272 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK, 



companied by a band, and greeted me with several 

 national air, including ''Hail Columbia" and the 

 " Star-Spangled Banner." The Custer Monument As- 

 sociation received me at the City Hall, where I had been 

 announced to lecture in the evening, as it was my in- 

 tention to speak in the interest of the Fund ; but the 

 date was changed to the Thursday following my ar- 

 rival, with a view to giving its members an oppor- 

 tunity to co-operate with my advance agents. 



Great enthusiam was everywhere apparent, and the 

 people of Monroe needed no urging to lend their 

 patronage, when the movement was likely to reflect 

 honor upon their illustrious dead. 



My emotions upon entering this town, long the 

 dearest place in all the world to Custer, can better be 

 imagined than described. That it was a favorite with 

 him is not strange, for aside from the tender associa- 

 tions which it held for him, its pretty homes and broad 

 streets, deeply shaded by maples, make it a most 

 lovely spot and the very type of peace. 



StDmtg-fiftl) JPag. 



Strong^s Hotel, 

 Monroe, Michigan, 

 July Twenty-fifth. 



Wrote to my mother in the morning, and after dinner 

 took a stroll about town. Beyond its associations with 

 Custer, Monroe is interesting through its connection 

 with one of the most romantic and sanguinary scenes 

 connected with the war between Great Britain and the 

 United States; for on the banks of the River Raisin 

 which runs through it to the lake, occurred the 



