Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-01-30

pany to guard the Corinth contrabanl
camp. 1t had been pretty severely crit
cised in the army, and thought this act O
mine had partly to do with nay call t.
Washington however, upon reaching there
and reporting to the President, found thai
ne recollected his conversation on the Pa.
CHIC House stoop; that he was, under the
law, to fix the eastern terminus of the Pa,
cific road; and also, that he was very anx.
ious to have the road commenced and built
and desired to consult me on those ques.
TONS
MR.. LINCOLN DECLARED THE ROAD MILL.
TARY NECESSITY.
In the discussion of the means of build
ing the road thought and urged that nc
private combination should be relied on,
but that it must be done by the Govern
ment. The President frankly said that the
Government had its hands full. Private
| enterprise must do the work, and all the
Government could do was to aid What
he wished to know of me was, what was
required of the Government to insure its
commencement and completion. He said
It was q military necessity that the road
should be built.
! From Washington / proceeded to New
| York, and after consulting there with the
| parties who had the question before them,
the bill of 1864 was drawn. In due time it
passed, and under it the Union and Central
Pacific Railroads, constituting one con-
tinuous line, were built
THE WAR CRISIS IN 1864.
In the fall of 1854, after the fall of At
lanta, and while on my return from City
Point, where / had been to visit General
| Grant for a couple of weeks. the Com
mander-in- Chief sent me back by way of
Washington to see the President.
While the President referred to the Pacific
road, its progress and the result of nv
former visit, he gave it very little thought,
apparently, and his great desire seemed to
be to get encouragement respecting the
situation around Richmond, which lust
then was very dark. People were CRITICS.
ing Grants strategy, and telling how to take
Richmond. think the advice and pressure
on President Lincoln were almost too much
for him, for during my entire visit, which
lasted several hours, he confined himself,
after reading chapter out of humorous
book l believe called the Gospel of
Peace, to Grant and the situation at
Petersburg and Richmond
After Atlanta, my assignment to a
separate department brought the country
between the Missouri river and California
under my command and then | was
charged with the Indian campaigns of 1865
and 1866. [ travelled again over all that
portion of the country / had explored in
former years, and saw the beginning of that
great future that awaited it. l then began
to comprehend its capabilities and resources;
and in all movements OF our troops and
scouting parties I had reports made upon
the country-its resources and topography;
and |, myself, during the two years,
traversed it east and west, north and south,
from the Arkansas to the Yellowstone and
from the Missouri to the Salt Lake basin.
DISCOVERY OF SHERMAN PASS
1t was on one of these trips that l dis
covered the pass through the Black Hills,
and gave the name of Sherman, in honor
of my great chief. lis elevation is S,236
feet, and for years it was the highest point
reached by any railroad in the United
States. The circumstances of this accidental
discovery may not be uninteresting to you.
While returning from the Powder river
campaign l was in the habit of leaving my
troops and train, and with few men, ex-
amining all the approaches and passes
from Fort Fetterman south over the second
airy range of mountains known as the Black
Hills, the most difficult to overcome with
proper grades of all the ranges, on account
of its short slopes and great hight When
| reached the Lodge Pole creek, up which
went the overland trial, / took a few
| mounted men-I think, six-and with one
of my scouts as guide, went up the creek
to the summit of Cheyenne Pass, striking
south along the crest of the mountains to
obtain good view of the country, the
troops and trains at the same time passing
along the east base of the mountains on
what was known as the st. Vrain and the
Laramie trail.
About noon, in the valley of tributary
Of Groyu craoE discovered Tpdiopc
at the same time, discovered US. They were
between us and our trains. l saw our
danger and took means Immediately to
reach the ridge and try to head them off,
and follow it to where the calvary could
see our signals. We dismounted and
started down the ridge, holding the In
dians at bay, when they came too near,
with our Winchesters. 1t was nearly night
when the troops saw our smoke-signals of
danger and came to our relief and in going
to the train we followed this ridge out until
l discovered it led down to the plains with
out break. l then said to my guide that
if we saved our scalps believed we had
found the crossing of the Black Hills-and
over this ridge. between the Lone Tree and
Crow creeks, the wonderful line over the
| mountains was built. For over two years
all explorations had failed to find salts
factory crossing of this range. The country
| east Of it was unexplored, but we had no
doubt we could reach it.
FRONTIER INCIDENTS
In 1867, General Aueur, General John A.
| Rawlins, Colonel Miner and some others
crossing the plains with me- reached the
point where / camped that night. We
spent there the 4th of July, and General
Rawlips made remarkable speech COM
memorating the day. We located there
| the post of d. A. Russell and the city of
Cheyenne. At that time the nearest settle
| ment was at Denver, $50 miles away and
while we lay there the Indians swooped
| down on a Mormon train that had fol-
| lowed our trail and killed two of its men
| but we saved their stock and started the
| graveyard of the future city.
EXPLORATIONS FOR PACIFIC RAILROAD
The explorations by the Government for
a Pacific railroad are all matters of official
report long since published and open to all
They were the basis for the future explora-
| tons of all the trans continental lines. ex-
| cept the Union Pacific, then known as
that of the AID parallel of latitude. That
line. and the country from the Arkansas to
the Yellowstone, was explored and devel-
oped mainly by private enterprise, and il
| is by far the most practicable line crossing
! the continent-the shortest quickest, OF
| lightest curvature and lowest grades and
SUBMITS. 1t is not, in an engineering point
of view, the true line from the Atlantic To
the Pacific, but in commercial point OF
| view it is.
| In an engineering point of view we
demonstrated, before the year 1860, that
the true line was up the Platte to its forks
| to which point the Union Pacific is now
built then up the North Platte and Sweet
water to the South Pass, and then down
the Snake river (where the Oregon Shor,
Line now runs), to the Columbia and then
to tide-water at Portland. The Union aud
Central were built for commercial value
aud to obtain the shortest and quickest line
from ocean to ocean.
The line of the Central was controlled
almost entirely by the development of the
mining industries in California and Ne.
vada until it reached the Humboldt; then
its natural course would be to reach Salt
Lake and the Mormon settlements. The
Uuion Pacific objective point was the Pa.
cifc coast by way of the great Platte valley
and Salt Lake.
| REGULATIONS CONCERNING CONSTRUCTION.
Every mile of the Pacific road thai
received subsidies from the Government
had to have the approval of the Govern.
ment three different times, through its Sc
lected officers, before one cent could be re
ceived or an acre of land certified.
l 1,k h. eI4u