Copyright 1999 - 2003 - Janine M. Bork
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Union County, OR AHGP
In the summer of 1864, Major-General
Irwin McDowell, U.S. Army, had been assigned to the command of the Department
of the Pacific. This had relieved General George Wright of that command;
yet it had left him in command of the District of California. General McDowell
made a visit of inspection to the District of Oregon. He first visited
Puget Sound and from thence returned to the Columbia river in the then
United States revenue cutter Shubrick, Captain Seammon, specially
inspecting the defenses at the mouth of the Columbia river. Early in 1865,
Major-General McDowell, in command of the Pacific Department, had made
a requisition for another regiment of cavalry, the existing organization
to be retained as the First Oregon Cavalry, but to be filled up to twelve
companies. The military District of Oregon had been amplified so as to
include
the southern and southeastern portions of the state,
which had theretofore been within the District of California. The Boise
and Owyhee region were now constituted a sub-district in the District of
Oregon; and said sub-district was placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Drake. Lieutenant-Colonel Maury had been appointed colonel. Captain George
B. Currey had become Lieutenant-Colonel Currey.
In the spring of 1865, renewed activity
was manifested to protect the roads traveled by miners and immigrants from
Indian marauders. In April, one hundred men were detailed to guard the
road between Fort Boise and The Dalles. In May, Company B, Oregon Cavalry,
Captain Palmer, escorted a supply train from The Dalles to Fort Boise.
A detachment proceeded to Salmon Falls creek, Camp Reed, to watch the
immigrant road. They summered there and continued camped
in tents through the next winter, suffering severe hardships from the severity
of the climate and the depth of snow. Captain Palmer made a summer camp
on Big Camas Prairie, from whence a detachment under Lieutenant C.H. Walker
was sent one hundred and ten miles east to the Three Buttes. Lieutenant
Walker had been ordered to winter at Fort Hall. He went to Gibson's Ferry
above Fort Hall, where a great many wagons crossed, but saw no unfriendly
Indians. With his company, he remained at the ferry until September 19th,
when he prepared to go into winter quarters at old Fort Hall, which was
a mass of ruins. Of the débris of the old fort, and the abandoned
sheds and buildings of the Overland Stage Company, he erected a shelter
which he named Camp Lander. At such a post as that, through the winter
of 1865-66, those self-sacrificing soldiery remained.
In May, detachments of Oregon cavalry, respectively commanded by Lieutenants Hobart and James L. Currey, cleared the road to Cañon City and thence to Fort Boise. From that post Lieutenant-Colonel Drake sent Lieutenant Currey to Rock creek, on Snake river, to escort the mails, the hostiles having driven off the Overland Stage Company's stock from several stations. Lieutenant Hobart marched to Jordan creek and established Camp Lyon. While following up the Indians who had driven off the stock on Reynolds' creek, they attacked his camp on the Malheur river, having first stampeded his horses. The fight continued for several hours, during which two of his men were wounded. He recovered his animals, captured several from the Indians, and killed and wounded several of the enemy (1).
All the summer Captain L.L. Williams, Company H, Oregon Infantry, had been guarding the Cañon City road. In September, he was ordered to Camp Watson to take command of an expedition to Selvies river. Lieutenant Bowen, with twenty-five Oregon cavalry, was to reinforce him. Before the cavalry had joined him, his command was surrounded by a band of Indians, mounted and on foot. Captain Williams, as the march
(1) Lieutenant Hobart subsequently
received the commission of captain in the United States army.
22 HISTORY OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST - OREGON AND WASHINGTON
progressed, was obliged to maintain the fight for a long distance. His loss was one killed and three wounded. The troops killed fifteen of the savages. Captain Williams remained in the Harney Lake valley through the winter. The camp which he established he named Camp Wright, in honor of the gallant veteran general who had so often and ably commanded the district or department. On the 14th of July, Colonel Maury resigned, and was succeeded by Colonel George B. Currey in command of the District of Oregon. Upon the death of General Wright, July 30th, whilst en route to Fort Vancouver to take charge of the Department of the Columbia, which had just been created, and to the command of which he had been assigned, Colonel George B. Currey, First Oregon Cavalry, succeeded to the command of the department. Colonel Currey, department Commander, had determined upon a vigorous and systematic winter campaign. To check the hostiles who would be compelled to resort to the valleys, troops were to be stationed at the several established camps, which were within communicating distance, and constituted a network of centers of operations in the hostile country. Late in October, and before his plan of campaign had been fully inaugurated, he, with many of the volunteers, had been mustered out of service.
