According to the July 16 entry, why do the two men stop their wagons? What happens
to them?

read below that should be enough to get you our answer

Explanation: Just after we crossed the bridge, and where there is a sudden turn in the road, as it winds around the mountain, we saw where two men had been killed and two wagons burned last week. The tire became loose on a wheel of the next to the last wagon in a freight train, the men stopped to tighten it, while the rest of the train moved on, not thinking of danger, and was out of sight in a few minutes. An hour later some of the men came back to see what kept them. There they were - dead and scalped - horses gone, and wagons on fire. The Indians had taken all the freight they could use, piled wood under the wagons, and set it on fire. We saw quantities of white beans scattered over the ground, also the irons from the wagons."

a. a party in a lower-court case requests that the supreme court overturn the other court’s ruling in the case.

the answer is a. since they were a huge producer of cotton and wanted the most money for it.