Hundred Days in Missouri.
Fremont’:
1862.] a considerable
time and without apparent difiiculty, a platform suspended beneath him on which stood twelve gentlemen, all heavier individually than the Doctor him self, and weighing, inclusive of the entire apparatus lifted with them, nearly nine teen hundred pounds avoirdupois. In the
of this tremendous feat, Dr. W. employed neither straps, bands, nor girdle,— nothing in short but a stout
performance
oaken
stick
and having attached rather formidable-looking chains.
At
of his
a committee, appointed by the audience, and furnished with one of Fair
request,
banks’s scales, superintended
all the ex
FREMONT’S HUNDRED I. Tm'. narrative we propose to give of events in Missouri is not intended to be
of General Fremont, nor in any respect an answer to the charges which have been made against him. Our purpose is the more humble one of presenting a hasty sketch of the expedition to Springfield, confining ourselves almost entirely to the incidents which came un der the observation of an officer of the a defence
staff.
General Fremont was in command of the Western Department precisely One Hundred Days. He assumed the com mand at the time when the army with which Lyon had captured Camp Jackson and won the Battle of Booneville was on the point of dissolution. The enemy, knowing that the term for which our sol diers had been enlisted was near its close, began offensive movements along their Cairo, Bird’s Point, Iron whole line. ton, and Springfield were simultaneously threatened.
I
A few evenings after, lifted, in the same way, in Lynn, eighteen hun dred and sixty; in Brookline, eighteen hundred and ninety; in Medford, nine teen hundred and thirty-four; in Mal den, nineteen hundred and two; and in Charlestown, nineteen hundred and pounds.
forty.
As
my strength
is still increasing in
I
an undiminished ratio, am fairly be ginning to wonder where the limit will be; and the old adage of the camel’s back and the last feather occasionally have fixed three thou suggests itself.
I
sand pounds as my ne plus ultra.
periments.”
General’s
The exact weight lifted on this occa sion was eighteen hundred and thirty-six
fitting across his shoulders, to it a couple
115
Jeff
Thompson wrote to his
friends in St. Louis, promising to be in that
DAYS IN MISSOURI. city in a month. The sad, but glorious day upon Wilson’s Creek defeated the Rebel designs, and compelled McCulloch, Pil low, Hardee, and Thompson to retire. Relieved from immediate danger, Gen eral Fremont found an opportunity to organize the expedition down the Missis Wou by the magic of his name sippi. and the ceaseless energy of his action, the hardy youth of the Northwest flock ed into St. Louis, eager to share his la bors and his glory. There was little time for organization and discipline. They were armed with such weapons as could be procured against
the competition
of
General Government, and at once forwarded to the exposed points. Histo ry can furnish few parallels to the hasty the
levy and organization of the Army of the West- VVhen suddenly required to de fend Washington, the Government was able to summon
the equipped
and disci
plined militia of the East, and could call upon the. inexhaustible resources of a But in the wealthy and skilful people. West there was neither a disciplined Men, in militia nor trained mechanies.