Lieutenant-Colonel Drake succeeded Colonel Currey in command of the department. Much to the chagrin of the citizens, the troops had been ordered from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Dalles, the post remaining in charge of Captain Noble and a small detachment. Fort Lapwai was also abandoned. The several camps were abandoned, except Camps Watson and Alvord. Camp Lyon and Fort Boise were permitted to remain. Gradually the organization of the Oregon volunteers melted away. By June, 1866, the companies had all been disbanded except Company B, First Oregon Cavalry, and Company I, First Oregon Infantry. Thus ended Oregon volunteer organizations and movements. Everything was deferred till the arrival of United States troops, and for a department commander connected with the regular army.
At the end of October, 1865,
two companies of the Fourteenth Infantry, U.S. Army, Captain Walker commanding,
had been stationed at Fort Boise. The Oregon volunteers, having been relieved,
marched to Fort Vancouver and were mustered out. During that winter, the
Shoshones continued their marauding. In February, 1866, after a large amount
of property had been stolen by the Indians, Captain Walker, with thirty-nine
men, marched to the mouth of the Owyhee and crossed into
Oregon. A party of twenty-one were overtaken in a cañon between
the Owyhee and Malheur rivers. Captain Walker fired upon them. They resisted
and fought him till dark; and all the Indians but three, who escaped in
the darkness, were killed. Captain Walker recovered the property, but lost
one man killed and one wounded.
On the 24th of February, Major-General
Steele assumed the command of the Department of the Columbia. On the 2d
of March, Fort Boise with its communicating camps, viz., Alvord, Lyon,
Reed, and Lander, was constituted a sub-military district, with Major L.H.
Marshall, U.S. Army, in command. On arriving at Fort Boise, that officer
made requisition for three additional companies. In April, Lieutenant-Colonel
Sinclair,
Fourteenth Infantry, took command at Camp Currey, but
abandoned it and went to Fort Boise. Two companies of United States infantry
(one from Cape Hancock and the other from Fort Dalles) arrived at Fort
Boise. There were two companies of United States cavalry at Camp Watson;
one company of United States cavalry, Captain David Perry, at Camp C.F.
Smith; one company of United States cavalry, Captain James C. Hunt, at
Camp Lyon, at which camp were also a company of United States infantry
and a company
BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS 23
of the First Oregon Infantry, Captain Sprague, on the south fork of the John Day River. Except the two companies at Camp Watson, Colonel E.M. Baker commanding, all of the troops were stationed within the limits of the Boise military district, and in the territory of Idaho. To those two companies had been committed the impracticable task of guarding a line of road between The Dalles and Fort Boise, of the distance of four hundred and fifty miles. At that time it had become so infested with marauding Indians that the express, after having been several times attacked and robbed, refused to carry treasure.
General Steele's first action had been to abandon many of the established camps and make the above distribution of troops. But as early as March 20, 1866, so bold had become the predatory incursions of the Indians in the southern part of Eastern Oregon and of Southwestern Idaho, that he recommended to Major-General Halleck, commanding the Pacific Division, that strong posts be established at Camp Wright on the Selvies river in Harney Lake valley, and in Goose valley. On the 28th of March, an expedition under Major Marshall marched one hundred and ten miles to Bruneau river. He found a camp of about one hundred and fifty Snake Indians, consisting of aged and decrepit men and youths. By the middle of April, he had returned, when he sent Captain Collins with a detachment of Company B, First Oregon Infantry, and ten men of the Fourteenth U.S.. Infantry, to Squaw creek to search for hostile Indians and white renegades who were alleged to be with them. The latter were to be hanged without ceremony. None, however, were found; and Captain Collins continued his scout to Burnt river.
