Having had a taste of government hauling, he [Majors] wanted more. In December he entered a bid at Fort Leavenworth with Major E. A. Ogden, quartermaster for the military posts west of the Missouri, for the next year’s contract, and won it. He probably outbid Russell, for the great promoter was without a government contract in 1854, being reduced to a single train of civilian goods, dispatched to California. The venture turned out to be a poor substitute, as Russell lost about 20 per cent of his cattle along the way.
