John Ordway

This is the first of the journal collections I've read cover to cover. I must say I was impressed with Sergeant Ordway as a recorder of information and as a stylist.

First, he is a consistent journalist. He wrote every day, at least a full paragraph. Some entries are much longer. Moulton's notes are a great help in offering clarifying explanations or geographic references to Ordway's explanations.

Ordway is also often willing to take the time to provide more than a cursory entry. He shares his observations in an interesting, descriptive prose. I was particularly impressed by his observations of the weather, such as the cold and snow the Corps encountered in the Three Rivers region, even though it was August.

Floyd is a bit less fun. His entries tended to be much briefer, and the spelling oddities were a bit harder to decode. Some of the entries are longer and descriptive, but many are only a few sentences.… (altro)