On the 11th of May, Major Marshall,
with eighty-four men, started to scout the country at the headwaters of
the Owyhee river. Strongly posted between its south and middle forks, they
discovered a large camp of Indians. at that point the river could not be
crossed. Major Marshall moved down eight miles, built a raft, and effected
the crossing. On ascending the bluff, the Indians from behind rocks fired
upon the troops. A battle of four hours' duration followed. Major Marshall's
command killed seven Indians and wounded a large number; but he was powerless
to dislodge them, and retreated across the river, losing his raft and a
howitzer, and was compelled to throw into the river a lot of ammunition
and provisions, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Indians.
One non-commissioned officer was killed. The Oregon volunteers who served
in that expedition censured Major Marshall for his inhumanity. The Indians
had lassoed a man named Phillips, an Oregonian, and were drawing him up
the bluff to their camp for torture. Lieutenant Silas Pepoon, of the Oregon
Cavalry, volunteered
to go to his rescue, and asked Major Marshall for permission
and for a detail; but both were denied. In his haste to get away, Major
Marshall abandoned four of his men on the opposite bank of the river, who
were cut off by the swamping of the raft (1).
On the 19th of May, a band of
Indians raided a large party of Chinese miners on Battle creek. Over fifty
unarmed Chinamen were slaughtered and scalped, one boy only escaping the
massacre. Lieutenant Pepoon hastened with a detachment to the scene, only
to find the scalped and mutilated dead scattered for miles along the road.
Those Indian barbarities continued; they seemed to be irrepressible. Horses
and cattle were
stolen; men, women and children were murdered; expresses,
stages and travelers were constantly robbed and slain. The opinion was
fast obtaining that those Indians were marshaled and led by white outlaws
and desperadoes, and that the proceeds of their depredations were converted
into funds with which ammunition and supplies were procured to keep up
the war. On the 30th of June, a company of forty citizens, who
(1) Message and executive documents,
second session Thirty-ninth Congress, 1866-67, page 501.
24 HISTORY OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST—OREGON AND WASHINGTON.
had organized as an independent company under Captain I. Jennings, who had served with credit in the Civil War, engaged a band of hostiles at Boulder Creek; but they were surrounded by greatly superior numbers. Discovering the strength of the enemy, the little volunteer party intrenched themselves, and sent a messenger to camp Lyon for aid. They held out; but, when the aid arrived, the Indians fled. Captain Jennings’ party lost one killed and two wounded. The Indian loss was reported at thirty-five.
Major Marshall, the commander of the Boise District, established a camp on Bruneau river in a locality free from the presence of hostile Shoshones. There he proposed to erect a permanent post. Having uselessly expended in buildings several thousand dollars, those operations were suspended. The camp was occupied during that and the next year by one company. During August, troops of Major Marshall’s command scouted through the Goose creek Mountains, killing about thirty Indians. He then marched to the forks of the Owyhee, the scene of his former disaster, whipped the Indians and left thirty-five hanging on adjacent trees. He marched to the Steen Mountains, cap Warner, and Warner Lake, which he reached on October 1st, having made a thorough scout of the country.
Colonel Baker had been continuously occupied in scouting on the line of road committed to his charge. He had pursued such marauders as he could; but his line was entirely too extensive, and the men assigned to him vastly too few for the purpose. The number of depredations and murders had not diminished.
On the 4th of July, Lieutenant
R.F. Bernard, with thirty-four cavalry, left Camp Watson in pursuit of
the Indian marauders. He marched south to the head of Crooked river, thence
to Selvies river and Harney Lake. Skirting it to the west and south, he
proceeded to the Steen Mountains, thence northeast around Lake Malheur
to the headwaters of Malheur river. Here for the first time on his extended
march he discovered
signs of Indians. Establishing himself in a well-defended
camp, the scouts were sent out and two Indians captured. Lieutenant Bernard,
with fifteen men, spent the next day in personal search without success.
On the seventeenth, he detached nineteen men under Sergeant Conner, who
struck a camp of Indians on Rattlesnake creek at about eight o’clock in
the morning. Thirteen were killed and a large number wounded. Several horses
and mules were captured; but the main body of Indians succeeded in getting
away, with most of their property and supplies. Corporal William B. Lord,
killed, was the only casualty. On their return to camp, they were met by
a company of forty-seven citizens from Auburn,
Powder river, who were in search of the same band of
Indians. On the nineteenth, with this addition to his forces, Lieutenant
Bernard renewed the pursuit. In a strong position in a deep cañon,
about a mile beyond the scene of Sergeant Conner’s fight, the Indians were
found. The cañon was flanked by almost perpendicular walls, within
which they had strongly fortified themselves by rocks. On discovering that
they were pursued, the Indians fled, abandoning everything except their
arms and horses. Leaving the citizens to guard the pack train, Lieutenant
Bernard, with thirty men, pursued the mounted Indians for sixty miles.
