The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971 Page: 54
616 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
years, stated that if anyone could be called the "father" of modern
packing service in the United States Army, it was General Crook."
In 1875 a number of the Arizona trains were transferred to the
Department of the Platte. Their base of operations became Camp
Carlin at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and they were under the command of
Major J. V. Furey, the depot quartermaster. These trains as well as
others were organized for the Sioux campaign of 1876. Under the
command of the chief civilian packer, Thomas Moore, the trains en-
abled Crook to make his army thoroughly mobile. Seeing the advan-
tages that the packtrains provided to a mounted or infantry force,
other commanders followed Crook's example. Packtrains were then
used in the campaigns against the Sioux, Cheyennes, Nez Perces, and
the Arapahoes in the Northwest. Trains were also much in evidence
when the army took the field against the Kiowas and Comanches in
the middle West and also with expeditions against the Apaches in
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.'
Throughout the West, in fact, these civilian packers and their trains
performed with amazing hardiness, and some of their feats seem almost
unbelievable. In 1881 a company of Indian scouts and one packtrain
marched 85 miles in 12 hours under the summer sun of New Mexico.
This same company, a few days later, marched 6o miles in one day's
time. From San Carlos Agency, Arizona, in 1882, a company of scouts
and one packtrain loaded with 2oo pounds to the mule made a forced
march in three days of 280 miles. During the Garza campaign on the
Rio Grande in 1891 and 1892, a company of Third Cavalry and part
of a packtrain marched 1o8 miles in 16 hours. In the same campaign
another train traveled 104 miles in less than thirty-six hours."
The packtrain was readily adapted to the army in the field. Because
of its organization, each train might almost be considered a separate
unit of the military. Whenever a command required transportation,
it detached an officer and placed him at the head of the packtrain.
The officer's duty was to give instructions to the packmaster and to
make sure the train reached its daily destination; and that was the
extent of his official duties, for he was not allowed to give direct orders
to any packer. To the chief packer and his assistant (the cargador)
the civilian packers owed their only allegiance. It was the responsi-
oH. W. Daly, Manual of Pack Transportation (Washington, 1917), 17-18.
'Ibid.; Charles Johnston Post, Horse Packing (New York, 1914), 17.
8Post, Horse Packing, 17-18.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971, periodical, 1971; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101200/m1/66/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.