Diary of an officer on John N. Macomb's Expedition in Utah - Cogswell, Milton, 1825-1882. (1859)
Diary attributed to 1st Lieutenant Milton Cogswell, who led the 8th United States Infantry military escort that accompanied John N. Macomb's 1859 exploring expedition. Datinng from about July to October 1859, the diary documents frequent encounters with American Indians, many of them known to the author from his previous time in the region; discussions of the author's task, aside from military duties, of being in charge of a large supply team of soldiers and Mexican laborers who followed the expedition with pack mules and sheep; and descriptions of the landscape.
Although the diary is unsigned, its content strongly suggests that it was written by the leader of Macomb's military escort, and the handwriting matches known examples from Cogswell.
Arranged by the Smithsonian Institution, the exploring expedition led by John Macomb of the army's topographical engineers and chief scientist Dr. John Strong Newberry, was the first U.S. government expedition to explore the canyon country of Utah and the Four Corners. The expedition was tasked with surveying and mapping the Old Spanish Trail in search of the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers, and looking for alternative routes into Utah, which was of particular interest in the wake of the Utah War.
U.S. Civil War veteran and graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point (1849), Milton Cogswell was the fortieth (provisional) mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, serving in 1868. Many of his military assignments prior to and following the Civil War were in the South and on the Western frontier.
English.
Also available in an electronic version.
Keywords: Geological surveys -- Four Corners Region -- History -- 19th century -- Sources; Scientific expeditions -- Four Corners Region -- History -- 19th century -- Sources; Four Corners Region -- Discovery and exploration -- Sources; Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration -- Sources..; Utah -- Discovery and exploration -- Sources; Diaries -- 19th century