22 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK, 



The want of an education and the want of money 

 were two serious obstacles which confronted me for a 

 time. Without the former I could not prosecute my 

 journeys intelligently and for want of the latter I 

 could not even attempt them. 



Aspiring to an academic and collegiate course of 

 study, but being at that period entirely without means 

 for the accomplishment of my purpose, I left the dis- 

 trict school of my native town and sought to raise the 

 necessary funds by trapping for mink and other fur- 

 bearing animals along the Oswegatchie and its tribu- 

 tary streams. This venture proving successful I en- 

 tered the academy at Gouverneur in August, 1857, 

 from which institution I was appointed to the State 

 Normal College at Albany in the fall of 1859. 



I had been in Albany but six weeks when it became 

 apparent that if I continued at the Normal I would 

 soon be compelled to part with my last dollar for 

 board and clothing. 



The years 1859-60 were spent alternately at Albany 

 as student and in the village schools of Rensselaer 

 County as teacher — the latter course being resorted to 

 whenev^er money was needed with which to meet cur- 

 rent expenses at the Normal School. 



Then came our great Civil Conflict overriding every 

 otlier consideration. Books were thrown aside and the 

 pursuits of the student and teacher supplanted by the 

 sterner and more arduous duties of the soldier. 



During my three years of camping and campaigning 

 with the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac I was 

 enabled to gratify to some extent my desire for travel 

 and to see much of interest as the shifting scenes of 

 war led Bayard, Stoneman, Pleasonton, Gregg, Custer, 



