ICE BREAK-UP OF 1856.
During the season of 1854 Captain La Barge was in the employ of the
government most of the time. In the previous winter Colonel Crossman,
of the army, Quartermaster at St. Louis, contracted with a company of
boat-builders on the Osage River for a steamboat for government use.
When the hull was nearly completed Captain La Barge went up and brought
the boat down by the use of sweeps. He supervised her completion and
remained on her as pilot during the entire season. This boat was called
the _Mink_, from the color selected in painting her.
The American Fur Company chartered a boat to take up the outfit of
1854, but the crew mutinied, and the voyage proved a failure. Mr.
Chouteau then asked La Barge to recommend him a boat for the next
year’s trade and join with him in purchasing her. It so happened that
two St. Louisans, Sam Gaty and a man named Baldwin, had recently won a
prize of forty thousand dollars in the Havana lottery, and were using
it in building a boat. They sold the boat in her unfinished state, the
Company purchasing a half interest and La Barge and John J. Roe each
one-fourth. La Barge supervised her completion and named her the _St.
Mary_, after a new town which P. A. Sarpy had just laid out a few miles
below the modern Council Bluffs, Ia., and which has been long since
entirely washed into the river.
[Sidenote: TRANSFER OF FORT PIERRE.]
Captain La Barge made the annual voyage of 1855 in this new boat. Mr.
Charles P. Chouteau, son of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., accompanied the trip.
The only incident of particular moment on this voyage was the transfer
of Fort Pierre to the United States Government in accordance with the
terms of a sale which had been consummated the previous spring. This
important event, which will again be referred to more at length, marked
the beginning of the conquest of the upper Missouri country by the army
of the United States. The _St. Mary_ was used in making the transfer of
the post to the War Department and in moving the Fur Company’s property
to a new situation some distance above the old site, near the mouth of
Chantier Creek.
General Harney was in command of the troops sent to the upper Missouri
in 1855, and La Barge saw him at Fort Pierre. The Captain always liked
him, and considered him one of the best friends of the Indians that the
army ever produced--a terrible fighter when fight was unavoidable, but
always desirous of accomplishing his purposes by peaceful means. The
Captain recalled an incident of Harney’s intercourse with the Sioux
which created a great deal of mirth on the frontier at the time.
[Sidenote: THE POWER OF THE WHITE MAN.]
[Sidenote: MEDICINE TOO STRONG.]
While holding a council at Pierre with about three thousand Sioux, the
General told them of the great power of the American people and the
uselessness of their trying to resist them. He was anxious to exhibit
some proof that would appeal to the native imagination. Finally a
thought struck him. Chloroform was just coming into use in surgery,
and the hospital equipment with the expedition had some of it along.
“I will show you the great power of the white man,” said the General
with impressive gravity. “I will show you how he can even kill and
bring to life again.” He called the surgeon, explained what he wanted,
and then, through the interpreter, commanded that a dog be killed and
afterward restored to life. He cautioned the surgeon to be extremely
careful not to overdo the matter. The surgeon proceeded to chloroform
the dog, while the Indians looked on in mute astonishment, if not with
superstitious awe. After the dog was insensible the General called
the chiefs and told them to satisfy themselves that he was actually
dead. The surgeon was then ordered to resurrect the dog. He applied
the usual restoratives, but the dog slept on. He nipped his tail with
a pair of pincers, but still no sign of life. The surgeon finally
gave it up, and the white man’s marvelous power did not materialize.
The Indians looked on, and putting their hands to their mouths said:
“Medicine too strong, too strong.”[32]
[Sidenote: ICE BREAK-UP OF 1856.]
After the return of the _St. Mary_ to St. Louis, Captain La Barge, as
was his wont, ran in the lower river trade the rest of the season. In
the following winter, February 27, occurred the famous ice “break-up”
of 1856 on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The winter had been very
cold and the ice was three or four feet thick and the water low. The
break-up was not caused in the usual way by the thawing of the ice, but
by a rise in the river from above, which caused the ice to move before
it had become much disintegrated. It was an appalling and terrible
example of the power of a great river when restrained in its course.
The following account is from the pen of an eyewitness:
[Sidenote: TERRIBLE DISPLAY OF POWER.]
