Old Missoula

A Reminiscence of the Mullan Expedition

The suttler’s supplies of the ardent had been exhausted weeks before, and the supervisors of the medical department had expended about all alcoholic mixtures , even if compounded with nauseous drugs, for cheering purposes. Sober faces graced the expedition and whiskey-dye of years was fading slowly away.

There was however one man in all that crowd -the doctor, who kept himself conspicuous by his dram-atic antics and his ingenuity to keep dark the source of his comfort.

Some thought that he had discovered a method of transforming pine juice into lightning; while others supposed that he had made a timely cache of hospital brandy in his boots. Be this as it may; he was destined to awake as sober as the rest of us a short time hence.

The expedition was encamped on the western slope of the Bitter Root mountains, but a few miles from the main divide, and the early setting in of winter held forth the promise of a long and severe season, without the hope of our being able to hibernate in the valley of Missoula. Needed citizen’s supplies were reported to be on the way from Walla Walla to furnish the men with solid and liquid necessaries. But it was extremely doubtful whether the anticipated pack train could breakthrough the now icy barriers behind us. Under these circumstances all our little possessions assumed a double value and were guarded with care. A daily guard of the privates and a corporal did regular routine duty, and a solitary sentinel walked briskly up and down between the officer’s tents.

One bitter cold night the doctor closed the canvas at an early hour, but the sentry outside was made aware by a shadowy pantomime that the medical man was irrigating himself from a bottle which was finally emptied of contents into another vessel. A sigh came from within, and the words: “D—n it is my last;” were distinctly heard.

The scene just witnessed kept the soldier awake for the remainder of the night, and when he patrolled his post again at the dawn of the following day, the silent forest was broken by the snoring of the doctor only. Temptation pointed out the well-filled tumbler containing the “last nip” and the boy in blue reached forth his arm and swallowed the dose in a moment.

When a few minutes later an empty glass was presented to thirsty lips, the air around that tent turned blue. Jumping from his cot the medicus rushed blindly for headquarters and demanded immediate satisfaction from the “commander of the escort” for the great loss sustained. That officer promptly visited the guard and sternly listened to the pleas of “Not guilty.” There were no witnesses to examine and the lieutenant was compelled to send out his nose as a detective into the mouths of the corporal and the three privates, and the unmistakable odor of brandy was soon discovered. No punishment was deemed too severe for the great crime, but as regulations allowed of neither shooting, hanging, or beheading, the convicted soldier was merely tied up by the thumbs to the snow-clad bough of a pine, and the doctor had the satisfaction to study the effects of cold upon an animated but helpless body for the next few hours.

Such was life in the mountains in 1859.

C.S.

The above article appeared in The Weekly Missoulian on December 21, 1883.

Note:

The Mullan expedition was halted for the winter near what is now Deborgia, Mt. Expected supplies from Walla Walla could not reach the men because of heavy snow on the west side of the mountains.