CHAPTER XVI. 



TOLEDO TO DETROIT, 



SiD^ntg-seconb Slag. 



ff^i^ 



Erie Hotels 

 Erie, Michigan, 

 July 22, 1876. 



Y Toledo friends were ready at the 

 Boody House to give me good-bye when 

 I mounted at nine o'clock, and I received 

 a right hearty send-off. Upon leaving 

 the city, instead of continuing westward 

 as usual toward the " Golden Gate," I had 

 determined for various reasons to swing 

 off from the direct course, and ride 

 northward to Detroit, moving thence to 

 Chicago. This new route would take me through 

 Monroe, a town with which the life of General Custer 

 was more closely associated than any gther, and know- 

 ing that I would find much there that would give me 

 a more intimate knowledge of the man, I looked for- 

 ward to this part of my journey with eager anticipa- 

 tion. 



The ride to Erie being at some distance from the 

 lake, and over a flat region, was rather monotonous. 

 Erie itself is a small unimportant hamlet at the 



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