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History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River: Life and Adventures of Joseph La Barge, Volumes 1 & 2
"La Barge, the most illustrious captain in the history of Missouri steamboating." -In the Wake of Lewis and Clark (2018)
"A major figure in brief golden age...of steamboating and the fur trade...his career spanned nearly the entire history of steamboating on the Missouri." -Steamboats in Dakota Territory (2017)
"Adding to La Barge's problems was an attack on his boats by the Sioux at Tobacco Gardens, about 88 miles downriver from Fort Union." -Yankees & Rebels on the Upper Missouri (2016)
"Chittenden...used the skeleton of La Barge's personal experiences to reconstruct a history of steamboat navigation." -Hiram Martin His Public Career (2014)
No less authority than Hiram Chittenden wrote this marvelous history of the early days of one of America's most important waterways. A West Point engineer, namesake of the Hiram Chittenden locks in Seattle, Chittenden was a respected historian of early western America.
There was no railroad system in the United States whose importance to its tributary country was relatively greater than was that of the Missouri River to the trans-Mississippi territory in the first seventy-five years of the nineteenth century.
Through the earliest days of navigation on the great Missouri, through its use in the Civil War, the Indian Wars, Custer's Last Stand, and its eventual demise as a major highway due to the development of the railroads, this history tells of an America that depended on rivers for expansion. Though Grant Marsh captained the steamer Far West, which took the wounded Little Bighorn survivors to Ft. Lincoln, La Barge also saw service as a captain on Custer's Yellowstone Expedition.
The life of Joseph La Barge exemplifies the 19th century life of the river. The author met La Barge shortly before his death and found him to be an extraordinary wealth of information about early steamboat travel, as La Barge had owned and operated boats on the river for many years. He was on the first boat that went to the far upper river, and he made the last through voyage from St. Louis to Fort Benton.
"A major figure in brief golden age...of steamboating and the fur trade...his career spanned nearly the entire history of steamboating on the Missouri." -Steamboats in Dakota Territory (2017)
"Adding to La Barge's problems was an attack on his boats by the Sioux at Tobacco Gardens, about 88 miles downriver from Fort Union." -Yankees & Rebels on the Upper Missouri (2016)
"Chittenden...used the skeleton of La Barge's personal experiences to reconstruct a history of steamboat navigation." -Hiram Martin His Public Career (2014)
No less authority than Hiram Chittenden wrote this marvelous history of the early days of one of America's most important waterways. A West Point engineer, namesake of the Hiram Chittenden locks in Seattle, Chittenden was a respected historian of early western America.
There was no railroad system in the United States whose importance to its tributary country was relatively greater than was that of the Missouri River to the trans-Mississippi territory in the first seventy-five years of the nineteenth century.
Through the earliest days of navigation on the great Missouri, through its use in the Civil War, the Indian Wars, Custer's Last Stand, and its eventual demise as a major highway due to the development of the railroads, this history tells of an America that depended on rivers for expansion. Though Grant Marsh captained the steamer Far West, which took the wounded Little Bighorn survivors to Ft. Lincoln, La Barge also saw service as a captain on Custer's Yellowstone Expedition.
The life of Joseph La Barge exemplifies the 19th century life of the river. The author met La Barge shortly before his death and found him to be an extraordinary wealth of information about early steamboat travel, as La Barge had owned and operated boats on the river for many years. He was on the first boat that went to the far upper river, and he made the last through voyage from St. Louis to Fort Benton.
262 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 17, 2022
This consolidation of the original two volumes by Chittenden looked like a bargain to me on the Zandbroz used-book shelf, and I was right about that. I know the La Barge memoir on navigation of the Missouri River will be of considerable value in future research. I also have been doing easy-chair reading in it ever since acquiring it about a year ago.
Some parts, while perhaps valuable a primary record, are a little plodding, but others are transporting. I particularly liked Chapter IX on "Kinds of Boats Used on the Missouri"--dugout canoes, mackinaws, bullboats, and keelboats all preceding steam transport. The descriptions of the construction and features of these riverine vessels are first-rate.
Later in the work it is interesting to observe the events of the Dakota War in Dakota Territory from the standpoint of the steamboaters. Reading about the mackinaw fight of 1862 makes more sense when you have read the earlier chapter describing just what a mackinaw boat was! Moreover, our narratives of the Dakota War tend to follow the movements of combatants overland, whereas arguably, the war was commenced and eventually decided on the river. The La Barge narrative is important to the revisionism incumbent on us for a better view of the conflict of 1862-65.
Some parts, while perhaps valuable a primary record, are a little plodding, but others are transporting. I particularly liked Chapter IX on "Kinds of Boats Used on the Missouri"--dugout canoes, mackinaws, bullboats, and keelboats all preceding steam transport. The descriptions of the construction and features of these riverine vessels are first-rate.
Later in the work it is interesting to observe the events of the Dakota War in Dakota Territory from the standpoint of the steamboaters. Reading about the mackinaw fight of 1862 makes more sense when you have read the earlier chapter describing just what a mackinaw boat was! Moreover, our narratives of the Dakota War tend to follow the movements of combatants overland, whereas arguably, the war was commenced and eventually decided on the river. The La Barge narrative is important to the revisionism incumbent on us for a better view of the conflict of 1862-65.
November 18, 2019
A piece of history needed told
Makes you stop and realize there number of vessels needed to expand and supply the westward movement. The riverways were vital in this .
Makes you stop and realize there number of vessels needed to expand and supply the westward movement. The riverways were vital in this .
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews