Following the Lieutenant

New Thoughts About Mingo Sanders

2011-05-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

I just came across an internet article called Hell on Two Wheels at On Point written by Ret. Lt. Col. Roderick Hosler, that has an interesting picture. The picture of Company B, 25th Infantry was taken at Fort Missoula in 1895. Could Mingo Sanders be in that picture? I think so. Keep reading to follow my line of reason.

The picture in the upper middle is cropped from a photo taken at Fort Snelling in 1883. The man in this picture appears to have corporal insignias on his sleeve. Click here to see my original thoughts and an enlargable version of this picture.

Click here to find a picture of Company B, 25th Infantry standing at attention at Fort Missoula in 1895. This is the picture I recently discovered. The original is, according to Hosler, from the National Archives. Zooming in, one finds the soldier seen to the far left with others cropped out. Notice that his sleeve indicates the rank of sergeant. Checking enlistment records we see that Mingo Sanders was a sergeant in Company B, 25 Inf. at Fort Missoula during this time. His enlistment records record that he stood 5' 8" [somewhat on the short side ] and was dark complected. I think this is Sanders but can we corroborate him with another picture? I think so.

Go to the famous picture of the Corps standing in formation at Fort Missoula. We know Mingo was in that bunch. Click here and zoom in on the rider three back in the left column. This soldier has a dark complexion, flat brimmed hat and high, wide cheek bones. Even the crease in the top of the hat is similar in the two pictures. [click here for my theories about hat creases]. I think the two men on the left and right above are one and the same. If that is true then the picture on the right must be Sanders since he was the only sergeant on the trip. (We know the man on the left is a sergeant from the stripes on his sleeve)

Now we look at the picture to the right, which positively identifies Mingo Sanders. It comes from a book called The Brownsville Raid, written by John Weaver. Click here to see an expanded version of that picture.

This is how it all got started

2011-04-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

This is the magazine article, sent to me by my brother that got it all started for me. Today I was cleaning out a closet and stumbled into this copy, in mint condition. I was thrilled. (Click on each picture to see an enlarged, readable version)

2011-04-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

"At the end of the Spanish-American War, in 1898, the United States occupied Cuba. Rioting mobs in the street, along with outbreaks of malaria and yellow fever, created havoc in the country. Lieutenant James Moss was sent with is troops to maintain order; they were successful. The unique thing about Moss's 25th Infantry of only 100 men was that they were a bicycle corps -- they all rode bicycles, they were all black, and they never once used their weapons while in Cuba."

-- Source: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts

I've seen this in various forms throughout the Internet. It's not true. The bicycle corps was finished soon after the Ft. Missoula to St. Louis ride. Moss tried to convince the army to let him make another trip, this time to San Francisco but the higher ups stated that there was no more need to experiment. I am not sure where Asimov got this. The 25th Infantry did go to Cuba and they fought, so they most certainly used their weapons. A myth close to this one is that the bicycle corps broke up riots in Havana, using their bicycles as shields. There is no source material to confirm this and much that contradicts it. -MJH

The Bicycle Dimensions

2010-11-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

I've had many requests for specific dimensions of the bicycles the Corps used. Readers of this blog would like to make a replica. The following is from Lt. Moss:

"The Corps is equipped with Spaulding military bicycles which have been especially made for the trip. The rims are of steel, the front wheels have 40 tandem spokes and the side forks and crown are extra heavy. The bicycles are all supplied with gear cases, luggage carriers, brakes and frame cases and weigh about 32 pounds (the heavy tires increase their weight considerably).
Particular attention has been given the subject of tires and the wheels are furnished with eight different kinds of so-called non-puncturable tires, several pair having been especially made for the expedition. Some of these tires weigh as much as six pounds per pair. The cooking utensils consist of three telescopic frame cases made of light sheet iron, and two tin coffee pots. By means of thumbscrews the metallic cases are secured in the diamond of the bicycles and are used as ration carriers during the day; when camp is made the rations are taken out, and each case being made of two seperate parts we have six cooking vessels. The coffee pots are cylindrical in shape, measuring eighteen inches in length and ten inches in diameter. They are strapped to the handle bars on the front of the bicycle and a blanket roll is carried in each.

- James A. Moss 2nd Lieutenant, 25th U.S. Infantry
Daily Missoulian Military Purposes, June 19, 1897

This is from an ad for the 1897 version of the Spalding bicycle. I've transcribe the ad and put it on the left for easier reading.

The Spalding Bicycle
Model No. 123 For 1897
THE SPALDING SPECIAL
Price, $75
SPECIFICATIONS

FRAME - Diamond, standard height 23 inches, front tubes 1 1/8 inch, rear tubes 3/4 inch, swaged and tapered at connections. All connections, except one, steel thimbles. Tubular construction throughout.
FRONT FORK - Tubular throughout. Side forks of large section, reinforced both ends. No forgings.
BEARINGS- Tool steel cut from bar, tempered, ground and polished. Removable ball races throughout.
TIRES - 28 inches by 1 5/8 inches. (See Options)
SPOKES - Straight, tangent, swaged and nickeled.
CRANKS - 6 3/4 inches. Round, spring steel, detachable.
PEDALS - Spalding rat-trap. Dust proof.
HANDLE BARS - Steel tubing of large section. Cork grips.
SADDLE - Sager, with "T" post. [I believe Lt. Moss and riders used a Christy Anatomical saddle
GEAR - 68 inches--17 teeth by 7 teeth
FITTINGS - Tool Bag, with tools and repair kit.
WEIGHT - With wood rims and rat-trap pedals, without brake, 23 pounds.
TREAD - 5 1/4 inches.
FINISH - Black enamel, nickeled trimmings.
OPTIONS - 20-inch frame, Model No. 120; 26-inch frame, Model 126; Handles Bars, Nos. 1,2,3,8 or 9 (see page 81); Sprockets, front, 17,18,19,20; Sprockets, rear, 7,8 (for table of gears see page 63); Cranks, 6 or 7 1/2 inches; Spalding Adjustable Gooseneck Post; Tires, Spaulding & Pepper, Hartford or Goodrich Single Tube; Pedals, rubber; Saddle, Christy.
NOTE - Brake cannot be fitted to handle bars Nos. 3 or 9.
A.G. Spalding & Bros.
New York Chicago Philadelphia
Factory, Chicopee Falls, Mass.

Did Boos and Moss ride the ride across Missouri?

2010-11-27T16:07:00.000-08:00

Doraine Bennett a follower posed an interesting question that I just discovered since I haven't been checking my "Dashboard" carefully enough. The following is our correspondence:

Hi Doraine,

I just opened my blog and discovered a question you had sent a LONG time ago. I'm sorry I missed it. I didn't realize it was there. I thought I had things set up so I'd be notified by e-mail if I got any comments:

Here is your question:
Do I have this straight? Moss and Boos "passed through" Cameron "on cars." It's not specifically stated, but it's questionable that they were with the Corps when they went through Hamilton. My supposition is that they took the train in St. Joseph, headed to Laclede where they met Henry Lucas. Is that what you think?

Here are my thoughts:
To be honest, I skipped over the Cameron newspaper account of "passing through on cars". Nor had I worked out how Boos, Kennedy and Moss traveled though I suspected they might have leap-frogging across Missouri via train. I need to go back and read the articles more carefully. I think your deduction is right and I thank you for your sharp eye. Your supposition would solve some questions I've had....

1) Why didn't Boos write more about the trip through Missouri? The articles he wrote for the Missoulian come to a dead stop at about the Nebraska-Missouri border but we know he was at Forest Park when the Corps made their triumphant entry into St. Louis. I now think it's because he rode across a great deal of Missouri on a train. Your theory fits this.

I know for certain that Boos rode ahead by train clear back in Wyoming through a Newcastle, Wyoming article I found. Perhaps he did this other places as well.

Here are some other thoughts:
Sunday = 18th of July - Corps rode from St. Joseph to Hamilton - Cameron is just before Hamilton
Monday = 19th of July - Corps rode from Hamilton, MO to Laclede
"Henry V. Lucas rode out to Laclede on Wednesday [July 21] to tender Lieut. Moss the hospitality of the St. Louis wheelmen."
[This would mean Moss and Boos waited two days while Lucas rode the train to meet them? Hmmm.... Don't know what to think. Why would they not keep riding and have Lucas meet them at some point closer to St. Louis?]

Notice at the beginning of the Missouri leg: "E.H. Boos, of the associated press accompanies the party [Holt County Sentinel, July 23]" St. Joseph Herald [July 18] also mentions Boos. Then there is the quote you mention-

"The soldiers are colored and are in charge of Lieut. J.A. Moss, a white man, who went through here on the cars Sunday evening, accompanied by E.H. Boos, a representative of the Associated Press. The only white man in the crowd in Cameron was Lieut. J.M. Kennedy, surgeon.
- Cameron Daily Observer [Cameron, MO], July 19, 1897

The Brookfield Gazette, in Missouri, reports..."the company numbered twenty--Lieut. James A. Moss, Surgeon J.M. Kennedy and eighteen privates...." No mention of Boos. The Hamiltonian [Hamilton, MO] tells us, "a representative of the Associated Press E.H. Boos" but then, The St. Louis Post Dispatch [July 23, 1897] says: "Lieut. Moss and Surgeon Kennedy are the only white men in the corps"--this article written before they reach St. Louis.

"They are in charge of Lieut. J.A. Moss, a white man who went east by train Sunday night."
- Hamilton News-Graphic, July 22, 1897

"The Twenty-fifth Infantry Bicycle corps camped at Laclede Monday evening and passed through Brookfield Tuesday morning. The company numbered twenty--Lieut. James A. Moss, Surgeon J.M. Kennedy and eighteen privates...."
Brookfield Gazette, July 24, 1897

"James A. Moss...with twenty-three men, including James M. Kennedy, the surgeon, all on bicycles, arrived here last Thursday afternoon [July 22]Lieutenant Moss and Edward H. Boos official reporter of the bicycle corps made the NEWS a pleasant visit during their brief stay in Louisiana."
- Pike County News- Louisiana, MO, July 29, 1897

"Lieutenant Moss and Surgeon Kennedy came in ahead of the corps and made straight for the office of the Pike County Press to get hold of a L.A.W. map."

"Lieut. Moss, with Lieut. Kennedy and Mr. Boos, rode five wheel lengths in front of the corps that followed after in platoons of fours."
-St. Louis Post-Dispatch [St. Louis, MO] Sunday morning, July 25, 1897

Missouri Newspaper Articles

2010-07-05T16:28:00.001-07:00

[These are some of my favorite articles. The St. Louis accounts, in particular, are rich in detail and have supplied me with answers to many of my questions. For example, I now believe Boos rode on a train over much of Missouri and met the Corps in St. Louis. While he was regularly mentioned in articles in early states he is not in articles from towns on the eastern side of the state. I had wondered why the articles Boos was so faithfully writing for the Missoulian dried up once the Corps hit the Nebraska-Missouri border. Perhaps the fact that he wasn't with the Corps is the explanation.

I also have a primary source which tells us that indeed, the Corps traveled through Hannibal, MO. This was another question I'd tried to find an answer to for some time. Unfortunately, no Hannibal papers from 1897 have survived time. The reader will notice quite a bit of repetition as they browse these articles. They will also be rewarded, though, with details, small though they be, that will enrich their understanding of this remarkable group.

Certainly I have some editing to do on this group of articles. I have tried to correct typos as I went and will continue to do so. I also have one last article from a Kansas City paper that I will get on ASAP]

SOLDIERS ON WHEELS.

------------------

A Journey of 3800 Miles Now Being

Made by U.S. Soldiers

-----------------

Army circles are greatly interested in a practical test of the bicycle in long distance marching arranged by the secretary of war, which is now in progress. The line of March is from Fort Missoula, Montana, to St. Louis and return. The bicycle corps consists of twenty-two men from the 25 United States infantry, all of whom are colored except the officers and surgeon.

This detachment arrived in our city Saturday morning last about 8 o’clock, and as they came wheeling down our main thoroughfare, they created no little excitement. A regular army soldier is rarely ever seen in our midst, and to see a colored man as such is a still greater novelty—and to see them mounted on wheels, with gun strapped over back is an unusually strange sight.

The corps was in charge of Lieutenant J.A. Moss, and in addition, to the commanding officer has a surgeon, one sergeant, two corporals, one trumpeter and 10 privates. The corps is divided into two squads, with the corporals as chiefs of squad. The heaviest man stripped, tips the scales at 177 and the lightest at 125 ½; the average weight being 148 ½. The oldest soldier is 39 and the youngest 24, the average age being 27. With the exception of three or four the members are more or less experienced in cycling and were selected on account of their knowledge.

They are equipped with the Spaulding military cycles made especially for the trip. The rims are of steel, the front wheels have 40-tandem spokes. They are supplied with gear cases, luggage carriers, brakes and frame cases and weigh about 32 pounds. The cooking utensils consists of three telescopic frame bases made of light sheet iron, and two tin coffee pots. By means of thumb screws the metallic ases are secured in the diamond of the bicycle and used as ration carriers during the day; when camp is made the rations are taken out and each case being made of two separate parts, we have six cooking vessels, The coffee pots are cylindrical in shape measuring 18 inches in length and 10 inches in diameter. They are strapped to the handle bars on the front of the cycle and a blanket roll is carried in each. Each soldier carries one blanket, one shelter-tent half and poles, knife, fork, spoon, cup and tin plate, toilet paper, tooth brush and powder, towels, etc. the surgeon carries a supply of medicine, a case of instruments, bandages, etc. In addition each soldiers carries a repeating rifle, and 50 rounds of ammunition, the rifles being slung across the back. They are uniformed with knickerbocker canvas trousers, blue gingham shirts, regulation blouse, leggings, hats and shoes, Their shelter tent, extra clothing etc. is carried in a luggage carrier in front of the handle bars and the average weight of the cycle packed is about 55 pounds. The bacon is cut in small chunks and wrapped in cloth. The coffee, sugar, and flour are carried in rubber cloth bags about 18x5 inches.

As the object of the trip is to test the bicycle as a means of transportation for troops, the route chosen is long, nearly 4000 miles, and the geography of the country such as to afford all possible conditions. By selecting St. Louis as the objective point, a route was moist[sic] that had high and low altitudes, moist and dry climates, up grades and down grades; the mountainous and stony roads of South Dakota, the sandy roads of Nebraska and the clay roads of Missouri. Their route has been along the Northern Pacific to Billings, Montana, and the Burlington the rest of the way.

In the “bad lands” they suffered greatly from lack of water, the men being obliged to drink Alkali water from which several became ill. From the bad lands they struck the sand hills of Nebraska and suffered greatly from intense heat. They crossed the river at Rulo, they across the bottom, to Forest City and thence to our city. After a rest of an hour here they took up their journey for St. Joseph, arriving [sic] there about one p.m. Saturday.

Lieutenant Moss informs me that from a military point of view the journey has been a successful one. At this point no man answered the sick call, and their wheels reported in excellent shape. Their average is 60 miles per day with good roads and 38 with bad roads. Rations are secured at intervals of a few days all along the road. The last ration station was Napier in this county and the next one is Laclede on the H. & St. Joseph railroad.

Lieutenant Moss, in charge of the corps is a Pike county boy, being raised at Louisiana, and graduated from West Point in 1894, and is now 25 years old. Surgeon Kennedy is from South Carolina and is 32 year[sic] of age, has been in the service about four years, and is as crazy as can be on the subject of “wheels”. E.H. Boos, of the associated press accompanies the party.

- The Holt County Sentinel [Oregon, MO], July 23, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

BICYCLISTS REACH ST. JOE

Twenty-fifth United States Infantry

Corps Is Nearing the End of Its Wearisome Jaunt.

St. Joseph, Mo., July 17 – The Twenty-fifth United States infantry bicycle corps arrived at this place at 1 o’clock to-day, after a forty-one mile run from Napier. The condition of the road was bad and very hilly country made the run a hard one. The corps went into camp here for the balance of the day and night. They will leave at 4 o’clock Sunday morning and expect to reach Hamilton to-morrow evening. The men are in the best of condition and are in good spirits on account of the comparatively short distance left to reach their destination.

- Kansas City Journal [Kansas City, MO], July 18, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

SOLDIERS A-WHEEL

------------------

DETACHMENT OF 25^TH INFANTRY

U.S.A., IN THIS CITY

------------------

On Their Way From Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis—An Experimental Trip

To Determine the Utility of the Bicycle for Army Purposes—Lieut. Moss in Charge of

The Expedition, Believes in Its Usefulness—Expect to Reach St. Louis the Last of This Week—Incidents of the Journey

-----------------

Somewhat of a stir was created yesterday afternoon in the city when a detachment of the United States regular army came through the city on bicycles. United States regulars seldom visit St. Joseph and the sight of a number of them fully armed and equipped would have been sufficient in itself to cause a commotion. To see them mounted on wheels was, however, an unusually strange sight.

The detachment was part of a company of the Twenty-fifth infantry, U.S.A., and is in charge of Lieut. J.A. Moss. With the exception of the commanding officer, a surgeon and a representative of the Associated Press, all the men are negroes. This detachment is making an experimental trip on wheels from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis. Lieut. Moss received permission from the war department to put this idea, which is his own, to a practical test. On the result of his trip will depend the action of the war department in mounting a large portion of this army on bicycles for long marches. The superiority of the wheel has long been recognized in short marches, through level stretches of country, but the present test will decide the question in regard to long and rough marches.

The detachment, which is composed of twenty soldiers and the two officers, left Fort Missoula, Mont., June 14 mounted on military bicycles. The wheels are made especially for military service. The distance of 1,500 miles from Fort Missoula to St. Joseph was traversed in a remarkably short time, considering the obstacles in the way. Lieut. Moss says that the trip has been a rough one. He and his men have endured all the hardships of a campaign. During the first twelve days of their trip it rained almost continually. Slippery mountain paths and rough, muddy roads were traversed. At night the men slept on damp ground.

In the “bad lands” their sufferings were severe. Here, the water supply ran short, the men being obliged to drink alkali water from which several of them became ill. From the bad lands they entered the sand hills of western Nebraska where the heat was intense. Some days the thermometer registered as high as 108 degrees in the shade. At Rulo, the Missouri river was crossed and from there to St. Joseph the route was along the bluffs. Lieut. Moss says that the entire trip so far has been over either hills or mountains.

The journey has been successful from a military point of view. The men are all well at present and their wheels are in excellent shape considering the rough usage they have been subjected to. John Findley, who is a member of the detachment, is a St. Joseph negro. His relatives live here at present, and they were all very glad to see him. The average distance traveled by the men is 60 miles per day on good roads. In the sand hills they only averaged 38 miles. The bicycles weigh 30 pounds alone, but with the complete equipment including rifles, they weigh 60 pounds.

Rations are secured at intervals of a few days all along the road. The last ration station was Napier, Mo., and the next stop is La Clede. The Hannibal & St. Joseph tracks will be followed from here to St. Louis, reaching the latter place by next Saturday at the latest.

Lieut. Moss is a Louisiana boy. He graduated from West Point in 1894 and is now 25 years of age. Dr. J.M. Kennedy is the surgeon, whose services have, however, not been needed to any great extent. E.H. Boos accompanies the party as a representative of the Associated Press. After a rest of a few hours in a shady grove south of the city the little band of warriors mounted their wheels and rode off in the direction of Cameron.

- St. Joseph Daily Herald [St. Joseph, MO], July 18, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

Bicycle Corps Here.

The bicycle corps of the Twenty-fifth infantry, which started from Fort Missoula, Mont., to make a trial trip to St. Louis, arrived in the city at 1 o’clock [bad microfilm- next line is unreadable] good condition, although some of them were a little late in getting in.

The corps is in command of Lieutenant J.A. Moss and comprises one sergeant and twenty privates. A representative of the Associated Press is making the trip in company with the troops.

The corps expects to arrive at St. Louis some time next Saturday or Sunday.

St. Joseph Daily News [St. Joseph, MO] July 17, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

SOLDIERS ON WHEELS.

-----------------

A Detachment of Uncle Sam’s Warriors

Pass Through Cameron.

A novel sight was witnessed in Cameron Sunday—soldiers, fully armed and equipped for war, riding on bicycles. Their arrival here about noon created quite a commotion. They made the Park their head quarters and scores of citizens went to the place to get a look at them. They are a part of the 25^th Infantry, U.S.A., and 14 were in the crowd. There were a few others left behind who had been delayed on account of sickness caused by drinking alkali water in Nebraska. The soldiers are colored and are in charge of Lieut. J.A. Moss, a white man, who went through here on the cars Sunday evening, accompanied by E.H. Boos, a representative of the Associated Press. The only white man in the crowd in Cameron was Lieut. J.M. Kennedy, surgeon.

This detachment is making an experimental trip on bicycles from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis, Lieut. Moss having received permission from the War Department to put the idea, which is his own, to a practical test. The wheels are made specially for military service. The result will determine the action of the War Dep’t in mounting a large portion of the army on wheels for long marches.

They left Fort Missoula June 14. The distance of a little over 1,600 miles from that point to Cameron, was traveled in short time, considering the many obstacles which were encountered—mountain roads, heavy rains, hot weather, etc.

The bicycles weigh 30 pounds alone, but with the complete equipment, including rifles, they weigh 65 pounds. They carry a complete extra bicycle, each man carrying some part, so that any injury to a wheel may be quickly repaired.

It is safe to say they have not received better treatment any place on the road that was accorded them in Cameron. Soon after their arrival here Dr. W.A. Nixon and Chas. Rogers took them to the Park restaurant and treated them to a fine dinner. The surgeon, Dr. Kennedy, was the guest of E.F. Darby—took dinner with him, and in the afternoon Mr. Darby gave him a ride over the city.

The soldiers departed from Cameron about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, and expect to reach St. Louis on or before Saturday of this week. They are supplied with rations at various points on the line—Laclede being the next place east of here.

- Cameron Daily Observer [Cameron, MO], July 19, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

SOLDIERS ON BICYCLES

-----------------

Detachment of 25^th Infantry, U.S.A.

Pass Through the City.

A detachment of United States regular army arrived in the city Sunday evening on wheels, fully armed and equipped, and created considerable excitement and commotion among the citizens who were anxious to take a look at them. They went direct to the Fair Grounds where they camped for the night.

The detachment is a part of the 25^th infantry, U.S.A., there being twenty-three in all but only fourteen arrived here Sunday evening, two or three were taken sick as a result of drinking alkali water in Nebraska, causing the delay of several who passed through town Monday about noon.

They were in charge of Lieut. J.A. Moss and were making an experimental trip on wheels from Fort Missoula to St. Louis. On the result of the trip will depend the action of the war department in mountain a large portion of the army on bicycles for long marches.

The boys were in excellent spirits here and had ridden from St. Joe Sunday.

They expect to arrive in St. Louis some time this week. The distance from Ft. Missoula to this place is about 1600 miles and they average about sixty miles a day on good roads. They started on their journey June 14 and had met with many obstacles—mountain roads, rains, sand hills, hot weather, etc.

The bicycles weigh 30 pounds alone but with the full equipment weigh from 70 to 80 pounds. They carry their rations with them, with which they are supplied every two days.

With the exception of Lieut. J.A. Moss, Surgeon J.M. Kennedy and a representative of the Associated Press E.H. Boos, all the men are negroes.

- The Hamiltonian [Hamilton, MO] July 23, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

SOLDIERS ON WHEELS

A detachment of the 25^th Infantry, U.S.A., fourteen in number, all colored, except, the surgeon, Lieut. J.M. Kennedy, camped at the fair grounds here last Sunday night, departing Monday morning at 6:00 a.m., on their journey to St. Louis. They are in charge of Lieut. J.A. Moss, a white man who went east by train Sunday night.

This detachment is making an experimental trip on bicycles from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis, Lieut. Moss having received permission from the War Department to put the idea, which is [his] own, to a practical test. The wheels are made specially for military service. The result will determine the action of the War Department in mounting a large portion of the army on wheels for long marches.

They left Fort Missoula, Montana on June 14. The distance from St. Louis is about 1,600 miles. They have averaged 60 miles a day notwithstanding they encountered many obstacles in the way of snow storms, heavy rains, rough mountain roads, long sand stretches, hot weather, etc.

The bicycles weigh 30 pounds along but with the complete equipments, including rifles, clothing, blankets, bicycle repairs, etc., each man carried from 75 to 90 pounds.

Twenty-three started on the trip, some of them took sick from drinking alkali water on the route. Five of the delayed soldier came in Monday noon and proceeded east, and expect to overtake their comrades before they reach St. Louis, where they expect to arrive Saturday evening. They are supplied with rations at various points along the route—Laclede being the next place east of here.

The soldiers interviewed here were not “stuck” on the job and are of the opinion that the experiment will not be considered a success for the use of soldiers on long marches.

- Hamilton News-Graphic [Hamilton, MO], July 22, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

Somewhat of a stir was created Sunday afternoon in town when a detachment of the United States regular army came through on bicycles. United States regulars seldom visit Hamilton and a sight of a number of them fully armed and equipped would have been sufficient in itself to cause a commotion. To see them mounted on wheels was, however, an unusually strange sight.

Lieut. Moss received permission from the war department to put this idea, which is his own, to a practical test. On the result of his trip will depend the action of the war department in mounting a large portion of this army on bicycles for long marches. The superiority of the wheel has long been recognized in short marches, through level stretches of country, but the present test will decide the question in regard to long and rough marches.

