HORN

1.8 On to Fort Union, 1858 It was March 11, 1858 when Horn and Pike boarded the Peerless at Boonville. Captain Bissell was fully loaded with furs, heading down-river to Saint Louis. On board they learned that a group of steamboat captains had formed an alliance that included Captain John Shaw. At the Saint Louis levee they found the Twilight’s Mate and signed on with Captain Shaw. They were preparing to get underway the next day. The new company, called the Union Packet Line, was scheduled to make regular runs to Saint Joseph. Ice chunks in the river had delayed the start of the 1858 season. Several fur traders had made it down from Fort Union in mackinaws, landing above Omaha. At Saint Joseph on March 8th, Captain Bissell collected much of the cargo that had come by wagon from Omaha. Shaw’s Twilight left on her first two-week run up-river on March 15th. Horn was on board as a deckhand and Pike as one of the roosters. Captain Shaw made five runs to Saint Joseph that spring for the Union Packet Line. The Twilight alternated Monday departures with Captain Bissell and his Peerless. All the while, Shaw’s agents were bidding for contracts and when the Twilight completed her fifth run on May 15th the agents had news for the Captain. Contracts were completed for the Twilight to carry freight for the Army, for the American Fur Company, and for Frost, Todd, and Company. Passengers would again include Indian Agents Vaughn and Redfield with the annuities that they would distribute to the Indians. The Twilight would also transport men and supplies for the two competing companies of fur traders. Horn had counted on reaching Fort Union again. His plan was unfolding. He had purchased a crate of trade-goods to take up the river. Horn and Pike would be heading into the frontier to make their fortune trading for furs for Frost, Todd, and Company. The boat left Saint Louis on May 23rd and at every stop the Twilight provided a lively show for the locals: River News. --- Business at the Levee The Government Steamer Twilight, bound for the mouth of the Yellow Stone, arrived our Levee, Saturday afternoon, May 29, and took on a quantity of freight, for Col. Sites. She favored our citizens with Yankee Doodle, and several other popular airs, from her Calliope, much to their gratification. Upwards of a hundred trappers and hunters, were on board, going up to the mountains. –The Bellevue Gazette (Bellevue, Neb. Terr.), June 3, 1858, p. 4. 1.9 Trading and Trapping, 1858 On June 25th Captain Shaw’s steamboat Twilight departed Fort Union for Saint Louis with the calliope blasting away. Horn and Pike remained at the Fort to try fur-trading with the Indians. Horn had prevailed as the Twilight’s Fight Champion, but handed the Red Sash to Captain Shaw before the boat departed Fort Union. One of the unsuccessful challengers on the journey up the Missouri was an Irish fur trader. During the Independence Day celebration at Fort Union the Irishman was drinking heavily. He attempted to assassinate Horn but his aim was a little off. The bullet clipped Miller’s left ear. Horn charged the assailant and battered him to a pulp. Miller might have killed the man if others had not pulled him back. Horn had broken a couple of bones in one hand. He soothed the pain in a bucket of ice water. Pike opened their crate of trade-goods and they began trading for furs and pelts. They soon joined a party of about sixty men who would row, carry, and cordelle a pair of mackinaws full of supplies up the Yellowstone River to Fort Sarpy. In addition to hauling supplies and Crow annuities, they would also be transporting American Fur Company agents Major Alexander Culbertson and Robert Meldrum. The group also included Indian Agent Alexander Redfield, his associate Henry Beeson, two Lutheran ministers, the artist Karl Wimar, and his friend, Konstantin Blandowski. Noted trapper Henry Bostwick served as guide and interpreter. The next three months was an intense and exciting experience for Horn and Pike. They learned much about hunting bison, fur trapping, and trading from Bostwick. The third day on the Yellowstone, Old Henry gave Miller a knife and beaded sheath, a gift for his 21st birthday. By late September they returned to Fort Union with their treasure of pelts and furs. The last riverboat of the season, the Omaha, was about to leave. On the journey down the Missouri, Captain Andrew Wineland called for challengers for his boat’s Red Sash. Horn whipped the Omaha’s reigning champion and wore the Red Sash until getting off the boat at Nebraska City.