Conservative *
tucky , appointed from Missouri in 1812 ,
rose to bo colonel , resigned from the
service in 1853 and died in 1857.
The War of 1846.
Their report having been made and
filed , the matter slumbered for eight
years , during which time the site of
Nebraska Oity was visited only by oc
casional Indian hunting-parties or fur-
traders from St. Louis , passing up or
down the river. But in 1846 , under
pressure of imminent war with Great
Britain on the north-west coast and
Mexico on the south , there was great
activity at "Washington , and on the 6th
of March , by command of Major General -
oral Scott , Adjutant General R. Jones
issued an order for the establishment
of a new military post on the Missouri
river , near the mouth of Table creek ,
"as soon as the season for operations
will permit. " The site to be selected
by Colonel Kearney , of the First
Dragoons , then stationed at St. Louis ,
the dragoons being quartered at Jeffer
son Barracks , ten miles below the then
city.
Colonel Kearney did not hesitate in
his choice , electing at once the spot
which he had once before picked out for
a similar purpose : and his opinion being
sought as to the necessary garrison , lie
said that as the post would be in a
dangerous Indian country , and most
probably the starting-point from the
Missouri River of the Oregon emigra
tion , he thought it would be a perman
ent one ; and recommended that it
should be garrisoned with at least two
companies of dragoons and two of
infantry , and four companies of mount
ed riflemen in case the contemplated
regiment of that branch were author
ized. He has just learned that all the
timber lands in the vicinity of Table
Creek are claimed by squatters , who are
trading in whiskey with the Indians.
The Dragoons.
We next hear from him at Fort
Leavenworth , whence-on the 12th of
of May he despatched Lieutenant A. J.
Smith by land , with thirty dragoons of
Captain Moore's company , for the new
post , taking twenty government horses.
I do not know when "dragoons" were
dropped from the organization of the
United States army ; they had them in
the Mexican war , and did not have them ,
that I know -of , in the war of the re
bellion. The origin of them seems to
have been this : President Andrew
Jackson proposed the enlistment of six
companies so designated , in 1888 , to re
tain the services of a large number of
volunteers , who had been enrolled as
"mounted rangers" along the frontier
at the time of the Black Hawk war , and
whose term of service had expired ; the
bill , as it came from congress , provided
"that a regiment of dragoons , consist
ing of ten companies , of 71 men each
r-
should bo organized and stationed upon
bhe western frontier. " Orders to this
effect were issued in March , 1888 , and
the headquarters of the regiment were
established , for that thrio , at Jefferson
Barracks.
Occupation.
On the 16th'of May , 184(5 ( , Colonel
Kearney , accompanied by Brigadier-
General Geo. M. Brooke and Major
Clifton Wharton , embarked from Fort
Leavenworth for Table creek , on the
steamer Amaranth , with company A ,
1st Infantry , under 1st Lieut. W. E.
Prince , and Company O , 1st Dragoons ,
under Capt. B. D. Moore ; five officers ,
besides the three first named , and sixty-
four men. Major Wharton wrote the
Adjutant-General , during this trip , re
porting that the nearest post-offices
would be "either Muusiker's Ferry , or
High Bridge Creek , Atchisou county ,
Missouri , ' ' and suggesting Fort Nebraska
or Fort Macomb as a name for the now
establishment. On arriving , Colonel
Kearney says "the ground for the build
ings was laid off ; the plan of them de
cided upon ; all necessary arrangements
made , and orders given. " I suppose we
must say that this , the first improve
ment of Nebraska City , was the work of
General Brooke , since he was present ;
he being general commanding the Third
Military Department , with headquarters
at St. Louis. Colonel Kearney and
General Brooke then departed down the
river , leaving Major Wharton in com
mand ; and on Colonel Kearney's arrival
at Fort Leavenworth , he received orders
to organize for the Santa Fe expedition ,
and therefore sent at once for Captain
Moore and his dragoons ; and the first
report from the new post ( dated Head
quarters Camp Kearney , near the
j unction of Table Creek and the Missouri )
gives notice of their departure , on the
morning of May 80th.
The Block-house.
"Camp Kearney" was thus left in
sufficiently manned. The garrison re
ceived a visit presently from the Otoes.
"The subjects treated of in the inter
views with them pertained to matters of
general interest , " says Lieut. Prince ,
rather vaguely , writing of it twelve
years later ; Major Wharton gives a
more definite hint as to their transac
tions , reporting to St. Louis that "I
have not a single horse for duty , nor to
follow a trespassing party of Otoes. "
Major Wharton was thirsting for the
Mexican wars , and presently disappeared
from Table Creek. Lieut. Prince re
mained , and ho it was , according to his
own recorded statement , who erected
the blockhouse , between June 4 and
July 19 , 1846. On the latter date he and
his men also marched for Fort Leaven-
worth , and what became of them fur
ther I do not know. Their former com
panions , the dragoons , accompanied
General Kearney ( he received his com
mission on the road ) to Santa Fo and
California. The blockhouse and a quan
tity of logs and lumber wore left in
charge of William Ridgway English , no
doubt one of the squatters spoken of by
Colonel Kearney , and things were again
quiet for a time.
Oregon.
The twenty-ninth congress passed an
act , approved May 19 , 1846 , "for estab
lishing military stations on the route to
Oregon. " This was necessary for the
protection of the Oregon and California
emigration , which was now assuming
vast proportions ; it may also have had
force as a move in the game with Great
Britain , now nearing its end , for the
possession of the Oregon territory. By
June , 1847 , the War department had de
cided that "these stations for the present
will bo limited to two , the first near
Grand Island where the road to Cali
fornia encounters the Platte River , and
the second at or near Fort Laramie. "
The intermediate station at Grand
Island was , I believe , an absolutely now
establishment. The other "fort" was of
course hitherto merely a trading-post ;
Sublette & Campbell built in 1884 a
stockade on Laramie River ( named from
one La Ramie , a voyageur lulled on its
headwaters ) which was called Fort John
and perhaps Fort William for a few
years , when the name FortLaramio dis
placed it ; and this name the notable
military post which the government was
now about to erect at the same point ,
inherited.
The Second Occupation.
These two stations the department
decided to garrison with mounted vol
unteers , and a requisition was accord
ingly made upon the state of Missouri
for one battalion , or five companies
The volunteers were promptly forth
coming , but it seams they experienced a
deadlock in the election of their officers ;
by the time this important matter was
arranged , it was too late for them to get
very far on their way before winter set
in. The emigration which they were to
protect was , at any rate , over for the
season , and it was held that no good end
would be served by attempting to fit
them up , even at Grand Island , for that
winter ; Adjutant-General Jones there
fore directed Major Wharton , now a
colonel and still stationed at Fort Leaven-
worth , to cause them to proceed to Table
Creek and winter them there , taking ad
vantage of the block-house that had
been built there the year before and the
extra lumber that had been cut. This
order was not received until after the
command had been started for the west ,
with a year's supply of provisions and
ammunition ; but they were overhauled ,
and marched into Nebraska City , sup-
posably over the prairie , by some back
way. After they wore there , a doubt of
the wisdom of the arrangement sprang
up at Washington , fostered by some in-