The detachment, which is composed of twenty soldiers and the two officers, left Fort Missoula, Mont., June 14 mounted on military bicycles. The wheels are made especially for military service. The distance of 1,600 miles from Fort Missoula to Hamilton was traversed in a remarkably short time, considering the obstacles in the way. The trip has been a rough one. Lt. Moss and his men have endured all the hardships of a campaign. During the first twelve days of their trip it rained almost continually. Slippery mountain paths and rough, muddy roads were traversed. At night the men slept on damp ground.

In the “bad lands” their sufferings were severe. Here, the water supply ran short, the men being obliged to drink alkali water from which several of them became ill. From the bad lands they entered the sand hills of western Nebraska where the heat was intense. Some days the thermometer registered as high as 108 degrees in the shade. At Rulo, the Missouri river was crossed. The entire trip so far has been either over hills or mountains.

The journey has been successful from a military point of view. The men are all well at present and their wheels are in excellent shape considering the rough usage they have been subjected to. The average distance traveled by the men is 60 miles per day on good roads. In the sand hills they only averaged 38 miles. The bicycles weigh 30 pounds alone, but with the complete equipment including rifles, they weigh 60 pounds.

- The Farmers Advocate [Hamilton, MO], July 21, 1897

[This article is nearly a verbatim copy of the July 18 St. Joseph Daily Herald story]

_____________________________________________________________________________

The Twenty-fifth Infantry Bicycle corps camped at Laclede Monday evening and passed through Brookfield Tuesday morning. The company numbered twenty—Lieut. James A. Moss, Surgeon J. M. Kennedy and eighteen privates. They left Fort Missoula, Montana, June 24 to ride to St. Louis and back for the purpose of testing the bicycle as a means of moving troops. Complete moving outfits, including tents, cooking utensils, etc., all carried on the wheels, each man carrying sixty-seven pounds on his bike. They have made an average of fifty miles a day over the entire route. The first twelve days out it snowed two days and rained ten, nevertheless they made their daily average of fifty miles, and one day covered seventy-two.

Henry V. Lucas, of St. Louis, met the company at Laclede, and arranged with the officers to reach St. Louis this morning where the local wheelmen will meet the soldiers and give a big parade this morning. The corps will remain in St. Louis about two weeks before starting on their return trip. The privates were all colored men and the two commissioned officers were white. They looked rather “seedy” as they had been on the roads in dust, rain and snow for thirty-five days, but said they all felt much better than they looked.

- Brookfield Gazette [Brookfield, MO], July 24, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

Today about 10 o’clock a portion of the 23th [sic] United States infantry bicycle corps arrived at this place. They were on their way to St. Louis.

- Macon Republican [Macon, MO] July 23, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

A part of a colored regiment of the U.S. army passed through the northern limit of the city [Monroe City] last night [Wed. July 22]. They were mounted on bicycles, each man carrying his blanket, repeating rifle, tent, etc. They are officered by Lieutenant J.A. Moss, a white man. The regiment was formerly stationed at Fort Missoula, Montana but Lieutenant Moss desired to test the efficacy of the bicycle in long distances so he chose this method of going through the country. The party were headed for Jefferson Barracks where they will report and thence to Chicago. They have encountered bad weather and roads but have stood the trip remarkably well. They pronounce the bicycle a success as a means of army transportation. They have averaged 70 miles per day [sic - they didn't average that many MH]; there are few if any horses could keep this up for such a length of time as have these men.

- Monroe City News [Monroe City, Missouri] July 22, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

The detachment of the Twenty-fifth United States infantry (colored), under command of Lieut. Moss (white) who rode bicycles from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis, are encamped at Forest park and are receiving much attention.

- Marion County Herald [Palmyra, MO] July 29, 1897

[I could not find, in spite of looking very carefully, any articles in this Palmyra paper to indicate whether or not the Corps passed through their town on their way to Hannibal]

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Hannibal, MO

[Unfortunately, I could not locate any papers for Hannibal for 1897 at the Missouri Historical Society in spite of looking extremely carefully. I’ve also contacted the Hannibal library with no success.]

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Soldiers on Wheels.

James A. Moss, Second Lieutenant of Company F; 25^th United States colored infantry with twenty-three men, including James M. Kennedy, the surgeon, all on bicycles arrived here last Thursday afternoon from Fort Missoula, Mont., enroute to St. Louis, where they were due at about 9 o’clock Saturday morning [July 25]. The Lieutenant reported hard travel since their departure, June 14, making about sixty miles a day since leaving the sand hills, and of thirty-eight days’ time consumed in travel, they had about ninety hours of rest and meals. All were in good spirits, and as this is the first experimental bicycle trip made by a United States army corps, the officer in command was greatly enthused with the success so far attained. Lieut. Moss is a bright fellow, and a classmate of Lieut. Lang, whose matrimonial troubles have recently been ventilated in the Globe Democrat.

Lieutenant Moss and Edward H. Boos official reporter of the bicycle corps made the NEWS a pleasant visit during their brief stay in Louisiana.

-Pike County News [Louisiana, MO], Thursday, July 29, 1897

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Louisiana items…

A lot of dirty, worn-out negro soldiers arrived here [Louisiana, MO] last Thursday. They were testing the bicycle as a means of travel. They had traveled from Missoula, Montana, a distance of 2,300 [sic – it wasn’t that far] miles on bicycles. The [sic] had been on the road since the 14^th of June and had averaged 70 [sic-not that many] miles a day, through snow, mud, hot sand and all kinds of weather. The negros [sic] seemed to think the bike the proper thing for such trips, but you could hardly convince a white man of this fact. Each of these soldiers carried luggage—tent, gun, etc., that weighed almost 100 lbs.

- Bowling Green Times [Bowling Green, MO], July 29, 1897

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NEAR THE END OF THE JOURNEY.

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TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY U.S.A.,

BICYCLE CORPS HEADED FOR

ST. LOUIS

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HAVE TRAVELED 2,000 MILES.

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HUNGER AND THIRST, SNOW,

RAIN AND SCORCHING SUN,

BESET THEM.

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Lieutenant James M. Moss Says the

Trip Has Demonstrated the

Usefulness of the Bicycle in War

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Lieut. James M. [sic- his middle initial was A.] Moss, Twenty-fifth Regiment, U.S.A. and his bicycle corps will reach St. Louis Saturday morning and pitch camp in Forest Park.

During their stay the corps will be the guests of the Associated Cycling Clubs.

Henry V. Lucas rode out to Laclede on Wednesday to tender Lieut. Moss the hospitality of the St. Louis wheelmen.

At a wheelmen’s meeting in Forest Park Thursday night it was arranged to have the visiting infantry corps camp south of the cottage. Quite a delegation of city wheelmen will run out the St. Charles Rock road Saturday morning to escort them into town. After camp is pitched, Uncle Sam’s riders will hold a reception until dinner hour.

A 1:20 o’clock parade will form at the camp and move down Lindell boulevard to Grand avenue, thence south to West Pine and west to Spring avenue, where ranks will be broken. The participants will ride to the Pastime track, where an exhibition drill will be given by Lieut. Moss and his corps.

The formation of the parade will consist of a squad of mounted police, the Branch Guards Bicycle Corps, Twenty-fifth United States Infantry Bicycle Corps, the City Streets Committee, Associated Cycling Clubs and unattached riders. The parade will form in squads of fours.

The army riders will be in camp all Sunday at Forest Park, where local _________ riders and the general public can find how a wheelman looks after a 2,000-mile run.

Next week the corps will be the guests of their comrades at Jefferson Barracks where they will await orders from the War Department.

The men are all anxious to ride back to Montana, but in this instance their preference is for a train.

------------------------

A glance at Lieut. Moss and his bicycle corps is an insight into the real life of a soldier in time of actual war. “We have endured every hardship except being shot at,” says the young lieutenant. The men look it. They are actually a lot of weather-beaten scarecrows.

In the blinding heat of midday they pedaled into Louisiana, Mo., Thursday down the dusty Frankfort road. They wore blue jeans jackets, brown canvass trousers, brown leggings and the soft gray army hat. Their blue short coats were strapped with their blankets across their handle bars. Across their shoulders hung the heavy rifle and around their waists the ammunition belts carrying fifty rounds of shot. The bayonet ____ the clanked against the wheel frames and the canteen hung like a medallion before the luggage on the handle bars.

Once upon a time the colored mentioned existed in their uniforms. Snow, rain, sun, dust and perspiration hae reduced their outfits to neutral tints. Their leggings are gray. So are their gloves. The trousers especially reinforced are ragged and streaked with marks of dust and rain. All semblance of color has left their shirts, their natty blue coats couldn’t be sold for dust rags in a second-hand clothing store.

For all their woe-begone appearance the men are full of life. Their faces are drawn but their eyes are fine, their step is marvelously elastic, the hardship has made them hard as rocks and the excitement of the trip, as well as the attention they have received along the route, has put them in the best of spirits. The men came into Louisiana in straggling shape. Bugler Elias Johnson broke his frame Wednesday at Macon City and arrived Thursday by train. Later in the day Privates Sam Johnson and L.B. Dingman of Company F came in carrying broken wheels. Corporal Haynes of Company F smashed his front axle and came along to do the repairs.

Lieutenant Moss and Surgeon Kennedy came in ahead of the corps and made straight for the office of the Pike County Press to get hold of a L.A.W. map.

The Lieutenant was anxious to have Louisiana before night fall if he could get the proper information about roads up Old Monroe. Louisiana wheelmen were vague about the _______ over twenty-five miles out of town and the Lieutenant concluded to rest for a while.

Towards 4 o’clock the main body of the corps wheeled into town. Their arrival was the signal for preparations for a meal. Commissary stores had been awaiting their arrival at Louisiana and there was fresh hard tack, bacon and beans for dinner.

The corps carries its cooking utensils and provisions in diamond-shaped pouches fitted into the wheel frame. The commissary stores are then packed in these so that as little room as possible is wasted. Every man has a tin cup and plate, knife, fork and spoon in his luggage.

The stores carried are hard bread, ship-biscuit, canned beef, bacon, beans, sugar, coffee, salt, pepper and flour. These are the regular marching army rations.

While supper was being cooked the work of repairing the dismantled wheels went on. The men exhibited utter indifference to the sun. They cooked in a hollow by the river bank and ate off a big log, where the sun beat down on them. The repairers bent to their work, cementing tires, adjusting new frames and bearings in a heat that made the onlookers dizzy. Repairing was not finished at nightfall and the work went on until midnight, under the depot electric lights. When a man had his wheel in shape he curled up on the station platform and went to sleep. Lieut. Moss spent the night near his men. He found a blanket and a waiting room bench comfortable but Surgeon Kennedy spent his night in Louisiana in a hotel.

At 6:30 o’clock the last of the corps wheeled into Louisiana. They were Private Findley, Bridges and Scott. The former is the crack rider and boss repairer of the corps. His home is in St. Joseph, Mo., and he laid over there two days but easily caught up. At Hannibal, he found Bridges and Scott awaiting him with broken wheels. He fixed them up, then led them a merry chase into Louisiana to catch up. The thirty-six miles were covered inside of two and one-half hours.

After their arrival the bugle sounded “fall in” Corporal Haynes announced that when repairs were done the men could sleep until 2 p.m.[sic- that should be 2 a.m.!... Read on to see how the men rode in the middle of the night. - MH], when the start for St. Louis would be made.

The men fell out and went about their tasks. Lieut. Moss moved among them and his keen, quick eye noted every imperfection in their machines. He called them sharply to account for negligence. Private Sam Johnson was so busy entertaining visitors until midnight that he neglected to repair a broken axle. He was ordered to have his wheel ready and join his comrades by train at St. Charles. When he gets to Jefferson Barracks he will spend three days in the guard-house for his negligence.

An hour after midnight the sleeping wheelmen were awakened. Coffee was made, blankets were packed and guns shouldered. Just as the moon rose above the brush on the eastern shore of the river, the bugler sounded and the corps began the last day of their eventful journey.

They took the turnpike. After a twenty-five mile coast to Eolia they will breakfast and then push on to Troy. Thence the route will be to Old Monroe and from there to St. Charles and then over the St. Charles rock road into St. Louis.

-------------------------

The personnel of the Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry Bicycle Corps is as follows: Second Lieutenant James M.[sic] Moss, Company F, Twenty-fifth Regiment; Lieutenant J.M. Kennedy, Surgeon.

Sergt. Sanders, Corporal Martin, Privates F. Johnson, Proctor and Cook, Company B.

Corporal Haynes, Privates Findley, Bridges, Scott, Dingman, Company F.

Musician E. Johnson, Privates S. Johnson, S. Williamson, W. Williamson, Wilson, Button and Reid, Company G.

Privates Forman and Rout, Company H.

Lieut. Moss and Surgeon Kennedy are the only white men in the corps. Lieut. Moss says this is accident, not design. His command fell in with a colored regiment and when he obtained permission to make the trip it was granted on condition that the volunteers come from his own regiment.

Surgeon Kennedy is the only member of the corps not to volunteer. He was ordered to accompany the expedition and had to learn how to ride within a week. Like the rest of the corps he says he would make the trip over again if he had the opportunity.

The rest of the men, excepting Bugler Johnson, were wheelmen. Everyone at Ft. Missoula rides. When Lieutenant Moss asked for volunteers, he soon had men to pick his squad from. While their wheels were being made, the corps went into training to harden themselves for exposure. Ten days were spent familiarizing them with the new wheels. They learned to drill with their accoutrements and luggage. The Saturday before their departure they gave an exhibition drill for their comrades at Ft. Missoula. Sunday afternoon at 5 o’clock they set out in a blinding rain storm.

Each man carries on the trip at least 60 pounds of baggage. The gun weighs ten pounds. The cartridge belt with 50 charges almost five pounds more. Then there is a canteen and a bayonet scabbard.

On the handle bars a blanket, half a shelter tent, tin cup, two tires and several extra parts. In the luggage box, beneath the seat each carried his share of the provender utensils. The men who carried the coffee pots stuffed their blankets into them.

What happened along their 2,000 mile journey was briefly sketched for the Post Dispatch by Lieut. Moss. He is not so prone to exaggeration as his privates but what he says is enough to stagger credence.

“A man who is familiar with the country we have gone through will believe the story of our adventure, but a tenderfoot cannot appreciate it,” is the way the Lieutenant began his story. “We started out with the idea of proving the bicycle a valuable adjunct in real war. If we had to succumb to weather conditions or topographical difficulties my theory was all in the air.”

“It rained pitchforks the morning we started, and kept on raining for ten days. We kept up an average of seventy miles a day through it all. How? Well, we followed the Burlington road [they followed the Northern Pacific railroad to Billings, MT]. When the going was too muddy we road over the railroad where the ballast was not too rough. Often we had to walk, guiding our wheels along the rail. Again, we rode for miles with a continuous jolting that would make a granite paving like glass in comparison.

“Our tires held out wonderfully. When we got into Mullin’s Divide in the Rockies on June 1? [it was June 4-MH] we had to walk our wheels through six inches of snow. A week later we were going through the alkali plains of Wyoming with the thermometer 111 in the shade.

“We generally rode from daybreak until 10 o’clock, slept through the heat of the day and rode again from 5 o’clock until dark. When the moon was up and the roads were fair we pushed on at night. We only lost three days on the way. Our stop over’s were at Ft. Harrison, Ft. Custer and Broken Bow, Neb.

“Heat and cold were not our worst experience. In the alkali deserts the men rode as much as fifty miles without a drop of water with their lips parched and swollen. When they got water to drink it sickened them and increased their thirst. Mile after mile and day after day we pushed through prairie land without a house or a tree to break the monotony. It was a great relief to get into Nebraska and strike an occasional human habitation.

“We were always sure then of rations. In the Wyoming desert we often went for days on half rations and sometimes we rode for hours on empty stomachs. One morning we put in forty-two miles on coffee and two hard boiled eggs, not knowing when we would strike food or water.

“Our journey through South Dakota was alternate heat and cold, thirst and hunger.

“We learned that the story of good roads is a myth. People would tell us where we would find broad turnpikes and we would discover narrow trails—leading through swamp lands or foothills across which we had to lug our wheels.

“Many times we rode with our heads swathed in mosquito netting for protection from mosquitoes and sand flies and other insects.

“We expected hardships, when we started out, but nothing like what we encountered.

“There was no condition of weather we did not endure. No topographical obstacle we did not overcome. We wheeled across mountains, through sand hills and over hard and muddy roads. Seventeen tires and half a dozen frames represent the actual damage done in a 2,000-mile ride. Our tires actually wore out oftener than they punctured.

“The trip, to my thinking, establishes the bicycle’s place in military tactics. Think of the time it would have taken a regiment of cavalry or infantry to have made that trip. And the expense of the bicycle corps is one-third less.

“My object is to have the use of the bicycle in war developed. With eight companions I spent last summer in Yellowstone Park and we put in 1,400 miles awheel over the Rocky Mountains.

“You may think I am a cycling enthusiast. The truth is, I find no pleasure in riding. I take up my wheel as I would the handle of a plow. My only interest in it is its use in military science. I tried hard to get permission from the Secretary of War to make this trip from ocean to ocean, but he would not grant it. I hope that from the outcome of this trip I may get that next year. I want to get a bottle of water from the Pacific and empty it in the Atlantic.

“Before making that trip I will have a special bicycle built. The wheels we are using now were built for this trip with extra heavy frames and tandem spokes. If I make a trip across the continent next summer I will have a bicycle that a road rider wouldn’t recognize. I’m not prepared to unfold my plans yet, but I think I can get up a wheel that will stand any kind of going without the necessity of constant repairs.

“One or two men could have made the trip from Missoula ten days faster than we did. We could have cut down our record three or four days, but there was no necessity for pushing the men.

The bicycle is such a delicate instrument that the more men you put on a journey of this sort, the more you increase your likelihood of mishaps. There lies the interest of this feat. We showed that a body of men could push forward constantly without delays. Those of us who were held back for repairs were enabled to catch up with the main body and at no time did we fall behind our average of 50 miles a day.”

Surgeon Kennedy says that some years ago he read Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped,” and wondered if ever in his military career he would have to undergo the hardships of heat and cold that Allan Breck and his companion endured in their flight before the king’s soldiers. After what he has gone through in six weeks he says the story would make tame reading.

“Heat and cold bothered us less than hunger and cold. We passed many sleepless nights shivering around the camp fire and days when the sun beat upon the baked earth that had never know snade, but worse than that was the torture of thirst. The men stood the hardship wonderfully. They are peaked and drawn, but I hardly think they have lost weight despite constant diarrhoea. I went through what they did and though I lost weight in the first four hundred miles I have gained it back in hardened muscle.”

Lieut. Moss, who has made a name for himself the world over by his daring trip is under 30 years of age. He graduated from West Point in June, 1894 and in October was stationed at Ft. Missoula. His home is in Lafayette, La.

He is about 5 feet 8 inches high, thin and wiry. He has refined features, despite the hardships he has courted, and his manners are pleasant, though he shows unmistakably the determination that is the keynote to his success.

- St. Louis Post-Dispatch [St. Louis, MO] July 23, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

The U.S. Army bicycle corps that passed through here last Saturday enroute from Fort Missoula to St. Louis, were a rather sorry and bedraggled looking lot for soldiers. The roads, weather and distance all combined to give this effect. A journey made under the same circumstances and conditions on horseback, would have the same effect. It seems from this and other experiments and from observation of the military progress of other nations that the bicycle has a permenant and abiding place in army circles and will be exceedingly useful in war. It can, however, never replace the old reliable war horse. The horse is gifted with a certain degree of intelligence and in battle has been known to act with rare sense in aid of the soldier in the saddle. Actual experience will give the bicycle its practice field of usefulness as a war machine.

- St. Charles Cosmos [St. Charles, MO], July 28, 1897

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BICYCLISTS REACH ST. LOUIS

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Colored Troopers Complete Their

Record Breaking Ride From Fort Missoula, Mont.

St. Louis, July 24.—Lieutenant Moss and his twenty colored troopers of the Twenty-fifth United States infantry, at 3 o’clock this afternoon, completed their 2,000 mile record breaking ride on bicycles from Fort Missoula, Mont. After considerable delay at St. Charles, twenty miles out of the city, as the result of a heavy rain storm and because of the necessity of making needed repairs on their wheels, the hardy riders arrived at their destination here and immediately went into camp at Forest park, where they will stay until Monday. After that they will be quartered at Jefferson barracks until their return to Montana.

A reception committee, at whose head was Hon. H.V. Lucas, met the infantrymen out several miles and escorted them into the city. The committee had made extensive preparations for the care of the men, who will be liberally entertained during their stay in St. Louis. Thousands of enthusiastic cyclists welcomed them at the park.

In an interview, Lieutenant Moss said: “We left Fort Missoula, Mont., Sunday, June 14, intending to cover the 2,000 miles between there and St. Louis in six weeks. We are finishing easily and in good condition within the proposed limit. Our trip has been eminently successful. It is the biggest bicycle tour by any army of organized men on record. It has proven beyond peradventure my contention that the bicycle has a place in modern warfare.”

- Kansas City Journal [Kansas City, MO], July 18, 1897

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2000 MILES ON WHEELS.

---------------

LONG-DISTANCE RIDE OF TWENTY-FIFTH

UNITED STATES INFANTRY BICYCLE CORPS

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FROM MONTANA TO ST. LOUIS

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Over Snow-Capped Mountains and

Across Vast Stretches of

Alkali Desert

------------

TRIP MADE IN FORTY-ONE DAYS

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Riders Endure Hunger and Thirst,

Snow, Rain and Scorching Sun.

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Twenty two men on bicycles, grimy, rain soaked, weather –beaten and tattered rode up to the cottage in Forest Park at 6:45 o’clock last night. A hundred odd cyclists cheered them as they dismounted.

Henry V. Lucas, president of the Associated Cycling clubs of St. Louis, stepped out and grasped the hand of the sun-browned young man who led the corps of riders. He called for three cheers and a tiger and they were given heartily.

That was the end of the 2,200-mile ride of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, U.S.A., bicycle corps, from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis—the greatest feat in the history of the latest development in the science of warfare.

The little band of enthusiastic spectators knew that every grimy rider was a hero who had endured adventure beyond the wildest flights of imaginative romanticists.

They had crossed from the furthermost corner of the States to the heart of the Mississippi Valley. For forty-one days they had ridden an average of 53 ½ miles a day. They had slept under the stars. Rain and snow had pelted them. The sun scorched them until they fell exhausted in the road.

Negroes though they were the cyclists of St. Louis who could appreciate their feat were glad to welcome them with honor and make them their guests.

------------

The corps will rest in St. Louis for a week at least until orders are received from the War Department for their return to their post in the far Northwest.

Today and Monday they will be in camp on the hill just south of the cottage in Forest Park. The public will have ample chance to see what men look like after a 2,200 mile bicycle ride.

This morning under escort of the Associated Cycling Clubs of St. Louis, the corps will parade through Forest Park, east on Lindell boulevard to Grand avenue, south to West Pine boulevard, thence west to Spring avenue back to Lindell boulevard and return to camp.

The parade will form at the cottage at 10 o’clock sharp. A detachment of mounted police , the Branch Guards Bicycle Club, the Associated Cycling Clubs and City Streets Committee will be in line.

In the afternoon the corps will give an exhibition drill on the Y.M.C.A. grounds in the park. Monday they will remain in camp and Tuesday they will wheel to Jefferson Barracks.

Once at the military reservation they will do--[?] their picturesque tatters. In new uniform all traces of the trip will be at an end.

Lieut. Moss, Lieut. Kennedy, the surgeon and Mr. Edward Boos, a civilian who accompanied the corps in the capacity of official reporter, will be the objects of great ----- attention while in the city. They have been tendered the courtesies of the University Club and Mr. Henry V. Lucas will be their social mentor which means they will have an enjoyable time in every possible way.

Rain and mud made the closing hours of the memorable ride an echo of the first two weeks.

On Sunday, June 14, the corps set out from Fort Missoula one of Uncle Sam’s military posts in the northwest corner of far-off Montana. The start was made at daybreak in a blinding rainstorm. The rain kept up for two weeks, but the corps pushed on, riding the railroad ties where the ballast would permit, and walking where the roads were impassable.

When they struck a stream they forded it, rider and wheel alike indifferent to water. At Mullan’s Divide, in the Rocky Mountains, the corps pushed their wheels through six inches of snow.

The men paid heavily for their rapid riding and Surgeon Kennedy had three cases of heat prostration on his hands.

William L. Sachtleben, the globe girdling cyclist; William Chase and William Sanderson of St. Louis rode out to St. Charles to pilot the corps into the city.

At 1 o’clock the start was made. The corps rode the Wabash track into Bonlis and then took a half hour’s walk through the slush to the St. Charles Rock road. They had an easy spin then into the city.

The corps entered St. Louis at Wellston and rode to Rinkle’s, where Henry Lucas and a big delegation of local wheelmen awaited them.

Among the party were George Durant, Cliff Allen, Will Nisket, T. Henry Kent, Ed Simmons, Julius Toy, Harry Crow, C.C. Branch Guards Bicycle Corps un-uniformed.

The brigade moved east on Easton avenue to Union boulevard and cut across the park. It was met at the entrance by Sergt. Callens and four mounted aides.

The blue-coats cleared the roads as the troop rode swiftly over the gravel roadways.

There was a running fire of cheers from the throng of pleasure-seekers that was caught up by the waiting crowd at the cottage as the procession was seen moving across the bridge at the foot of the hill.

The local cyclists made a detour and lined up along the cottage to let the corps pass in review as it ended its memorable journey.

Lieut. Moss, with Lieut. Kennedy and Mr. Boos, rode five wheel lengths in front of the corps that followed after in platoons of fours.

The men wore their faded blue coats, their rifles were slung across their shoulders and their bayonet scabbards clanked against their wheel frames.