To those upon foot he gave no attention. As he passed on, they hid in the
rocks till he was distant, when they came together. During the night, those
on foot had collected in a party and passed near his camp. They turned
off and concealed themselves among some low hills. He pursued them, and
they scattered. He succeeded in capturing only two women and some children.
The next day Lieutenant Bernard notified the citizens that it was useless
for them to advance farther. He followed the trail of the mounted Indians
another day, then returned to Camp Watson, having marched six
hundred and thirty miles in twenty-six days. In the report of this pursuit, Lieutenant Bernard makes allusion to the popularly entertained opinion that white men were in the camps of the Malheur Shoshones. The troops under Sergeant Conner claimed that they heard English distinctly spoken during the battle on Rattlesnake creek. Lieutenant Bernard estimated the Indians before him as numbering three hundred man, women and children, of whom eighty were fighting men.
In August, Lieutenant-Colonel
R.F. Beirne, Fourteenth Infantry, Camp Watson, marched along the Cañon
City road from Fort Dalles to Fort Boise, scouting the country along his
line of march. Arriving at Fort Boise, he was ordered to make a scout of
the Burnt river region. The people of Northeastern Oregon, apparently with
reason, now charged Major-General Halleck with favoring California and
California merchants in
securing the trade of the mining regions on the Boise
and Owyhee and their tributaries, in so distributing the troops in his
department as to protect the Chico route to the Idaho mines, leaving unprotected
and actually dangerous the routes inland to those mines from the Columbia
river. The Oregon merchants, packers, stage and express companies were
left, on that great stretch of road between The Dalles and Boise, to look
out for themselves. At length General Halleck made an official visit to
Southeastern Oregon. He travel to Fort Boise by the Chico route, which
had been exempt from Indian depredations, and thence to the river
Columbia. That parade visit was in the fall. There was a temporary
lull of Indian raids; for the natives were occupied in
gathering the accustomed supply of berries and roots for their winter sustenance.
General Halleck, with his escort, encountered no hostiles, met with no
obstacles. Of course he saw nothing to excite his fears. To him it was
apparent that his administration had been efficient, that the story of
Indian trouble was exaggerated, and that increased military aid was unnecessary.
The Oregon state legislature was in session. It
urged upon Governor Woods immediate and energetic action for the protection
of Northeastern Oregon. On October 7th, it passed a resolution instructing
Governor Woods to call for volunteers, if within thirty days the government
continued to deny the necessary protection. General Steele could not be
censured. Both himself and all the forces at his disposal had been actively
engaged. He had made a tour of inspection of the whole hostile country,
and had just returned to Fort Vancouver when the Oregon state legislature
were considering the resolutions to raise volunteers. General Steele
and the governor had an interview. The attempt was made to recruit the
Eighth U.S. Cavalry in Willamette valley; but the possible call for volunteers
discouraged enlistments. The volunteer scheme was, however, abandoned,
upon the assurance that additional troops should be sent to Northeastern
Oregon. During November, three cavalry companies arrived, swelling the
number of troops serving in Oregon to seven companies of cavalry, five
companies of the Fourteenth
Infantry, five companies of artillery, and one company
of the First Oregon Infantry. Forts Lapwai and Walla Walla had been re-garrisoned.
A winter campaign was to be carried on; Camp Warner had been re-occupied.
A camp called Three Forks was established on the north branch of the Owyhee
river. Scouting parties were sent out with increased activity. Captain
Small, with fifty United States Cavalry, attacked a party of
Indians near Camp Warner, killed fourteen, and too seven
prisoners. He also captured their horses, rifles and winter supplies.
