Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-02-04


ferinGS.
The arrears Of news that come in day
after day;f our Utah army are discour
aging-so bad, indeed, that, as we learn
by our Washington correspondence, the
Secretary Of War refuses to allow the ON
cial advices TO be made public.
Colonel Cooks report to the Adjutant
General Of the Utah army, of his march
from the. Missouri to the valley Of the Salt
Lake is full of matter of curious interest.
He started in command of six companies
ed dragons, from Fort Leavenworth, on
the 18th of September, and his journal
ends with his arrival at Fort Bridger on
the l9th Of November. He says:
"The regiment had been hastily recalled
from service IN the field, and allowed three
or four days only by my then command
ing officer to prepare for march of eleven
hundred miles, over an uuinhabited and
mountain wilderness. In that time the
six companies of the regiment who were to
compose the expedition were reorganized; !;
ITO transfers necessarily made from and
to other companies; horses to be condem-
ned and many. to be obtained; the compa-
nies paid, and about fifty desertions oc-
CURED; the commanders of them changed.
II marched them on the 18th. Then
it was to be proved that three or four more
DAYS were to be lost in waiting for
the Quarter Masters Department 10
supply the absolutely necessary transport
Va, Al. otb 10H v,,,los x,ovo en-
nished, (Which the same day had arrived
from march OF, perhaps, 1000 miles to
and from Briegers Pass; above 100 of
the others were nearly worthless from want
and age and requiring several hours to
harnesssa team. On the morning of the
18th, twenty seven tesmsters were want
ing and men were furnished utterly igno-
rant of the business and without outfits.
"Half allowance, or six pounds day of
corn for horses and mules, was the largest
item of transportation; three or four laun-
dresses, with their children, were with each
company."..
The regular journal of each days march
is given, how 1t rained, and how the mules
died, and the men complained. On Octo-
ber 5th be arrived at Fort Kearney; on the
18th, crossed the South Platte-the ther-
mometer was at Is, and the river full of
ice. s'7 go
It was discretionary with Col. Cock to
winter at Fort Laramie or to post on to
Salt Lake. He preferred the latter course.
Nov. 4, his command was at Sweet Water
Pass, in; the Rocky Mountains; next day
they gained Devils Gate.
"on the 9th, we found the ground once
more white, and the snow falling, but then
very moderately. Imarched as usual
On four mile hill the north wind and
drifting snow became severe; the air seem-
ed turned to frozen fog; nothing could be
seen; We were struggling in freezing
cloud. The lofty wall at Three Cross
ings' was a happy relief but the guide who |
hal lately passed there, was relentless in
pronouncing that there was no grass; the
idea of finding and feeding upon grass in
that wintry storm, under the deep snow,
was hard to entertain, but as he promised |
grass and other shelter two miles further,
we marched ON, crossing twice more the
rocky stream, half choked with snow and
ice; finally he led us behind a great gran
ite rock, but all too small for the promised
shelter, only 3 part of the regiment could
huddle there, in the deep snow; while the
long night through the storm continued,
and in fearful .eddies from above, before,
behind, drove the falling and drifting snow.
Thus exposed, for the hope Of grass, the
animals were driven with great devotion
by the men once more across the stream,
and three quarters of mile beyond, to the
base of the granite ridge, but which almost
faced the storm; there the famished mules,
crying pitiously, did not seek To- eat, but
desperately gathered in mass, and some
horses escaping the guard went back to the
ford, where the lofty precipice first gave us
80 pleasant a shelter.
"Thus, morning light had nothing cheer
ing to reveal, the air still filled with driven
snow-the animals soon came dri,en in,
and mingled in confusion with men, went
crushing the snow in the confined and
wretched camp, tramping all things in their
way. It was not a time to dwell on the
fact that from that mountain desert there
was no retreat nor shelter near, but q
time for action. But for six hours the frost
or frozen fog fell thickly, like snow, and
again We marched on as in cloud.
"The deep snow drifts impeded us much,
and in crossing Sweet Water the ice broke
in the middle. Marching ten miles only, L
got better camp, and herded the horses
on the hills; it was difficult road, where |
. few days before the bodies of three fro
zen men were found"
On the 9Th the thermometer stood A
deg. below the freezing point The snow
was deep; twenty-three mules gave out,
and FIVE wagons were abandoned.
"Nine trooper horses were left freezing
and dying on the road, and a number of
soldiers and teamsters had been frostbitten.
It was desperately cold night; the ther-
mometers were broken, but by compar-
ison must have marked % degrees below
zero. A bottle of sherry wine froze in a
trunk. Having lost about SO mules in
thirty-six hours, the morning of the 1lth,
on the report of the quarter-master, felt
hound to leave wagon in the bushes, fill
ed with seyenty-four extra saddles and bri-
dies and some sabres."
Next day the corn gave out the mules
we're dying of hunger.
3They gnawed and destroyed four wa
gon tongues, number of wagon covers,
ate their ropes, and getting loose ate the
sage fuel collected at the tents. Some of