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3Fort Leavenworth was a military post three miles north of Leavenworth C:iy on the Missouri River. Three decad earlier it had been built by Colonel Henry Leavenworth protect traders f.'oin Indians or, the Santa 1-e Trail. ¦'Governor Walker was Robert J. Walker who five month earlier had reluctantly accepted President Buchanan's because of lack of support, he resigned. Larger he had ' " " ,rfro ..... s L. Har n Europe for Polk. Later, he became financial Union during the Civil War. Jar graphical Du^H.tr.i ;¦,' lh-: America Confess. i??4-r-U9 {Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1950), p. 1967. ' T:ic lateness 01 ;he season was £ thro in the expedition, soldiers and civilian! Gove of the Tenth Infantry wrote: "If Salt Lake this fall"] it will verify all I have writ and what everyone who kiioks anything about the cou says, and that is 'it was too late to'start the expedition Had the blockheads in Washington had m idea in thei heads, or listened to thosi ike. Captain JessE do not [get into before, uld have beer oided, < did fit out might have beer, made, and supplies of gra wood and water obtained." Gove, Utah Expedition, p. 60. 6Although the French word "ambulance" meaning "walking ho^piv.sl" came into popular rise during tine Crimean War as a conveyance for medical supplies and wounded soldiers, here it is used more generally ;o refer to a covered vehicle on springs. Elizabeth refers often to the ambulances which carried her and the governor and much of their equipment. More accurately, Lhey <,\!cic- dougherty wagons often simply called "dou-hertie-s." for a description of a dough-erty see [William.; Fostei-Harris, LV Look ,<( the Old Vvtst (New York: Bonanza Books I960), p. 165. circumstances were all unfixed, & remain so still. The preparations for a late journey must differ in many respects from one undertaken earlier in the season. We are now so late, that we must certainly prepare for encountering snow, which commences in the mountains, somewhere about the middle of October in an average season. We are now on our way to Leavenworth City, to see if orders have arrived, or if we can make some arrangement there (being near the Fort? & not far from Govr Walker4) to enable us to get on. St. Louis affairs are all finished, and we are anxious to go. As for me, the journey to Utah, if not undertaken too late in the season? is, an idea, perfectly to my taste, very attractive-but, if we are delayed long, very much the contrary. The journey taken in a mild atmosphere, pure & bracing, camping in tents pitched on grass, dry & warm, only now & then perhaps a shower, which one does not feel, when changing the tent bed, for one in the ambulance? & the same journey through cold, biting winds in unsheltered prairies & then through rugged mountain passes, where the snow drifts to great depths, & where fires will not stay lighted for the wind, (very great at a late season) are very different matters, i have longed & wished to go, but to go soon. 1 will write again at Leavenworth. 1 Septr 1857, Leavenworth City I have been keeping my letter open, dear Anne, hoping to have something definite to tell you-but nothing is decided- |
