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Complete Idiot’s Guide to American HistoryHe promised to deliver mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California—a distance just 44 miles shy of an even 2,000—in 10 days. The unit would have no passengers and no coaches. Instead, the Express would achieve speed by a relay of ponies and riders stretched across the continent. Russell had purchased 500 semiwild outlaw horses and had 80 riders continuously en route, 40 westbound, 40 east, who had answered his ads calling for “daring young men, preferably orphans.” Financially, the Pony Express was a failure, charging a staggering $5 per half ounce (soon lowered to $2) of mail that actually cost the company an even more staggering $16 to deliver. Within 19 months, the Pony Express was out of business, rendered obsolete by the completion of transcontinental telegraph lines. But in 650,000 miles of travel, the company lost only one consignment—and managed to capture the nation’s imagination. Word for the Day Laborers included roustabouts, who graded roadbed; bridge monkeys, who hastily cobbled together trestles over riders and streams; and gandydancers, who actually laid and spiked the rails. “The Only Good Indian…” (1862-1891) In This Chapter Indian roles in the Civil War The Santee Sioux Uprising The victory of Red Cloud Futile campaigns, the War for the Black Hills, and Custer’s Last Stand Defeat of the Nez Perce and Geronimo Massacre at Wounded Knee The West was a land of many dreams, but what we seem to remember most vividly are the nightmares ...» |
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