July 1 was spent in getting these incongruous elements organized into a train. A considerable quantity of commissary stores and a lot of spare parts and material for the repair of wagons and harness had not arrived when, on June 30, I received a telegram from General Connor not to delay for anything, but to purchase supplies at Omaha City. This I did to the extent of about $15,000. General Connor also directed me to leave no grain behind, but to take all I could get trains to haul. To do this I was compelled to hire citizen transportation. On the 1st of July, after some delay caused by the refusal of two companies of my regiment to move ordered, the command, with the exception of three companies (which remained to complete their equipment, collect stragglers, and escort the rear trains), took up the line of march toward Columbus, on the Loup Fork, of the Platte, following the line of the Place telegraph. On the 2nd the balance of the command with the trains followed, overtaking the main column at Fremont, on the Platte River, on the 3rd. Arriving at Columbus, our route left the Platte and followed up the north bank of the Loup, leaving the last vestige of civilization at the Pawnee Mission, 110 miles from Omaha City. From the many farms which lie along the Platte a sufficiency of forage was purchased to supply the command; here I also procured a drove of fifty beef-cattle. After passing the Pawnee Mission and until reaching the Niobrara River my only reliable source of information was a copy of Lieutenant G. K. Warren's map, furnished me by the chief engineer of the department, as the guides I had employed were unfamiliar with the county, having ben over its surface but little; yet they were excellent judges of prairie country and were of much value in the selection of favorable ground for the movement of the trains. Whilst camped near the mouth of North Branch of the Loup, Lieutenant Murphy, First Nebraska Cavalry, with escort, arrived, bringing dispatches from General Connor containing full instructions as to my destination and route, of which up to this time I was entirely uniformed save that I was to move my command up the Loup Fork, where I would receive orders.

Deeming it advisable to cut off a considerable bend in the Loup River, I moved up the valley of the North Branch to Antelope Creek, where was found Lieutenant W. D. Smith's trail of 1856. Leaving this trail to the let, the command moved in a westerly direction, but from the necessity of selecting ground passable with the trains the course gradually changed nearly south. The valley of the North Branch is bountifully supplied with timber along the margins of the stream, and all the ravines and canons, putting into it are well timbered with cedars. Along the hill-sides there are some small groves of scrub oaks. The bottom timber is almost exclusively cottonwood and box elder. The stream where we crossed it was about fifty yards in width and its bed full of quicksand. The valley is from one to one mile and a half wide, and contains apparently very fertile soil; gross was very abundant. The country between this stream and the Loup is high, abrupt, ridge prairie, the road in consequence sinuous and heavy. Moving up the Loup, wood, water, and grass in abundance were found, and with few exceptions scarcely any serious obstacles to the march were encountered. Anticipating the frequent use of tools in the construction of bridges and cutting of embankments, I had organized one of the companies of the Second Missouri Light Artillery as a pioneer company, under the command of Captain N. Boadman, an officer whose lifetime experience as a civil engineer specially fitted him for this duty, and by keeping them some distance in the advance with the guides, prepared the