CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Boyhood Longings--Confronted by Obstacles--Trapping Along the Oswegatchie--Enter Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary--Appointed to State Normal College--Straitened Circumstances--Teach School in Rensselaer County--War of the Rebellion--Enlist in a Cavalry Regiment--Taken Prisoner--Fourteen Months in Southern Prisons--Escape from Columbia--Recaptured--Escape from Sylvania, Georgia--Re-enter the Army--Close of the War--Publish "Capture, Prison-Pen and Escape" and Other Books--Decide to Cross the Continent--Preparation for Journey--Ocean to Ocean on Horseback 25