Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1852-12-16
THURSDAY, DECEMBER I6, 1852.

reaching For, Leavenworth on the 9th Of
November. The objects of the journey
were of a practical character, aud were
pursued with a systematic zeal and fidelity
fully exhibiting the value aud Importance of
the scientific training of the officers Of the
army.
A man has a very inadequate iea OF the
services of modern officer, at least Of the
school of those who graduated at West
Point, who thinks his duties begin with
routine aud pipe-clay and end with the
slaughtering of his foes A battle may be
but of single occurrence IN lifetime :
but on the vast area of duty of our great
Western possessions the officers of the army
are continually exercising their capacity as
engineers, surveyors, pioneers, foresters,
with the multitude of relations to the In
dams of the wilderness, to the emigration
parties which the remote frontier life in
duces There they encounter every variety
of hardship, of climate, and prove their
manhood by tests unknown 20 the camps
and parades Of Europe. They exhibit every
day the virtues of courage and endurance,
though seldom honored with the glory of
military conquest Their acts are those of
the soldier, bat they minister directly to
peace. They lay down the road for the
emigrant, instruct him in the best methods
Of transit, and neutraize or oyerpower the
hostility of the savage. When actual war
fare tests their powers on more brilliant
field, they are found, as in Mexico, the sure
masters of victory.
Capt. Stansbury aud his brother officers
Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, besides
providing liberal fund of information and
entertainment for the general reader, is
stocked with practical results which will
guide over his long journey the little cara
van OF the humbest emigrant. Such is the
itinerary of every days journey by which
the progress Of a camp may be regulated
with military precision, the meteorological
journals, the advice as to routes, and the
example, worth as much as any of the
rest, of cheerful, uniform good sense and
perseverance,
The value of nice calculation Of re-
sources aud adjustment Of means to the
ends Of the journey is not to be despised
on the prairie. Every where along the
great route Capt. Stausbury, in 1919, found
the wreck of capital aud comfort in the
abandonment of articles OF value. We
have constantly in his journal such records
as these
A small party, with u single wagon,
drove into camp Just as we were leaving the
ground. They had formed part Of a COM
pany from ST Louis, had proceeded within
sixty miles of Fort Kearney, and had quar-
relied, and had become disguised with the
trip and with each other, aud had separat-
ed. These persons were on their return to
st. Louis. They gave dlscouragIng ac-
counts of matters ahead. Wagons, they
sud, could be bought upon the route of
emiEThiinn Coz sen % fifteen dollars Plccc.
and provisions for almost nothing at all.
SO much for arduous enterprises rashly an
deriaken. and prosecuted without previous
knowledge or suitable preparation What
else could be expected
We passed today the nearly-consumed
fragments of about a dozen wagons that had
been broken up and burnt by their owners
and near them was piled up in one heap
from SIX TO eight hundred weight of bacon,
thrown away for want of means to transport
1t further Boxes, bonnets, trunks, wagon
wheels, whole wagon-bodies, cooking uteu-
sis, and IN fact almost every article OF
household furniture, was found from place
to place along the prairie, Abandoned for
the same reason.
The road, as usual. was strewn with
fragments of broken aud burnt wagons,
trunks, aud immense quantities OF white
beans, which seemed to have been thrown
away by the sackful, their owners having
become tired of carrying them further, or
afraid 10 consume them from the danger Of
the cholera. The commanding officer at
Fort Kearney had forbidden their issue at
thar post on tins account. Stoves, grid
irons, neutrality-suspicious., aud carpenters
tools of all sorts, we're TO be had at every
step for the mere trouble of picking them
up.
Today we find additional and mean-
choly evidence of the difficulties encounter
ed by those who are ahead of US. Before
hating at noon, we passed eleven wagons
that had been broken up, the spokes OF the
wheels taken to make pack-saddles, and the
rest burnt or Otherwise destroyed The
road has been literally strewn with articles
that have been thrown away. Bar-iron and
steel, large blacksmiths' anvis and bellows,
crow-bars, drills, augers, god.washers, CHS
els, axes, lead, trunks, spades, ploughs
large grndstones, baking-ovens, cooking
stoves without number, kegs, barrels, har-
ness. clothing, bacon, and beans, were found
along the road in pretty much the order in
which they have been enumerated. The
carcases of eight oxen lying in one heap
by the roadside, this morning, explained a
part of the trouble. recognised the trunks
Of some of the passengers who had accom-
panied me from ST. Louis to Kansas, on the
Missouri, and who had here thrown away
their wagons and every thing they could
not pack upon their mules, and proceeded
on their Journey. At the noon halt, AN ex-
celent rifle was found in the river, thrown
there by some desperate emIgrant who had
been unable To carry il any further. In the
course of this one day the relics ofsevenleen
wagons and the carcases of twenty-seyen
dead oxen have been seem
/ Flour aud bacon had been sold as low az
one cent per pound, and in many cases
meat had been used for fuel, and SO on, TIL
we are sickened with the recital. In the
early summer of 1919, Mr.. Brulet, ira
der from Fort Laramie, on his way to 81
LOUIS, in the course of forty days on the