The Trip North

Captain Marcy's proposed route lay up and over Raton Pass to the old Pueblo on the Arkansas River, then north and west along the Cherokee Trail to a crossing of the Green River in present western Wyoming. The supply train had barely crested Raton Pass, however, before an express arrived to entirely change its program of march. Colonel Johnston had received intelligence of a large force of Mormons preparing to attack the train on its way to Fort Bridger. His orders to Captain Marcy were to await the arrival of reinforcements from Fort Union at some good grazing area.

Captain Marcy decided to await the arrival of reinforcemnts somewhere along Fountain Creek. But first he followed the Arkansas to the Autobees settlement on the Huerfano River to pick up seventeen wagonloads of corn left there by the employees of Bent's Fort. The train then moved north along the Cherokee Trail to its junction with the old Ute Trail into the mountains. Almost the entire month of April was spent here waiting for reinforcements. A camp change was made every few days from one grassy pasture to another. The April 2 camp was in a grove of cottonwoods near the presnt town of Fountain. The second campsite was near present Widefield, the third at the mouth of Monument Creek, with the final site just south of the Garden of the Gods in present Colorado Springs.

While Captain Marcy and his men waited impatiently on Fountain Creek Colonel W.W. Loring, Commandant of Fort Union, was busy raising reinforcements. Loring finally left New Mexico with six officers, 130 foot soldiers of the Third Infantry and sixty privates of Company K, Mounted Rifles. In charge of the supply wagons were civilian teamsters recuited by the quartermaster.

These teamsters - sometimes called bullwhackers - were probably all products of Santa Fe freighting, all proficient in the use of twenty-foot whips, and all deserving of their widespread reputation for hard living, heavy drinking and blasphemous language. In their number was listed one Michael Fagan. Fagan was probably already based in the Fort Union area when the Loring reinforcements were being raised. Where he came from originally no one knows. What is known is that he was hired for his experience as a hardened trail veteran, a teamster long accustomed to the hardships and dangers inherent in whacking a bull train along 19th-century trails.

The trip north to Fountain Creek was troubled with delays. The stream crossings proved rocky and difficult. The grazing was fair at best. Many of the oxen pulling the freight wagons became footsore and weak. On April 27 the reinforcements finally arrived at the ruins of the old Pueblo on the Arkansas River. Here Colonel Loring sent an order to Captain Marcy, assuming command and requesting that the supply train join up with him as he traveled the Cherokee Trail north.

When this express arrived at Fountain Creek, Captain Marcy was away hunting buffalo in South Park. On his return, he sent the Mexican herders to gather the animals while he and the supply train crossed Monument Creek to encamp under some pines at the present site of downtown Colorado Springs. Meanwhile Colonel Loring and his reinforcements spent the night of May 28 some dozen miles to the east at Jimmy Camp.

The next morning the supply train started early. They headed east across the hills to intersect the Cherokee Trail above Jimmy Camp. On reaching the high prairie they were able to see Colonel Loring's troops about ten miles ahead of them. Expecting that the troops would encamp on Black Squirrel Creek at the edge of the trees, the supply train pushed on through the mud and buffalo grass, reaching the creek about 1 P.M. on 29 April. Colonel Loring had not waited there, but had followed the trail some seven miles north, and gone into camp along West Kiowa Creek near a hill known as Point of Rocks.

Point of Rocks
Captain Marcy decided to put off linking up with Loring's troops until morning and, instead, pasture his large herds on the fresh grass at the edge of the forest. A detail was put to work building a corral to hold the animals for the night. Tree trunks were driven into the ground to form a 250-foot circle; brush was then used to fill in the gaps between the rustic posts. This brush corral was finished just before sunset. No sooner was it finished than the wind changed to the north and a heavy snow began to fall.

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