Great info, Don, thanks.

	I must say that, while I have but little doubt that an experienced
and strong horseman with a healthy and young animal could accomplish just
what you have stated.  Nor would I question your notes that mounted infantry
had made 14.5 miles per day for those 62 days.
  
	However I would wonder whether any eastern farm boy/man, even with
his best work horses taken from the fields to the wagon hitch, could ever do
more than that 20 mile, 12 hour day (1.7 miles per hour) without extended
rest periods and occasional days of rest and grazing.  Then too, I further
would have to wonder, even if our imaginary wagon master was highly
experienced and the passengers were healthy, able and could move at that
rate day after day, whether such animals, at least those many of which I
witnessed working for my Gfather and Father, would not have been broken down
in but a few days.  I would almost say that I am sure that the horses and
mules that I watched could not have so worked weeks on end and day after day
in the worst and the best of weather and through terrible heat or cold and
rain, sleet, snow or mud.

Please know again that I have no question as to your veracity or as to those
rates of speed, given healthy, strong horses that were broken to such work
and passengers that could handle that terrible dust, weather and stress.

Thanks again, and Merry Xmas, Don     :-)           
****************
-----Original Message-----
From: .... Dick Cazier
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 4:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [DRAKE] [VA-SOUTHSIDE] Slow Goin'

This has been a most interesting thread.  Here's some information I have
gleaned from my research.

During the Mexican War, the Mormon Battalion, Iowa Volunteer Infantry
marched from Ft. Leavenworth, KS to Santa Fe, NM in 62 days.  It was a
distance of 900 miles.  That's 14.5 miles/day.  But this march also included
an unspecified amount of time of slow travel and stops to make improvements
to the route (basically the Santa Fe Trail).  They also stopped to make or
improve waterholes.  The trek purpose was to improve the trail to facilitate
movement of military supply convoys to support troops engaged in the war. 
Obviously, while on the march, their speed had to exceed the figure listed
above.  As a side note, this march is recorded as the longest continuous
march of U.S. Infantry unit in military history.

Numerous documented early wagon train travels along the Oregon Trail (St. 
Joeseph, MO to Portland, OR) and Mormon Trail (from Council Bluffs, IA to
Salt Lake City, UT) list average days of 20 miles, good days as 25 miles and
slow days of 20 miles or less.  Major river crossing, like the Missouri and
Platte Rivers, often required 1 full day to just get a wagon train across
the river.  Most of these wagon trains included both horse and oxen drawn
wagons.  Most of these started by 7 AM and travel till about 7 PM , but also
included the "nooning" stop to rest animals.

Dick Cazier

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