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The Conquest of the Missouri^
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compared with those which she was to render la,ter in the campaign. In the many accounts which have been written of that summer of battle, the share of the Far West in the work has been little dwelt upon unless we except that spectacular1 portion of it immediately follow--ing the disaster on the Little Big Horn. Yet throughout the season she was constantly employed in duties'of the utmost importance. She maintained a communication between the scattered bodies of troops operating on opposite sides of an unfordable river which otherwise could hardly have been maintained at all; on several occasions she transferred a base of supply from one point to another, miles distant, in a fraction of the time which a wagon-train would have required, and frequently she ' was called upon to ferry from shore to shore, or to transport up and down stream, troops which, without her,' could not have been brought to the positions where they were needed, Difficult as was campaigning in that sterile country, it would have been infinitely more difficult if a steamer had not been at hand, ready for any kind of work at a moment?s notice. The Far West was used in a half-dozen different capacities by the army during its months in the field; as ferry-boat, despatch-boat,? patrol-boat, gun-boat, transport, or hospital-ship, each as occasion demanded, and in herself she demonstrated perfectly how valuable v even a single unit of floating transportation, under an intelligent and obedient commander, may be made to an expeditionary force,
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