They moved swiftly up the hill as perfect in formation as a troop of cavalry. When the word “Halt!” came they dismounted and their faces were illumined with broad grins. The end of their adventure had come.

A moment later they moved up the hill, walking their wheels. They aligned in review. Lieut. Moss said: “Our trip is ended. I thank you for your fortitude. You will now rest wheels and fall in for mess.”

The cycles were banked against the trees and while the officers were receiving the congratulations of friends, Bugler Johnson blew the “mess call.” The men fell in and marched to the Cottage Annex, where they sat down to a hearty supper of beefsteak, tomatoes, bread and butter, milk and coffee.

The men will not have to look after their own food while they are the guests of the A.C.C.

After supper the men built camp fires on the hill, where Park Commissioner Ridgely had provided fuel and water. All evening they were the center of attraction for a throng of visitors.

At 10 o’clock the shelter tents were up, the blankets were spread and the men turned in for a well-deserved rest.

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The ride of Lieut. Moss and his men is a feat of world-wide interest. Military cycling has been the rage in Germany and France, but nothing approaching the 2,200-mile journey has been accomplished.

The conditions under which it was made mark it as a unique test of the bicycle’s fitness in warfare.

No condition of weather, no topographical obstacle was wanting. “We endured every possible condition of warfare, but being shot at,” is the way Lieut. Moss puts it.

“The trip has proved beyond peradventure my contention that the bicycle has a place in modern warfare. In every kind of weather, over all sorts of roads we averaged fifty miles a day. At the end of the journey we are all in good physical condition.

“Seventeen tires and half a dozen broken frames is the sum of our damage. The practical result of the trip shows that an army bicycle corps can travel twice as fast as cavalry or infantry under any conditions, and at one-third coast and effort.”

-St. Louis Post-Dispatch [St. Louis, MO] Sunday morning, July 25, 1897

_____________________________________________________________________________

SOLDIERS ON THE WHEELS.

-------------------

Arrival of Lieut. Moss and His Bicycle

Corps from Fort Missoula, Mont.

-------------------

The Greatest Bicycle Ride in Military History –

The Soldiers Received by a Delegation

Of Local Wheelmen-

A Street Parade to Be Given in Their Honor

This Forenoon.

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After forty-one days of weary travel, some over snow-clad mountain passes and others through the hot sands of the bad lands of Nebraska, Lieut. James M.[sic] Moss, 25^th Regiment, United States army, and his bicycle corps rode up the hill leading to the Cottage in Forest Park at 6:30 o’clock last evening, and completed their trip of 1900 miles from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis. It was the greatest bicycle ride ever taken by military troops, and marks an epoch in the history of army life. The tour demonstrates beyond all question the practicability of the use of the bicycle in military affairs, and proves that the wheelmen will cut quite an important figure in time of war.

The notice of the coming of the bicycle army corps had been published in the “Globe-Democrat” from time to time, as this paper had a special correspondent who rode a wheel with the soldiers during the entire trip. The wheelmen of St. Louis hae made ample preparation to entertain Lieut. Moss and show their appreciation of the corps of colored soldiers during their stay in this city. A parade will be given by the wheelmen this forenoon in honor of the soldiers, and Lieut. Moss will receive social distinction before he leaves the city.

The 25^th Regiment bicycle corps started with twenty men and two officers, Lieut. Moss and Dr. J.M. Kennedy, who is Lieutenant and assistant surgeon, from Fort Missoula, Mont., on June 14, the point of destination being St. Louis. Saturday they arrived at St. Charles, but the heavy rain of Friday night made the mud roads a bad muck and retarded the corps on its way to St. Louis. Therefore, the corps did not arrive, in St. Louis yesterday morning, as was expected.

---------------------

The Associated Cycling Clubs of St. Louis will show their appreciation of the soldiers long ride by entertaining them during their rest in this city. William Sachteben, William Chase and William Sanderson, three St. Louis wheelmen, rode out to St. Charles yesterday and met the soldiers, and accompanied the latter into the city. Owing to the rain of Friday night the corps, after taking the ferry across the river at St. Charles, was compelled to take the Wabash Railroad tracks and walk two miles to Bonfils, and there they struck a dirt road that led to the St. Charles Rock road. Once on the latter road good time was made into St. Louis, and the sixteen miles to Forest Park were covered with ease and comfort.

Henry V. Lucas, at the head of a party of wheelmen, including W.C. Simmons, H.G. Crow, Henry T. Kent, George F. Durant, C.C. Hildebrand, Cliff Allen, Wm. W. Nesbet and others rode out to Rinkelville lake yesterday afternoon as a committee to receive the visitors and escort them to the city. The soldiers came into the city by way of Easton avenue to Union avenue where they were met by Sergt. Collins and a squad of mounted police, who led the way down Union avenue to Forest Park.

There was quite a crowd of pleasure-seekers and wheelmen at the Cottage in Forest Park to greet the soldiers. As the mounted police rode up the hill, followed by the local wheelmen, and then the travel-stained soldiers, three hearty cheers of welcome were given by the crowd at the Cottage. The soldiers dismounted and after a few minutes conversation between Mr. Lucas and Lieut. Moss, the latter ordered his men to camp on a hill beneath the oaks just south of the Cottage, which had been selected by the wheelmen’s committee as a most suitable spot. Lieut. Moss and Dr. Kennedy took supper at the Cottage with Henry V. Lucas, Henry T. Kent, Samuel D. Capen and other local wheelmen. The troops enjoyed a meal of rich, juicy beefsteaks and other substantial articles of food at a long table in the bicycle shed and they seemed to appreciate the repast after a days hot travel with nothing but hardtack and bacon and coffee to supply the inner man.

As the soldiers rode up the hill at the Cottage and dismounted they bore in their looks the evidences of forty –odd days of severe travel over mountain and desert for a run of almost 2000 miles. They wore blue jackets of jeans, brown canvas trousers, brown leggings and a soft gray army hat. Their short blue coats were strapped with blankets in front of the handle bars. A rifle hung across each man’s shoulder and around his waist was a belt carrying fifty rounds of ammunition. Canteens rattled against the diamond frames of the wheels and luggage boxes and cylindrical coffee pots were fastened to the wheels by thumbscrews. The recent intense hot spell the soldiers passed on the burning sands of the bad lands in Nebraska just after they had passed through a snow storm on the divide in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. Their faces last evening showed the effects of the heat, the dust, the snow and the grime of their long trip. Their uniforms showed the effects of the trip, too. Trousers were streaked, shirts were faded, hats were spotted with dust and perspiration, but the men themselves were not weary, apparently, as they walked about with an alacrity that surprised the observer. The trip was made without any sickness except in the case of one man, Jones, who was sent back at St. Joe, Mo., by Lieut. Moss. The men stood the trip well, some even gaining in weight.

“We have made a remarkable trip,” said Lieut. Moss to a “Globe-Democrat” reporter as he stood beneath a black oak tree near the camp and talked by a flaming oil torch last night. The Lieutenant is a bright and intelligent young man, of slim build, but wiry and quick in his movements. His face is sun-burned to a rich yellow color by exposure to the sun on the trip.

“While we arrived here on the forty-first day of our journey, we actually traveled only thirty-six days,” said Lieut. Moss. “We practically lost five days in waiting at ration stations. That is an average of 52 7-9 miles a day and I think it is satisfactory. Out of the 1900 miles we had to walk perhaps 300 or 400. The men have stood the trip well. I weighed 136 pounds when I started, and I now weigh 141 pounds. I [sic]make a report of the tour to Gen. Miles directly, and give him a statement of the total number of miles traveled and the total number of hours we were on our wheels, with the time we were delayed by accidents like punctured tires and other difficulties. The difficulties were not as numerous as one might expect. Only once did we run short of rations, and then we went thirty-six hours without food. That was in the bad lands of Nebraska. We shall remain here perhaps ten days, and will go to Jefferson Barracks. I do not know whether we will return on our wheels or not. I shall await orders from Washington.

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“Did we devise a system of packing? Certainly. It was accomplished as follows: On the front of the bicycle was strapped the knapsack, and on top of it the blanket roll, containing one blanket, one shelter tent half and the tent poles. The haversack was carried either en the front of the knapsack or was secured to the horizontal bar well to the front. The clip was fastened under the coat with a small leather strap, and protected from the dust and mud by a cloth bag. The canteen was carried on the body. Every soldier carried a rifle on his back and an ammunition belt with fifty rounds of shot around his waist. In the diamond of each bicycle was a canvas luggage case. The cooking utensils are carried in a large tin case, resting on a frame on the front of the bicycle and securely strapped to the handle bars. A cylindrical coffee pot fastened to the front of the handle bars was carried by two men, and they rolled up their blankets and stuffed them into these pots. As little as possible was carried on the person of the soldier, for if place on the body, in addition to carrying the actual weight of the object, the soldier would also experience more or less physical exhaustion from the weight bearing down on the body. Furthermore, one falling from a wheel with much weight secured to the body is much more likely to sustain an injury than a person whose limbs and body are entirely free and unhampered. We worked out our system of packing on our Yellowstone Park trip last year, and being thoroughly familiar with the handling, care and use of our machines we were ready to make the long trip. The wheels weigh 31 pounds each. The average weight of a wheel, with rider and supplies, is 232 pounds.

“Yes, the bicycle as a machine for military purposes is attracting the attention of military men in this country and abroad. In foreign armies the matter has been brought to a much more practical stage than in this country. France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and other European powers have regularly organized bicycle corps as component parts of their standing armies. The National Guard of Connecticut was the first military organization in the United States to experiment with the bicycle. Since then quite a number of experiments have been made by officers of the regular army and the national guard. Nearly all of them have been tests of rapidity, and little or nothing has been done to testing the bicycle as a means of transportation. Although comparatively little has so far been done in the regular army until this trip was made, the prospects for military cycling are very promising. Recent experiments have awakened widespread interest in the matter and now that Gen. Miles, who is an enthusiast on the subject, is in command of the army, officers interested in the work have a fine opportunity to push their favorite enterprise.

“The bicycle has been found useful in reconnoitering different sections of the country. The 25^th United States Infantry Bicycle Corps was organized in July 1896, at Fort Missoula, Mont., having for its purpose the thorough testing of the bicycle for military use in both level and mountainous country. The men are good ordinary riders, chosen on account of their reliability, from the four companies stationed at Fort Missoula. After a little practice the corps became quite expert in jumping fences and fording streams. It would take us only twenty seconds to halt, get over an ordinary fence and start again. Several times we got over with very little difficulty, a board fence 9 feet high, the bicycles being packed in heavy marching order. In fording streams not more than 10 or 12 inches deep the wheels were either rolled or carried across. In deep water, especially with a swift current, every wheel was carried across by two soldiers, the bicycle resting on a strong stick at the junction of the neck and lower bar of the diamond, either end resting on one shoulder of the soldier, one being on either side and the men steadying the wheels with their hands.”

From 10 to 10:30 a.m. today the Associated Cycling Clubs and L.A.W. will give a reception at the Cottage in Forest Park in honor of Lieut. Moss and his bicycle corps. At 11 o’clock there will be a parade, which will form at the camp and move to the Clayton road, thence east to King’s highway north to Lindell boulevard, east to Grand avenue, south to West Pine, west to McPherson, then to Taylor avenue and back to camp. The formation of the parade will consist of a squad of mounted police, the Branch Guard Bicycle Corps, 25^th United States Infantry Bicycle Corps, then city streets committee of the L.A.W. Associated Cycling Clubs and unattached riders. The parade will form in squads of fours. The regular army cyclists will be in camp all day in Forest Park. The Branch Guards Bicycle Corps will meet at the armory at 9 o’clock sharp this morning.

- St. Louis Globe-Democrat [St. Louis, MO], July 25, 1897

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WHEELMEN AT FOREST PARK

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Thousands of Local Cyclists Inspect the

Army Bicycle Corps’ Camp.

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Many of the Visitors Disappointed at the

Absence of Lieut. Moss –Colored

Members Eat Watermelon—

Scenes and Incidents

At the Camp.

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In these early days of the usefulness of the bicycle the man or woman who makes a century run is looked upon as a sort of wheelman or wheelwoman paragon. Records are made and carefully preserved of these feats of endurance and the performers are not only proud of their feats, but members of rival cycle clubs hold them up to the rest of the wheeling world as the product of that particular section of the city from which they hail.

The professional cyclist is about as much a curiosity—and about as distinct a one—as is the professional deliverer of solar plexor blows. Old Solomon gained a reputation for wisdom many centuries ago by the declaration that there is nothing new under the sun. At this particular time Solomon and the most of his direct descendants are completely out of the game. But there have appeared a host of men and women who have fulfilled old Mother Shipton’s prophecy that “carriages without horses shall go.” Ten thousand living, riding examples of this prophetic vision scorched into Forest Park yesterday to inspect the condition and accoutrements of the detachment of the 25^th Regiment, U.S.A., which is on experimental trip, the object of which is to show the efficiency of the bicycle in army manuevers.

The arrival of the corps under the command of Lieut. James M.[sic] Moss was chronicles in Sunday’s “Globe-Democrat” Arrangements had been made to give these hardy pioneers in a new field the recognition their service deserved. A reception was arranged for yesterday morning and several drills were to have occurred to show the local bicyclists that their attentions were not unappreciated. Old Jupiter Pluvius, however, drowned the war-visaged front of old Mars and cast a damp and watery gloom over the programme. The events that were chronicled were declared off principally because there were few to witness them.

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When the clouds rolled by and the genial sun stuck his shining face between the forbidding masses, the heavens as well as the earth below felt the influence of his cheering presence. Way down town, bicycle suits were drawn from their hanging places, wheels which had been stowed away to enjoy a day of rest were ruthlessly wheeled from their dark corners and the road to Forest Park was dotted with men, women and children going, not to welcome particularly, but to inspect critically the flower of the United States army.

Behind the cottage, that Elysium of the thirsty, that haven of the sweltering beyond the bicycle sheds, far up in the grove where the umbrageous trees protect the lazy loungers, the bicycle corps had pitched their tents. Hundreds of cyclists sought this sylvan retreat. Hundreds of daintily shod feet pedaled the way for natty summer costumes and dainty exhibitions of the milliners art to this Mecca of wheelmen. As many hundreds of knee-breeched men accompanied their daintier companions.

Around the camp a thousand bloomered girls and perhaps twice as many men in the plain representations of the costumes of their prototypes, the courtiers of Louis XIV, stared with wide open eyes and asked with ill-concealed curiosity, “Where are they?”

“They” were about but unsuspected. Seven army tents made the camp which was the object, next to its occupants, of the redoubtable corps. These tents were such as the men who now wear G.A.R. buttons were wont thirty-five years ago to sleep under. No higher than an Esquimau’s ice palace, with the dividing poles that made sparse quarters do for two, these little white extrescences of the greensward amused and disappointed.

“Where are they?” impatiently demanded a pretty girl with yellow bloomers and a filmy blouse, as she adjusted her headgear and picked her dainty boots out of the yielding clay, into which their heels were fast sticking.

“Where are they?” echoed back the thousands who peered into the dog tents and anxiously awaited the appearance of a twenty-three-century cyclist.

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“I’m one, sah,” said a stalwart fellow with a face as black as the forbidding clouds that were darkening the heavens.

Black Jack, for that was the name of the renowned wheelman of the 25^th Regiment Bicycle Corps, was “one of them.” Black Jack had pushed his wheel through inches of snow in crossing the rocky divide, had pedaled with parched lips and gnawing stomach through the burning sands of Nebraska, and had experienced the pangs of hunger and the desire to wring a pullets neck even when passing through the nature blessed section of Missouri.

There wasn’t much for the curious to see at the camp. Of the twenty-one men who rode into St. Louis, nineteen were colored. Lieut. Moss and Dr. Ferguson [sic – that should be Kennedy] were the only white men. The only other man who started with the corps was a poor colored fellow who grew sick and was sent back much to his regret.

The wheels of the men who had ridden 2380 miles over mountain tops, across canyons, up hills and through dales; through the snows of the high altitudes and in the burning sands and murky roads of the most eastern states, rested like tired steeds. Against the patriarchal elms of the park forest these chained steeds of the new age of locomotion leaned, and hundreds gazed in admiration and inspected with the eye of experts the mechanism that the survived so long a journey.

The wheels were of the Spalding make. Each one carried besides its rider, who was a man of from 140 to 180 pounds sixty-two pounds of accoutrements. Across the back of each dusky rider was strung a gun that weighed 10 pounds. His cartridge belt weighed five more. Then he had his canteen dangling from his wheel, and his bayonet in its neat fitting scabbard. In the handle bar a blanket, half a shelter tent, tin cup, two tires and several extra parts were carried. In the triangular luggage box beneath each seat was carried the provender of the company.

The black wheelmen rode in file, with their white leader, Lieut. Moss, in the advance. The men were compelled to keep together because it was necessary that all should line up together for a meal. One man carried the baked beans, another the bacon, all of them carried beer, and so, so, so that the presence of the canteen was a necessary before the meal could be served. This kept white men and black as close together as brothers for thirty-eight long days.

Many of the visitors to Forest Park were greatly disappointed. Thousands of wheelmen came to pay their respects to the men who were making a test that may mean a revolution in army tactics. When they arrived they found that the only white officers had gone to Jefferson Barracks to spend the afternoon. About all they learned from the black negroes was that they had been hungry on the way, and were glad to get to St. Louis, or anywhere else, where they could get three square meals a day.

“It’s agin the rules to talk, boss,” said Black Jack, whose tongue had been loosened with 10c for “growler” money, “but the fact is that we didn’t get enough to eat on this here trip. Why, one day we rode five hours on one egg and a piece of bread. There were plenty of chickens on the way, but you know, the army regulations are very strict and we didn’t have any chance to get ‘em.” We had to cook our own food on the way, and the officers would have soon detected the odor, and an inquiry would have resulted. Many a time I have been tempted to stop at a farm house and beg for something to eat, but I was afeared to.

“But, now we’re happy,” said the stark member of the black corps. “We get three square meals a day, and the chances are that we many have to stay here three weeks.” As Black Jack enunciated the last words he smacked hip lips as if in appreciation of the provender already provided at the Forest Park camp and in anticipation of some more of the same kind.

One of the features of Sunday afternoon at the camp was the treating of the dusky riders to watermelon in the bicycle sheds. There is where the strong-limbed members of the army eat. About 3 o’clock five large juicy watermelons were brought out, and as if scenting the delicious treat from afar the bicycle troopers swarmed down from the big trees and in less than five minutes every seat was filled, and nineteen black hands were tearing holes in nineteen large red pieces of melon. Black Jack was the center of attraction, among the large throng that watched the typical Southern scene.

“We’d be a long time at Missoula before we’d get our faces in a thing like this,” shouted Black Jack, as he whirled the shining bayonet of his gun and placed his ivory teeth in the heart of a juicy quarter.

At least 500 people watched these colored men from the North as they performed one of the pleasant functions of their boyhood days in the South. It did them good to witness, their enjoyment, and there was more than one man in the party who remembered as he gazed the time when he put his teeth into the season’s first piece of the luscious fruit.

Today there will be a general reception from sun up to sun down, and this will be followed by a parade. The cyclists will assemble at 7 o’clock sharp and while the parade is in progress a concert will be given at the Cottage. Tomorrow there will be another general reception and between 7 and 8 o’clock an exhibition drill on the Y.M.C.A. play ground will be given.

- St. Louis Globe Democrat [St. Louis, MO], July 26, 1897

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ACROSS THE CONTINENT.

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THE SOLDIER WHEELMEN ARRIVE FROM FORT MISSOULA

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Traversed 1,900 Miles in Forty-One Days.

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THERE WERE ONLY THIRTY-SIX ACTUAL RIDING DAYS

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Made a Daily Average of Over Fifty Miles.

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ESCORTED FROM ST. CHARLES BY A “STAR” REPRESENTATIVE ON A WHEEL.

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MET LATER BY A DELEGATION OF LOCAL BICYCLE RIDERS

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Now in Camp at Forest Park—Programme to Be Carried Out in the Honor of Uncle Sam’s Men To-Day.

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At sundown, yesterday, twenty-one weary, hungry and battered cyclists pushed their heavily laden wheels up the hill that leads to the cottage in Forest Park. When they reached the plat of ground just south of the well-known resort, their journey overland of almost 2,000 miles was completed. The most marvelous cycling trip in the history of the wheel and the most rapid military march on record was at an end.

These twenty-one tired wheelmen composed the cycle corps of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, and were under command of Lieut. Jos.[sic] A. Moss from Fort Missoula, Mont.

A representative of the St. Louis “Star” escorted them to the Forest Park camp, the last of a series of good, band and indifferent resting places which have been their lot since June 14, the day they started from Fort Missoula.

The “Star” wheelman met the command beyond St. Charles, at noon Saturday, and piloted the soldiers over bottom roads and railroad tracks and finally the St. Charles Rock road to their destination.

The men wore Uncle Sam’s uniforms, but, except on close inspection, that fact was past believing. Not a man in the command, barring Lieut. Moss and Surgeon Kennedy, but had holes and rents galore in his clothing. The once blue cotton shirts and brown canvas breeches and leggings were covered with patches, darns and seams, and still the mahogany skin of the colored privates shone through in many places.

Withal they were a most unmilitary lot in appearance. Although the rifles, belts of cartridges and formidable sword bayonets marked them as men of war, the rakish campaign hats, worn in every conceivable fashion over stern set countenances, which weeks of hardship have developed, gave them an air of fierce independence.

But they were a well-disciplined lot of men. When the camping ground was reached, Lieut. Moss gave the necessary commands, and, instantly, each man set to work to carry out his individual part of the camp making process. In an incredibly short space of time, wheels were unpacked and stacked two together, and seven little tents nestled beneath the tall oak trees. It was not a “city of white” by any means.

The tents were turned to brown by the exposure to the fierce heat of the sun’s rays, and the snows and rains of many days. Each tent accommodates three men, although only four feet high and 37x7 on the ground. While the tents were being put up, the odor of cooking viands was wafted to the tired men of war from the Cottage. It was delicious perfume to their nostrils for they had not eat since 4 o’clock that morning and 38 miles of muddy roads and railroad tracks had been covered in the intervening time.

There was no work for the cook last night. Charles Schweickardt, proprietor of the Cottage, is to feed the privates at their tents during their stay in St. Louis, for which all hands are heartily glad. While the great crowd of sightseers wondering and inquisitive stood about the dinner was served. When the men fell in at the mess call, their eyes were bright and their step elastic. They were weary _____________[ paper was dog-eared when microfilmed resulting in a section that doesn’t show - MH] All thought of the privations________________ and those to come on the back _________________ forgotten. That they ate ____________ goes without saying. Provisions that would do for three their number of ordinary men were consumed in short order.

After camp had been pitched Lieut. Moss and Surgeon Kennedy, the only other white man in the corps, retired to the Cottage, in charge of the reception committee headed by Mr. Henry V. Lucas. The soldiers recounted their tribulations and successes of the long trip to the citizen wheelmen, who were attentive and appreciative listeners, until a much later hour that the officers had been accustomed to remaining out of blankets.

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Lt. Moss is highly pleased with the result of the trip, and not without reason. He is satisfied that the bicycle can be used to great advantage by armies.

In the 40 days which took it to Friday’s camp the corps covered 1, 892 miles. During that time five days were lost, which makes the average 53.2 miles for each 24 hours. This is a feat no cavalry or infantry in the world could perform, under the most favorable conditions. Lieut. Moss pointed with pride to their record. According to military statistics, his command traveled just three times as fast as an infantry regiment, and it would have taken a troop of cavalry four times as long to cover the distance.

It was the original intention of Lieut. Moss to reach St. Louis July 31. He calculated to average 50 miles a day at the utmost, although he was desirous of pushing on as rapidly as possible.

The men stood the trip very well. There is not one on the sick list, and only one man had to be sent back. He claimed to be too ill to go further when St. Joseph was reached, and was ordered back to Fort Missoula by rail. The greatest trouble experienced was in the “bad lands” of Nebraska, where the alkali water sickened every man in the corps. There were over two hundred miles of scorching sand, with the thermometer always at 110 or over. Water stations were far apart and when the fluid could be had it was worse than nothing.

Lieut. Moss was one of the first to succumb. When a habitable section, a “God’s country,” as the privates say, was reached again, the sick men speedily recovered. Heat also retarded progress greatly, and breakdowns of various kinds aided in delaying the corps.

Whether the return trip will be made by wheel Lieut. Moss is not sure. He is of the opinion that the corps will return to its regiment in the way in which it came here. The matter rests entirely with the Secretary of War, under whose instructions Lieut. Moss is acting. The Lieutenant’s orders were to organize a bicycle corps of twenty men from the regiment and march to St. Louis. The presumption is that, since the trip has proven entirely successful from a military point of view the War Department will order the corps back to Fort Missoula by wheel.

The only programme mapped out so far is for a parade and drill. This morning a reception will be held until 10 o’clock. At 10:30 a parade will form at the camp and start sharply at 11 o’clock from camp over the Cottage road, south to Clayton road, east to King’s highway, north to Lindell avenue, east to Grand avenue, south to West Pine, west to Spring avenue, north to Lindell and west to King’s highway, where the parade will disband.

The order of the parade will be as follows:

Squad of mounted police, Branch Guards, Lieut. Moss and the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry Bicycle Corps, the City Streets Committee, the Associated Cycling Corps and all other bicycle clubs that may appear: this followed by unattached riders who are cordially invited to participate in celebrating this great achievement of the wheel.

A reception will be held until 3 p.m. At 4 p.m. there will be a drill on the Y.M.C.A. play grounds at Forest Park.