“The ice at first moved very slowly and without any perceptible
shock. The boats lying above Chestnut Street were merely shoved
ashore. Messrs. Eads & Nelson’s Submarine No. 4, which had
just finished work at the wreck of the _Parthenia_, was almost
immediately capsized and became herself a hopeless wreck.
Here the destruction commenced. The _Federal Arch_ parted her
fastenings and became at once a total wreck. Lying below were
the steamers _Australia_, _Adriatic_, _Brunette_, _Paul Jones_,
_Falls City_, _Altona_, _A. B. Chambers_, and _Challenge_, all
of which were torn away from the shore as easily as if they
were mere skiffs, and floated down with the immense fields of
ice. The shock and the crashing of these boats can better
be imagined than described. All their ample fastenings were
as nothing against the enormous flood of ice, and they were
carried down apparently fastened and wedged together. The first
obstacles with which they came in contact were a large fleet of
wood-boats, flats, and canal-boats. These small fry were either
broken to pieces or were forced out on the levee in a very
damaged condition. There must have been at least fifty of these
smaller water craft which were destroyed, pierced by the ice or
crushed by the pressure of each against the other.
[Sidenote: A DESOLATE SCENE.]
“In the meantime some of the boats lying above Chestnut Street
fared badly. The _F. X. Aubrey_ was forced into the bank and
was considerably damaged, the noble _Nebraska_, which was
thought to be in a most perilous position, escaped with the
loss of her larboard wheel and some other small injuries. A
number of the upper-river boats, lying above Chestnut Street,
were more or less damaged. Both the Alton wharf-boats were sunk
and broken in pieces. The old _Shenandoah_ and the _Sam Cloon_
were forced away from the shore and floated down together,
lodging against the steamer _Clara_, where they were soon torn
to pieces and sunk by a collision with one of the ferryboats
floating down. The Keokuk wharf-boat maintained its position
against the flood and saved three boats below, viz., the
_Polar Star_, _Pringle_, and _Forest Rose_, none of which was
injured.
“After running about an hour the character of the ice changed,
and it came down in a frothy, crumbled condition, with an
occasional heavy piece. At the end of two hours it ran very
slowly, and finally stopped about 5 1-2 o’clock P. M. Just
before the ice stopped and commenced to gorge, huge piles,
twenty and thirty feet in height, were forced up by the current
on every hand, both on the shore and at the lower dike, where
so many boats had come to a halt. In fact these boats seemed to
be literally buried in ice.
* * * * *
“The levee on the morning after the day of the disaster
presented a dreary and desolate spectacle, looking more like a
scene in the polar regions than in the fertile and beautiful
Mississippi Valley. The Mississippi, awakened from her long
sleep, was pitching along at a wild and rapid rate of speed,
as if to make up for lost time. The ice coat of mail was torn
into shreds, which lay strewn along the levee, and was in some
places heaped up to a height of twenty feet above the level of
the water. Where the boats had lain in dense crowds only a few
hours before, nothing was to be seen save this high bulwark of
ice, which seemed as if it had been left there purposely to
complete the picture of bleak desolation. The whole business
portion of the levee was clear of boats, except the two wrecked
Alton wharf-boats, which were almost shattered to pieces, and
cast like toys upon the shore in the midst of the ridge of ice.
There was not a single boat at the levee which entirely escaped
injury by the memorable breaking up of the ice on February 27,
1856.”
[Sidenote: LA BARGE RESCUES HIS BOAT.]
Captain La Barge retained a vivid recollection of this great
catastrophe, for he was the only steamboat man who succeeded in
extricating his boat from the wreck. The sight was something terrible
to him, and a marvelous exhibition of power. The ice piled up in
enormous masses as easily as a child would heap up sand, and then
it collapsed and gave way. There were three of these pilings-up, or
gorges. The noise of the crushing ice was terrific. Some of the boats
were smashed to splinters; some were sunk, and others were pushed far
up onto the bank.
The _St. Mary_ was lying at the wharf when the movement began. La Barge
at once got up steam and prepared to do what he could to save her.
Sarpy came down to see him, and said to him, “Do just what you think
best with the boat. If anyone can save her you can. Draw on me for
anything you want.” It was a very risky thing to trust one’s life in
a chaos of wreckage like that. Hooper, the mate, came and said that he
should go too if the Captain was going to risk the river. He thought
he could get five or six men to venture. The final give-way came about
dark, and La Barge backed the boat away from the shore, let her drift
in the ice, and thus escaped the crush which came along the shore. He
drifted some twenty miles downstream before he could extricate himself
from the ice.
