they would have to ride fifty miles every day.
On the first day of the ride, the corps stopped to rest at midday because of extreme heat. By 2:30 p.m., however, conditions had changed drastically. Soon they were drenched with rain and were pushing their bikes through mud. Nonetheless, the group traveled an impressive fifty-five miles that day and reached Cotton- wood, Montana, at 8:00 p.m., where they set up camp for the night. Almost two weeks later, on June 25, 1897, the twenty-first anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the corps reached the site of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer’s last stand, southeast of Billings, Montana. Noting that the men were exhausted, Lieu- tenant Moss gave them a day to rest and to explore the battlefield. Edward Boos wrote: “It is some- thing of note that on the twenty-first anniversary day of Custer’s last battle, troops on bicycles were viewing the grounds from their silent steeds, around which are bones, the remains of cavalry horses which fell with Custer and his men.”
As the corps continued its arduous journey, the men encountered a sleet storm six thousand feet up in the Rocky Mountains at Mullan Pass, where there were several inches of snow on the ground. On July 10, Boos wrote: “When nearing Beaver Creek, the road became impassable for bicycles and the order was given to keep to the railroad track. We tried this plan for several miles and were nearly jolted to pieces. . . .” Boos estimated that during the 1,900-mile trip, the men had to push their steel steeds for a total of three hundred to four hundred miles.
As the corps approached each town,
the news of its arrival raced ahead of it with the exciting news reports Boos filed along the way. Small-town residents, farmers, and bicycle riders alike were eager to see the corps in action, and as the riders drew closer and closer to St. Louis, they attracted more and more attention. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat newspaper
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began running a column titled “Wheels and Wheelers” and carried daily reports on what it called “Uncle Sam’s Riders.” And on July 24, 1897, one thousand local cyclists rode out to greet the corps as it neared the end of its journey outside of St. Louis. Upon entering the city, the men of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps were greeted by mounted police, who led them to the center of town, where a crowd greeted them with three cheers of welcome. Ten thousand people visited them in their camp, and hearty food was provided for them by the Associated Cycling Clubs during their stay in St. Louis. The men had accomplished their mission with distinction, and after staying a week in St. Louis, they returned to Fort Missoula by train. At the end of 1898, Lieutenant Moss planned one more, even longer test ride to San Francisco, but this plan was turned down by the War Department. Conflict was brewing with Spain, and within one year, the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Regiment would be sent to fight in Cuba, but without the bicycle corps.
Paths Diverge
After their service in the Twenty- Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps, the men took separate paths in life. The best known members of the unit were Sergeant Dalbert P. Green and Sergeant Mingo Sanders. Born on March 25, 1873, Sergeant Green had seen soldiers marching when he was a child and grew up determined to enlist, which he did in August 1891. He served in two dangerous war zones
during his time in the military: in Cuba in 1898 and on two tours of duty in the Philippines between 1899 and 1909. While in the Philippines, Green single-handedly defended a crucial supply train from an attack by thirty Filipino soldiers, an action that was immortalized by an article titled “Brave Sergeant Green,” which was published in Leslie’s Weekly in 1899. Sergeant Green also had a success- ful career with the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Regiment’s baseball team. In the 1890s, baseball was the most popular recreation for the men of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Regiment, and they competed fiercely for team membership. Sergeant Green was the captain, manager, and historian of the team. He later wrote: “As Captain of the team, I spent the happiest days of my life, and was proud of the honor of being a member of one of the scrappi- est teams in the US Army.” After more than twenty-five years of service, Green retired and moved to Washing- ton, DC, at which time the Star- Gazette in Honolulu stated that he was the “most liked man in the 25th for years.”
Sergeant Mingo Sanders, however, became the best known of the Twenty- Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps’ mem- bers. As a young cotton field laborer, Mingo Sanders had admired soldiers marching in parades and thought that the life of the soldier was for him. He enlisted in the US Army in 1881, and soon after his bicycle corps experi- ences, he was fighting under heavy fire in Cuba. Describing the fighting at El Caney in Cuba, Sergeant Sanders said: “The bullets rained down on us
Taken in 1897, this photo shows Lieutenant James A. Moss (front) leading the men of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps.
PHOTO: 80.0047, FROM UNIDENTIFIED PUBLICATION, ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, MANSFIELD LIBRARY, THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA.
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