The United States Army Bill,
1866, had provided for attaching Indian scouts to the United States regular
forces fighting Indians, and had apportioned among the states and territories
a certain number to each. To Oregon had been allotted one hundred. Governor
26 HISTORY OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST—OREGON AND WASHINGTON.
Woods, under this act, proposed that the Oregon allotment be absorbed in the formation of two companies of fifty each, to act under commanders selected by him, but to act in conjunction with the regular troops. To this General Steele would not assent, claiming that the provision clearly contemplated the employment of scouts to act as such, in small numbers, as and where needed by each command. General Halleck, being appealed to, coincided with General Steele. Governor Woods then referred the matter to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, who ordered General Halleck to conform to his orders, and to carry into effect the plan of Governor Woods.
The companies of scouts were
promptly raised from Warm Springs Indians, Columbia river and Boise Shoshones,
- hereditary mortal enemies of the Malheur and Idaho Shoshones and the
other hostile bands of that nation on the warpath in Oregon and Idaho.
William C. McKay and John Darragh were appointed by Governor Woods their
leaders, with the rank of first lieutenants. Their instructions were to
kill the hostiles,
disregarding sex or age. The two recruiting officers
object to killing women; but Governor Woods recalled the Ward Massacre,
where the women of these hostiles were more malignant and fiendish than
the men in torturing and murdering Mrs. White and Mrs. Ward and their little
children, whom they roasted alive in the sight of the mothers whilst they
were being tortured. he insisted, and truthfully, too, that as a rule the
women were as hostile in intention as the men, as able
and useful in making war, and as cruel and unrelenting to captives; that,
for those acts of barbarity, they deserved to suffer equally with the men.
Lieutenants McKay and Darragh, in a personal statement of their acts in
that expedition, refer to the killing of fourteen women and children, pursuant
to their instructions, much against the wishes of the scouts, who insisted
that the Snakes, in their future raids upon Warm Spring Indians, would
slay their wives and children in retaliation.
Early in December, 1866 to the
infinite satisfaction of the people of the Northwest, Brevet Major-General
George Crook, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Twenty-third Infantry, the distinguished
Indian fighter, relieved Major Marshall of the command of Boise District.
About the middle of December, with forty soldiers and twelve Warm Springs
Indian allies, he found a party of eighty Shoshone warriors on the Owyhee.
Leaving ten men to guard camp, he attacked the Indians. After several hours’
fighting the Indians fled, having lost thirty of their number killed. Several
women and children, and thirty horses, were captured. In this action, General
Crook lost Sergeant O’Toole, who had come out of twenty-eight battles of
the great Civil War unscathed to meet inglorious death at the hands of
savages. In January, 1867, the scouts reported a camp of Indians on the
Owyhee, fifteen miles above the ferry. By a night march the troops surprised
them, and attacked them by early daylight. They killed sixty Indians, captured
thirty and a large number of horses. A civilian named Hanson was killed,
and three soldiers wounded.
Some other slight advantages were gained. Several Indians
were killed by the scouts; but the heavy snows wearing out the horses had
rendered scouting operations impracticable, and they were necessarily suspended.
By the middle of March, 1967,
detachments of troops had commenced to patrol the Cañon City road,
and to pursue predatory bands of marauding Shoshones. Many hundreds
of miles of country were traversed and examined. Twenty-four Indians were
killed; several were captured. Considerable Indian property had been destroyed,
and stolen property recovered.
In the latter part of July, General Crook scouted between Camps Harney and C.F. Smith, with three companies of cavalry and the two companies of Indian auxiliaries under command of Lieutenants McKay and Darragh. The command traveled at night, and during the day lay by concealed. In the Puebla Mountains, they overtook a large body of Shoshones. The Indian allies made the attack, the cavalry being held in reserve. Lieutenants McKay and Darragh surrounded the Shoshone camp; and soon the scouts had thirty of the enemy’s scalps. Eight miles farther on, another hostile camp was discovered. The same tactics were pursued; and these Indians fared no better at the hands of General Crook’s Indian allies.
General Crook had observed that
the Shoshones were abundantly supplied with ammunition and arms; that no
capture or destruction of their property or stores seemed to cripple their
energies or fighting powers; but that immediately their stock was replenished.
