Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/117

92 touch me." Later he received the apology of the officer in question. The married officers were soon paroled and sent to Boston, where Captain Snelling and his wife remained until he was ordered to Plattsburg to join General Hampton's army. Their eldest child, Mary, was born when Mrs. Snelling was but sixteen years of age. Captain Snelling rapidly rose in distinction, and was on the staff of General Izard as Inspector-General, stationed at Buffalo. On peace being declared Snelling was made Lieutenant-Colonel of the Sixth Infantry and ordered to Governor's Island, and later to Plattsburgh, where he remained four years, when the order came to start for the upper Mississippi by way of St. Louis. Their family then consisted of Mrs. Snelling and three children, her youngest sister, and one brother, a graduate from West Point, Lieutenant Wellington Hunt, also a married man. Mrs. Snelling's sister, Eliza N. Hunt, married a man by the name of Soulard, a French gentleman. The following summer, Snelling received his colonelcy and was placed in command of the Fifth Regiment and ordered to relieve Lieutenant-Colonel Leavenworth, who had been promoted to another regiment, and Captain Snelling conducted his regiment to within eight miles of the Falls of St. Anthony, where Fort Snelling, Minnesota, now stands. Enroute he held councils with the Indians of Prairie Little Du Chien, where he found Governor Cass. Their first occupation in their new home was the building of the log barracks and fort which were to form the homes and protection of the regiment and its officers. These rude quarters were papered and carpeted with buffalo robes and here Mrs. Snelling's fifth child was born. It was a two years' struggle before the post was completed. In June, 1823, the first steamboat made its appearance on the upper Mississippi, and caused great excitement among the troops. A French gentleman brought letters of introduction to Mrs. Snelling from friends in St. Louis, being invited by the Colonel