The year is 1865, the Civil War is coming to an end and us cowboys were being needed. We were needed since many young men were away at war and the cattle ranches were in need of care, many of which had fallen apart and cattle were roaming freely, unbranded, and unclaimed. Hired to find cattle and brand them, we then had to walk the cattle mainly north towards Kansas. The time it took for us to get from Texas to Kansas could be months at a time, even then if we were lucky we were able to have a break for a short amount of time and then we were back on our journey (Doc A). Sadly, at the end of the journey there was no open field, yet a packing house in which the cattle would be slaughtered (Background Essay). In the end, the long drive is not worth it because of many factors, such as, the rivers, the lack of food and …show more content…
While on our journey to Kansas we were lucky if our boss offered us a chance to take a break at a cow town. Although these stops only lasted a few hours it gave us a chance to refuel ourselves (Background Essay). Many times while on guard we would fall off of our horses from the lack of sleep, which was potentially dangerous and could lead to drowning. The strong weather would also prevent us from sleeping since the cattle became harder to steer in these conditions. The lack of food also began to get to us, our food supplies would become soaked from the harsh weather making it hard to salvage even a small amount of bread (Doc E). Even at night we would sleep only a few hours due to having to take two hour shifts watching the cattle at night to be sure they would not run off (Doc B). The lack of sleep and food caused many overall problem, which included us potentially falling off of our horses and drawing and craving for the smallest sliver of something to eat that wasn’t drenched in water from the rain. This was another factor in why I would not like to re-up next