He logically reasoned that such must be effected from the proceeds of the
property stolen in the northern settlements; that such plunder was converted
into the
means whereby the war was maintained; that either friendly
Indians or Whites must be utilized in such conversions. Having become satisfied
that the reservation Indians of California, received the stolen property,
and found purchasers in unscrupulous Whites living near, he resolved that
this traffic should end; that these war supplies to the fighting Shoshones
should be intercepted; and that the parties engaged in the traffic should
be punished. To this end, he fitted out an expedition of mounted infantry
at Camp C.F. Smith. On the march to Camp Warner, two camps of traveling
Indians (parties engaged in supplying the hostile camps) were met. All
were killed or captured. Old Camp Warner was located at an altitude of
five thousand feet; and its climate was excessively severe in winter, and
the snows heavy. It was abandoned for such reasons, and a new site selected.
Several scouting parties of the Indian auxiliaries had killed or captured
a number of the hostiles.
On the 16th of August, the District
of Boise was restricted to Fort Boise. The camps detached were constituted
a sub-district named Owyhee District, which was put under command of General
Washington L. Elliot, First Cavalry. Shortly subsequent, Fort Boise was
included in and became part of the Owyhee District. Fort Klamath, Camps
Watson, Warner, Logan and Harney were made the District of the Lakes, to
the
command of which General Crook was assigned.
With three companies of cavalry,
one of mounted infantry, and Lieutenants McKay’s and Darragh’s two companies
of Indian allies, General Crook set out for the locality from which he
suspected the hostiles received their supplies. On the 9th, Lieutenant
Darragh reported Indians in the tules of Lake Abert. An Indian trail
was discovered; but General Crook, believing that the Shoshones were traveling
south, divided his
command. he sent the companies of Captains Harris and
Perry, with the Indian companies, north, to scout between the Sprague and
Des Chutes rivers, and to examine Crooked river. With one company of cavalry,
the mounted infantry, and the Boise scouts under McIntosh, he went to Surprise
valley.
For some days he had marched
during the night, concealing himself by day. He was at length nearly up
with the Indians; and, as he was satisfied that they knew his movements,
he changed his tactics, boldly marching by daylight. When within twenty
miles of Fort Crook, he took advantage of the mountains on the south side
of the river, which concealed his force from the Indians, crossed over
and camped in a heavily
timbered cañon. On the twenty-fifth, he marched
southeast along foothills covered with
timber. A small band of Indians in a ravine fled before
him. He had now reached the Pitt river region; and the horses were wearied
from their marching over the lava beds. The indications were that the Indians
were numerous and upon the alert. On the next day, his command came upon
their stronghold in the rocks, near the bend of the south branch of the
river. The troops dismounted, and formed lines on both sides
of the occupied rocks, the two meeting on the east, fronting
the Indian position. A perpendicular lava wall, three hundred feet high
and a third of a mile long, bound the west side of the valley. Its north
end was a ridge of lava blocks which in front sloped gradually towards
the valley. Two ridges, one hundred and fifty feet in length, and thirty
feet in height, with perpendicular, parallel walls, ran into the southeast
boundary. Within crudely piled stones breast high, with loopholes; and
upon the western ridge were two larger fortifications of similar construction.
There was but one apparently practicable
approach, which was on the eastern slope near the small fort. In the first
charge by Parnell up the cañon on the south, the advancing party
lost four killed and wounded. it had been learned that the Indians could
not be dislodged except by siege. The command had surrounded the Indians;
but they were so thoroughly covered that sharp-shooting was the only method
to do them injury. The firing had continued until dark; and pickets were
stationed to guard against the Indians leaving. Undercover of the darkness
the troops had approached as near as practicable to the Indian fort, and
had taken shelter among the rocks, which the savages anticipated
and had kept up a shower of stones, arrows and missiles
to prevent it. Through the night a desultory firing was maintained. Noises
were kept up inside the Indian lines as though they were piling stones
and strengthening or constructing fortifications. In the darkness one of
the mounted infantry had been killed by the cavalry in the cross-fire.