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Lieut. Moss and his men have come through all kinds of country and have experienced every climatic condition from freezing temperature and snowstorms in the Rocky Mountains to the sweltering heat of the sand hills in Nebraska.

Rain, mud, snow and sand have been cast in their lot for the past six weeks. As they neared the goal, high hopes were indulged in that the last few days would be easy going. The final march into St. Louis was especially looked forward to as a sort of triumphal parade over gravel boulevards, with the sun smiling down upon them and all the populace applauding.

A programme had been arranged by local wheelmen with this idea in view and Lieut. Moss was kept posted on the arrangements as they were made.

Rain spoiled it all, however. Yesterday, the last day on the road was one of the hardest during the entire trip.

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According to Lieut. Moss’ schedule, he was to reach St. Charles, which is 22 miles from St. Louis, by wagon road, at 3 p.m. Saturday.

A representative of “The St. Louis Star,” on a wheel, was there to meet him. The only authoritative information to be had at that hour was to the effect that the corps had left Troy, 35 miles north, at noon, and would reach St. Charles at sundown. The heat became oppressive and the Lieutenant called a halt to recuperate the men shortly after leaving Troy.

At 5 o’clock the march was resumed and despite every effort to push the men along only ten miles had been covered when darkness overtook them. It was a black night and an impending storm decided Lieut. Moss to make camp, which was done midway between St. Peter and St. Paul [near modern-day O’Fallon?].

At 4 o’clock Saturday morning the reveille was sounded and breakfast prepared. The last rations were consumed.

However, St. Louis was only thirty-seven miles away and from the reports of the roads it was expected that Forest Park could be made by 10 o’clock. Surgeon Kennedy was sent ahead by wagon road with six men. The early morning hours were sultry and a great bank of black clouds that loomed up beyond where the Missouri River lay presaged rain. After getting fairly started the weather grew more threatening every moment and Surgeon Kennedy hustled his division along to get over the twelve miles of gumbo bottom road to be covered ahead of the downpour, which seemed imminent.

He had just reached the macadam pike which runs out three miles from St. Charles, when the storm broke. The water seemed to pour from the clouds, which had now spread over all the sky. No shelter was to be had. The men made such shirt as they could against the water with their tents.

On the side of the road they stood and sat and squatted, with the rain beating down upon their canvas coverings, waiting for the other division of the corps to show up. Hour after hour they fulfilled this task, but no soldiers appeared, down the road, which, soon after the rain began was converted into a sea of slimy, sticky black mud.

Finally, when the rain had abated somewhat Surgeon Kennedy pushed on to St. Charles. The men rode most of the way, and the citizens of that sleepy little town were amazed at the sight of the soldiers riding down the sloppy main street in a nonchalant manner, with the rain beating their faces and soaking their garments. The instructions were to await Lieut. Moss. The “Star” had in the mean time learned by wire that the lieutenant had reached St. Peters and proposed to stay there until after the rain and then ride the Wabash track to St. Charles.

This information was given Surgeon Kennedy, who marched his men to the depot. They arrived 11:15 o’clock and carried out orders by waiting.

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At 11:30 an urchin, who had taken a position some yards from the station whence he could command a view of the track for some distance, ran frantically into the waiting room and shouted: “They’re coming!”

There was an exodus forthwith.

The soldiers were coming up the track, pushing their wheels over the clay mud ballast. The figure in the lead was slim and boyish in general appearance. He walked with a long, steady stride, despite his incumbrance [sic]. On closer approach his youth became more apparent. His answer to the first question showed his determined character. When in conversation with him there can be no doubt of his fitness for the undertaking in which he is engaged.

“I will go right on,” said he; “we will not stop here for dinner. I want to reach St. Louis as soon as possible.”

While journeying to the ferry, Lieut. Moss expressed himself as being glad to trip was nearly over. He was anxious to make the ride in the best time possible, and the nearness of the destination increased his determination. He and his men had walked ten miles that morning and with little or no sleep the night before, yet his vim and energy was not weakened in the least.

Considerable delay was occasioned by a broken front axle. No repairs could be made in St. Charles and after an hour spent in search of a suitable part the entire corps boarded the tiny steamboat commanded by William Abels.

The murky Missouri seemed the last barrier on the road to St. Louis. Fairy tales had been told the members of the corps about the level boulevard which would lead from the other bank to St. Louis. Lieut. Moss was soon undeceived about this matter.

From the quagmire which serves as a landing place on this side of the river, the corps plodded through mud ankle deep for a quarter of a mile to a spur of the Wabash road. It was impossible to ride over the ties, and so the walk was continued. The party was now composed of the Cycle Corps, the “Star” man and Messrs. Sachtleben, Chase and Sanderson.

Bumpety-bump over the ties the wheels went. One stop was made in the first mile to repair a pedal. At a place called Bonfils, where there is a 2x4 frame station building, the railroad was deserted for a stretch of black mud, called by courtesy, a road, which leads to the St. Charles rock road.

The line extended for a quarter of a mile along the track. Several men were straggling far behind, and seemed awfully tired. Just after beginning the tussle with the mud Lieut. Moss called a halt at a farm house for water. It looked then as though some of the men would never reach St. Louis that night. After drinking great quantities of water they sank down in the shade and stretched out to get what rest they could before the order to fall in.

The sun was blistering hot, and not a breath of air was stirring. Surgeon Kennedy’s clothing was soaked through with perspiration, and clung to his athletic figure like a robe on a water fountain nymph. He was used to such things and a little sweat did not bother him. “It’s healthy,” said he.

The further you go on this road the worse it gets but there is none other which leads to the paved thoroughfare. The mud held out for a mile when signs of macadam were visible. Another stop was made to rest the men. Canteens were tapped all around, and 15 minutes spent on the roadside. The road improved a bit, and in another quarter of a mile the St. Charles rock road was reached. It was not in good condition by any means, being rough and muddy, by turns.

Here a great surprise was in store for the civilian cyclists. The soldiers did not climb the hills. Lieut. Moss explained this by saying that the strain of pushing a bicycle loaded with sixty pounds up hills of the kind that abound in this vicinity was too great to be withstood for long. He had found by experience that better time could be made by walking the steep grades. But the way they walked was a caution.

Lieut. Moss rode in front always. As soon as the grade began to be manifested in his propulsive muscles he got off and started to walk at a fast steady pace. Every man in the command followed suit. At the top the Lieutenant would look back to see that all were up, then mount and go ahead. They did not ride fast down the hills either. The machines were kept under complete control always by back-pedaling in order to reduce the element of accident to the minimum.

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Weariness became more apparent among the privates every mile. Frequent stops were made for rest and water, each of about fifteen minutes. The men were hungry as wolves, but being soldiers no complaint was made. They said little among themselves even. They stopped when their leader did and “fell in” again at his command.

Questions of all kinds were fired at the command when wagons were passed but they elicited no response, and caused no comment in the ranks.

St. Louis seemed a hundred miles away and at the top of every hill a dozen eyes would anxiously scan the southern horizon for signs of the city. When about ten miles had been ridden, one of the civilians discovered an old orchard. The fence was broken down and the ground overgrown with weeds. The trees, however, were laden with hard green apples, which to the colored troops looked like ripe pine apples. With the Lieutenant’s permission a raid was made. Several bushels of the cholera morbus producers were devoured in short order. It was then 4 o’clock, and not a man in the command tasted food for twelve hours. Hours fraught with work and worry. Perhaps that explains it.

As the ___________St. Louis diminished it would be supposed that the speed decreased but it did not. The game “plug” was kept up, and men who seemed on the verge of exhaustion at the beginning, although still apparently in that condition were still “grinding” along.

When the road had merged into Easton avenue and the houses increased in numbers along the route, considerable interest was taken in the strange company. People recognized who the soldiers were, ______________ were not feed occasionally.

At Offenstein’s Grove, near the seven mile house, the reception committee was met. Mr. Henry V. Lucas who has taken a great interest in the trip since its inception, grasped Lieut. Moss’ hand and shook it cordially. He welcomed the officer and his command to St. Louis. Handshaking and congratulations all around followed, and Mr. Lucas gave the Lieutenant the cheering news that everything was in readiness for the command at Forest Park. The privates were told that their supplies were only two miles distant. Then and not till then did this important branch of the army look upon the march as practically ended.

After a brief halt the march was resumed to Union avenue. The crowd of followers increased with every block, and when the park was reached there were enough wheelmen riding with the corps to form a regiment.

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Lieut. Moss who graduated from West Point in 1894 has been working to demonstrate the utility of the bicycle for military purposes for two years. His trip with a corps through Yellowstone Park was preliminary to the one just completed. He has had several interviews with Gen. Nelson A. Miles, commander-in-chief of the United States Army, on the subject, and that official is now much impressed with the feasibility of the idea.

After receiving orders to make the trip some time was spent in training the men for the task. Some had to be taught to ride. On June 14 the corps started with 20 men in the ranks, in the midst of a heavy rain. Their route lay through the old Mullin’s Pass, in one of the big divides of the Rockies, 6,700 feet above sea level. They were a full day in the pass with the thermometer below freezing and two inches of snow on the ground. This was on the fourth day out.

Then the descent began and there was exciting coasting for many miles. After sixty miles of down grade, which extended beyond Helena, the second big divide was climbed and crossed between Bozeman and Livingston. The valley of the Yellowstone River was traversed below Billings and a cross-country trip ended at Fort Custer.

The Wyoming line was crossed near Parkman, and the Big Horn mountains were crossed between there and Sheridan. The Black Hills were also on the route.

The toughest ride on the trip was, according to all accounts of men and officers, Rumford, near the Nebraska line, and Pine Ridge, Neb. In that stretch an ascent of 1,000 feet was made in twelve miles. At the hamlet of Alliance, a little further, the sand hills, or “bad lands,” begin.

The first day out from Alliance Lieut. Moss was taken violently ill from the effects of alkali water. He sent the command on ahead and lay down on the road side, keeping one private with hi. With no shelter from the sun save such as he could provide with a blanket and a barb wire fence, the sick commander remained until an engine was flagged and took him back to Alliance. In the meantime the corps went on under Surgeon Kennedy, averaging thirty-five miles per day, riding the railroad track. Nine men fell out on the first day, overcome by the heat and alkali water. As fast as one caught up another would drop out. Lieut. Moss went ahead by rail and rejoined the company at Dunning, 200 miles from Alliance [closer to 150 miles- MH] and almost at the end of the sand.

At Broken Bow a day’s rest was taken to recuperate after the trials and hardships experience in the sand. Roads were comparatively good through Lincoln and to the Missouri line, which was crossed at Rulo. From St. Joseph to Louisiana, Mo., roads of all kinds were encountered. The best riding on the trip was from Louisiana to Eolia in Pike County.

The entire time out was forty-one days. The actual distance covered was 1,900 miles. Up to Friday night the daily average was 53.2 miles.

- St. Louis Star [St. Louis, MO], July 25, 1897

BICYCLES AND ARMY MANEUVERS

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Trip from Fort Missoula Demonstrates

Their Value in Skirmishing

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Lieut. Moss is Now Writing His Report to

Gen. Miles and It Is Believed that It Will

Be Favorable—The Time May Come

When Every Company Will

Have a Bicycle Corps

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The trip of the 25^th Regiment Bicycle Corps from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis has demonstrated the worth of the bicycle as a means of army maneuvering. Lieut. Moss, who was in charge of the party, is now writing his report of the journey to Gen. Miles. What that report will be, army etiquette prevents the Lieutenant from divulging in advance of the receipt at the war office of his conclusions. It is known, however, that Lieutenant Moss is more than satisfied with the result of the trip, and it is believed that he has made important recommendations.

When the journey was first proposed the army officials decided that if the corps made an average of fifty miles a day it would be a success. The distance actually covered was 52 2/3 miles a day. The roads traveled were in many places about as bad as could be imagined. Near Wild Horse Creek the mud was knee deep and fie horses were required to pull an ordinary load. Through this mud the men were compelled to wade and carry their bicycles. At another point the corps encountered a hail storm that broke all the windows in a track eight miles square and piled up the round icy bullets 8 feet deep in the gulleys. It was under such circumstances, without food thirty-six hours on a stretch, and without water for a forty-mile stretch, that the expectations of officials were more than realized. The slowest time made was before crossing the main divide of the Rocky Mountains, when rain and mud so cumbered the whelmen that they rode but nine miles in a day. The best day’s record was seventy-two miles, made between the hours of 5 a.m. and 8 p.m., with a three hours rest at midday.

-----------------------------

The purpose of the journey, as has been stated before, was to make an official test of the availability of the bicycle for army uses. Nearly all of the objections that have been urged against the silent steeds were found to be groundless. Not an hour’s delay was caused by punctured tires and although the men rode helter-skelter down rocky roads which ended in broken bridges, none of the wheels were incapacitated. One of the corps was a former employee of the Syracuse (N.Y.) Bicycle Company and at the end of each day’s journey he managed to repair wheels so that the progress of the journey was not impeded.

In the German and French armies bicycle corps have for several years been used in skirmishing duty. The roads in those countries, however, are smooth and hard. Conditions in the western part of the United States are very different, and it was for this reason that the test trip was made. The uses to which a bicycle corps could be put are various. For courier work they are admittedly better than horses, and they form even a more rapid means than animals for the rapid transportation of small bodies of troops. For taking possession of mountain passes and carrying troops to guard and hold bridges the bicycle can be made of invaluable assistance in army maneuvers. One of its advantages is that it is noiseless and leaves a track that does not tell which direction it is going. It requires no feed and all the riders are available for service, while with cavalry every fourth man must be spared to care for the horses.

The limit of the utility of the bicycle in warfare can hardly be imagined. A device has already been invented for attaching a gatling gun and a German inventor has devised a folding bicycle that can be carried about in a small space.

-----------------------

Lieut. Moss was busy yesterday writing his report to Gen. Miles. This will consist of a detailed statement of the experiences on the way, the hardships encountered and overcome, the miles covered daily and the hours devoted to rest. The character of the road traveled will also be minutely set forward. Lieut. Moss has not hesitated to say that he thought the trip a success, and that he believed the bicycle would eventually be introduced in the army. While he will not say so it is believed that such will be the nature of the report he makes.

The bicycle corps is a pet idea of Gen. Miles and these two facts have caused a general belief that Uncle Sam will follow the example of Germany and France.

“I don’t know how soon it will come,” said an army officer yesterday, “ but I’m confident that it will not be long until every company in the United States army will have a bicycle corps of from ten to twenty men.”

The experimental trip which has just ended was a sort of joint undertaking. The Spaulding Cycle Company of Chicago, furnished the wheels and the government the men and rations.

E.H. Boos the young editor from the “Missoulian”, published at Missoula, Mont., accompanied the corps on its long journey. He and Lieut. Moss expect to collaborate on an article, giving the details of the journey, impresions of the future of army bicycle service and other pertinent topics of an Eastern magazine.

The dusky riders went through drills this morning at the Y.M.C.A. grounds at Forest Park executing a number of complicated maneuvers. Last night at 7 o’clock the corps gave an exhibition drill which was followed by a parade from the Cottage to the Clayton road to King’s highway, down King’s highway to Lindell avenue, thence to Grand avenue, thence on Grand avenue to West Pine, out to Spring, then back to Lindell and the park. The army corps was escorted by 300 local wheelmen and followed by a long line of members of the Associated Cycling Club.

- St. Louis Globe-Democrat [St. Louis, MO], July 27, 1897

Sketch of the Bicycle Corps Riders

2010-07-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

This is, besides the St. Louis newspapers, the only sketch or photo to appear in a newspaper account of the Corps trip that I know of. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, this newspaper, The Falls City Journal did not follow-up with a story to accompany this picture. You can read all about the Corps trip through Falls City as the closed in on the Nebraska-Missouri border by clicking here.

Nebraska Newspaper Articles

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[the following are all the articles I could find for the Corps leg across Nebraska. Blogger is somewhat awkward about how paragraphs are shown. I put a [P] in some of the larger articles to indicate paragraph breaks. - MH]

The Crawford Celebration

The celebration at Crawford on Saturday last was a grand success in every particular, the day was an ideal one for such an occasion—cool in the morning and evening and war in the middle of the day—and the crowd in attendance was much larger than anyone expected, at least from twelve to fifteen hundred out-of-town on-lookers witnessing and participating in the festivities and amusements provided.

Early in the morning, after the firing of the National salute, the Gate City band favored the people with several very excellent pieces of music, each of which was highly appreciated. This new organization is fast winning its way into popular favor, and is deserving of the patronage of our home people whenever its services can be utilized for public occasions.

Just before noon the bicycle corps of the Twenty-fifth infantry, which had left Edgemont at 4 o’clock Friday afternoon, arrived here and rode through town from the Northwestern to the B. & M. depot where they camped for dinner. The corps which left Missoula, Montana, near the British line, on the 14^th of June for St. Louis is composed of twenty-four men, and is accompanied by Dr. Kennedy, whom the Tribune had the pleasure of chatting with concerning the trip. Lieutenant Moss is in command of the outfit and this long-distance march is made for the purpose of testing the utility of the bicycle for army use. Each man carries his gun strapped to his back and sixty rounds of ammunition, besides his blankets, cooking utensils and accoutrements. A bicycle repairer with a kit of tools is also with the expedition, and the accidents the wheels have met with so far have kept him pretty busy. Lieutenant Moss’s wheel broke down several days before the men got here and he came on ahead. Three of the soldiers’ wheels also collapsed before they reached Crawford, all being repaired here by Ira Dietrick. They have had a pretty hard trip from Missoula, having found great difficulty in riding several days through the snows this side of the divide and through the gumbo country, and men and wheels look rather somewhat worn out. Dr. Kennedy says the men have enjoyed good health from the start and are all in excellent condition physically, while the experiment so far has proven a success, as they had covered a distance of about 1,000 miles in twenty days, an average of fifty miles a day, probably over far the worst part of the road. It was nearly 4 o’clock when the corps started down Second street at a lively gait, Professor Gungl’s Ninth cavalry band greeting them with the strains of Annie Laurie as only that band can play that piece while the thousands of spectators who lined the sidewalks on either side of the street rent the air with the wildest cheers to speed them on their journey. On the anniversary of the Custer massacre the corps camped on that famous battle-field. The result of this trial trip will be watched for with a great deal of interest both by the military and civilians.

All the races and contests of the day were pulled off according to program without an accident and in a very satisfactory matter. All premiums were paid in fall [sic- full] and a happier or more enthusiastic crowd never gathered anywhere to enjoy the ceremonies and festivities incident to the Nation’s great holiday celebration.

The dance at night at Firemen’s hall was not very largely attended by our people, although the boys had given their services without price in opening up the day’s program with several good selections. Only twelve dollars was cleared for the benefit of the band. This is hardly treating the boys right. If our people wish this splendid organization to grow better, or even to exist, it will be necessary to show a more liberal substantial appreciation of its merits.

- Crawford Tribune [Crawford, NE] July 9, 1897

______________________________________

A party of twenty colored soldiers from Fort Missaula [sic], Mon., camped near Alliance last Saturday night. They were accompanied by Lieutenant Morse [sic], a medical officer, and an associated press reporter. All were mounted upon bicycles, and each carried from forty to one hundred pounds, consisting of blankets, cooking utensils, guns, ammunition, half a tent, two days rations, repairs for the wheels, and all necessary and useful articles. St. Louis is their destination and the long journey is being made as a practical test to demonstrate the value of the bicycle in military operations. They rode Spaulding wheels, and there were eight different kinds of tires in use. The average miles per day at the time they reached here was forty-four, about eighty-five miles being the greatest distance covered in a single day. They start early each morning, resting several hours in the middle of the day, and riding late in the evening. The result of the experiment so far is said to be highly pleasing to the military authorities, and is being watched with great interest by the public in general.

- The Alliance Times [Alliance, NE] July 9, 1897

______________________________________

A troop of twenty colored infantry arrived at Hyannis Tuesday noon on bicycles. They came from Ft. Missoula, Mont., and are bound for St. Louis. They are riding the “Spaulding” bicycle, a test to determine whether or not wheels would be preferable to horses for army work. It was extremely hot when the boys arrived here, and a very few were somewhat fatigued owing to alkali water which does not agree with them, but they were standing the heat mighty well. They took dinner here and resumed their journey in the evening.

- The Grant County Tribune [Hyannis, NE] July 9, 1897

______________________________________

A bicycle corps of twenty-three soldiers of the regular army are expected to reach Broken Bow tonight. They are on a 2,000 mile wheel trip, under military orders, from Fort Missoula, Montana, to St. Louis. The troopers have had a hard time walking over the sand hills of the northwest, and are said to be footsore and weary. Nearly two-thirds of the distance has been covered and from this point on the trip will be a dream, over good roads and a well settled country.

- Custer County Chief [Broken Bow, NE] July 9, 1897

[The last line… “from this point on the trip will be a dream, over good roads and a well settled country” really gets me since I know what they faced up ahead]

______________________________________

Out of Sand Into Mud

BROKEN BOW, Neb., July 11-- The army bicycle corps arrived here last night, water soaked and tired. The run through the sandhills was completed without serious mishap and better wheeling is hoped for on the eastern runs. Heavy rain, however, is now falling and may seriously impede the progress of the corps.

- Falls City Journal, [Falls City, NE] Friday, July 17, 1897

______________________________________

Wheel Corps of the 25^th Infantry Spend a Day in Broken Bow.

The wheel corps of the 25^th infantry, enroute from Fort Missoula, Montana, to St. Louis, arrived in Broken Bow last Friday evening, just as a rain was beginning to fall, and took up quarters by invitation of the Holcomb Guards in Armory Hall. The troop consists of twenty colored soldiers from several different companies, under command of Second Lieutenant Jas. Moss, of the 25^th Infantry. Surgeon J.M. Kennedy and official correspondant , E. H. Boos accompany the party, the last three named being white. The corps had a hard trip through the sandhills of northwest Nebraska, as well as over the mountains of Wyoming and Montana. Lots of mud was also encountered, and on reaching this haven of good roads, the troopers concluded to rest up a day and overhaul their wheels. A certain make of wheel is used, fitted especially for the trip, a gear case of oil cloth being used to cover the chain. The wheels weigh thirty pounds each and equipments carried average about sixty pounds. Each carries an army rifle, slung across his back, 100 rounds of ammunition in his belt, a blanket, one-half tent and tent pole strapped in front of the handle bars and in the leather case between the frame, rations, cooking utensils and necessaries of all kinds. Several of the cases are of sheet iron, which when taken off and apart are two large pans, used for cooking in. One of the soldiers acts in the capacity of repair man and when a puncture or break occurs trades wheels and makes the repairs by the roadside, catching up with the squad as best he can, taking a train if too far in the rear. A supply of rims, handle bars, pedals and tires are carried along. Very few breaks or punctures have occurred, however, for so large a party and those have usually been from carelessness. The costumes worn are rather plain, blue cotton shirts, brown canvas pants, brown leggings, shoes, hats and blue coats, the latter being strapped with the handles. The marching is done in single file, and when compelled to walk long distances on account of mud or sand, they usually take the railroad track. While the greater number are experienced wheelmen, several are beginners, one soldier having had two days experience before starting. All are standing the trip well however, and one of the party stated that an average of fifty-six miles per day had been made. The trip is being made at the instance of the government, to demonstrate the feasibility of the bicycle for military use, and its advantages—if any—over horses. It will be a journey of 2,000 miles, over all kinds of roads, 1,300 miles having been passed over when this place was reached. All day Saturday was spent here by the company, leaving at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, greatly refreshed. They expect to reach St. Louis about July 25^th and do not yet know whether they will return awheel or on the train.

- Custer County Chief [Broken Bow, NE] July 16, 1897

______________________________________

A troop of twenty colored soldiers from the infantry branch of the standing army passed through town [Mason City] Sunday afternoon, on their way from Mt. [sic] Missoula, Mont. On their way to St. Louis, Mo. The trip is being made on bicycles for the purpose of determining the value of the wheel for long marches. The trip through western Nebraska was very hard on account of the excessively hot weather and poor water. The troop rested one day at Broken Bow. The troop is under command of James A. Moss second lieutenant Twenty-fifth infantry. They made the trip from Ft. Missoula, Mont., to Broken Bow, a distance of 1,300 miles in twenty-five days, and expected to reach Lincoln Tuesday night.

- Mason City Transcript [Mason City, NE] July 15, 1897

______________________________________

The 25^th U.S. Infantry Bicycle Corps of Ft. Missoula, Mont., on a trial trip to St. Louis, in command of Lieut. Moss, stopped in Litchfield Sunday afternoon and took several hours to repair bicycles and escape riding in the heat of the day. The company numbered twenty-three, all colored except the lieutenant and surgeon. They were accompanied by Edward H. Boos, official reporter, who furnishes a detailed description of the trip to the Associated Press and several papers. Bicycles has been successfully introduced into the army for speedy action at short distance, but the object of this trip is to test the advantage of the use of wheels on long marches. The presence of the company in camp drew a large number of people curious to learn the details of this mode of travel. They are averaging about 60 miles a day without trouble, and left this place about 6 o’clock.

- Litchfield Monitor [Litchfield, NE] July 15, 1897

______________________________________

Twenty soldiers from Fort Missoula, Montana came in this afternoon awheel making the run from Ravenna this morning. The lieutenant of the company, J. A. Most [sic], was seen by the reporter and stated that the company was en route to St. Louis. It started from the Montana fort on the 14^th of last month and has made 1220 miles since that date. The men are al mounted on Spaulding’s military wheels a modification of the road wheel, the trip being a government experiment. The men made 62 miles yesterday, making the run from Broken Bow to Ravenna. This morning they made forty miles and expected to make Aurora this evening camping there for the night. The company will leave this city this evening at five o’clock.