[Sidenote: GOUVENEUR K. WARREN.]
La Barge went to Fort Union for the Company again in 1856. On this trip
Lieutenant Gouveneur K. Warren, afterward general and corps commander
in the Civil War, took passage on the boat nearly all the way from St.
Louis. He had with him a corps of scientific assistants, among them
the eminent geologist Dr. F. V. Hayden, who was then just beginning
his explorations of the West. Lieutenant Warren sketched the course of
the river from the pilot-house as the boat proceeded, taking compass
bearings and estimating the distances. He speaks in his report of the
uniform courtesy extended him by Captain La Barge in facilitating
his operations. The Captain remembered him well, as he was in the
pilot-house nearly all the time. He was very active, and kept his men
vigorously employed gathering information. At night he went on shore
and took observations. La Barge became very much interested in his
work, and assisted him in every possible way, often stopping the boat
to allow him to do some particular work. He seemed so interested and
pleased with everything, and so intelligent and well posted, that
he quite won the Captain’s admiration. He was, as Captain La Barge
remembered him, a handsome man, with a fine head and clear eye, at that
time rather slender, but well built and erect. He was always pleasant,
and was liked by his men, but was nevertheless a strict disciplinarian.
We can easily discover in the Captain’s recollections the youthful
portrait of the future hero of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and the
accomplished leader of the Fifth Corps.
[Sidenote: DR. F. V. HAYDEN.]
[Sidenote: DANGEROUS BUSINESS.]
The Captain also distinctly remembered Dr. Hayden, and related a
certain incident which came very near proving disastrous to that
enthusiastic explorer. Hayden was a man of rather small stature,
talkative and companionable, well informed, and very energetic and
eager in his work. On one occasion his devotion to his scientific
pursuits came very near getting him into danger. The incident in
question occurred at the site of old Fort Clark, which stood upon a
high cut bank. “We laid up here for an entire day,” said the Captain in
narrating this event. “The bank was full of fossils, some of them very
rare. I had told Hayden of this on a former trip, and he was anxious
to investigate the place. He went down under the bank, pick in hand and
his rifle over his shoulder. An Aricara village was on the top, and
while he was absorbed in his investigations some young bucks took it
into their heads to have a little fun at his expense. They commenced
pelting him with small pebbles, corncobs, etc., from the top of the
bank, at the same time keeping themselves concealed from his view. For
some time Hayden could not see where the missiles came from, but at
length caught sight of the Indians, and instantly leveled his rifle at
them. I had been a quiet spectator from the boiler deck of the boat,
and quick as thought called to him to desist or he was a dead man. He
lowered his gun and came on board and hunted no more fossils under that
bank. If he had fired he would certainly have been killed, and as it
was, the Indians were greatly incensed that he should have leveled his
gun at them.”
[Sidenote: A DISAGREEABLE INCIDENT.]
Upon this trip a disagreeable incident happened which led Captain La
Barge to leave the Company’s service for good. He had as clerk of
the boat a son of one of the partners. The young man’s wife was also
on board, going up for the pleasure of the voyage. La Barge had been
particularly requested by the clerk’s father to use his best offices
for her protection, comfort, and pleasure in the wild and lawless
country to which she was going, and he promised to do so. Everything
passed off pleasantly until Fort Clark was reached, when one of the
partners of the Upper Missouri Outfit, the bourgeois of the post at
Fort Clark, came on board to accompany the boat to Fort Union. He was
naturally a rough, arrogant, blustering character, disposed to override
everyone, and on two previous occasions La Barge had been compelled to
deal pretty severely with him. He was, nevertheless, a man of great
energy, well versed in the business of the fur trade, and a good man
for the Company. He was therefore tolerated where a less capable man
with his faults would have been gotten rid of.
[Sidenote: INSULTING INSINUATIONS.]
