Raymond W. Settle - Böcker

The story of the Pony Express, which carried transcontinental mail from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861, is one of the most invigorating and satisfying episodes in American history. Saddles and Spurs: The Pony Express Saga brings together a storehouse of information about this brilliant operation. Projected against an account of the historical background—the great overland mail issue, the freighting and the stagecoach business, the development of the telegraph and the Pacific railroad—is the narrative of the Pony Express's organization and the laying out of its route; biographical sketches of the founders, company personnel, and riders; and a list and description of the stations. While undertaking their exhaustive research, the authors collected some three hundred photographs, of which more than fifty of the best appear in this volume.

It was an awesome sight, that regiment of Mounted Riflemen slowly marching up the Oregon Trail, already crowded with gold seekers and their animals in 1849. In May of that year five companies of men and 171 supply wagons started from Fort Leavenworth on a five-month, two-thousand-mile march that would take them to Fort Vancouver. After distinguished service in the Mexican War, the rifle regiment had mustered out and then reorganized for the purpose of establishing and garrisoning forts along the Oregon Trail. The March of the Mounted Riflemen, first published in 1940, is important as the only complete record of one of the longest marches ever made. Most of the book is devoted to the journal of the quartermaster, Major Osborne Cross, which describes the experience of recruits unprepared for such an undertaking. There were numerous desertions among the soldiers and teamsters, who were faced with a cholera epidemic and the heavy loss of horses and mules in poor grazing country, but for those who finally crossed the Cascades there was pleasure in spectacular scenery and interest in dealing with friendly Indians. Included is the journal of George Gibbs, a civilian artist and naturalist who accompanied the marchers, and a report by Colonel William Wing Loring, the commanding officer Together, these primary documents offer valuable information about the Oregon Trail and the great emigration of 1849.