Cross. Report of the Mounted Riflemen [1850 Oregon Trail Expedition]

Cross, Osborne. A Report, in the Form of a Journal, to the Quartermaster General, of the March of the Regiment of Mounted Rifleman to Oregon; contained in Senate Executive Document No. 1.; Message from The President of the United States, to The Two Houses of Congress, at the Commencement of the Second Session of the Thirty-first Congress. December 2, 1850. Part II. Washington : Printed for the Senate, 1850. [7665]

Newly rebound in quarter calf with dark green cloth boards, black leather spine title label "March of the Mounted Riflemen," spine panels in blind, scroll tooling at junction of leather/cloth, 6 x 9 inches. New white end papers. 490 pp. plus 36 lithograph plates, 1 folding woodcut plan, & 4 folding charts. Foxing present in many places. Very good. Hardcover.

This journal is an account of the first United States military expedition to travel the entire length of the Oregon Trail, from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Vancouver, May to October, 1849. "This report is a mine of information, not only about the army's advance to garrison posts along the Oregon Trail, but also about the concurrent pageantry of the California gold rush." - Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives: A Descriptive Bibliography...&c., no. 415.

Howes C923; Wagner-Camp 181; Streeter 3057 (Philadelphia printing, discusses this Senate Report version & the plates, which match the number and placement in our copy); Graff 4415: "36 plates, one of which is not listed...There are large quantities of western material in this volume and it probably deserves a careful examination."

The Report occupies pp. 126-244, with 36 lithograph plates. The list of plates on p. 127 calls for 35, but there are 36 with the extra plate being an additional "View of the Dalles on the Columbia River." Blotchy foxing the first plate, "View of Fort Laramie," with the rest generally clean. We had these plates bound in the order they were collected in the original volume, which was as a group, rather than being distributed in the text.

This volume is the Report of The Secretary of War (1850) with accompanying documents, including correspondence on Indian hostilities. Cross's Report, in the Form of a Journal, is part of the Quartermaster's Report for this volume.

Osborne Cross (1803-1876) b. Libertytown, Maryland; d. New York City. Cross was a career soldier, graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1825, was assigned to the Infantry, and served on garrison, frontier, and commissary duty at different stations until his retirement in 1866 with the rank of Colonel. He was in command of this expedition with the rank of major, and his report is known for providing the most detailed and reliable descriptions of the emigrant trail to Oregon, including Gold Rush information. The high-quality lithograph plates were some of the first views available of a relatively unknown area of the West. 

"Significance: This is the first published report about the first regular troops to travel the entire length of the Oregon Trail.  Their mission was one of the first moves by the federal government to protect the overland emigration.  Although Congress had authorized a Regiment of Mounted Riflemen to man fixed posts on the road to Oregon in 1846, the Mexican War delayed implementation.  It 1849 the Riflemen garrisoned Ft. Kearny (built the year before), Ft. Laramie (newly purchased from the American Fur Company), and a temporary post near Ft. Hall.  The rest of the Regiment under the one-armed Col. William W. Loring went on the occupy Oregon City and, in 1850, Ft. Vancouver - even though most emigrants, and many deserters, were headed for California and gold.  During the winter of 1849-50, Loring brought back 70 of 100 deserters after a 1,000-mile trek through mountain snows." - White, News of the Plains and Rockies, 1803-1865, vol. 5, p. 73.