The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-03-23
THE MODERN cANToNMENr.


"Alter Ego" writing from old Fort
Reno, gives the following graphic de-
scription of ''the modern canton
ment:''
AT this stage of the Sioux war, east
ern people may be interested in know
ing what a modern cantonment is, and
how people exist within its precincts.
The location of a cantonment is notice.
able for a number of inevitable fea-
lures. 1t is placed just as far from
military posts and civilization generally
as it can be, as necessity doesn't call
for the storage and guarding of sup
plies anywhere else. 1t is dumped down
in solitude as primeval as possible, be-
CAUSE Indians prefer living in such
places. If a murky, alkali stream, like
Powder River, happens to flow by, and
if the eye a alone sweep a broad x
panse of stunted sagebrush, so much
the better. The sigh of relief a soldier
will breathe when he pulls up stakes to
leave such a place, and his never after
ward daring to yearn for anything bet
ter than regular garrison Or field SER
vice, are all undoubtedly calculated
upon. 1t is built as roughly as back
woods style a make it, for it is to be
abandoned i'll a year OF two, and part
of a soldiers education is, that he must
burn things up clean when he leaves
camp. Then, too, the Government
cal build a cantonment when it can't
build anything else, for soldiers labor
does it. This particular one consists
of about thirty log huts grouped to
form a hollow square, located on the
west bank of the Powder river, and,
distant from the nearest military
fort ninety miles, or from the railroad
240 miles. Huge cottonwood logs,
with ~crevices "chinked" with mud,
form the sides, while poles covered
with a good layer of earth answer as
roofing. Each hut is about twenty feet
square, and has one door and two small
windows /; but there is no such thing
as a floor in the cantonment. A large
heating stove is allowed to each apart
ment. Aside from this, the furniture
usually used consists of plain " bunks,"
with mattress and a few blankets +;
three or four sections of logs sawed off
the right length for stools or at best a
camp-chair and the lid of a "hard-
tack" box nailed upon a stake for table
or wash-stand. Each officer is allowed
one of these rooms, while a dozen men
are crowded into every hut of the same
size. Three O. four officers club
together as a mess, and have a small
cook-house, where game and canned
vegetables are the principal articles of
diet. The soldiers fare pretty much
the same in this respect. The cutting
and hauling of the logs and the build
ing of the quarters We're all done by the
troops, and the cost to Uncle Sam was
confined almost wholly to a few cheap
doors and windows. Aside from the
above, there is one of the largest and
best store-houses in the department.
$50 by % feet in dimensions,-a neat
log hospital, which, three days after its
foundation was laid, received and pro-
vided for a dozen or more of the men
wounded in Gen. Crooks last battle {;
commodious cellars for the protection
of articles affected by cold /; %postoffice,
bakery, blacksmith shop, stables, etc.
All were constructed in a little yer a
month. If not elegant or marvels of
convenience, these buildings are GER
tainly conducive to good solid comfort
when mercury freezes and the terrible
storms sweep down from the Powder
River Range.