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Show 2 FROM FORT LEAVENWORTH The whole was under the command of Major Van Voast, an experienced officer, long familiar with frontier life on the Pacific coast, and subordinate to him were a number of officers, belonging to the same regiment, who had proven their fitness for the positions they hel'd by long and gallant services in the field with our Western armies. They were all strangers to me then; but three months of intimate, and constant association, caused a warm mutual friendship to exist, which will remain among the most pleasant memo ries of my army life. But I must not in this connection neglect to refer to the most pleasant feature of the journey we were then about to commence. The presence of six ladies in our com pany, it is unnecessary to say, contributed largely to the enjoyment of the trip. Some of these ladies had cam paigned with their husbands before, but the majority were then to experience life without the bounds of civilization for the first time. The latter class, however, and among them were young ladies who had never been beyond the sound of a piano or a church bell, appeared to enjoy the trip throughout more than those who were already familiar with the inconveniences incident to a journey of the kind. For our large command, with its attaches, on a long jour ney, no insignificant amount of transportation was required, and thanks to the - obliging quartermaster, at Leavenworth, Col. Potter, our supply and baggage train was ample and numbered over 100 six mule army wagons, besides six am bulances, and the private conveyances of officers whose families accompanied them. There is something interesting connected with this train. The wagons that composed it had been sent overland the summer before from Washing ton, where they had been collected from the army of the Potomac after the close of the war. It was a singular coincidence to have with us on the march the same wagons that had followed us in the Peninsular campaign in ' 6 1, two thousand miles distant. That such was the case regarding some of them, our Quartermaster assured me there could be no doubt, for he recognized on several, marks |
