many of which are quite dilapidated, and some so tottering and frail that huge props extending to the eves are necessary to prevent the high winds, prevailing there, from levelling them to the ground. In adoption to the wooden structures around the parade, there are a number of one- story buildings made of turf. These are not the adobe houses of which the reader has doubtless heard, and of which I will give a description at some other time, when we reach a locality where they are found. The turf houses are structures made by piling fresh sods one upon another in the manner bricks are placed in a wall, with a little soft mud intervening to fill up the interstices. The walls are made from two to three feet thick, and these houses are said to be the most comfortable at the post warm in winter and cool in summer ; but for elegance they will hardly compare with some in the Garden District of New Orleans. At Kearney we replenished our stock of subsistance stores, and received a large accession to our numbers. Here Col. Carrington, who commands the i8th infantry, was waiting with another battalion for us to join him, and when we did so he commanded the whole. Major Van- Voast, who only temporarily commanded the detachment from Leavenworth, relinquished his position to Brevet Lieut. Col. Lewis, who joined us there, and the former became a guest, as it were, on his way to Fort Laramie, where he now commands. Col. Lewis I found to be in every way worthy to succeed the efficient officer he re lieved. It was my good fortune to serve under him, and I shall endeavor at some other time to refer to my apprecia tion of his abilities as an officer, and his worth as a gentleman and friend. In connection with the other additions to our party, I must not here neglect to mention the ladies. I referred to them last, when mentioning the party that left Leavenworth, and now, again, they are brought in as if not entitled to the first notice. I beg their pardon. |