“When he came on board,” said Captain La Barge, “he went to the office
and told the clerk to assign him a stateroom so that he could have
his baggage sent to it. The clerk promised to attend to it and the
bourgeois withdrew. The clerk and myself then looked over the register
to see what we could do for him. There was only one room that could be
made available except by causing passengers who had secured and paid
for their rooms to vacate them. This room was occupied by two clerks,
who were compelled to give it up and sleep on cots outside. It was a
forward stateroom, and hence not so desirable as those further aft, but
still a good room, and the only one that was available. I directed
the clerk to have the bourgeois’ baggage put in, and to show him the
room when he should request it. About 9 P. M., when the boat was tied
up for the night, and I was in the office writing up the journal, the
bourgeois came in and asked the clerk for his room. The clerk took him
out and showed him his room and told him that two of the clerks had
given it up for him. The bourgeois turned up his nose and exclaimed,
‘What! that room for ----, a member of the firm? Can’t I have a room in
the after cabin, where the bourgeois are usually assigned?’ He was told
that it was impossible without ousting others who could not reasonably
be disturbed. He did not ask me, for he knew I would not grant it.
Then drawing himself up in a pompous fashion, he said to the clerk,
calling him by name: ‘I will occupy your room to-night and you may
occupy this,’ and added other suggestions not calculated to mollify the
feelings of the young husband.
[Sidenote: SEVERE DISCIPLINE.]
“The clerk came into the room deathly pale, but made no response to the
bourgeois’ insulting insinuations. I overheard the whole conversation,
and determined to remain up and see the affair out. After a while
the bourgeois came to the door of the office and said to the clerk:
‘Good-night, Mr. ----.’ ‘Good night, Mr. ----,’ replied the clerk,
and the bourgeois withdrew and started for the ladies’ cabin. I
immediately stepped out and followed him. He walked directly back to
the clerk’s stateroom and was about to take hold of the door knob, when
I seized him by the collar, jerked him around, gave him a smart kick
in the direction of the forward cabin, followed it up by two or three
others, and in short order landed him in front of the boat yelling
‘Murder!’ and calling for help. Culbertson and others came out, but
I told them not to interfere, as I was simply protecting a lady from
insult. The bourgeois would not be quiet, and I ordered my mate Hooper
to put him on the bank. This was promptly done, the boat was held off
shore by a spar, the gang plank drawn in, and the bourgeois could not
get back on board. The weather was so warm that he would not suffer
from the cold, and the pestering mosquitoes, which swarmed in the
willows, kept him active all night.
“When I returned to St. Louis I made no report of this affair, leaving
it to the clerk, whose wife’s honor had been protected, to lay the
matter before his father. Instead of reporting the facts he represented
that I had treated the bourgeois with uncalled-for severity, and that
such things ought not to be allowed to go on. He said nothing of the
real cause of the trouble, although his wife, a refined, cultured, and
beautiful woman, drove to my house as soon as she returned, and told my
wife how thankful she was for what I had done.
“A few days after my return from Union I was summoned to the office,
and was there informed that the men in the upper country thought me
altogether too hard on them, and that, to avoid future difficulty, it
was best to terminate our relations. I replied that I felt so fully
justified in my action that I should retire from their service with the
utmost willingness if such was their view of the affair. This was in
the fall of 1856, and was the last time that I worked for the Company.
[Sidenote: THE TRUTH DISCLOSED.]
“Three years later I was again called to the office and thus addressed
by the father of my ungrateful clerk:
“‘I have called you in to scold you for your conduct.’
“‘Why so, Mr. ----?’
“‘You remember the cause of the trouble in 1856 that led to our
separation?’
“‘Very distinctly.’
“‘Why did you not defend yourself? Why did you not make me a full
report?’
“‘I thought, sir, it was your son’s place to lay the matter before
you, as the whole trouble had been on his and his wife’s account.
I had promised you that I would protect her, and all I did was in
fulfillment of that promise. I am glad that you now know the truth of
the matter.’
“‘Perhaps you are right; it was my son’s place to tell me; but he was
influenced by others and never mentioned it.’
“The old gentleman was very indignant over the affair, and ever after
treated me with the greatest consideration.”
[Sidenote: LEAVES AMERICAN FUR CO.’S SERVICE.]
As has been stated already, this was the last service of Captain La
Barge for the American Fur Company. Many years of the most active part
of his life had been spent in their interest. They never had a pilot on
whom they could more confidently rely, and his careful management of
their expeditions was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to them.
But their hard and exacting ways, often sullied with open injustice,
gave rise to misunderstandings, which on several occasions virtually
compelled him to quit their service and finally led to permanent
separation.