- Grand Island Daily Independent [Grand Island, NE] July 12, 1897

______________________________________

A detachment of United States colored soldiers from Montana, under command of Lieut. Moss, enroute to St. Louis on bicycles, camped in this city, Monday night. The object of the trip is to test the value of a bicycle for military purposes.

- The Aurora Republican [Aurora, NE] July 16, 1897

______________________________________

Twenty-one colored soldiers, with two white officers, on their way from Montana to St. Louis, making a government test of bicycles in transporting troops, camped here Monday night. They were riding Spaulding wheels, furnished free of charge to the government. They carried an average of eighty pounds baggage, and are making fifty miles a day. A reporter of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat accompanied them. They carried guns, knapsacks, 50 rounds each of ammunition, and tents, blankets, extras for wheels. They used the Goodrich single-tube tandem tire. They rode in single file and make a very imposing appearance.

- The Aurora Sun [Aurora, NE] July 17, 1897

______________________________________

A small detachment of the 25^th Inft. On their way from Missoula, Montana, to St. Louis passed through Seward last evening about 6 o’clock. The party numbered twenty-three and were traveling on bikes. They have only averaged fifty-two miles a day, the roads being so bad, but expect to do better.

- The Blue Valley Blade [Seward, NE] July 14, 1897

______________________________________

SOLDIERS IN TOWN

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Experimenters With the Bicycle for Army Reach Lincoln

The detachment of bicycle soldiers from the Twenty-fifth infantry, who are making the trip from Ft. Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis to test the efficiency of the bicycle for making long trips successfully, arrived in Lincoln at 9:30 a.m. today. They camped at Germantown last night, leaving there at 5:10 this morning. They were met at Germantown by Major Fechet, who accompanied them to the city. They will leave at 4:30 this afternoon for St. Joe. They left Fort Missoula on the 14^th of June, and have had a pleasant time, although all admit to being pretty tired. The experiment has so far convinced the commandant, Lieut. Moss, that the bicycle has a future in the army. They are encamped on the capitol grounds. They carry with them tents, poles and other paraphernalia used by cavalrymen on march. There are representatives of Companies A, B, F and G of the Twenty-fifth Infantry. Lieut. Moss being of Company G. The men carry extra tires and rims, and each man rides a different make of wheel.

- The Evening News [Lincoln, NE] July 14, 1897

[All of the men rode Spaulding bicycles except Boos, who rode a Sterling- MH]

______________________________________

WARRIORS ON CHARGERS OF STEEL

--------------------

Regular Army Bicycle Corps Takes a Short Rest at Lincoln

-------------------

Twenty Colored Wheelmen in Command

of Lieutenant Moss Making a

Test of the Bicycle

The bicycle corps of regular army soldiers arrived in Lincoln yesterday forenoon and remained until 5 p.m. The corps consisted of twenty colored soldiers from several companies of infantry stationed at Ft. Missoula, Mont., under command of Second Lieutenant James A. Moss, Twenty-fifth regiment. Surgeon J. M. Kennedy and Edward H. Boos, a young newspaper man , are members of the corps. The soldiers camped last night at Germantown, twenty miles from Lincoln. They started early yesterday morning and reached Lincoln about 10 o’clock. The men camped on the south side of the capitol lawn while the officers busied themselves about town, getting wheels repaired and hunting for information regarding roads southeast of Lincoln. [p]

The men attracted many people to their camp, especially cyclists, male and female. They were surrounded all the time by persons anxious to ascertain how they stood the trip, the time made and other details. The soldiers reclined on the grass after dinner and tried to get some rest, but the crowd of visitors made rest almost out of the question. Some tired fellows slept, however, with people tramping all around and over them. No tents were put dup. The wheels loaded with equipments were leaned up against one another or against trees. The wheels were all of the same make but eight different kinds of tires and both wood and steel rims are used. All chains are enclosed in oilcloth gear cases. Extra rims were carried ready for use in case of emergency. Other parts and repairs are distributed among the men. Each wheel weighs thirty-one pounds, including gun, cartridges, canteen, parts of tents and disjoined tent poles and all equipments, each wheel weighs seventy pounds. This weight varies with the kind of rations carried, uncooked being heavier than cooked rations. The various articles are attached to every possible part of the wheels. [p]

The soldiers are not gaudy in uniform. They wear blue cotton shirts, brown canvas trousers and leggings. Their hats are the white felt slouch of cavalrymen. Blue jackets are rolled up on the handlebars. [p]

The corps is on the way to St. Louis. The start was made one month ago yesterday and the destination will probably be reached July 25. So far the average distance covered each day is fifty miles. The greatest distance made in one day was seventy miles and the lowest was nine miles. The nine mile trip was made in Montana during a heavy rain in gumbo mud. The men had to walk slowly and stop every few moments to dig the mud off their wheels. In the worst of the sand hill country in Nebraska they made thirty-eight miles a day. The men have not been pushed so that it is impossible to tell how far they can go in a day. Nearly all are men who have had considerable experience wheeling. One man, however, had never ridden a wheel until two days before the start. He is now one of the best in the party. The experienced wheelmen keep up a little better, but so far the inexperienced men have kept pace with the others. [p]

The object of the trip is to test the practicability of the wheel for army service. Lieutenant Moss has had a corps in command for several months and some long trips have been made. At the fort he drills the men on their wheels. He as a drill suitable for movements on the bicycle, but the drill has not yet been made official by the war department. A part of the exercise is fence jumping. The speed with which men can ride at a fence, come to a stop and lift seventy pounds over the obstruction and then start again, is said to be equal to tests made by cavalrymen. No drills are given on the road, but exhibitions will be given every day after St. Louis is reached. [p]

The men take the railroad track in country where roads are bad. They ride in single file. Every other man carries a tent. The others carry an equal weight in blankets, or other equipments. Some carry big frying pans which are made in the shape of frame satchels, two locking together, fastened in the frame of the wheel. Two men carry big camp cans in which coffee is made. The reporter carries a flag and a camera. He also rode a different make of wheel. Rations are sent by the war department to stations along the way and the men call for the packages. The route is mapped out in advance and once determined on is not changed because of shipment of rations. The regular rations are issued no extras being allowed. [p]

Quite a crowd watched the men start last evening and several cameras were there to be leveled at the file, but the sun was obdurate and refused to shine. The route to be taken includes Roca, Hickman, Firth, Adams, Table Rock and Rulo. At the latter point the corps will cross the Missouri river. They will follow along the north bank of the Missouri river as closely as possible until they reach St. Louis.

- Nebraska State Journal [Lincoln, NE] Thursday morning, July 15, 1897

[The writer says, “The speed with which men can ride at a fence, come to a stop and lift seventy pounds over the obstruction and then start again, is said to be equal to tests made by cavalrymen” cracks me up. I keep picturing cavalrymen lifting their horses over a 9 foot fence- MH]

______________________________________

The 22 soldiers and one reporter who started from Fort Missoula, in Montana, west of the Rocky Mountain range, on June 14, passed through Adams yesterday morning, July 15, on their way to St. Louis. They looked like they would be good for an all summer ride. On Wednesday evening they had made 1,000 miles of their trip and camped at Firth. The trip of these soldiers from Fort Missoula to St. Louis is to determine what can be done in the way of moving troops over the country on bicycles, and the route which has been selected over the mountains and through the sand hills is certainly a good test. On the first part of the trip over the mountains, they encountered heavy storms of rains and snow, swollen streams, and muddy roads. When they passed through here the roads were good. The wheels are the Spalding [sic] military bicycle of the 1897 pattern. They carried their guns, rations and equipments for camping. One of them who stopped in town to repair his wheel said that he had worked at chopping wood, harvesting and other heavy labor but the bicycle trips beats everything to give a man an appetite.

- The Adams Globe [Adams, NE] July 16, 1897

______________________________________

The bicycle corps of the regular army soldiers passed through Sterling last Thursday forenoon. The corps consisted of twenty colored soldiers from several companies of infantry stationed at Ft. Missoula, Mont. They were under the command of Second Lieutenant James A. Moss, S. M. [sic – should be J.M.] Kennedy, Surgeon and accompanied by Edward H. Boos, a young newspaper man. They were on their way to St. Louis and the object of trip is test the practicality of the wheel for army service.

- The Sterling Eagle [Sterling, NE] July 22, 1897

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Soldiers On Wheels

The twenty soldiers from Ft. Missoula, Montana, who are on their way to St. Louis by bicycle, arrived in Tecumseh, Thursday noon, and remained here for two or three hours. The trip is being made by direction of the army department for the purpose of testing the efficiency of the bicycle for long distance marches. The men have been on the road about one month. They expect to reach St. Louis one week from tomorrow. The distance from Ft. Missoula to St. Louis is about 2,000 miles. The men are all colored but two or three and are under command of Leiutenant [sic] James A. Moss of the Twenty-fifth infantry, U.S.A.

- The Tecumseh Chieftan [Tecumseh, NE] July 17, 1897

______________________________________

The bicycle corps of Uncle Sam’s regulars, who are riding from Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis, on bicycles camped on the old camp meeting grounds east of town last night. The corps consists of twenty colored soldiers, under command of Second Lieutenant James A Moss. Surgeon J. M. Kennedy and Edward H Boos, a reporter for the St. Louis Globe Democrat, are accompanying the corps. They arrived in town about 8:30 o’clock and rode immediately to their camping ground. The wheels were all of the same make but eight different kinds of tires and both wood and steel rims are used. All chains are enclosed in oilcloth gear cases. Extra rims were carried ready for use in case of emergency. Other parts and repairs are distributed among the men. Each wheel weighs thirty-one pounds. Including gun, cartridges, canteen, parts of tents and disjointed ten poles and all equipments, each wheel weighs seventy pounds. This weight varies with the kind of rations carried, uncooked being heavier than cooked rations. The various articles are attached to every possible part of the wheels. The object of the trip is to test the practicability of the wheel for army purposes. They make an average of fifty miles a day. Out in Montana, during a heavy storm the boys only made nine miles one day, walking through mud almost knee deep. The corps left at 5 o’clock this morning and will reach Rulo today, and keep down the north bank of the river to St. Louis.

- Table Rock Argus [Table Rock, NE] July 17, 1897

[The Table Rock reporter appears to have lifted much of his story from the July 15 story which appeared in the Nebraska State Journal]

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Bicycle Warriors

The bicycle corps of regular army soldiers arrived in Humboldt this morning about eight o’clock but went on through to Verdon their next stopping place. The corps consisted of twenty colored soldiers from several companies of infantry stationed at Ft. Missoula, Montana under command of Second Lieutenant James A. Moss, Twenty-fifth regiment. Surgeon J.M. Kennedy and Edward H. Boos, a young newspaper man, are members of the corps.

Two members of the company stopped in this city at the Filson house and procured refreshments while the main body pushed on. Their presence attracted quite a crowd which spent the time while they were eating in careful examination of their wheels and a general discussion of bicycles in general. One gentleman of this city would have the crowd understand that he was a walking encyclopedia when it came to bicycles and clearly remembered when the safety [safety bicycle] was used over thirty years ago. This made the ears stand out on some of the boys who were some “huckleberries” themselves on bicycles, but the tone carried conviction that the “safety” bicycle had been in use over a decade.

The wheels used were all of the same make, but eight different kinds of tires and both wood and steel rims are used. All chains are enclosed in oilcloth gear cases. Extra rims were carried ready for use in case of emergency. Other parts and repairs are distributed among the men. Each wheel weighs thirty-one pounds. Including gun, cartidges, canteen, parts of tents and disjointed tent poles and all equipments, each wheel weighs seventy pounds. This weight varies with the kind of rations carried, uncooked being heavier than cooked rations. The various articles are attached to every possible part of the wheels.

The Corps is on the way to St. Louis. The start was made one month ago Wednesday and the destination will probably be reached July 25. So far the average distance covered each day is fifty miles. The greatest distance made in one day was seventy miles and the lowest was nine miles. The nine mile trip was made in Montana during a heavy rain in gumbo mud. The men had to walk slowly and stop every few moments to dig the mud off their wheels. In the worst of the sand hill country in Nebraska they made thirty-eight miles a day. The men have not been pushed so that its impossible to tell how far they can go in a day. Nearly all are men who have had considerable experience in wheeling. One man, however, had never ridden a wheel until two days before the start. He is now one of the best in the party. The experienced wheelmen keep up a little better, but so far the inexperienced men have kept pace with the others.

The object of the trip is to test the practibility of the wheel for army service. Lieutenant Moss has had a corps in command for several months and some long trips have been made. At the fort he drills the men on their wheels. He has a drill suitable for movements on the bicycle, but the drill has not yet been made official by the war department. A part of the exercise is fence jumping. The speed with which men can ride at a fence, come to a stop and lift seventy pounds over the obstruction and then start again, is said to be equal to tests made by cavalrymen. No drills are given on the road, but exhibitions will be given every day after St. Louis is reached.

The men take the railroad track in country where roads are bad. They ride in single file. Every other man carries a tent. The others carry an equal weight in blankets or other equipments. Some carry big frying pans which are made in the shape of frame satchels, two locking together, fastened in the frame of the wheel. Two men carry big camp cans in which coffee is made. The reporter carries a flag and a camera. He also rode a different make of wheel [a Sterling – MH]. Rations are sent by the war department to stations along the way and the men call for the packages. The route is mapped out in advance and once determined on is not changed because of shipment of rations. The regular rations are issued, no extras being allowed.

The corps will cross the Missouri river at Rulo which was their destination on leaving this city. They will follow along the north bank of the Missouri river as closely as possible until the reach St. Louis.

- The Humboldt Leader [Humboldt, NE] Friday, July 16, 1897

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[This article seems to be copied in parts from an article which appeared in the Nebraska State Journal on July 15. I wonder if Boos supplied many of the details over the wire. The Filson house where two of the men (I’m guessing Boos and Kennedy) “procured refreshments” was quite possibly a saloon. The June 5, 1897 edition of the Humboldt Standard (Humboldt had two newspapers!) tells us: T.T. FESSLER HOTEL

Came to this city on the first of April, 1896, and started a boarding house. His trade increased so rapidly that he found it necessary to seek larger quarters. He is now located in the old Filson house, has made it an up-to-date house and is able to accommodate a large number with board and rooms. ]

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Twenty-two colored soldiers together with the officer in command and an associated press reporter, both white men, passed through this place on bicycles last Friday. The detachment is on its way from Fort Missoula, Montana to St. Louis. The trip was undertaken to test the bicycles for transferring soldiers from one post to another. Nearly all of them arrived here about 10:30 o’clock and rested until after eleven o’clock when they continued on their way. The rest of the men were pretty badley [sic] scattered out, the last one, who was quite sick, not arriving until evening. They have been on the road a little over a month and expect to reach St. Louis by August 1^st.

- The Verdon Vedette [Verdon, NE] July 23, 1897

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[The Falls City Journal has an etching of six of the soldiers on their bicycles. Strangely, there is no article anywhere in this issue to explain the picture—only a captain “Uncle Sam’s Bicycle Cavalry” above the piece. Click here to see the sketch]

- Falls City Journal [Falls City, NE] Friday, July 23, 1897

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The twenty-one colored soldiers that started from Ft. Missoula, Montana, on June 15, under command of Second Lieutenant James Moss, of the Twenty-fifth regiment, Surgeon J. M. Kennedy and Edward H. Boos, a young newspaper man, crossed the Missouri river on Ferryman Graham’s boat here at different intervals between 4 o’clock last Friday afternoon and 12 o’clock Sunday forenoon. None of them stopped here any length of time, as they desire and expect to reach St. Louis, Mo., their designation [sic], by July 25. They are mounted on bicycles weighing only thirty-one pounds. The men wear blue cotton shirts, brown canvas trousers with leggings and wear the regulation white slouch hats. Their blue jackets, parts of tents and disjointed tent poles, blankets, water canteens, cooking utensils etc., are strapped to the machines making them weigh on an average of seventy pounds each. They are all of one make, but eight different kinds of tires and both wood and steel rims are used. A distance of a little over 1500 miles had been reeled off when they got here, the average distance covered being fifty miles per day. Seventy miles was the greatest distance they had traveled in any one day and nine miles the least. Out in the sand hill part of Nebraska they report having gone on an average of thirty-eight miles per day. The object of the trip is to test the practibility [sic] of the wheel for army use. Despite the hot weather all had enjoyed good health until they reached Salem [S of Verdon and W of Falls City] where some had to lay over on account of being afflicted with cramps, which accounts for the straggling way in which they passed Rulo

- The Rulo Reporter [Rulo, NE] July 23, 1897

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The colored regiment which passed through this city sometime ago enroute for St. Louis arrived at their destination before the date set for their arrival. The experiment proved a success and bicycles will undoubtedly be more generally introduced into the army service.

- Falls City Journal [Falls City, NE] Friday, July 30, 1897

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A LONG RIDE ENDED
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Troop Bike All the Way from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS, July 26. --The Twenty-Fifth United States infantry bicycle corps, which reached this city Saturday night, completing its 2,000-mile ride from Fort Missoula, Mont., in 40 days, 35 of which were actually spent on the road, are encamped at Forest Park.
The Twenty-Fifth infantry bicycle corps left Fort Missoula, Mont., on June 14, 23 in number; Lieut. J.A. Moss, Surgeon J.M. Kennedy and Edward H. Boos, the official reporter, and 20 soldiers selected from four companies stationed at Fort Missoula. During the trip one of the men was returned to Fort Missoula on account of not being able to keep up.

- Falls City Daily News, Falls City, NE Friday, July 30, 1897

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The Twenty-fifth United States Infantry bicycle corps, which camped in this city on the night of the 12 inst., reached their destination, St. Louis, last Saturday night, after a ride from Fort Missoua, Mont, 1900 miles in thirty-five days. Lieutenant Moss, who is in command of the corps, says: “The trip has proven beyond peradventure my contention that the bicycle has a place in modern warfare. In every kind of weather, over all sorts of roads we averaged fifty miles a day. Seventeen tires and a half dozen broken frames is the sum of our damage. The practical result shows that an army bicycle corps can travel twice as fast as a cavalry of infantry under any condition, and at one-third the cost and effort.”

- The Aurora Republican [Aurora, NE] July 30, 1897

Day 29 - Hannibal, MO to St. Louis, MO

2010-06-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

I made it! Here I am (no, I'm not wincing, I'm squinting into the sun) with the World's Fair Pavillion of Forest Park in St. Louis in the background. I think this place is very close to where the Corps ended their trip. It was an intensely beautiful evening and the Park is stunning. To top it off I love fountains. This one, in the background, had moms and young couples--hugging--on the edges. Children were splashing in the water. Several kids dropped to their bellies and pulled themselves along as though trying to immerse as much of their bodies in the wonder of it as possible. The moment was enchanted and bordered on spiritual for me. It was a perfect ending for my journey. I'm quite sure it will be etched on my mind forever.

Today's ride, holds a multitude of memories. For starters, I had two companions--my sister's 15 year old son, who wanted to see what it's like to ride 50 miles without stopping, and a dear friend, "The Wellman", who goes clear back to my high-school days. I say "dear friend" because I'm hoping he'll forgive me for telling the story that is about to follow. It is way too good to let go untold...

When The Wellman got to Hannibal last night he casually mentioned needing to hit the local BigBox Store. After settling in at the B & B, I offered to go with him. My questions about what he might need at BigBox-Mart were answered when he let me know he'd left his bicycle back at home. No, he wasn't bailing out on the ride, he'd forgotten the bike through a tangled myriad of car switches and last minute concerns. We were going to the Box to find a bike. We found one, a red beauty with full-suspension. The Power Climber. Eighty-eight bucks. He took a quick spin in the adjacent towel aisle next to the bike rack in the store. Looks okay I tried to convince myself. At the checkout, the cashier whispered to The Wellman not to bother with the extended warranty which would add $5.88 to the cost of the bike. "It's not worth it", she said glancing left and right to make sure her supervisors weren't around. That night I tossed and turned at the B & B. Worries about the road closure and my two travel companions were chasing me. I knew the 20 miles out of Hannibal had some long hills. How would my buddies do? I felt responsible for them having an enjoyable experience. But with the road closed, our sag help would have difficulty helping out.

Reality started to assert itself in the morning when the Wellman got on his $88 wheel. The frame was advertised as 26" but it looked about right for a third-grader. Even though all but 1/4" of the long seat post was up, Wellman couldn't extend his legs. Wellman had found a difficulty that the Corps hadn't experienced...trying to ride a piece of junk on which your legs can't extend past 45 degrees. And the 18-speeds were really more like 10 since some of the gear combinations creating a clatter that wouldn't go away until the rider decided to move on to another ring. We got to Louisiana. Wellman Lance Armstronged it up the hills, standing up on the pedals (absolutely devastating to 48-year-old quadraceps). The road winds up and down the bluffs that bound the Mississippi. It is heavily wooded but offers an occasional glimpse down to the river. After climbing several long hills that were so steep we decided walking would be easier (Moss tells about doing this as well) we'd covered 20 miles and arrived at the road closure. We pressed on past the barriers and after a long downhill found ourselves on flatter farm ground. I wonder if Moss and the Corps followed this road or were they closer to the river? His report says the roads were "Up and down" so maybe we road the same road as the 25th.

Just before reaching Louisiana I spotted an older gentleman out in his yard. "How far to Louisiana?" I asked? "One and three-tenths miles" he drawled with absolute certainty and then, with words that are pure honey to a rider, "after this little hill, it's all downhill into town." "How long have you lived here?" I asked. "All my life". I spotted a beautiful brickhouse behind him. Is that your place? I found out it was. Pre-Civil War. He also mentioned how one of the owners had to give up her slaves when her husband died. The old man sounded sad when he related that part. Although he was quite friendly I decided not to tell him my story or about the Corps. I caught up to my companions in downtown Louisiana. They were sitting on a curb waiting for me. We decided to look for a park and wait for our saggers - my sister and mother. I spotted a young black woman walking down the street, strolling her baby and hand-in-hand with an older child. After asking directions to the park, I told her about my project and mentioned I'd heard that Pike County had had a bad reputation for racism back in the 1800s. "Has it ended?" I asked. "Yeah, for the most part." Thanks be to God.

At Louisiana our break extended into lunch and The Wellman had to travel back to home and work... Wellman, my mom and sister think you are gallant for riding thirty miles cold turkey. So do I. Thanks for doing part of the ride with me. The fact that you rode a hunk o'junk just adds to the gift you gave.

After I shuttled Wellman back to Hannibal in my pickup I made a decision. From Louisiana the Corps rode to Eolia, then Troy and back to Old Monroe. If you look at a map you'll see that there is a direct route from Louisiana to Old Monroe following Highway 79. Why did Moss and the Corps go out of their way? I don't know. It doesn't make sense considering how eager they surely were to be done. And there was a rail line that closely follows the same path as 79. The modern stretch from Eolia to Troy would be back on a four-lane highway that locals told me was chock full of truck traffic heading to St. Louis. I can't take that anymore, I thought to myself. I made a decision to depart from my goal to follow the Corps route as closely as possible. My nephew and I rode down 79.

Highway 79 runs into I-70 a major artery feeding traffic into the city. Our ride down 79, the Little Dixie Highway, was along the river and very beautiful with quaint towns every 8 miles or so. As we headed south we had a tailwind and the miles were rolling by very pleasantly with an occasional hill. But, there were no shoulders and traffic was getting heavier. I made another decision. The whole trip I had wondered how I would negotiate the horrendous traffic in St. Louis. Obviously, it would be difficult if not dangerous. We were close to I-70, near St. Peters, so I decided to get in the car and head for St. Louis and Forest Park rather than extend the ride one more day. Due to rain it took the Corps nearly a full day to do this. We did it in about an hour and I don't regret it a bit.

My sister, having been to St. Louis, led in her van. She has an eerily intuitive sense of direction and zeroed in on Forest Park as though being sucked into a vortex. Forest Park is somewhat akin to Central Park in NYC but bigger. One can actually drive into it and it contains a zoo, several museums, lakes, paddle boating and even a golf course. There are about six entry roads into the park. The Corps rode into the park from the north, following the St. Charles Rock Road which is now Martin Luther King Drive. They turned at Union Street which is directly above the Park and rode in. The newspapers tell us they were escorted by bicycle enthusiasts and that the crowds of well-wishers lining the streets grew block by block and the soldiers got ever closer. I can't imagine what must of been going through the heads of the soldiers as they got close to the end.

The Corps journey ended at a hotel/restaurant called the Cottage which was at the top of a hill in Forest Park. It is long gone but records tell us it was very close to the south end of the modern-day St. Louis Zoo and a famous landmark called the Pavilion which, today, also rests at the top of a hill. The Pavilion was built shortly after the famous World's Fair held in St. Louis. Behind the Cottage was a wooded area where the soldiers camped for several days. Thousands came to visit them. When we pulled in, up ahead was the Pavilion. We found two parking spots immediately. We stopped. Incredible! To our right was the very spot I think the soldiers camped. I noticed two women in chairs, off by themselves under a giant shady tree,visiting . I was struck by the similarity of them and a picture I'd seen in one of the St. Louis reports, and the feeling that this was the spot where the Corps journey ended. I wanted so badly to ask them if they knew about what happened in the spot they were sitting over 100 years ago. They'd think I'm a nut.

