[Hosea Stout Diary] Thursday June 24th 1847. Started at sun rise for Bel-vue[.] The company was small at first. Men however were falling in or over taking us for miles.
When we had gone about half way we stopped to organize the company which we did by appointing Jesse P. Harmon & Alexander Mc[.] Rae Lieutenants and dividing the the company into two platoons over which each officer commanded[.] Harmon taking the first & Mc[.] Rae the second platoon[.] I then selected Thomas Rich, Daniel Carns, William Meeks[.] Jas W. Cummings, Luman H. Calkins, and George D. Grant as picket guard and also sent them on ahead with orders to go into Belvue and report our arrival and tell Mitchel that we were at his service and only wanted his written orders.
This precaution was necessary because we knew he was only the Pottawattamie agent and had no authority on this side of the river among the Omahas. And not only so we knew him also to be a most infamous rascal and an inveterate enemy to us.
It would have therefore been very easy for him to played the game to engage us in a war with the Omahas and leave us in the difficulty. But suspecting him we determined not to act without the most positive & plain orders. Moreover in case he led us into an engagement and did not mentain his position or attempt to desert or betray us we would have put him to death instanter
Our company here amounted to 53 men and we had two baggage waggons along. Thus arrainged and organized we proceeded onward and stoped on the last high ground in the prairie before going to Belvue while the picket or vanguard aforesaid went on to learn the news[.] After remaining here some time with a strong guard out & taking some refreshments in the mein time, and no return from those who had gone in; we all went to the Cold Spring where the Big camp was when I first came over the river last August. Here we quenched our thirst and regaled & refreshed ourselves well. This place looked now deserted, desolate, and lonesome & the Spring almost entirely filled up but the watter clear & pure as ever. After this we went back when we met our van guard who reported that Mitchel came over while they were there accompanied by Br Hyde[.] The people in Belvue did not yet know anything of this move nor had mitchel done anything towards raising the 100 men spoken of by Br Hydes letter to the Council and had just come over when they had come in town. They informed him that I was on the prairie and was ready for service & only waited for his written orders[.] This seemed to confuse him considerable[.] He confessed that he had no authority on this side of the river and only acted by verbal request of Majr Miller who was the Omaha agent and was absent.
He stated that the man found on the Horn was a Pawnee and had it been his own son as he at first suspected he would have raised the Pottewattimies & went against the Omahas. He seemed now to think that it was only an act of accommodation in him to come over for us and offered to go with us for the man that shot Wetherbee as a mere favor. They told him that it was a Government case and if he did not want us in that capacity we would return home again.so this expedition was but the resuld of folly & ignorance. The Omahas were now gone on their hunt.
When we come to the creek six miles below Winter Quarters we stopped to bait & watter our horses and Harvey Green in an attempt to light his pipe, set his powder on fire and blew up. His horn was full of powder & he had been cautioned several time to stop it but he heeded no one[.] He was badly hurt but recovered in a few days.
We came home about sun set and at dark Myself Carns & Cummings went to see & relate our expedition to Presidents A. Cutler & Morley. They thought very little of the course which had been taken to call out this company and viewed Mitchel in a very unfavorable light. We were together untill about 12 oclock P. M.
[source: Diaries of Hosea Stout]
[Diaries of Hosea Stout]
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