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Show 38 FROM FORT HALLECK old station, and building the new, began. For the new post, a new name was adopted, and at first it was known as Fort John Buford, after one of the dead heroes of the late war, but since, the name has been changed again to Fort Sanders. The post was built under the personal super vision of Brevet Lieut.- Col. Mizner, of the i8th Infantry, who was a compagnon du voyage from St. Louis on the march I am now describing. Fort Sanders is probably the best post on the frontier, constructed solely by soldiers' labor, in the West. The old site of Fort Halleck is in a section of country far removed from settlements, and frequented only by frontiersmen, Indians, bears, and the passing traveller, with here and there a ranche, the keepers of which are generally a rough, desperate- looking set of men, conforming with the character of the country in which they reside. A total disregard of civil law prevails here ; indeed, there are no civil officers to enforce law, and the bold perpetra tion of murder and other gross crimes has been of frequent occurrence. In many instances they pass unnoticed, but sometimes there are mock- trials and executions, by self-constituted courts, more barbarous in their character, than the bold assassinations for real and imaginary wrongs, which the courts are intended to punish. I was informed of one where a frontiersman was tried for murder, said to have been committed in self- defence, and while a jury of four men was hearing the evidence, a party were at work digging a grave and making a coffin for the prisoner, whose case had evidently been prejudged, and he was tried and executed all within a few hours. Everybody goes armed. A frontiersman would be more likely to forget or neglect to put on his hat when going out in a snow- storm, than to leave behind him his pistol on any occasion. They place a very low value on human life, and to shoot a man dead because of a slight controversy, is considered the most expeditious and certain way of settling the misunder standing. A vigilance committee exists in the territory, but without |