tended to help the country west of the Missouri. President Lincoln was assassinated only a few weeks before Mr. Colfax came to the Rocky Mountains. A few days before the assassination he called on the President to inform him that he was expecting to leave for the Pacific coast, overland, almost immediately. In reply Mr. Lincoln said, "I have been thinking of a speech I want you to make for me. I have," said he, "very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it is practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of millions of dollars to our national debt every day, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of the precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine makes the payment of that debt so much the easier." "Now," said he, speaking with much emphasis, "I am going to encourage that in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers and many have feared that their return home in such great numbers may paralyze industry by furnishing suddenly a greater supply of labor than there will be a demand for. I am going to try to attract them to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room for all. Tell the miners for me that I shall promote their interests to the utmost of my ability because their prosperity is the prosperity of the nation and we shall prove in a very few years that we are the treasury of the world." Mr. Colfax delivered this posthumus speech of President Lincoln wherever there was an opportunity to talk to western men and its delivery was listened to with profound attention on every occasion. In this far-off wilder ness it fell on the ears of men as a voice from the grave of the martyred president. Verily this was the first full and complete recognition of the west by a president of the United States. It convinced western men that Abraham Lincoln was entitled to be called the president of the whole country. His words cheered many a weary miner by increasing his faith in the minerals of the Rocky Mountains. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE BLOODY YEAR ON THE PLAINS-[CONTINUED.] HEADQUARTERS REMOVED FROM DENVER TO Julesburg-COLONEL MOON- On May 4th, General Connor moved his headquarters from Denver to Julesburg, so as to be nearer the scene of active operations, and on the following day telegraphed General Dodge for permission to visit headquarters for the purpose of consultation. The request was granted and the visit to St. Louis was made, but before going he directed Colonel Moonlight, the commander of Fort Laramie, to distribute two companies of the Third U. S. Volunteers along the North Platte, Sweetwater, and as far west as South Pass. One company was to make headquarters at the Three Crossings and the commanding officer was instructed to detail one or two non-commissioned officers and twelve men for each of the following telegraph stations: South Pass, Saint Mary's and Sweetwater. The headquarters of the other company was to be at Camp Marshall, with similar details posted at Horse Shoe, Deer Creek and Platte Bridge, and besides this a squadron of cavalry was ordered on the line and four troopers were to be detailed at each station to assist the telegraph operators in repairing the line when required. The saw mill near Fort Laramie was ordered to be kept running night and day to furnish lumber needed at the various stations. The following officers were announced by General Connor as sub-district inspectors: Captain J. S. Cochrane, Third U. S. Volunteers, for service in the South Sub-District of the Plains; Captain John H. Dalton, First Battalion Nevada Cavalry, for the West Sub-District of the Plains; First Lieutenant Edward Donavan, First Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, for the East Sub-District of the Plains. Brigadier General Guy V. Henry was placed in command at Denver, which department was then styled the South Sub-District of the Plains. Henry was a good soldier and thoroughly qualified for an important command. He conducted the affairs of his district in such a manner as to give confidence to the people of Colorado, but it was found necessary to send him elsewhere, when Colonel C. H. Potter of the Sixth U. S. Volunteers was assigned to the command. At this time, Captain J. L. Humfreville of the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry was in command of Fort Halleck. This post was made prominent by events which had transpired around it since the spring of 1863. The troops had beeen required to operate both east and west for a long distance and consequently troops stationed there had seen hard service. Fort Bridger, that summer, was in command of Major Noyes Baldwin, an officer with a splendid record, and a man of ability. The War of the Rebellion being over, there was soon to be available troops for service on the plains, but it required time to transfer this force to the far west. The spring was far advanced and the Indians were beginning to leave their winter camps in large numbers, and there not being sufficient force in Wyoming to operate against roving bands, traffic on the Overland had to be conducted by the use of military escorts. There seemed to be no way of protecting the telegraph line; the best that could be done was to repair it whenever broken. During 1865, there was but one line of telegraph across our state, and this was the one built by Creighton in 1861. At the time the stage line was removed from the Sweetwater and the South Pass route, the government had to protect the stages on the new route across the Laramie Plains and at the same time to maintain the telegraph up the North Platte, along the Sweetwater, and across South Pass. This necessitated a large number of troops and it should not have been undertaken. Ben Holliday argued, when he wanted to change the line, that the Indians would not trouble the mail route from Denver west, and consequently the government would be at little or no additional expense. It was true there were no hostilities on the Laramie Plains previous to the location of the mail route in 1862, but there was a very good reason for this; as there had been no traffic on that line-no people to rob or kill on the Laramie Plains or in Bridger Pass, but as soon as the mail, express and passenger business was transferred to that route, Indian depredations followed and the government was called upon for protection and tried to furnish it. The emigrant trains preferred the old Overland road, because it was shorter, and so they kept going up the North Platte. Troops had to be maintained on that road to protect the telegraph system and the emigrants. Had all the protection been given to the North Platte route it would have been much easier for the government and better for the mail business west of the mountains. Leaving Julesburg, the new route went south eighty-four miles before it reached Denver, and then in returning to the west by way of Laramie Plains and Bridger Pass it had all this distance to work back, and this increased the length of the road more than 150 miles to all passengers who had come by the Platte route. I have found it very difficult to confirm the reports of many old timers regarding Indian attacks on Overland stations. Too often it has occurred that two or three individuals told as many different stories regarding the same incidents, and consequently for the sake of accuracy I have been obliged to depend largely on official reports made by officers at the time to the War Department. These were at least accurate and formed a basis upon which to construct the history of those times. The events of the spring and summer of 1865 commenced on the Sweetwater and are recorded by Lieutenant-Colonel Plumb, who with his command, the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, was operating along the line from Fort Laramie west. In an official report dated June 1st, at Camp Dodge, which was located a short distance above Platte Bridge, he says: "I have the honor to report that on the morning of last Saturday the Indians in considerable force attacked Rock Ridge Station and ran off what stock remained, and soon after cut the telegraph line. No further information was received from there until yesterday, when a messenger arrived from Sweetwater Station, bringing intelligence that on Sunday night Lieutenant Collins, Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, with two men, started from Three Crossings for Rock Ridge, and, arriving within a short distance, discovered that the station was in flames. Not considering it prudent to venture farther, he returned to Three Crossings. The fate of the garrison at Rock Ridge is unknown, but the Worst is feared. It numbered four men, all of the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry. Monday afternoon about forty Indians effected a stampede of the herd of mules and horses belonging to the Sweetwater garrison, and succeeded in getting away with four horses and six mules. One Indian was killed. Yesterday I sent Lieutenant Bretney, with eight men of his company, to Sweetwater, then to proceed to Rock Ridge if deemed safe. He will be at the latter place tomorrow. I also sent Captain Green, with sixty men of the Eleventh Kansas, provided with twenty days' rations, to go up the road as far as Rock Ridge, with instructions to repair the telegraph line and take the necessary measures for the immediate rebuilding of the station at Rock Ridge. I also turned over to Captain Lybe five of the government teams that came up with my regimental train, and ordered him to proceed at once to his station at Three Crossings and distribute his company according to orders from you, and also to submit to the order and direction of Captain Green in reference to repairing the telegraph, and re-erection of station at Rock Ridge." Lieutenant Bretney proceeded up the road as ordered and investigated the condition of the various stations, and |