Horses, and Sharp's carbines

The regiment had been mounted on good horses. The horses had been sorted according to color, as blacks, bays, sorrels and grays, and so assigned to the various companies. Company "D", my company had sorrels. Thus assorted they made a fine appearance. We were also re-armed. Companies "A”, “B" and "H" were given Sharp's carbines, a short breach loading powerful gun, navy revolvers and sabers. We had also drawn uniform clothing. [to be continued as I transcribe the diary.]

Soon after being thus equipped, we started on the march to Kansas City. Getting a late start, we had only covered half the distance when night overtook us on the open. . We camped without tents, and picketed our horses. A part of each horse equipment was a picket rope 15 feet long and an iron pin 15 inches long. The pin was fastened to the rope and driven into the ground and the horse was tied with the other end of the rope. This gave the horse a 30 foot circle on which to graze. However, the horses were not used to that method of confinement, and many of them got badly tangled up at first. We reached Kansas City the next day. A few days later we marched to Independence, a small but pretty town, the county-seat of Jackson County, 12 miles east of Kansas City.