I looked at a few resources, but I could not find any specific mention of exactly how the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry traveled from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth. I would imagine they traveled by riverboat, too, but I can't prove it.

I have narrowed your search via Frederick Dyer's "A Compendium to the War of the Rebellion" (in the reference section of any libary) vol. 2 of 3, page 1668 in Dyer's thumbnail history of this regiment. This says the 3rd moved to St. Louis between 26 and 28 March 1862, was on duty at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, where they were finally outfitted with whatever they still needed in the way of weapons, horses, uniforms, and etc. to get to a war footing. This also says they moved from Benton Barracks to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas between May 23 and May 27.

Since the Pacific Railroad only went as far as Tipton at the center of the state, I doubt they could have made that trip with the long road ride after Tipton in five days total.

They could have taken the railroad north from St. Louis to Palmyra, on the Mississippi River and across the state on the St. Joseph to Hannibal Railroad and then rode south to cross the Missouri River at Fort Leavenworth in the allotted time. That is entirely possible.

Also, as you suggest, they could have made the six-day trip against the current of the Missouri River in five days on one to three steamboats, especially with all the horses. This is assuming they had their full complement of horses. If not, they would have obtained them at Fort Leavenworth, and then the riverboat ride--if there was one for the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry--could easily have taken five days.

I looked at what little I have in the way of Missouri newspaper records for May 23 through May 27, and I drew a blank about which riverboats under Federal employ (none others were allowed on the lower Missouri River, as the Federals controlled all river traffic throughout the war) were traveling from St. Louis to Kansas City or Fort Leavenworth. You can still find some distinct possibilities for which riverboat they may have taken.

Look in the microfilm (by Interlibrary Loan, if need be) for the big St. Louis dailies ("Daily Missouri Democrat" and "Daily Missouri Republican"--no kidding) in the back page or so for "River News" or some such. It lists the vessels traveling the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers. Pay attention to boats going upriver on the Missouri River.

You could also check microfilm for the Jefferson City "State Times" issues of those days to see which riverboats they noted passing by, as most of them stopped at Jeff City.

Finally, you could check the Kansas City daily paper "Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce" for riverboat news articles. There were other weekly newspapers in print in some towns along the way like Lexington and others, but they didn't always tell which boats passed by.

If you come up with between one and five boats heading upriver on the Missouri during May 23 to May 27 come back to this forum, and we can try to figure out which ones would possibly have the 3rd Wisconsin Cav on board. Offhand, I don't yet know how we could figure that out, but, hey, if you want to try we can take a shot.

That's about all I can do for now.

PS. The 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry under Colonel Washburn about this same time was sent to SW MO and went by road I think from the Pacific Railroad terminal at Tipton. They had a long horse ride, and one or two adventures along the way.

Bruce Nichols