Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1862-05-24

Lawrence for :his point, but some tw'
hours after our departure.
Our regiment left Lawrence for thi
place on Sunday, April Goth, at nin'
O'Clock A. NJ, and encamped at Bis
Springs at three P. NJ, having marched
ABOUT eighteen miles. The second da,
marched ten miles, to Topeka, crossed
the Kansas river, and encamped. To
peka is The State Capital, contain.
about three thousand inhabitants, anc
ls one of the prettiest towns l have
yet seen in Kansas. The State Capi
tai and other State building are stone,
and would be no discredit to an older
State. The third day we started a,
seven A. NJ, made seventeen miles. ard
encamped about one P. n. at a small
Indian village on the Pottawat:omie
Indian keserve--a tract of country 80
miles square reserved to that tribe, and
occupied exclusively by them, COM
mencing abont four miles west of To-
peka. Here quite number of the In-
dians visited r-camp, some of whom
were very anxious to see and lear the
"big drum" Among the rest was their
chief, one hundred and four years old,
with a large, heavy silver ring in his
nose.
There are quite number of whites
married to squaws and settled here.-
The Indian Reserve is one of the most
productive regions in the State. The
so'l is an excellent quality, we'll water
ed and we'll improved. The young
squaws, mostly halfbreeds, are pretty,
and any good looking white man that
marries one of them marries a farm
also. 81 would l were boy again."
The fourth day we marched twenty
miles and passed, seven miles from
starting point, the est. Mary's Mis-
sion, a Catholic institution for the ben
eft of the ''poor heathen," where there
is small collection Of houses, mostly
devoted to religious and educational
purposes. Children were as abundant
as leaves in autumn.
On the morning of the fifth day we
passed through the village of Louis
vile, just off the Iudian Reserve, and
crossed, mile this side of it, Rock
creek, small stream deeply imhe1ded
between the almost perpendicular
banks, the bottom of which is smooth,
solid rock-its waters pure and clear
as those Of the Crystal Fount. March
ed this day about twenty-five miles
passed, about haIf-past twelve, the viii
lage of Manhattan, on the Big Blue,
and encamped at two p. NJ ON the Lit
tie B'ue. Passed through, to-day, one
of the most delightful countries in the
world-a valley equal to any in the
West, and nothing upon either side
but bluff succeeding bluff: The point
at which We encamped was one of the
most romantic that man ever beheld.
The pen of Bayard Taylor could
scarcely describe its beauties. With
the Little Blue upon the left, upon the
righ: vast, smooth plain carpeted
with green, growing grain, and upon
either side mounds shaped like pyra-
mids, three hundred feet high. A sun
SGT from one Of the most elevated of
those pyramids could hardly fail to Gre
ate in the bosom of the most depraved
a sacred reverence for that Power
which created him as we'll as the land
scapc before him.
The sixth and last day We marched
thirteen miles, arriving at this point a.
eleven A. NJ, passing. three miles back,
the village Of Ogden, having perform
ed march of one hundred and ten
miles in a little less than FIVE davs and
a half; and no day did the regiment
march later than three o'clock-eener-
ally stopping earlier.
l can give you no description of Fort
Riley, more than to say, as fort it
amounts to nothing. There are stone
barracks here, well designed, sufficient
to quarter thousand troops, besides
other Government buildings, but no
whatever. The country
around here is much the same a. that
l have been describing, and here de.
scriptions must end for the present
We learned before our departure