By Al Bates
This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year and the next on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.
Once past their embarrassing start from Leavenworth, Kansas, and finding their way back to the army’s supply road to the west, as told in last week’s article, Governor John Goodwin’s party of territorial officials and their military escort fell into a military style travel routine as Judge Joseph Allyn wrote from Fort Riley in his October 4, 1863 letter:
“Our plan of march is for reveille to sound before sunrise and the train to move promptly at 6 o’clock, and make the whole march at once, camp leisurely and have plenty of time for sporting. … The scene at reveille is perhaps the most striking, as it certainly is the most trying (to one’s temper). The moon shines brightly on the white tents and wagons, the mules are browsing in the tall grass, and the slow pacing ofsleeping sentries is seen, when suddenly the shrill notes of the bugle break on the frosty air, there is a rustling in tents, wagons, and among the sleepers on the ground as of sleepy people turning over under their blankets.
“Again and again the notes are repeated. By this time the scene is alive; drowsy men creep out, fires begin to flicker all over the field, the mules make the most unearthly noises I ever heard, teamsters swear and the mules kick, coffee pots begin to boil, quails to broil. Again the bugle sounds, and down go the tents. By this time breakfast is ready; lazy people are brushing their teeth or trying to comb their hair. At last we are all seated shivering around the mess table eating with ravenous appetites and chattering teeth.
“After breakfast begins the packing, and fortunate is one’s temper if it stands the strain of this. There is always something more to get into a wagon after it is full; your ax or your spade is missing, or your blankets are damp. At last everything is picked up, the troops are in line, mules are all harnessed, the saddle horses stand pawing and impatient, and the cavalcade moves off promptly at 6 o’clock.”
Several of the civilians in the caravan—often including Territorial Governor Goodwin— moved ahead of the caravan on foot hunting for the abundant prairie chickens and quail for dinner. Others, including Judge Allyn, rode ahead on horseback, sometimes hunting, other times just enjoying the unique new sights the movement ever west would bring.
John Noble Goodwin was appointed governor of the Arizona Territory by President Abraham Lincoln.
The travelers were ever conscious of the ongoing Civil War and the bloody impact on the residents of Kansas by marauders such as William Clark Quantrill and his raiders. Just weeks before, on August 21, those raiders had massacred 150 male citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, and left the town a burning ruin. Rumors of Quantrill’s next intentions kept the people of eastern Kansas on almost constant alert. Fortunately the rumors diminished as they moved further west. Occasional wind-driven prairie fires were perhaps more threatening as being more tangible, than the danger of the bushwhackers.
On occasion, soaking rainstorms made the early morning departures even more trying. Judge Allyn again: “I have tried to picture to you breaking camp by moonlight, but the same performance in a driving rain is quite another affair. I don’t know of anything more absolutely dismal. Everything is wet or at least damp; it is pitch dark, there are no candles in the lanterns of course, the fires are hard to light, and burn fitfully and spitefully after they are lighted; breakfast has to be served in a tent, and you step on each others feet, spill your coffee, and find your ham tough. … You finally get started, wet, uncomfortable, and cross. The roads are muddy, the wagons stick, the harnesses gall the poor mules, traces break, &c. On the morning to which I refer, however, the sky cleared just as we started, and the day brightened into the loveliest of the trip thus far.”
After a short layover at Fort Riley, Kansas, for rest, repair and resupply, it was onward again. The next significant stop would be Fort Larned, Kansas, which they would reach in two weeks after their first encounters with regional wildlife featuring antelope, prairie dogs and buffalo.
(Days Past is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners, International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are available at www.sharlothallmuseum.org/library-archives/days-past. Please contact SHM Library & Archives Reference Desk at 928-445-3122 Ext. 14 or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information.)