Unknown to Joseph E. Johnston, January 5, 1861

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Quartermaster-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I take the liberty and feel it my duty to call your attention to the Fort Benton wagon road, as I believe from experience in the service, and crossing the plains frequently for the last thirty years, that the cost of sending recruits or horses to this coast by that route will be ten times as much as by the route from Fort Leavenworth via Forts Kearny, Laramie, Hall, and Boisé to this post; for by the boat to Benton each soldier will cost $100 and each wagon the same; then to get mules or oxen for the wagons would be double the cost that it would be at Leavenworth. Purchase your horses, wagons, and oxen or mules to transport your supplies at Leavenworth, and if the transportation is not needed here on its arrival, it can be sold at public auction for its full value in the States. By this means each soldier will hardly cost $10, whereas by the Fort Benton route each one would cost $300 by his arrival here. One more suggestion. Could not the $100,000 already appropriated, and not yet expended, be transferred to the old road I speak of? It is much the shortest and best route, and emigrants come through every season, arriving here by the end of September, their animals in very good condition. A post is to be established at Boisé in the spring, and there will always be troops at Fort Hall to protect emigration, and all that is needed are ferries at these posts, and very little work on the road. There will then be grass, water, and all that is requisite for a military or emigrant road. I do believe that if the $100,000 is expended and the Benton road finished, that not ten emigrants will travel it for twenty years to come. But suppose you make the road from Saint Paul to Benton; then you must establish a line of posts through the Sioux and Blackfoot country requiring at least 1,500 soldiers at a cost of half a million annually, and there would be a war at a cost of $300,000,000 or $400,000,000 more. In a conversation with Major Blake, of the Army, who came by the Benton route with 300 recruits last summer, he spoke favorably of the route, and said he would apply to bring over horses from Saint Paul via Benton to this department. Now, I am satisfied that the cost by that route will be ten times as much as by the route from Leavenworth, via Laramie, Hall, and Boisé, and in addition the major’s route is much the longest, and in the months of May and June, from Saint Paul west, say 1,000 miles, you have much wet and marshy prairie, which I consider impassable. Starting in July, then, you could not come through the same season, and wintering in the mountains northeast of us would cause much expense, the loss of many animals and much suffering among the men. I am, sir,

very respectfully, your obedient servant,