I shall never forget the thrill that ran through me when father, pointing to the block-house at Fort Leavenworth, said: "Son, you now see a real military fort for the first time in your life." And a real fort it was.

Cavalry--or dragoons as they called them then--were engaged in saber drill, their swords flashing in the sunlight.

Artillery was rumbling over the parade ground.

Infantry was marching and wheeling.

About the Post were men dressed all in buckskin with coonskin caps or broad-brimmed slouch hats--real Westerners of whom I had dreamed.