The Lure of the Mississippi

It had taken Grant a whole year to place his army in position on the hills in the rear of Vicksburg, but he had stuck to the campaign with the tenacity of a bulldog.

The next day the boys and Tatanka again traveled in a dugout up and down the Yazoo River. Barker himself also went in a dugout within a mile or two of the point where the Union...

Ever since they had left the upper river, their birch-bark canoe had been an object of curiosity to all who had seen it, because the white-birch or canoe-birch does not grow on...

Was there really going to be war at Vicksburg? The boys had heard talk of war, but not until they had watched the loading of the guns and the embarking of the soldiers and had h...

The Indian War which broke over the summery plains and valleys of Minnesota on Monday morning, August 18, 1862, swept over a large section of the State with the rush and fury of...

Hundreds of boats, large and small, ran on the main stream, on the Ohio, the Missouri, the Illinois, the Minnesota and other rivers of the great Mississippi basin. The average l...

Below Cairo the mighty river becomes still mightier and winds with countless curves and bends this way and that way through rich lowlands from ten to forty miles wide. On a stre...

At last, one fine morning, Tatanka announced, "I smell spring. The little nuthatches and the little woodpeckers are calling and I saw two crows flying north. That means spring i...

The boys amused themselves by dropping stones over the cliff and counting the seconds till they struck amongst the trees below. Tim claimed he could throw a stone into the river.

"My friend," he called, "I think we should saddle our horses and ride away. At daybreak the bands of Dakotahs will again start to kill all white men they can find and to burn th...

There came through the night loud crashing and rumbling sounds, and a confusion of men's voices from the steep road leading down from Fort Ridgely to the boat-landing on the Min...

"I can see not a man nor horse," he reported. "Our enemies have left. Even if the men were hiding in the grass, I would be able to see their wagon and horses."

"You need not go to any trouble," the trapper told him. "We have had our supper on the boat, and I will just spread my blanket on the floor for the night. You know a seasoned tr...

Barker, through the influence of Captain Banks, had found quarters for his party in a vacant corner of an old warehouse. Other rooms were not procurable and in these secluded qu...

When the lads arose next morning, their eyes gazed with joy and wonder on the valley below, tinted with the rosy light of an ideal morning of early spring. The river was no long...

If the lads had not lived in company with such men as the trapper and Tatanka, time would have hung heavily on their hands. On many days the weather was very cold and the snow h...

"He has hunted for us in Minnesota a long time," Barker laughed. "Now, I think we are rid of him for a while. I suppose he has made up his mind that we have gone on to Vicksburg...

Inspiration point was the first camp at which the lads had enjoyed the magnificent panoramic view of the great river and its valley and where they had tasted the joy of roaming...

Although the _Red Hawk_ and her cargo were a complete loss, all on board reached land safely. With the wreckage of the boat, the men built a fire to dry themselves and from a bo...

When Barker told the boys at breakfast that they would all start down the river in the evening, it was only the strange place and people that kept the boys from shouting and tur...

"The Indians," he told his friends, "do not like the little black honey-flies. They call them white men's flies, because they came into our country with the white man. We like T...

The old trapper himself had also caught the fever. "I reckon, boy," he admitted, "we ought to make another haul or two, but the next time we'll take a seine. Did you ever fish w...

The last days of October were cold and windy and it seemed as if the north wind drove all wild birds before it. Thousands of robins and little yellow-patched birds, the hardy my...

"Come out, you white men, and fight!" With his right hand he raised the man's head above the current. "Walking is good, on you can ride on a log, the water is fine." The two men...