Question: 1852 Travel between Army Forts
From: Sjsidaho@aol.com
How did the Calvary/Army travel between Fort Columbus on Governors Island New York Harbor and St. Louis Missouri in 1852? I have been told that most went by train....but than read it was cheaper and faster to send the Calvary (for the Indian Wars) by chartering space on US Naval Ships to Fort Lugo, Texas. If the foot soliders did their training at Jefferson Barrack in St. Louis wouldn't they have gone by train?
Thank you
S. Lee
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 3:51 PM
2 Comments:
Also see the historic railroad maps at the Library of Congress.
From: DSnoddy@aol.com
Railroads had certainly reached St. Louis by 1852. I don't know if the government at that time had shanghaied the railroads into transporting troops and government supplies at half price as they did with the land grant railroads. Some of the soldiers would have been needed in the staked plains of Texas and it may have been faster to send them by ship. But, I suspect a great many soldiers at that time went from St. Louis to Leavenworth and then by the military roads from there. Leavenworth was certainly the outfitting point and it was the dispersing point for the Santa Fe Trail. But if the Comanche ranged through Texas as they did, then infantry coming up from the south might have been a sound military move. I know railroads better than military history.
Don.
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