California, October 8th.<\/i> <\/b>This morning we broke camp at six o\u2019clock and marched at eight. The road was bad, for which the beauty of the scenery did not entirely compensate. To-day\u2019s experience has taught us how completely an army is tied to the wheels of the wagons. Tell a general how fast the train can travel and he will know how long the journey will be. We passed our wagons in a terrible plight: some upset, some with balky mules, some stuck in the mud, and some broken down. The loud-swearing drivers, and the stubborn, patient, hard-pulling mules did not fail to vary and enliven the scene.<\/p>\n
A journey of eighteen miles brought us to this place, where we are encamped upon the county fair-ground. California is a mean, thriftless village; there are no trees shading the cottages, no shrubbery in the yards. The place is only two or three years old, but already wears a slovenly air of decay.<\/p>\n
I set out with Colonel L. upon a foraging expedition. We passed a small house, in front of which a fat little negro-girl was drawing a bucket of water from the well, the girl puffing and the windlass creaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill Massa have a drink of water?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first token of hospitality since Hermann. We stopped and drank from the bucket, but had not been there a minute before the mistress ran out, with suspicion in her face, to protect her property. A single question sufficed to show the politics of that house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is your husband?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went off a little while ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the Missouri way of informing us that he was in the Rebel army.<\/p>\n
A little farther on we came to what was evidently the chief house of the place. A bevy of maidens stood at the gate, supported by a pleasant matron, fair and fat.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you sell us some bread?\u201d was our rather practical inquiry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have none baked, but will bake you some by sundown,\u201d was the answer, given in a hearty, generous voice.<\/p>\n
The bargain was soon made. Our portly dame proved to be a Virginian, who still cherished a true Virginian love for the Union.<\/p>\n
Fremont\u2019s Hundred Days in Missouri<\/em> was published in three installments in The Atlantic Monthly<\/em>. The anonymous author appears to have been a member of Fremont\u2019s staff with a disdainful bias towards Missourians, even those who were pro-Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" California, October 8th. This morning we broke camp at six o\u2019clock and marched at eight. The road was bad, for which the beauty of the scenery did not entirely compensate. To-day\u2019s experience has taught us how completely an army is tied to the wheels of the wagons. Tell a general how fast the train can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":68397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-atlantic-monthly"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/General-Fremonts-Army.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117162,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68413\/revisions\/117162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}