We were all hungry and went to get dinner. When we returned those two women were still there. I got my bicycle and rode with my nephew around the park. The humidity that was so heavy in Nebraska and Missouri was gone. We wondered over to the Pavilion and waded in the fountain. The sun was setting. The temperature was absolutely perfect. A driver rode by and sarcastically yelled at the kids and lovers playing in the fountain something about being baptized (a couple was sort of passionately wrestling themselves into the shallow pool below the main fountain) Maybe the driver wasn't so mistaken. A moment so intensely beautiful as this evening and in this place-- that and the water. I think it could have the power to heal.

My journey was over. What a way to end it. Wow. I rode back to my truck. Those two women were still visiting under that tree. I took pictures of the forest behind them even though I knew a picture couldn't possibly capture what I was seeing. This is the Corps camping spot I kept thinking. And then, I couldn't resist. I tried to discreetly take a picture of the women. I got it. I was hustling out of there. "Did you just take my picture?" one of them hollered as I slinked away. Caught! Oh man, how embarassing. "Yes," I admitted. "Well, get over here and take another one so I can smile this time!" I sheepishly shuffled over. We chatted briefly. They told me they were having some "me time". Both were having trouble with their men friends and commiserating about their next moves. They told me all this in a light-hearted way that made me laugh. I handed them a business card I had made with the address of this website. I'd been handing them out the whole trip. It was a way to try to give people a clue about what I was doing. Of all the people I met on this bicycle trip, and I met a lot of people, I think these two I would like the most to understand what I am doing.

You two women: Sorry I took your picture without asking first. If you read this then you found the blog. I am glad. Maybe you'll understand something about the magic I was seeing in the place you were sitting if you read about the riders and their journey. You probably thought I was crazy. Maybe you are right. Trying to explain to you would be like a person trying to explain they really did see a UFO. Explanation would only serve to convince you they didn't see anything. But, what the heck, my cover is blown and I'm going to try to explain. Moss once said that there is a poetry in cycling. I think maybe there is a poetry in many things. And I think there is meaning in places and times and little stories that are bigger than we can comprehend. How about this thought-- there are infinitesimal threads that bind every thing together...even all of us. We can't see them (but I think we can sense it if we still our minds) but we and everything we see are far more connected than we realize. And that meaning that I feel rather than think, is there about the Bicycle Corps. There's a bigger meaning to it. There's such a thing as a Bigger Meaning. So here's the deal you two women (or were you angels?). I could tell you some things about my trip and the Corps to try to explain but you know I don't really understand it myself. But I still think there's something there and I'd invite you to look and see if there isn't something there for you too. Maybe we'll all get together in Act Two and see how a bunch of brave riders, a Park and a long bicycle trip, and a chance encounter was bound up with our lives. It was all connected.

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To my readers: I am going to start putting the articles on the blog. I'll make a post here with all of them and also add them to the main page.

Day 28- Macon, MO to Hannibal, MO

2010-06-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Today I got off to an early start, around 4:45 am to try to beat the Missouri heat and humidity. I've been looking forward to making Hannibal for sometime. Amazingly, today was the first flat tire I suffered the whole trip. I picked up a thin steel thread, probably from a piece of tire. It was a slow leak and I tried to ride it out for about five miles. I can't believe I haven't had more flats. I'm a fairly big guy.

The two-lane highway was split by traffic cones as workers were pouring new concrete lanes to connect the eastbound and westbound lanes. I took advantage of this and rode in the now empty lane. It was a lot of fun to have a whole lane all to myself although I was a little concerned some MoDot (Missouri Department of Transportation) worker would frown on my riding in a "work zone". Moss claimed that the condition of the roads said something about the inhabitants of the place the Corps rode through. I can't make any such judgments, in Missouri anyway, because, as I mentioned in an earlier blog Hwy 36 has cut me off from the towns, history and people of this swath. It really is a shame. But I have noticed big differences in the shoulders. Usually changes occur when switching from one county to another. In the Sandhills of Nebraska huge cracks had developed in the asphalt, perhaps by expansion, that nearly drove me crazy. Every fifty feet it was another bump/jolt. The shoulders on my ride today varied as much as I can remember. From no shoulder at all to smooth as glass asphalt to wide concrete. I'm guessing the type of shoulder is probably a correlate of the amount of money available in the counties road coffers.

The road today was fairly flat for the majority of the ride and I made decent time. I wanted to get to Hannibal early not just to beat the heat but to see the famous literary home of fictional giants Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I was also looking forward to seeing the mighty Mississippi. As I closed in the landscape became hillier and had more trees. Finally Hannibal was reached. It reminded me of a lot of coastal towns I've been to. Obvious attempts to keep the downtown section closest to the river historically preserved have been made. I wondered if such attempts would have been made if Hannibal were not the boyhood home of Mark Twain. Moss doesn't even mention Hannibal in his report but I now know the Corps went through it from newspaper accounts I've found. I get the impression that the Corps was really struggling by this point. They had become strung out and separated by hours. Findley, the Corps mechanic was very busy helping other riders keep their bicycles operating. Too, the next rations stop was Louisiana, MO, thirty-some miles down the Mississippi from Hannibal. My guess is that Moss and the men were really tired and trying to focus on getting to St. Louis. Fortunately, I was in my better shape and spent the balance of the day walking around the streets of Hannibal. We found a park that overlooks the Mississippi. The river is extremely full and an awesome sight. I've never seen it or the barges that can be occassionally spotted being pushed up and down the river. It makes me want to make a riverboat cruise-- or at least read Twain's "Life on the Mississippi".

We splurged and stayed at a very elegant bed and breakfast in Hannibal. My sister came from Indiana, bringing her 15-year old son. A good friend, "The Well Man", from Iowa also rolled in later in the evening. I'm a little concerned about tomorrow because rain has washed out a chunk of road between Hannibal and Louisiana and the road is closed to traffic.

Day 27 - At the Missouri Historical Society

2010-06-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

University of Missouri Memorial Tower- across the street from historical society

Today I got to Columbia and the Missouri Historical Society which is located in the heart of the campus of the University of Missouri (aka Mizzou). What a beautiful campus and downtown that surrounds it. Makes me wish I was a student again! The Student Union looks like something transplanted from Oxford or Cambridge.

I was able to look at about 30 microfilm rolls of newspapers from the various routes along the Corps path across the Missouri. I was aided greatly by the bibliography that was in the back of George Sorenson's book about the Corps called Iron Riders. I was not able to find a whole lot beyond what he (or whoever did the search for him) found. But, what I did find was very telling. As the Corps neared the Mississippi negative and racist remarks start coming into the articles. I'd noticed racist cartoons and comments in the Nebraska papers, particularly those from towns close to the eastern border. The articles from Pike County in Missouri were some of the worst. The research librarian at the historical society told me Pike County had the highest slave ownership of any county in Missouri and a reputation for having some hardcore haters. Again, I'll post the articles as soon as I get home. I could not find any articles to nail down exactly how the Corps connected the dots between the towns I do know they passed through. Specifically, I was looking for confirmation that they passed through Palmyra, MO, which would make Lt. Moss's mileage figures work and Bowling Green, which is on the Hannibal and Missouri railroad route. I feel very confident that I now know pretty precisely where the Corps rode except for this little stretch right at the end. Perhaps when I read the articles I found today more carefully I'll have some insights.

[Click here to go to transcribed articles that I collected at the Missouri Historical Society]

Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot so I hope to get an early start and try to beat the heat. I've got about 60 miles to Hannibal which is my next stop. I splurged on a room which is the third floor of an old Victorian mansion in downtown Hannibal. A old, good friend is joining me there and will ride beyond Hannibal.

Day 26 - Cameron, MO to Macon, MO

2010-06-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

Made it to Macon today and am now in a hotel in Columbia, MO. Tomorrow I'll be at the Missouri Historical Society looking for newspaper articles. I rode around 100 miles on HWY 36 today and I'm sad to report that this highway by-passes all the towns the Corps would have travelled through. I think I was usually a mile or so within their route but it wasn't the same. I had to backtrack a lot to get to them and wasn't disappointed. The actual route that the Corps probably followed is long gone. I had hoped to follow parallel roads but they only last awhile then fizzle out. Although I think it was a little off the route I made a sidetrip to Marceline, MO which is the boyhood home of Walt Disney. Of course he probably patterned the famous Main Streets in his amusement parks after the one in his hometown. Although many of these towns have very similar layouts I never tire of the late 1800s buildings that I've seen in almost all of them. These buildings have so much character and beauty. Again, it's a shame that HWY 36 by-passes this.

My general impression today was that Missouri is a bit unkempt compared to it's neighbor, Nebraska. If one buys the thought that things get wilder the further west one goes it would seem Nebraska and Missouri should have been switched. As I moved east I noticed more and more trees. It was hilly pretty much the whole way with long ups and downs. I 'm guessing the Corps probably experience more drastic rises and drops. This, like the wind, can make a huge difference in the distance a bicyclist is able to travel. It was fairly hot and humid today--mid 90s and I was getting pretty tired by the time I was closing in on Macon. The day after tomorrow I'll be trying to get to Hannibal, MO. At the archives, tomorrow, I hope to find an article which will confirm or dispell my belief that the Corps went through Bowling Green. They travelled late at night between Louisiana, MO and Eolia and I've yet to find anything which provides any details.

I am sad and excited that my journey is almost at an end. It has been a fantastic time.

Day 25 - Rulo, NE to Cameron, MO

2010-06-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm in Missouri! Not by much but I'm here. Today was somewhat disappointing. When I got to Rulo I discovered that the flooding covered the road on the Missouri side and prevented me from continuing much past the bridges. To get to St. Joe, MO I had to detour down through the NE corner of Kansas. I did go up to explore the road I think the Corps rode once once I made it to St. Joseph. I think the Corps went through Fortescue, Forest City, and Amazonia along the railroad tracks that parallel the river. Today the rode is mostly dirt and has some serious ups and downs to it. St. Joe has many historic buildings built in the late 1800s that I enjoyed looking at and taking pictures of. Ironic that people headed West from this town and I am heading East. I'm trying to figure out how to get across Missouri. The path the Corps took I'm pretty sure followed modern Highway 36. This is a fairly busy four-lane highway. I rode along it for about 28 miles to Cameron, MO. Lots of traffic that I finally got used to but I'd prefer the quieter roads I've enjoyed for most of my trip up to this point. I am searching for roads that parallel but aren't far from HWY 36.

Missouri is the one state that we have the least description of in the Bicycle Corps story. For some reason Boo's articles dried up in the Missoulian newspaper, a major source of details. Some of the articles I found in Lincoln claim Boos was employed by a St. Louis paper. Perhaps the that paper was carrying his stories he wrote describing their progress across Missouri and I've just never seen them. I've never seen any in anything I've read or seen but that doesn't mean they aren't out there.

Lt. Moss didn't give us many stories about the trip across Missouri in his reports either. I have heard a story that the Corps got kicked off a farm when the owner discovered they were not "Secesh". I don't know the origin of that tale but it was told on the PBS documentary about the Corps by Charles Dollar. Moss also indicates that the quality of the people in an area could be judged from the quality of their roads. I suspect that by this time the Corps was getting very tired and eager to finish their trip.

I also discovered that the Corps did indeed go through Hannibal, MO, a question I've been wondering about for some time. Now I'm wondering if they went through Bowling Green, MO.

I'm hoping to get a good ways down the road tomorrow in order to give myself some time to get to the archives in Columbia. I hope I can find articles, like I did in Lincoln that add to the Corps story.

Today was probably the hottest day of my ride. It was in the low 90s and very humid. The winds down in these parts are usually out of the south which is very unusual for me. In Wyoming the winds rarely come from that direction. I think I'll be in St. Louis by Friday and maybe even Thursday. I'll learn a lot tomorrow.

Day 24 - Rest Day

2010-06-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Today is the wedding day. I ate like a horse all day long. I'll have to ride extra hard to burn off all the calories I've consumed. The wedding was terrific and the reception that followed saw a whole lot of people having a ball thanks to the bride's father who I presume footed the bill for a wonderful supper buffet and dance. The many college kids in attendance were especially whooping it up.

Congratulations to Mike and Tara, the groom and bride. Best wishes for a long and wonderful life together!

Day 23 - Rest Day - research at Lincoln, NE

2010-06-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

Today is Friday and I went to Lincoln to do research at the Nebraska Historical Society's archive which is located on the University of Nebraska campus. What a fantastic resource. Mainly I searched for newspaper articles from the towns the Corps travelled through as they crossed Nebraska. I found articles from 15 towns or so and I was thrilled with some of the new information that I found. I plan to transcribe all these articles and post them as soon as I get home so stay tuned!

Day 22- Tecumseh, NE to Rulo, NE

2010-06-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

More "rollers" today and really strong winds out of the SSE. The farmground in these parts doesn't appear to be as favorable as that around Lincoln. I kept riding in and out of areas that were more and less devoid of trees. The wet weather has caused much flooding and when I rolled down a long hill into Rulo I could see that the Missouri River and overflown its banks. Today there are two bridges that cross the Missouri at this little town. One allows automobile traffic to cross and the other is for the trains. If you look at this day on the 25th Bicycle Corps part of this blog you'll see a drawing which shows the men being ferried across. Apparently they decided not to chance crossing the river on the only available bridge at that time which carried trains across. So, I am now ready to cross Missouri! But first, I have a wedding to attend. My nephew is marrying his long-time sweetheart, conveniently, in Beatrice, so I'll backtrack 90 miles or so and take the next two days off. I'm looking forward to good times with family.

Day 21 - Lincoln, NE to Tecumseh, NE

2010-06-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Rode a neat rails-to-trails route out of Lincoln called the North Jamaica trail. It was very level, as expected. The path was made of crushed rock that made a nice, hard packed surface. Lush, green vegetation surrouneded and often even arched overhead the pathway The trail goes all the way to Beatrice, NE a town some 35 miles to the south.I enjoyed rolling along, seeing an occassional deer or rabbit and soon I found myself in Roca, a picturesque little Nebraska town. At Roca I was back on the "rollers" as I rode from one sighted water-tower to the next.... Roca, Hickman, Firth, I went stairsteping my way south and east. I don't know if the Corps was following the tracks or county roads during the part of the ride. The road had plenty of up and downs to it all the way to Tecumseh. If the Corps followed the roads I am sure they were disappointed as they expected this part of Nebraska to be flat and allow them to make 100-mile days. Today I encountered fairly gusty winds that sometimes crossed diagonally in front of me. It was also fairly hot--in the 90s--for the first time in the entire trip.

Day 19 - Aurora, NE to Lincoln, NE

2010-06-15T17:09:00.001-07:00

I love water towers, especially old ones. This was one of my favorites.

I got to Lincoln as fast as I could today, hoping to get to the State Archives to do some research. The early morning ride was fog shrouded and I could not see much more than 50 feet ahead of me at any given time. Seward was another town that could rival Aurora for historic beauty. It also has a stunning courthouse and town square. I'll have to give my vote to Aurora though because it has far less traffic--which I've noticed is getting worse and worse. I'm getting concerned about crossing Missouri. Garland, Nebraska is an out-of-the-way town that the Corps swung up to and camped at the day before entering Lincoln. The town was called Germantown when Moss and the men stayed there. I am guessing the name was changed to Garland during WWI. Outside of Garland are some monster rolling hills. These must of broke the hearts (and legs) of the Corps riders as they realized they would not be getting the miles they had hoped for.

I got to Lincoln before lunch and dug in at the archives. I found about eight articles from various Nebraska towns which I plan to post when I get home. My most exciting find was a drawing done for the Falls City newspaper. This also nails down that the Corps went through that town. I'm hoping the library there might have the original paper. The microfilm roll was very bad. If I can get a scan of this drawing I'll post it. [Click here to see the sketch]

I've discovered that Lincoln has an amazing and extensive network of trails by which to safely navigate the city by bicycle. Tomorrow I'll be riding one called the Jamaica North Trail. I suspect that the Corps followed the railroad out of Lincoln and this trail does the same.

Day 18- Broken Bow, NE to Aurora, NE

2010-06-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today is the day, back in 1897 when Moss and the men started their journey from Missoula. Moss wanted to start earlier but the bicycles were delayed. Even though he got the bikes gratis from the Spaulding Co. he had to haggle with the Army to get them to pick up the tab for shipping.

I enjoyed several pleasant surprises today. The first was how flat the road continues to be. The flatness started at Thedford, about where I feel the sand hills ecosystem ends. The second surprise was Ravenna, a town which has become tucked away, somewhat like Seneca. It was like a page out of Mayberry. Driving off the highway one goes through a gateway of trees and then over a bridge into the town. Main street has many old, historic buildings. Today, when we drove in there was a happy birthday sign planted smack dab in the middle of main street. Passing by the hardware store, three old farmers were chatting, and they all waved. Further up main street, oak trees lined and canopied the street. In the center island that divided the lane, were poles from which two American flags fluttered. The streets had plenty of old Victorian type homes. The third pleasant surprise made up for the made rush of cars that I encountered riding into Grand Island. I discovered the Stuhr museum site which, among other things, has a rebuilt "railroad town" which mimics a spur town of the late 1800s. The last surprise was the town of Aurora. This town has a town square, in the middle sits a spectacular red-orange stone courthouse. Around the square are many old, restored buildings. Moss and the men camped at Aurora perhaps at the local park.

Although I said it was flat, Moss reports that his men were slowed by hills that started about Ravenna. Later he reports his disappointment that the Corp can't go faster. They had hoped to travel 100 miles a day in this part of Nebraska.

Day 17 - Seneca, NE to Broken Bow, NE

2010-06-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the most pleasurable rides of the entire trip. It rained almost the entire way and I was soaked but I had a nice tailwind that pushed me along. It was just warm enough that the wettness did not cause any discomfort. To a person who does not ride a bicycle it may seem like I am preoccupied with the wind. All I can say is you need to experience it to understand why it is such a concern. A headwind is pure misery. A tailwind is heaven. A tailwind makes your riding seem almost effortless--it's as though you are floating along. I covered the 70 some miles before I knew it.

Moss and the Corps were trying to beat a storm as they approached Broken Bow. They didn't quite make it but were greeted by a Captain of the National Guard who put them up and even provided hay for bedding. Broken Bow was home to an armory there. I've been trying to track down more information about the captain and the possible location of the armory but am striking out since it's Sunday. I have noticed that Nebraskans value history. Almost every town I've come through so far has a museum well stocked with all sorts of research materials. I'd love to find a picture of Captain Painter and the armory. Here is what Painter had to say:

“In their travel of 178 miles from Alliance, Neb., a distance of fifteen miles was ridden on their wheels, the balance of the distance they walked and led their wheels through the sand hill country. The intense heat and bad water told severly on the men and many became prostrate and they longed for that Eldorado, Broken Bow. The last thirty hours before they reached Broken Bow they were drenched with rain and they wheeled into town soaking wet. In anticipation of their coming the armory was put in shape to receive them, a good fire was built and they were put through the drying process, and gasoline stoves were provided for their cooking and straw for bedding, and with a good warm supper the men retired early for a well earned rest.”

The articles say that the road between Broken Bow and Grand Island was extremely hilly but the folks here in Broken Bow assure me that it's as flat as a pancake. ("If you stand on a five gallon bucket you can see it from here" one cowboy told me). I will say that riding in a car does not attune one to the ups and downs of roads like riding a bicycle does. If it's flat I should be able to make the 80 miles to Grand Island quickly tomorrow. More rain is forecast but, halleluja, winds out of the NW!

It has also struck me that I have not ridden one hot day this whole trip. What I have noticed is the toll the continual rain is taking. Golf course driving range half submerged. Barb wire fence dipping down a hill and, you guessed it, underwater. But the saddest sight.... rows of corn, like obedient soldiers marching downhill, water up to their knees, then their necks and for the brave stalks in front... over their head. I've also been thinking about the uniforms that the Corps wore. As I watched the water dripping off my pants, gloves and helmet I wondered how much warmth and water-repellancy they provided? I have a nice stocking cap that I wear under my helmet. They had hats. It doesn't seem that they had enough to do much good.

Day 16- Alliance,NE to Seneca, NE

2010-06-12T18:08:00.001-07:00

Today I was able to travel a distance that, thanks to sand, it took the Corps three days to do. Boos reported that the men had all been thinking about the "sand hill terrors and tortures". Six miles out of Alliance they hit sand so bad that they were forced to try to ride on the rails. When the ballast between the ties had too much sand to ride comfortably they would walk their cycles. Added to this was unbearable heat and bad water. Lt. Moss became so ill from drinking alkali water he had to be sent back to Alliance after been picked up by a train. They only made about 30 miles that day. The next day was no better. Again the Corps only made about 30 miles. Boos said, "the monotony of the track was only broken by the sight of a rabbit or other insignificant object until a rattlesnake glided between the doctor's legs and into the grass...to be shot just as he was raising his ugly head to strike." Boos commented, "...the snake stories told that day were numerous."
Other, unnamed members of the Corps were sick from drinking alkali water which slowed the Corps considerably. The next day, Boos tells us the heat was unbearable-- 108 in the shade. Many of the men had to rest.

My trip was cold and windy. I had a 20 mph wind that was often blowing at me diagonally which slowed me down considerably. It is also considerably hilly This country is very green due to one of the wettest springs in recent memory. All and all I am glad to have this stretch of the ride behind me. The highlight of the day was the end when I drove down to Seneca which is no longer on the highway. While driving through this town, which is tucked away in a green valley I ran into a local, Thurmond Liekking (sp?). When asked if he was a local, Thurmond proudly replied, "83 years!". Thurmond told me he was a WWII veteran and then told me a tale that is similar to that of so many other small towns. Seneca once had a lumber mill, three grocery stores, several gas stations and was thriving. Sadly, most of the stores are only a memory in the minds of those who lived here. Thurmond thinks moving the highway was the undoing of his town. I've noticed that the highways often leave the path of the railroad when in hilly country. I do not understand this. Of course, I am thinking of it from a bicyclists perspective. But why leave the tracks, which are following the most level grade? It seems some sadistic engineer was bent on building the road to climb the highest hills in the area and have it rise and drop as many times as possible. Why would you build a road like that? Looking up the valley toward Seneca I was particularly dismayed. It's such flat, tree-lined beautiful country. On second thought, maybe it's better that the new road is on the high ground, the desolate, treeless and barren land that is perhaps only good for feeding range stock and providing space for highways.

One night, while waiting for supper at the camp fire, one of the riders exclaimed, "If I only live through this, I'll have something to talk about as long as I live!"

Day 15- Crawford, NE to Alliance, NE

2010-06-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

Did some travelling today and found Belmont and Marsland, two places mentioned in articles about the Corps. Today they are off the main highway but both were worth the trip to find. The C orps made a new speed record traveling the last 9 miles to Alliance in 35 minutes on what they said was one of the best roads they encountered. I was also able to make good time thanks to level roads and a nice tailwind. Tomorrow may be rough as I travel through the badlands. This is a very isolated part of Nebraska. The forecast calls for 20 mph winds. I hope they don't materialize or I'm toast.

Day 14 - Edgemont, SD to Crawford, NE

2010-06-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Actually staid the night at Fort Robinson which is three miles west of Crawford. The grounds have been beautifully restored. When the Corps passed through Crawford, cavalry buffalo soliders were at Ft. Robinson. Newspaper accounts tell how the soldiers came to Crawford to greet the Corps. It has been raining quite a bit. More gumbo mud on the Toadstool Road, a road which parallels the railroad tracks from Ardmore, NE to Crawford. The country side is absolutely magnificent.

Day 13 - Newcastle, WY to Edgemont, SD

2010-06-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

and B

OK, so now what? The Dewey road is a dirt road that connects Newcastle and Edgemont.
This sign was not Photoshopped.

Today I crossed out of Wyoming and into South Dakoa. I also learned again about the difficulties of dirt roads and headwinds. Slow pedaling the second half of this leg as headwinds and crosswinds mocked my progress. I also thought often about how the hypoteneus is shorter than the sum of side A and B. The Dewey Road stairsteps it's way toward Edgemont the last six miles or so, instead of simply following the railroad tracks. I don't know why. The picture below illustrates: note -- Edgemont tantalizingly close and the road taking a sharp turn away. The road also often left the comfortable, level grade along the tracks only to meander toward and over the highest hill.Boos mentioned the S & G Ranch which was a large cattle ranch about halfway between Newcastle and Edgemont. Articles also mention how bad the water in Edgemont tasted. I had the good fortune to chat with the editor of the Edgemont paper, Anne Cloyd Cassens, who laughed when she read that part. She sent a great article that tells about the people of her town hauling water. I'll add it when I get a chance. [I've added it below]

Anne, Edgemont editor
From the book, Edgemont Centennial 1890 to 1990, page 20:
"The lack of water was one of Edgemont's greatest shortcomings, a fact that had been proven at each large fire which occurred. But not supply was available that would warrant putting in a [city] water system. From the beginning, for Edgemont, the only usable water was hauled into town from a spring northeast of town which supplied the people with water for drinking and cooking. A number of homes had shallow wells dug in their yards with a hand pump, but this was seepage from the river and not drinkable. The spring water was hauled in a horse drawn wooden tank wagon, first by John Koller, Sr. Cisterns, barrels, or pails were filled along the streets. If a family needed water, they were to hand out a red cloth to alert the driver as he went down each street. Later John's son, Ben Koller hauled water. After him, WD (Joker) Freemole took over the water. WD (Heavy) Martinson was the last to deliver water, using a truck with a tank on it. After WWII, the hauling of water stopped. [The city had a good system by then, with water from wells]"

I think it is Moss who tell's about the people of Edgemont buying their water at 35¢ a barrelfull.

Day 12 - Moorcroft, WY to Newcastle, WY

2010-06-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

A fast and fun day for me. I was able to cover the 50 miles in about 2 1/2 hours thanks to pavement and a terrific tailwind that pushed me along at 20 mph or better most of the way.

