In this sub-district were the following posts and garrisons:
Fort Kearney: Five companies 1st Nebraska Cavalry.
Plum Creek: Three companies 1st Nebraska Cavalry.
Cottonwood Springs: Two companies 7th Iowa Cavalry and one company 1st
Nebraska Cavalry.
Columbus: One company 7th Iowa Cavalry.
Little Blue Station: One company 1st Nebraska Militia.
Mullala Station: One company 1st Nebraska Cavalry.
Dan Smith's Ranch: One company 7th Iowa Cavalry.
Gilman's Station: One company 1st Nebraska Cavalry.
O'Fallon's Bluffs: One company 7th Iowa Cavalry.
Alkali Station: One company 7th Iowa Cavalry.
Beauvais Station: One company 1st Nebraska Cavalry.
Julesburg: One company 7th Iowa Cavalry.
West sub-district, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William O. Collins, with
headquarters at Fort Laramie, Idaho Territory.
In this sub-district were the following posts and garrisons:
Fort Laramie: Four companies 11th Ohio Cavalry; one company 7th Iowa
Cavalry.
Camp Collins: Two companies 11th Ohio Cavalry.
Fremont's Orchard: One company 11th Ohio Cavalry.
Fort Halleck: One company 11th Ohio Cavalry.
Camp Marshall: One company 11th Ohio Cavalry.
Camp Mitchell: One company 11th Ohio Cavalry.
Platte Bridge: One company 11th Ohio Cavalry.
In the District of Colorado there were the following posts and garrisons:
Denver; One company 1st Colorado Cavalry; one company 3rd Colorado
Cavalry.
Camp Fillmore: One company 1st Colorado Cavalry.
Fort Garland; One company 1st Colorado Cavalry.
Junction Station: One company 3rd Colorado Cavalry.
Valley Station: One company 3rd Colorado Cavalry.
In the District of the Upper Arkansas were the following posts and garrisons:
Fort Riley: Eight companies 2nd Colorado Cavalry; one section 9th Wisconsin
Battery.
Fort Lyon: Eight companies 1st Colorado Cavalry; one company 1st New
Mexico Cavalry.
Fort Larned; At post and en route – Two companies 2nd Colorado Cavalry;
one company 12th Kansas Cavalry; one company 11th Kansas Cavalry; one
section 9th Wisconsin Battery.
Fort Zarah; One company 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry.
Fort Ellsworth: One company 7th Iowa Cavalry.
Salina: One company 7th Iowa Cavalry.
The foregoing applies only to our theatre of war. There were nine posts in Dakota Territory, garrisoned by 22 companies of Cavalry and two of Infantry. There were four frontier posts of Iowa, garrisoned by six companies of Cavalry; also six posts in Minnesota, garrisoned by 13 companies of Cavalry and three companies of Infantry. All of this in excess of the Artillery, which was stationed at some of the posts, amounting in the aggregate to 26 guns.
The soldiers engaged were all or parts of the following regiments:
1st Colorado Cavalry.
1st New Mexico Cavalry.
2nd Colorado Cavalry.
3rd Wisconsin Cavalry.
3rd Colorado Cavalry.
1st Dakota Cavalry.
6th Iowa Cavalry.
2nd Minnesota Cavalry.
7th Iowa Cavalry.
Two Battalions Minnesota
1st Nebraska Cavalry.
Cavalry Volunteers.
1st Nebraska Militia.
1st Connecticut Cavalry.
11th Ohio Cavalry.
30th Wisconsin Infantry.
5th Kansas Cavalry.
1st United States Volunteers.
11th Kansas Cavalry.
9th Wisconsin Battery.
12th Kansas Cavalry.
McClain's Colorado Battery.
15th Kansas Cavalry.
3rd Minnesota Battery.
16th Kansas Cavalry.
[Single-column list]
These desultory facts may not be interesting, but are inserted here as due to history.
The road from Omaha to South Pass was guarded by the First Nebraska Cavalry, the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, and the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry – being three regiments of cavalry with about twelve pieces of artillery strung along the road. The road from Julesburg to Denver was under the command of Colonel Chivington, and was guarded and patrolled by the First and Third Colorado Cavalry, but principally by the Third Colorado under charge of Major Samuel A Logan, who occasionally visited us at Julesburg. Yet we, on occasions, sent escorts up as far as Pawnee, over 30 miles west, on the Denver road; northwest to Camp Mitchell near Scott's Bluffs, 117 miles; and east to O'Fallon's Bluffs, 50 miles. Our company had the hardest work to do of any company in or on the line, and suffered more in losses than any other company, both in killed and wounded and in accident. Our escort line was about 150 miles long.
Chapter XXXI.
