Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/65

 guns sent up from Baton Rouge. Many of the militiamen wore badges of the Confederate Army. Captain Lyon, learning that they were going to try to seize the arsenal, surrounded the militia and demanded their surrender. The next day after the surrender of the state troops, Captain Harney arrived in St. Louis and assumed command. Shortly after this Captain Harney became Brigadier General of the First Brigade of Missouri Volunteers. Among the officers who distinguished themselves in the operations in Missouri at this time were Colonel Siegel and Colonel Osterhaus. After the bloody battle of Wilson's Creek in which General Nathaniel Lyon was killed, I was ordered to take a squad of men there to bring back his body. We served as the honor guard. Before long I became Sergeant-Major and was acting adjutant of the regiment. When our Colonel resigned, I commanded the regiment. After receiving my honorable discharge at the end of my enlistment, a comrade of mine, Fred Keisel, told me that there was a freight train at Omaha, belonging to Kimball and Lawrence, loading supplies to take to Salt Lake City. Henry Lawrence wanted a book-keeper and also a drygoods clerk for his store in Salt Lake City. I was engaged as the book-keeper and Fred as the clerk. When we got to Omaha we found that the wagon boss was short of drivers. He offered Fred and me $20 apiece if we would serve as bullwhackers and drive four yoke of oxen. We accepted the job. At that time Omaha had about 40 buildings, my recollection now being that most of them were saloons, livery stables or blacksmith shops. I will never forget our trip across the plains. About 100 miles out of Omaha we came across a store kept by a half-breed French-Canadian. For the next 400 miles there was no settlement of any kind. The prairie, covered with wild flowers, stretched unbroken in all directions to the far horizon. In all directions we could see countless herds of antelopes, while at times the buffalo seemed to blacken the rolling land waves in the dis-