Day 11 - Gillette, WY to Moorcroft

2010-06-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

Short ride to Moorcroft today. Path took me past huge coal mining operation. The railroads I've followed and will follow routinely have 100-plus long trains loaded from coal from these mines. The trip to Moorcroft was a tough one for the Corps. The men had been slogging through their perpetual nemesis, gumbo mud since Horse Creek back in Arvada. The finally reached Gillette after an all-night march and had a brief lunch at 2 pm. Boos claims the men were so tired they fell asleep while eating. Apparently the people of Gillette told the Corps that they could make it to Moorcroft easily so the men loaded up and left at 5 pm. The men made great time for twenty miles before a rainstorm turned their roads to gumbo. The Corps were forced to push their bicycles but they continued doggedly on. Exhaustion overcame the men, including Moss and Moorcroft wasn't reached until 6 o'clock the next morning. My ride was much less dramatic. I had a strong tailwind that was literally pushing me up the long grades. Ten miles from Moorcroft, though, my fortunes changed as did the wind. I was slowed considerably but once again, nothing compared to what the Corps endured.

Day 10- Sheridan, WY to Gillette, WY

2010-06-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

Lots and lots of dirt roads today. Wow! What a difference there is between dirt and pavement. The Corps left Sheridan, WY after lunch reaching Arno (aka Wyarno). A local barkeeper at Wyarno told me the town was named by Italian railroaders who were reminded of the Arno River in Italy. Not long after passing Wyarno one travels the Ulm Road. While the railbed follows a gradual rise, the road alongside it is anything but, rising and falling like a rollercoaster. After thirty miles of this one reaches Clearmont and paved highway. Twenty more miles through sheep country and Arvada, a very isolated town is reached. I believe the Corps made camp there. Boos claims the men found graves and were spooked about rattlesnakes so the decision was made to press on. For me, this was a long stretch of gravel road. Today it is called Wild Horse/Echeta Road. Forty-five miles of loose gravel made for slow going, as well as a slight headwind. It seemed to me that the last 17 miles were up and up and up and up. It began to seem that some evil person bent on breaking bicyclers had devised this path. Moss calls it "our hardest experience" having to walk and ride "somewhat over twenty miles up an almost continuous grade" I honestly thought this stretch involved as much altitude change as crossing over Bozeman Pass. (I'll have to do some checking to see if I'm exaggerating). As the Corps made their midnight run, Boos claims they encountered their old and persistent nemesis--"gumbo mud". He also claims they were skirting "large drifts of hail fully eight feet high". As morning approached the Corps took a rest at Felix, just long enough to eat some breakfast and clean their bicycles. It was about at Felix that I met a gas field worker who stopped, amused, to tell me a small herd of horses was chasing along side me. He also told me about the long climbs that awaited me the last 10 miles before Gillette. Once again, I was thankful for all the modern advantages I had. Water and gears that allowed me, at least, to gear down and grunt up the long hills.

Day 9 - Hardin, MT to Sheridan, WY

2010-06-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

Travelled past the Big Horn battlefield today. Moss and the men stopped and toured but I passed on by. Got my first real taste of "black gumbo" mud that must have made the Corps tremble. It was just outside of Crow Agency. A very short, may 70 meter, stretch of dirt road that would shorten my route. Half way across I realized what looked like hard packed road was sticking to my tires. Moving on I realized it was accumulating rapidly and clogging up my fenders. I wound up carrying my bicycle the remaining 50 m or so. My wheels were locked and I began hunting for a car wash. Rejoining pavement I spotted, on the other side of the highway underpass a convenience store. No car washes in Crow Agency. I scrapped the mud off as best I could and limped on with a new admiration for the Corps. I only went two or three minutes in mud. I can't imagine all day long.

The ride south was beautiful, following the Little Bighorn river. Moss said they had to cross the river eight or nine times. Of course, I had bridges. Everyday I am reminded of all the advantages I have. A bicycle with gearing and paved roads being two of the biggest.

My journey through Montana ended today. I was hugging the Big Horn mountains which were spectacular in all their late spring glory. Green, green hills and snow capped mountains. I was looking for the wildflowers Boos mentioned seeing but I think I am too early for the one that he said looked like Montana Arnica. I did see lupine. Moss tells us the Corps spent the night in a barn at Parkman. I saw many, many barns and some looked old enough. What are the chances that the one the Corps slept in has survived? The last six miles into Dayton was all downhill. Long, steep downhills such as this one make a days worth of climbing seem almost worth it. Dayton is located right at the base of the Big Horns. I realized it will be our last look at the Rockies as I'll now be pedalling onto the Great Plains.

Since I arrived in Dayton fairly early I decided to push on to Sheridan. Moss said the road to Sheridan was a good one. I found a dirt road that I thought was likely to follow. While the road was good--hard packed-- it was far from easy. Lots of up and down. Twenty-two miles later we were in Sheridan. We found the Sheridan Inn where Moss ate three pieces of pie according to Boos. The Inn has been rescued from the wrecking ball and is currently undergoing a wonderful restoration. Judging by the crowd I think it is a hit. I had the chocolate pecan with whiskey sauce that came from an 1893. At $5.95 a pop I decided to quit at one slice.

Again, I have lots of pictures. I will post them when I can.

Day 8 - Laurel, MT to Hardin, MT

2010-06-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

Early this morning I backtracked in order to pick up the ride from Laurel into Billings. After a quick breakfast with my family at the campsite in Billings I moved on. The Corps started from Columbus, MT on Day 10 of their trip and got to Pryor Creek, somewhere between Billings and Hardin (which they called Fort Custer --more on that in a bit). On Day 11 they made it to Fort Custer. Once again they were plagued with rain and muddy roads. They tried scraping the mud off their tires with knives but gave up. Then they simply carried their bicycles on their shoulders. Boos tells that it took 2 hours to cover the last mile. On top of this they were out of food. Moss tells of eating burnt toast and coffee. Nevertheless the men maintained their good humor. Boos reported, "Drenched to the skin and covered with mud, as we walked along our shoes would make a creaking noise, because of the water in them, and with much feeling some of the soldiers were humming, “Just Tell Them that You Saw Me.” This story becomes even funnier, in my opinion, when the words to the song the men were humming becomes known.

"While strolling down the street one eve upon mere pleasure bent, -- /Twas after business worries of the day/ I saw a girl who shrank from me in whom I recognized,
My schoolmate in a village far away./ “Is that you Madge,” I said to her, she quickly turned away,/ “Don't turn away Madge, I am still your friend,
Next week I'm going back to see the old folks and I thought / Perhaps some message you would like to send.”
chorus:
“Just tell them that you saw me,/ She said, they'll know the rest,/ Just tell them I was looking well you know,
Just whisper if you get a chance to mother dear, and say,—/ I love her as I did long, long ago.”
“Your cheeks are pale, your face is thin, come tell me were you ill,/ When last we met your eye shone clear and bright
Come home with me when I go Madge, the change will do you good,/ Your mother wonders where you are to night.”
“I long to see them all again, but not just yet,” she said,/ ”'Tis pride alone that's keeping me away./ Just tell them not to worry, for I'm alright don't you know,/ Tell mother I am coming home some day.”

The second day of the journey across the Crow Indian Reservation to Fort Custer was no better than the first for the Corps. Moss relates, "We were between two fires –hard roads, headwind and uphill on one hand and scanty rations with no means of getting any more on the other. We were on the Crow Indian reservation and far from a railroad."

And still Boos says, "The trip so far has resulted in very few accidents, considering the number in the corp, and all the accidents to this time have been caused by carelessness and were of little importance, most of them being permenantely repaired on the road. The men are in good condition and enjoy the trip. "

Moss concluded in his report, "The country traveled over during the day was dreary, hilly and uninteresting, with scarcely a sign of civilization." I will just say that in the fifty-something miles I road on old Highway 87 from Billings to Hardin I was passed by less than a dozen cars. It's one of the loneliest stretches of highway I've ever pedalled.

Day 7 - Rest in Billings

2010-06-03T17:42:00.001-07:00

The Corps stopped in Billings long enough to get a new coffee pot. Their old one was leaking apparently. They also tell about startling the horse of a road-hogging carriage. The Corps moved on and wound up camping somewhere between Billings and Hardin. This part of their route is pretty sketchy.

I took a day of rest. My wife and some of my kids came up and stayed at a local campground. We all really enjoyed ourselves.

Day 6 - Rest in Billings

2010-06-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

The Corps didn't stay here in Billings like

Frustration

2010-06-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

There are so many things I want to put on this blog. Pictures, more thoughts about what I am learning about the Corps, etc. etc. There just isn't time. My apologies to any followers. I promise to add much more. I'm realizing it may have to be when the trip is done.

I'll be thinking of a way to add new things that would make sense to the reader.

Day 5- Bozeman to Laurel, MT

2010-06-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

A long day and a great day for riding. I had an unbelievable tailwind for much of the morning which I decided to take advantage of. When I looked at my odometer in Laurel I was surprised to see I'd gone 130 miles. My wife and kids are meeting me in Billings Thursday, so now I'll have the day off.

Coming down Bozeman Pass into Livingston

The ride over Bozeman Pass was surprisingly easy. It's a gradual rise to the top. Somewhere at the top is Chestnut where the Corps stayed the night. There is a highway sign but I must have had my headdown as I pedalled to the top and I missed it. I'm guessing Moss wanted to end the day's ride by climbing to the top, that way the next day could start with a pleasant downhill stretch. This pass is like the pass that leads into Helena. Right at the bottom of the western slope of this pass is the beautiful town of Livingston. This pass is very beautiful. As I was riding down into Livingston I was thinking about a photo Greg Siple of Adventure Cycling showed me. It was found by another Bicycle Corps researcher Linda Bailey. The photo is round and was probably taken by a Brownie camera. The Corps are on a street in Livingston. The photo is blurry but terrific. If I find out who the photo belongs to I'll see about posting it.

From Livingston I quickly pedalled to Big Timber. The newspapers report that an old veteran insisted on buying the men in the Corps a drink and dragged them down to a local saloon. Pedalling around downtown Big Timber I found a hotel called the Grand which has been recognized as a historical landmark. It has been beautifully restored. It has a saloon attached. Going in I asked the bartender if he knew anything about the building. It turned out he was the owner of the hotel and he was extremely knowledgable about the building and the history of the town in general (jackpot!). The hotel was built in 1893 and was a hangout for local sheepmen. On the upper floor were 40 (!) very small rooms. Again, there is much I could record. When he was finished I gave him one of my cards and related the story of the kindness of the old veteran. The owner thought there were one or two other saloons in the town in 1897. We both agreed that maybe this was the place the Corps enjoyed their free drinks. The owner generously offered me a drink. I slugged down a small shot of whiskey and was off. When I got to the campground we had planned to stay in for the night it was still only 12:30. The wind was still blowing pretty hard in a favorable direction so we decided to press on for Columbus. After 15 miles of glorious tailwinds the wind did an about-face. The remaining trip mostly followed the railroad track. More later.

Day 4 - Toston to Bozeman

2010-06-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

This was an easy day. I decided not to attempt to ride through the canyon on the route we discovered the night before. It's been raining off and on for a week and the heavily rutted dirt road was muddy most of the way. I felt like I paid my dues on this stretch last year. I also rationalized that the Corps didn't go this way anyway. As I mentioned, they followed the railroad tracks. I'm guessing they walked their bicycles many, many miles going through that canyon.

Clarkston is a very unique town. It is one of the most isolated towns I know of. The only road into it is twenty miles from the south if you discount the backdoor, crazy road my mom and I discovered. One of the thoughts Clarkston brought to my mind is that in the late 1800s many Montana towns would have seemed as isolated as Clarkston is. I'll post pictures when I can. The ride from Logan to Bozeman was fairly straight and level. The Corps made good time on this stretch.

More thoughts on this day will be added later.

Day 3 - Elliston to Toston

2010-05-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

Went over the Pass into Helena today. Spectacular morning and views riding down the west slope. Moss reported many run-aways with the bicycles of the soldiers and it's easy to see why. The slope leading down into Helena is very steep and perhaps it was even steeper back in 1897. Thoughts of the wind, which is ever-present the mind of any cyclist, encouraged me to press on as quickly as I could to Townsend. The Corps staid at Fort Harrison (in Helena) for a day's rest.

My worries about the wind were justified. Near headwinds made my trip from Helena to Winston a slow grind. From Winston it's thirteen miles downhill to Townsend. Last year I was going 25 mph and not pedalling at all. I wondered if the Corps enjoyed something like this. Pavement is such an advantage over the dirt they must have travelled.

Twelve miles below Townsend is a tiny town called Toston. Just below that is a 20-mile-or-so canyon carved by the Missouri River. Back in the late 1890s railroad tracks, I believe, followed both sides of the river. The Bicycle Corps simply followed the railroad track (I'm guessing the set on the west side) all the way through to Logan on the other side. Today, this is probably illegal, and dangerous besides. Still, I wanted to try to find a way through. If you follow this blog you'll know I got lost last year and wound up walking five or six miles on the railroad tracks.

In the evening I rode down to Toston, MT and meet mom in the pickup. It's a 4-wheel drive and we tried to find a way through. (I doubt the drive we made could be done with a 2-wheel drive) On the way up the canyon we ran into a local, Warren Flynn, who verified that yes, one can drive through. He also informed us that Ted Turner owns much of the property the surrounds the way through so if we hit locked gates we've made a wrong turn.We found a way that through. It's heavily rutted dirt roads. Not the way the Corps rode but a spectacular and wild ride. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. There is so much information for me to put on this blog. I'm just putting down the basics so that I don't forget.

Day 2 - Ovando to Elliston

2010-05-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

Started early and made it to Helmville via a dirt road that I think the Corps might have been close to following. As I was riding I was thinking about how the Corps might react to my journey. I think the enlisted men would think I am crazy. Was thrilled to run into Mary Ann McKee and her husband Don who I met last year at Helmville. Mary Ann's is fourth generation in Helmville. Her great-grandmother came out to this wide-open country straight from Ireland. Being here makes me realize the courage of our pioneer ancestors who left family and country to start a new life. Pedaling on to Avon the wind-gods were smiling upon me. Or was it the good feelings I had from seeing the McKee's? In any case the tailwinds seemed to be pushing me up the long uphill. The last six miles into Avon is downhill which is always a nice way to finish a ride. After lunch I made the ride to Elliston that it took the Corps all day to make. They were fighting mud. Pavement makes an enormous difference. I will put more of my thoughts about the Corps when I have more time.

The day was capped off with a trip to the Last Chance Saloon. This time I tried the Bigfoot Burger. No help from Grandma on this one. Wifi connection is crawling. I'll try to add pictures when I find a better connection.

Day 1 - On to Ovando

2010-05-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Adventure Cycle photo by Greg Siple

Rained, and sprinkled most of the day. I left Ft. Missoula at about 7:30 and got to Adventure Cycling's office at 8 am. Greg Siple took my picture--this is quite an honor. Greg takes portraits of riders who come through the AC office with incredible tales of the journeys they are making. Everyday I hope to make a friend so Greg started me off on a high note. I could listen to his stories all day long. Some time again he and his wife rode their bike's from Alaska to the tip of South America. I made the dumb mistake of asking if this was the longest trip he has ever made.... (it was something in the neighborhood of 18,000 miles). When I left Missoula the rain was coming down fairly good. I was thankful I wasn't on muddy roads like the Bicycle Corps was. I was riding easy and it felt like I had a tail wind all the way to Potomac where the rain let up momentarily. I did not see Ray, my Potomac buddy, this time but I was thinking about him. My mother, who is along for the trip, met me in Potomac and we shared a sandwich. I road on to Sunset, which today is a restored house called the Morris Place on the Paws Up ranch. I mentioned this in last years post. I nearly made it up Sunset Hill this time without having to dismount. It is a steep hill and the Corps mentioned having to walk their bicycles up it. From Sunset Hill the road drops down into a valley carved by the Blackfoot. The road is lined by tall pines and it's a very beautiful road. After crossing an old iron bridge it was on to Clearwater. I thought I had a tailwind so I didn't stop long, thinking I could easily cover the 13 miles on to Ovando in forty-five miles or so. Wrong. The wind was out of the north and I got real tired about 3 or 4 miles out of Ovando. The Cottonwood site, where the Corps camped the first night wasn't as pretty this year as last since it was overcast and drizzly. We are staying at the Blackfoot Mercantile a building "established" in 1897. The room is fantastic. Last year I camped 4 miles out of Ovando and got drilled by mosquitoes all night long. I'm really living in the lap of luxury! Tomorrow it's on to Helmville. I'm hoping to run into Mary Ann McKee, a fourth generation resident of Irish descent. I am amazed to think people came from Ireland all the way to a very isolated section of Montana. The setting reminds me of an Ivan Doig book. From Helmville it's another 26 miles to Avon and then the monster Law Dog at Elliston. The Law Dog is a massive polish dog smothered in about a can and a half of chile. It is so much even I couldn't finish it off. I hear they have a Bigfoot burger now that is probably equally as huge. This part of Montana is jaw-dropping beautiful. It's the "real" Montana. People still care about and help one another out -- a way of life that seems to be dying out in rural America. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'll add them in as I find the time.

Got to Missoula

2010-05-28T20:11:00.000-07:00

Drove up to Missoula today and it was raining nearly the whole way. Looks like I am in for more of the same for the next few days anyway. Hopefully the weather will warm up some tomorrow. The Corps also experience quite a bit of rain throughout their trip. Luckily I won't be battling mud like they did. And I don't imagine they had Gore-tex and rain ponchos either.

Had a real treat today when I got to meet Greg Siple from Adventure Cycling, an organization here in Missoula that promotes bicycle touring. Greg shares an interest in the 25th Bicycle Corps. After giving me a tour of the building and showing me an incredible collection of bicycles that, mostly, hang from the ceiling, Greg shared many fascinating stories about touring. Among other things, he was one of the main organizers of Bikecentennial, a tour across the U.S. in 1976. Then he shared with me a stack of files that he has collected with information about the Corps. It was a goldmine. I was thrilled to find many pictures I've never seen as well as newspaper articles that contained information that will help fill in gaps in an understanding about where the Corps rode on their trip from Missoula to St. Louis. I'll transcribe the newspaper articles he gave me and add them to the day-to-day accounts I've put on the main blog page. What a great start to the trip. Now, if only the rain will let up a little bit.

Getting Ready to Go

2010-05-25T20:35:00.001-07:00

I'll be leaving from Missoula this coming Friday (May 28) to make my second shot at completing the Missoula to St. Louis trip. If I can I will blog as I ride. I now have a whopping four who confess to being followers of this blog.

1974 Riders

2010-05-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's this blog or word of mouth but all of a sudden people from all over the country are e-mailing me about the 25th Bicycle Corps. I just received an e-mail from a woman who had some questions for me. She happened to have scanned photos from a group who rode the Missoula to St. Louis ride back in 1974. The women and men who made that trip were from the University of Montana African-American Studies department. Coincidentally, they had a reunion last summer. I have had the pleasure to visit with Pferron Doss, one of the trip organizers. If I can get permission from the group I will publish the pictures taken during their trip. They are fantastic.
----------------------------------------------
May 25 - Talked to Mr. Doss today and he has given me permission to post the pictures. They are his. Thanks Pferron! Here is the first of several I have copies of. I will post more as time permits. .... I'm guessing this picture was taken in St. Louis.

(as with all the pictures on this blog, click on them to get a bigger view)

I'm thinking about making a separate link that would chronicle this group. Hopefully, I can make contact with other '74 Riders and, along with Pferron, talk them into sharing their memories of that trip.

In my mind, a huge debt of gratitude is owed to this group for resurrecting the long forgotten story of the Bicycle Corps.

Riding into St. Louis. Crossing over Bozeman Pass in Montana.

Lombard, Montana

2010-05-15T14:17:00.001-07:00

Lombard, Montana, which no longer exists lies between Toston, MT and Logan, MT. It is one of the trickier stretches on my ride as no direct through-road exists (which aren't locked-up) between the two towns. It is also a metaphor for all the literal and figurative tangents one could skitter off to while following the story of the bicycle corps and their trek across the West.

While preparing for my journey last winter I did much Googling and research trying to find a way through the canyon. I could not find any conclusive way through. I decided I would just have to plunge forward and hope for the best. When I got to Toston, MT which is at the northern exit of the canyon, residents expressed confidence I could get through the canyon and on to Headwaters State Park, the southern exit to the canyon. There directions were vague and they confessed they hadn't actually driven the road in some years but I felt confident of success. How could I get lost, I thought. All I need to do is follow the river and railroad tracks. About four or five miles into the canyon I climbed a winding road that would have tested a mule. It was incredibly steep and took me to the top of the western rim of the canyon. As I looked down I could see railroad tracks looping southward out of site. They were so crowded, on one side,by a steep canyon wall and river on the other, that there was no room for a road. Looking eastward I could see a multitude of possible paths that lead to some incredibly remote country. I decided on a brake-burning path that quickly disappeared but offered the most promise of moving me in a southward direction. Rumbling down the very steep and heavily rutted, rock-strewn dirt road I headed eastward, but then slowly arced back to the west. Rounding a hill, I was back to the bottom of the canyon and the Missouri. Ahead, to the west, was a small grassy patch and the site that I now know was Lombard, Montana. I could see foundations of long-gone buildings. A section of the bridge which crossed the Missouri had been removed, leaving it impossible to cross to the western side. Likewise, a road which lead southward, through an adjacent canyon, was paddle locked shut. A sign with ominous warnings was strapped to gate that blocked that exit. I felt trapped. The only way south, and out of the canyon, was to follow the Northern Pacific tracks. I didn't want to backtrack, and I didn't want to camp. I wanted to get to Headwaters State Park and a safe camping spot that night. It was about 9:30 PM and I had little idea how far I would have to go. I wound up walking my bicycle along the railroad tracks that hug the Missouri River. I knew this route had to eventually lead me out of the canyon. It was a long walk, late at night, but I finally hit the ranching community of Clarkston. Looking back I think the whole episode was rather fortuitous. This is exactly how the Bicycle Corps must have traveled through the canyon and Boos tells us it wasn't easy (see below). Walking my loaded bicycle gave me an appreciation of what it was like to endure the wearisome bump, bump, bump of my tires as my bicycle jounced along on the railroad ties.

While Lombard had to have been on the path the Corps followed neither Boos or Moss mention it. My certainty that they passed it lies in the fact that there is no way to avoid it--the steep walls of the canyon and the river hem the tracks in from both sides. Even when it had switching yards, a general store and the Lombard Hotel back at the turn of the century, it could only be reached by railroad. [Today it can be reached by the rough dirt road I followed but I imagine it would be a difficult trip by car] Lombard lies at the intersection of two rail lines. One line, the "Jawbone Railroad" arrived at this town from the north and east winding through Sixteen Mile Canyon. A man named Harlow, and his Montana Railroad Company, laid the tracks in 1895, just two years ahead of the Bicycle Corps. The other end of these tracks terminated at the other end at Lewistown, MT. The other, much longer, rail line, the Northern Pacific passed by Lombard, running north and south, as it followed the winding Missouri. These tracks are still being used--a fact I was highly aware of during my walk. I kept thinking about being arrested, flattened by an unseen 100-car train coming around the corner, and/or having to jump into the river. Additionally, the canyon wall side had a electrified fence, built to keep animals off the tracks, that threatened to fry me.

Today Highway 287 skirts around and away from the canyon. This would have been the easy path for me but I was determined to follow the route that the Corps rode. Lt. Moss reports that the Corps "lunched at New Bedford, and seven hours later went into camp at Recap (aka Rekap- about 3.5 miles below modern Clarkston--and about in the middle of the canyon). Boos gives us quite a bit more. "We reached Toston in good time, and as the rain had not commenced to fall so we concluded to push on a little further for the day. A number of citizens volunteered information and after listening to a number of stories about the poor conditions of the road by the way of Three Forks, we determined to take the railroad track, which cut off a few miles. We marched on this track which was just being renewed and was without ballast for 20 miles pushing our tires over the ties, which were from six inches to two feet apart, subjecting them to the most severe test. In the worst part we carried our heavily loaded machines on our shoulder. The mosquitoes were very bad [they were right next to the Missouri River] and we had a hard time. The hour was getting late and the men tired and hungry so we pitched camp at a temporary station called Recap."

So, the Corps almost certainly passed by Lombard. They probably saw the Lombard Hotel which was built by the towns mayor--a Chinese immigrant Billy Kee. Kee also owned the general store and ran the post office.

"The career of Billy Kee, another widely known Chinaman who lived in Montana for many years, was much different. Billy Kee ran the hotel at Lombard, where the old "jawbone" railroad built by Richard Harlow, after who the city of Harlowtown was named, touched the Northern Pacific. Billy Kee was especially well known to the commercial travelers of that day. His hotel was a favorite stopping place, and robbed the trip into Lewistown country over the "jawbone" of much of its hardship. His beds were clean and good and his table was excellent.
Wives Accumulate
After accumulating a fortune in the hotel business he went back to China and is now a successful merchant in the Chinese city of Hongkong. But Billy's American divorce was not recognized by the Chinese authorities, according to word received by some of his Chinese friends here, and after his return to Hongkong, he had two wives, the one he left behind, and the one he annexed in this country. And by the law and customs of the country the first wife, the one whom he married in China, was boss of the household, and the second wife whom he married in this country became her slave. He had several children by the wife he married in America, and when he returned to China, took all with him."

