iliarly
called Sam Hallet, assumed control of the company, denounced the
contract as in nowise valid, and peremptorily ordered the agents of the
contracting party to abandon the work. The agents refused. Affairs now
assumed the aspect of war. Hallet procured a company of United States
dragoons from Fort Leavenworth, and rode down upon the contumacious
contractors. The result of this cavalry dash is rather picturesquely
described in a letter of this novel railroad general, dated August 15,
1863:--

"I have had an awful row with Carter, a battle on the works, and a sharp
'pitch in' to get possession; we drove them back, and into the river,
until they cried enough. S. S. Sharp, my foreman Section No. 1, led
Carter to the river-bank by the collar; and but for his begging, he
would have ducked him. I expect Steele and Carter on again with
reinforcements. Let them come! We will put them into the river the next
time. We have had to use _strong force_, _quick_ and _bold_. We have
taken all their ties, houses, and works, and shall hold them."

Triumphant on the battle-field, Hallet now made a rapid
counter-movement, and effected a transfer of the ownership of the
company to a new set of capitalists, putting them into immediate
possession of the entire property of the old corporation. Of the legal
merits of this singular manoeuvre we are not prepared to give an
opinion; but it is proper for us to add, that it met with vigorous
resistance on the part of the former stockholders, at the head of whom
stood Fremont. Sharp litigations and stormy altercations ensued; and for
many months most vital to its interests the whole Kansas enterprise was
shut from view.

While these two companies were moving forward, the one steadily
overcoming financial and engineering difficulties, the other plunging
into an inexplicable imbroglio of contested management and contested
contracts, that great combination of capitalists which held the
destinies of the Union Pacific met at Chicago in September, 1862, and
took the preliminary steps for the formation of a company. Books for
stock subscriptions were opened in every loyal State and Territory. In
June of the next year the acceptance of the charter by a provisional
direction was filed at Washington. Nevertheless, an annoying apathy
filled the public mind. Capital was shy of the enterprise. The terms of
the act of 1862 were deemed unsatisfactory. Up to August, 1863, only
about eighty thousand dollars