La Grande Caravane
In 1864, Absalom lead a large wagon train of individuals from Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa to the gold areas of Montana. Known as the "Townsend Wagon Train", it consisted of 150 wagons and over 400 people. They used the same Oregon Trail he had traveled in his 1849 and 1850 trips to California but in Wyoming they took an offshoot of the trail on to the Bozeman Trail which had been mapped by John Bozeman in 1863. The Townsend Wagon Train was only the 3rd such train on the Bozeman Trail and was attacked by Native Americans on July 7, 1864 near the Powder River in Wyoming. Several deaths occurred on both sides of the battle. The Wagon Train eventually reached its destination of Virginia City, Montana on August 25, 1864, according to the trail diary of Benjamin W. Ryan, a member of the wagon train.