- The Mineral Independent, The Mineral County Historical Society www.cas.umt.edu/anthro/anth495cim/.../TheMineralIndependent.pdf

The two story building in the backround of the picture to the left is Kee's hotel, The High Point Inn. According to the Ultimate Montana website, "the hotel served good meals and featured a bathroom with hot and cold running water. Kee was known as a "flexible" proprietor. When he retired at night, he would leave the light on for any latecomers and the cash register open. The guests would scrawl their name in the register, put their money in the till, and take a key to a room."

Since biking last summer, I think I've discovered a way to get from Toston to Logan. It will lead me away from the Missouri, the railroad tracks, Lombard and the path the Corps followed but it's the closest route I can find. I'm glad I went the route the Corps did last year....but this time I think I'll avoid the tracks.

Did the Corps Go through Hannibal, MO?

2010-05-01T13:30:00.001-07:00

As the Bicycle Corps got closer to St. Louis, the details Eddie Boos and Lt. Moss provided diminished to a trickle and then, nothing at all. What happened? Did Boos stop sending articles to his employer once the Corps hit the Nebraska-Kansas border? Or did the Missoulian decide to quit covering the story for a time? Neither seem likely and yet I can find very little in the way of first person accounts of the Corps trip across Missouri. There are only very short snippets of information. Determining the last part of the route through Missouri, therefore, has been difficult. The map posted here comes from a set of illustrations that accompanied a lengthy article in the St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat of July 25, 1897. This map indicates that Hannibal, Missouri was on the Corps route. However, I have yet to find any other source which confirms the Corps went through this town. Working out the mileage figures Moss provided in his report hint that the Corps would have had to swung northward, up through Palmyra, MO. If they rode the more direct route, from Monroe to Louisiana, two towns specifically mentioned by Moss, the mileage figures fall short of what Moss reported.

Mingo Sanders Picture Found!

2010-01-19T20:41:00.001-08:00

The following picture of Mingo Sanders was found on page 160 of the book The Brownsville Raid by John D. Weaver. Unfortunately, the book does not give any information about where the photo came from, or when it was taken.

Taking a look at the Fort Snelling photo (1883) of Company B, 25th Infantry, the person who most closely resembles Sanders, in my opinion, is shown to the left. In both photos the man's complexion looks very dark and in both the skin appears tightly drawn across his face. Guessing that Sanders in the baseball picture is in his late forties dates that photo somewhere around the 1900s. The entire Fort Snelling photo can be see in the blog entry "Is There a Picture of Mingo Sanders?" The cropped Bicycle Corps photo in the same entry is too grainy to make much of a comparison.

The man on the magazine cover almost certainly is Mingo Sanders. The picture, drawn by W.A. Rogers, appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly on January 12, 1907. The cartoon portrays a dejected soldier from the 25th Infantry who has been dishonorably discharged by President Theodore Roosevelt following the Brownsville Affair. Sanders gained national attention when he, along with 166 other soldiers of the 25th, was booted from the Army. This was President Roosevelt's solution when it could not be determined who shot up the town of Brownsville, Texas one August night in 1906. Racist townspeople blamed the soldiers at nearby Fort Brown. Sanders was the star witnesses for the defense because of his impeccable twenty-six years of service. His name was on the front page of many national papers while a Senate investigation was held.

Click here for more about Sanders.

The picture to the left shows an old soldier with nearly thirty years service. His medals tell us he is "One of the best", "faithful", "brave" and "honest"--all words that were used to describe Sanders.

Another New Picture Found

2010-01-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

I just found another picture of the Bicycle Corps that I've never seen. This appears to be from the Yellowstone trip of 1896. It comes from an article Moss wrote for the February 1897 edition of Outing magazine.

Is There a Picture of Mingo Sanders?

2009-12-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

Recently, I received an e-mail from a reader of this blog wondering about a picture of Mingo Sanders. Does one exist? Sanders was the most famous of the enlisted men due to his later involvement in the Brownsville Incident. He was an incredible soldier who Colonel Burt testified was the "best sergeant in the Army". You can read more about Sanders on The Riders section of this blog.

The picture above is from the National Archives (NARA 111-SC-83638) and is also found in the Nankivell book, Buffalo Soldier Regiment (pg. 39). Unfortunately, there is some confusion about which company is pictured. Some sources claim it is Co. B while others, such as Nankivell, say it is Co. I. Nankivell, who was an officer in the 25th and published his book in 1926, would seem to be the most reliable source. In the PBS production The Bicycle Corps the camera zooms in on the fourth man kneeling from the left when talking about Sanders. In the picture to the right, Sanders would be the third man, from the left, kneeling. I do not know if Gus Chambers, and the researchers who made the film, had reason to think that particular man was Sanders. E-mails I have sent to him have gone unanswered.

The Registers of Enlistment tell us Sanders was discharged from his first enlistment at Fort Snelling on May 15, 1886. He had attained the rank of corporal. By 1891, he was in Fort Shaw, Montana and had risen in rank to sergeant. The third man in the photo appears to be a private, judging by the lack of stripes on his sleeve. All the Registers of Enlistment describe Mingo Sanders as being 5' 7 1/2" and having a dark complexion. He would have been 27 years old in 1883.

The photo above is, according to Nankivell (pg. 39), Company B, 25th Infantry. It was taken at Fort Snelling, Minnesota in 1883. If that is correct, Sanders is probably in it. Had Sanders been promoted to corporal by the time this photograph was taken? I do not know. If he was a corporal, assuming, of course, he is in the picture, we can narrow down the possibilities considerably. Next would come comparing our guesses from this photo with pictures taken of the 25th Bicycle Corps.

When I look at the best photo I have of the 1897 Bicycle Corps riders (see homepage of this blog), and consider all I know of Sanders, including he was dark complected and the oldest rider, I conclude that the soldier pictured to the left is him. Admitting my guess is a tenuous match of age and complexion, I have one other reason to think this might be Sanders. Look at the way this man's hat is worn and folded (compare to the other riders). Doesn't it look like the way an orderly, disciplined sergeant--which we know Sanders was--would wear his hat? But all of this is merely conjecture. Not all of the riders can be seen and the photograph is too grainy to compare to the men in the Fort Snelling picture. It would seem that once again, my efforts to know more about men who deserve to be more than nameless faces, are frustrated. But within the pictures and records remains the possibility that more can be discovered. And who knows what else has yet to be discovered? Surely, I tell myself, some reporter took Sanders' picture. Perhaps, it lies waiting in some archived newspaper or dusty attic trunk. The search for an image of Mingo Sanders goes on.

What Color Were the Bicycles?

2009-12-14T20:36:00.001-08:00

This is an 1895 Spaulding as found on the Tuesday, 17 August 2004 entry at http://www.pishtush.com/camwrangler/0408aug.html

Note the color pictures on both pages of the 1897 Spalding Catalogue. All the bicycles are black. Combining this information with a look at the pictures of the Bicycle Corps on their bicycles it's my guess that their bicycles were black as well.

Day 1 - Starting from Fort Missoula

2009-06-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

Fort Missoula
This is a panorama taken at Fort Missoula. [I'm learning how to stitch digital photos together.]

I've realized for some time, but this trip is already reminding me, how difficult it is to capture the bigness of a place in a single photo. Maybe the panoramas will help. Click on the pictures to see a bigger view. In this particular photo, downtown Missoula is about 5 or six miles ahead, just left of the big tree which is about in the center of the picture. I'm standing near the museum at the fort. The fort today has many beautiful buildings. Many came after Moss and the Corps. Perhaps they had a view similar to the one captured in the photo.

I started early (6:15 a.m.) but not as early as the Corps. They began at 5:40 a.m. It had never occurred to me how time consuming it must have been to get all twenty riders loaded up and ready to go. While I'm sure they had their routines, moving that many men must have been quite an undertaking. Experiencing this trip it opening my eyes and making me understand the bicycle corps in a deeper, richer way. Exactly what I was hoping for. Today, the open, empty space between Fort Missoula and downtown Missoula is filled with homes, malls, streets and other businesses. In 1897 the fort was much more isolated from the rest of Missoula.

This is the Higgins St. bridge that the Corps crossed as they rode into downtown.

Downtown Missoula
Moss tells that "a crowd that had risen earlier than usual in order to bid the corps godspeed gave us a hearty cheer." Missoula remains a very bicycle-friendly town. Once I got to the downtown I headed to the headquarters of Adventure Cycling, an organization which promotes bicycle touring and bicycle friendliness. They publish a wonderful magazine that I highly recommend. They are also well known amongst bicycle tourists for maps they make of routes throughout America. I hoped I might get lucky and find somebody there. Maybe somebody will be interested in my project. No such luck, it was too early, so I stuck two business cards (with the address of this website) between the double doors at the entrance and left. Later on, I received an e-mail from Greg Siple, the art director for AC. He liked this site and wondered if I was the person who left the cards. Later on, in a phone conversation, I learned more about Greg's interest in the bicycle corps and the discoveries he has made. I also found out it is Greg who takes the incredible portraits of the bicyclists who pass through Missoula for the section of the AC magazine and website called the Portrait Gallery. I'm still kicking myself for not having waited.

Bonner
is the next place the Corps mentions passing through. In 1897, Bonner was the end of the line for logs floating down the Blackfoot River. A huge mill there processed the timber, much of which was then sent on to mines in Anaconda and Helena. It is ironic that such a beautiful town is, today, so close to a SuperFund site. The feds are cleaning up the Blackfoot which has over a century of accumulated bad chemicals from a dam which was built in nearby Milltown. Boos reported that the riders made it to Bonner "in good time" and left the line of the Northern Pacific hoping to avoid bad roads and steep grades.

McNamara's Crossing
Boos describes running up "this beautiful mountain river for several hours on excellent roads and easy grades". This stretch has lost none of it's beauty. As I rode the thought "Wow!" kept going through my mind. Boos and Moss both tell that when the Corps reached McNamara's crossing they found that the bridge which could carry them across was washed out. Both men report being ferried across, eight at a time, by some loggers. A pen and ink sketch of this crossing can be sen on Day 1.

Camas Prairie
Boos says, "leaving the Blackfoot behind and crossing the low range between [McNamara's Crossing] and the low range...we reached the summit and saw the beautiful valley laying below us...we were charmed, the meadows and low lands being covered with a sea of blue flowers, from which the valley takes its name.

The Camas Prairie was indeed charming, breathtakingly beautiful in fact, and I was pleased to find that the Camas flowers were still growing in abundance in the prairie.

Potomac
The Corps reached Potomac at 11 o'clock, about the same time I did, which is surprising taking into account their ferry ride across the Blackfoot. I chalk up my long trip to the time I took stopping and taking pictures. The Corps began to eat lunch when Moss noticed an approaching storm. The men quickly packed up and began riding as hard as they could, hoping to avoid a drenching such as they had received the year before on their trip to Yellowstone.

At Potomac I met up with Ray who had helped me this winter trying to locate Cottonwood. Cottonwood is where the Corps camped the first night and I felt I ought to know where it was. I found Ray totally randomly, after Googling up "Potomac". He's got a website dedicated to his mule-packing sideline. It was a serendipitous connection. After a few e-mails explaining why I wanted to find Cottonwood, I was able to get Ray excited about the bicycle corps. He talked with two old-timers who live in the Potomac area. In the course of our corespondance I realized I wasn't even close in my guesses as to the whereabouts of Cottonwood. But, Ray and his buddies nailed the location of the long-gone town (the confluence of Cottonwood Creek and the Little Blackfoot).

Ray doesn't need to tell you twice he spent a career running a dairy farm. His handshake kinda says it all. In short, he has the kind of grip that leaves you thinking he's got hydraulics in his sleeve. I think he could easily have crushed my forefinger into my pinkie if he had powered-up full-squeeze-mode (see reaction in photo above). Today Ray is semi-retired working at many odd jobs, and competing with his beloved mules -- not the least of which is "Willie". Ray is one of the many "real" Americans I've met on this trip. Visiting with him, you soon realize he's got tremendous strength beyond those devastating mitts.

Sunset
The location of Sunset, like Cottonwood, was elusive, but I found it. Boos tells us "the town of Sunset was reached in due time and here again we were forced to dismount and climb a long hill afoot." Sunset, it turns out, had two or three locations. None of the Sunsets survived. The Sunset of 1897, the one the Corps travelled past, is today, part of a swanky resort called the Paws Up Ranch. At Paws Up it will cost you "starting at $725" (according to their website) to stay at Tent City (aka a "luxury canvas community"). Go to their website and you'll see these ain't no Wal-Mart tents you're bunked up in. Check out the glasses of chablais on the distressed cowboy endtable.

Still digesting the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches I mooched off of Ray, I felt sort of funny riding through a place where nature is served up "on a silver platter". I moved across the Ranch as fast as I could. The Sunset of 1897 was where the restored (by Paws Up) Morris house is now. (e-mail me if you want details how I know this). By the way, Morris Ranch house rents for "starting from $2,935" a night in late summer. Nothing against the tents but I think this is a better deal. I can picture Moss and the fellas whooping it up here.

Sure enough there was a long hill right after the Morris house ("Sunset"). This dirt road is called the Sunset Hill Road and I suspect it's been there a long time. Like the Corps, I had to walk my bike up it. It was about this point I began to think I should have trained a little harder this winter. Ray, I might mention, back at Potomac, looked at me and asked, "So, you didn't train for this ride, did you?"

The great thing about nearly 300 pounds of bicycle, panniers and belly is places like the other side of Sunset Hill Road. Downhill through beautiful pines and aspen. Intellectually, you know gravity is doing all the work but emotionally you still feel like Lance Armstrong.

Clearwater
This picture isn't Clearwater but close to it. The dirt road (Sunset Hill Road) runs back into Highway 200 about two miles from this location. Moss says they passed the Clearwater Post Office about dusk. Boos describes getting rained on as they reached the top of the hill back around Sunset then "we found a fair road with a downgrade, made up some lost time and left the muddy hill behind..." This is pretty much what I experienced, except the road wasn't muddy. The Corps made good time on a "long desolate flat" which I'm assuming is the same dirt road I pedaled along the Blackfoot river. It was anything but desolate traveling through tall, shady trees. "Good time was made and we soon rolled into Clearwater, crossing the river by that name on a good bridge." As I crossed over the bridge I wondered how old it was. My question was answered at the top of the girders on the other side. 1907. I think Boos meant that the Corps crossed the Blackfoot, not the Clearwater. Accuse me of sloppy deduction, but I think this road and the location of this bridge are where the Corps rode.

Cottonwood
When I finally spotted Cottonwood Creek flowing into the Blackfoot, the location the map tells us Cottonwood was (photo at right), I thought, "That looks like a place I'd like to camp". I keep using the adjective "beautiful" but that's what this location is. The picture does not do it justice. I'm glad I saw it in the evening, in the cool June air, from my bicycle.

Yes, we confirmed it's location on the 1938 map (see blog June 4), but part of me needs more proof this was the place. Could Cottonwood, like Sunset, have been in different locations? Perhaps. For now I'll abandon historical accuracy and say, I think this was Cottonwood just because it looked so magical, so ethereal, when I saw it tonight. The perfect place to end the first day's journey. This place had to be it.

Ovando
The Corps camped at Cottonwood at the end of Day 1 but I pushed on. Boos wrote and waking up on Day 2 and riding in a heavy fog, "We had fair time and were soon in another mountain valley dotted with numerous lakes on which many ducks were resting." I saw many lakes and ducks too, although my camera didn't have a zoom powerful enough to get a close-up.

E.R. Kiliburn, from Ovando, told the Missoulian that he saw the Corps riding toward Ovando early the morning of June 15, 1897. Boos was a half-mile ahead of everybody and Lt. Moss was bringing up the rear. "The Corps was in single file and scattered along the road a mile or more. All the men looked fresh and were jogging along at good speed. The sight was a pleasing one and unexpected to the residents of that country who thought the corps would follow the Hellgate river from Bonner to Garrison and then to Avon, the first supply station."

Ovando is a very small town but seems to be enjoying a bit of a revival judging from the condition of the buildings. The first site that caught my notice as I rounded a corner and rode into the town square was The Blackfoot Commercial Company building, established in 1897, the same year the Corps rode through. Unfortunately, Ovando was completely void of people. I was hoping to find someone to talk with. Maybe somebody could tell me more about Mr. Kiliburn. But the only remotely human personage I could find was a stoic looking wooden Indian standing guard at the porch of the Blackfoot Commercial Company. While having perky enough eyes, for a wooden guy, his body language told me he wasn't much up for conversation, so I kept on riding.

Ovando, Montana

About six or seven miles down a dirt road called the Helmville Road I bailed off the side and, in spite of the mosquitoes, pulled out my sleeping bag and got my first ever taste of "guerilla camping" (camping on property which could get you shot).

Location of Cottonwood, Montana Discovered

2009-06-04T18:40:00.001-07:00

Thanks to my oldest daughter, who drove me up, I am in Missoula and getting ready for the trip. She turned right around and drove another six hours back home.

Today was a good start. Scott Simonson, map and special collections expert at the Mansfield Library at UM helped me verify the location of Cottonwood, the first town the Corps rode to. It was fun to watch Scott, who really knows the archives go to work. It took over two hours but he finally found this long-gone town. It turns out that Cottonwood was just above the confluence of the Little Blackfoot and Cottonwood Creek. The picture below shows Cottonwood on a 1938 map. Unfortunately, I was having trouble with my camera so it is a bit blurry.

The plan for tomorrow, the first day of this trip is to ride up to Salmon Lake Park which is close to where Cottonwood was. I'll probably not be able to access WiFi until I get to Helena which I hope to reach in two or three days. I am looking forward to some beautiful scenery.

The Big Weigh-In

2009-06-03T18:44:00.001-07:00

Well, I just weighed all my stuff and I think I'm a little ahead of the guy in the picture. Is that a BOB he's got loaded up?

Here's the breakdown:
me = 235 lbs.
Lughound = 35 lbs.
Loaded panniers, sleeping bag, tent etc. = 39.35 lbs.
Water = 3 X 1.5 lbs

My packed bicycle weighs 74.65 lbs.

Grand total = 318.75 lbs.

Lt. Moss and Gang
Moss was not a very big man. He only weighed 135 lbs.
I believe Findley was the heaviest of the riders. He weighed 186 lbs. on the Yellowstone trip.
"Weight of wheel packed" was 67 lbs. for Moss and 86 for Findley. The other riders packed bicycles were between 70 and 84 lbs--not to far away from my loaded cycle--which is somewhat surprising. I thought their bikes and equipment would have amounted to more. The rifles alone weighed 10 pounds. Moss did decide after the Yellowstone trip that two men would share a comb.

Army regulations required that no man weigh more than 140 pounds or be over five feet eight inches tall but General Miles made a special exception for this trip. (Sorenson, pg. 52). I am quite a bit taller (6' 5") and heavier than the Corps riders.

Getting Ready to Go

2009-06-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm heading up to Missoula and hope to be on the road by Friday. I plan to go to the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana as soon as I arrive to see if I can find some old railroad maps. I want to find the location of Cottonwood, which is the first town the Corps stopped at. In the 1890s the Anaconda Forest Products Company was logging in several locations close to the Blackfoot River. The downed trees were railroaded and eventually floated downstream to a mill in Bonner. Much of the timber feed the booming mining industry. Records indicate that a line joined Cottonwood to Woodworth (near present day Salmon Lake State Park) but I've not been able to nail down the precise location.

I am not the first person to retrace the Missoula to St. Louis run the Corps made in 1897. In 1974, a group led by two University of Montana faculty members, Pferron Doss and Richard Smith made the trip. Students Dave Watson, Carl Franklin, Jose Velez, Glenda Eruteya, Michael Shaw, Bryan Orr, Miriam Martin and Cheryl Ryan made ten riders all total. Smith's wife, Bernestine, drove a Winnebago sag-wagon. The group typically got up at 4 a.m. and were on the road by 5:30. They had originally planned to ride 50 miles a day, like the original Corps, but wound up averaging 77 miles a day. I have spoken with Pferron who tells me home movies (8 mm?) were made. If the movies can be found I would like to have them digitized and posted on this site.

Tracing the Riders

2009-05-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

Trying to trace the riders of the Corps has yielded some interesting results. Kennedy, the surgeon, it turns out, rose to the rank brigadier general. While searching records I found that at the end of his Army career, he was assistant surgeon general and head of Walter Reed hospital in the 1920s. In 1943, the army opened a 3,000 bed hospital in Memphis which bears his name. At this point, it seems Kennedy provides the greatest chance of having "findable" living descendants. His son, Archibald, died January 17, 1982 in Santa Clara, California. I am getting close! Perhaps somebody will read this and help us find living relations.

The mechanic, John Findley, who has always been one of most intriguing riders raises many questions and illustrates some of the difficulties I've had tracking down the black riders. In all three enlistment records I found for Findley, his birthplace is listed as Carlton, Missoui. Yet, the search for a Carlton in Missouri has proved futile. There is a Carrollton, Missouri but no Carlton. Was Carrollton the town Findley was born in?

A search through census records turned up a "John Findly" in 1910 who is black and born the same year as the enlistment records state, 1873, living in Cooper, Webster County, Iowa. This record shows that "Findly" and his parents were born in Missouri. Is this our man? If so things get very interesting. The 1915 Iowa Census for Webster County locates a John Findley who is 40-years old and living in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Cooper, it turns out, is part of the town of Fort Dodge. Surely the 1910 "Findly" and 1915 "Findley" are the same person. But this is where the trail takes some weird twists. In the 1915 record Findley's birthplace is listed as "Mexico" and indicates he has been in the United States only three years. But the blanks which would indicate military service are checked. This man was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and served in the infantry, the cavalry and (!) the navy. To further confuse matters his race is listed as "white". It should be noted that pictures of Findley and his enlistment records confirm that Findley was a tall, slender and had a mulatto complextion. A World War I draft registration card signed September 12, 1918 locates John Findley in Fort Dodge again. This time, his race is "Mexican" and he is working as a "fireman" at the local gas plant. His birthdate is given as September 25, 1874. Why would a forty-four year old man register for the draft? How would a man from Mexico come to have the last name "Findley"? And the big question, is this our Findley? Read more about Findley and the other riders in the section of my blog called "The Riders". I welcome any ideas from people who read this who might have an interest or theory.

Three Cheers and a Tiger

2009-05-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Just got an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from July 25, 1897. It describes the Corps entry into St. Louis. The reporter relates that several bicyclist enthusiasts who rode out to greet the Corps gave them "three cheers and a tiger".

Click here if you'd like to see the article in it's entirety. You'll need to scroll down until you hit the "2200 Miles..." headline. Incidentally, this reporter exaggerated the distance. Moss claims the corps only (!) travelled 1,900 miles.

New Pictures of the 25th Bicycle Corps

2009-04-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

It's always exciting to find new photographs of the Bicycle Corps. This one was published in Wonderland '98 [a publication of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, pg. 33]. The caption in the magazine states the corps is "starting for St. Louis". Perhaps the photo was taken by Eddie Boos.
Here is another picture from Wonderland '98. It looks very similar to those held by the Mansfield Library, including the one seen on the home page of this blog, in which the Corps is standing in formation. My kingdom for a clear copy of this photo!

The Twenty-fifth Infantry bicycle corps demonstrating a field formation. Lieutenant Moss is in the center. - Army and Navy Journal, July 3, 1897, 814
[I found this in Arizona and the West, vol. 16, #3, The Black Bicycle Corps, p. 228 Marvin E. Fletcher]

Another photo that would be of great help for identifying the riders if a clearer copy could be found.

Unanswered Questions

2009-04-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

This June I will jump on the LugHound (my bicycle) in Missoula, Montana and retrace a journey which was made 112 years ago. In 1897, Lt. James Moss led 20 members of the 25th Infantry on a 41-day trip to St. Louis. The purpose was the test the "practicability" of the bicycle for the Army. I have created another blog, 25th Bicycle Corps, which contains primary source information about that trip and the men who made it. The purpose of this blog is to help me organize my own trip and document the discoveries I hope to make by doing the trip myself.

One big question that I've worked on the past four or five years is, "where exactly did the Corps ride?" Using Lt. Moss's reports, newspaper accounts and maps I feel confident that I've been able to figure out, mostly, where the Corps went and when they stopped (see Google map on 25th Bicycle Corps site). The Corps followed still existing railroad tracks for most of the journey so tracing the route is fairly straight forward but there are still some gaps. For example, Moss mentions stopping at a place called Cottonwood on the very first day of the trip. Trying to find Cottonwood has proved somewhat elusive, although with help from some friendly locals I feel I am closing in on it's precise location. Asking people for help often opens up interesting conversations so I've enjoyed trying to track questions like this.

At the other end of the journey, it is unclear the path the Corps followed as they closed in on St. Louis. For reasons unknown, Eddie Boos, the newspaper reporter who rode with the Corps, quit providing the detailed articles he wrote for the Missoulian (Missoula newspaper) all the way through Nebraska (my guess is that he was simply getting worn out). Lt. Moss's reports, likewise, tell us very little about the trip across Missouri. Moss provided daily mileage figures, through a report he wrote, but he did not identify the towns where they camped. Also, the mileage figures don't always match where descriptions indicate the corps would have stopped. By deduction, I think I've worked out most of the towns the corps rode through in Missouri. One of the biggest remaining questions is: Did they ride through Hannibal, Missouri? Using Moss's mileage figures I feel that they must have gone that way via Palmyra, Missouri. Hannibal is labeled on a map of the route which illustrated a St. Louis news story--but I have not been able to find any other primary source accounts to confirm this.

I know there are more existing newspaper accounts that I still need to add to this blog, particularly ones written by St. Louis papers, which are rich in detail. I'm working on it.

If anybody out there reads this and has any information, please pass it on and I'll add it.