At daybreak the pickets were brought in; and the line was formed under
the crest of the ridge facing the east fort. The scouts had crawled upon
the opposite side of the ridge as near as they could; and the charge ordered
(1). Forty men rushed forward; a volley from the besieged struck down Lieutenant
Madigan, three non-commissioned officers, three privates
and a civilian. The rest pushed on, and the wall was
gained, which presented two accessible points. Sergeant Russler of Company
D, Twenty-third Infantry, led the way up one approach. Sergeant Meara of
the First Cavalry led the other charge. Sergeant Meara was first to gain
the natural parapet which surrounded the east fort. As he was crossing,
encouraging his comrades, he was shot dead. Sergeant Russler came up at
the same moment. He fired through one of the loopholes and was also shot.
The fort being captured, General
Crook’s men waited in suspense to shoot the Indians as they attempted to
escape, or to have a hand-to-hand struggle with them in that pen. But no
Indian passed out. Among the rocks they had made their retreat to the western
forts, from which they fired another fatal volley, which killed one and
wounded several. Gradually the firing of the Indians died away. The west
forts were inaccessible; and the troops waited all through the twenty-seventh
to learn what would be the next move of the savages. On the twenty-eighth,
an Indian squaw attempted to pass out through the lines. From her General
Crook received the information that the men, hours before, had
abandoned the fort. Through caverns and fissures forming
subterranean paths, a thorough communication existed with the surrounding
country. By those paths the beseiged Shoshones had made good their escape;
nor was it safe to attempt to follow. In
(1) Correspondence of J. Wassen,
in the Oregonian of November 12, 1867.
descending into and examining one of those caverns, a soldier was killed. Most likely his slayer was a wounded Indian in concealment, who had been unable to crawl farther. On the thirtieth, General Crook returned to the new post, the new Camp Warner, which he reached on the 4th of October. The detachments of Captains Perry and Harris, which had gone northward, had met no hostiles.
Lieutenant Small from Fort Klamath, with fifty troops and ten Klamath scouts, during September, had killed twenty-three Indians and captured fourteen, two of whom were chiefs and another a prominent medicine man. On the Idaho side, the Indian depredations had been most frequent and annoying. The farmers and citizens organized a force in the lower Boise section. Arms and a squad of soldiers were furnished by the fort. They scouted the country, killed two Indians, and recovered stock which had been stolen. Repressed in one locality, the Indians reappeared in others. The stage station at the mouth of the Payette river was robbed of all its animals. A tithe of the horrible crimes committed by those Shoshones cannot here be recounted. The people were alarmed, and were clamorous for relief. At that time those Indian allies, who had done such efficient service in ridding the territory of so many incarnate fiends, were mustered out of service. On the 23d of November, General Steele was succeeded by Major-General Lovell H. Rousseau, U.S. Army, in command of the Department of the Columbia. There were no material changes of campaign. Several conflicts with small parties of Indians occurred, who generally sustained reverses. A number had been killed, many had been captured, and their large camps melted away.
At length the hostiles were desirous
of peace. General Halleck, with his customary egotism and disposition to
handicap subordinates in their legitimate fields of duty, had issued an
order that no Indian treaty could be made in his division without consulting
him. This necessitated that General Crook, the peacemaker, must hear from
San Francisco before he could terminate hostilities or secure peace. The
hostiles sued for
peace; but General Crook dictated the terms. Wisely eschewing
the pernicious policy of collecting mischievous Indians on reservations,
to be fed and clothed until they were ready to renew the conspiracy, he
simply recognized We-wa-we-wa, the head chieftain of the Malheur Shoshones,
as their chief, and made him responsible for their good conduct. With that
he dismissed them, to go where they pleased. He compelled them to restore
to the owners the property they had stolen. The first arrangement included
the Malheur and Warner Lake Shoshones. The Idaho Snakes were brought
in later, but peace had been secured.
The Indian Department tried to
reverse the sensible policy of General Crook, and to force the Indians
upon the reservations; but the War Department declined to give active aid.
Superintendent Meacham endeavored to get We-wa-we-wa (who had surrendered
to General Crook) with his people on the Klamath reservation, but was unsuccessful.
In November, a council was held at Camp Warner with Otsehoe, who had been
an influential spirit and a big chief in the hostile bands; and he was
persuaded to go upon the reserve. Fed through the winter, during the next
spring his bands left in small parties, he going last. When he was required
to bring them back, Otsehoe replied that Major Otis wished him to remain
at Camp Warner. He finally consented to winter on the reservation, and
to spend his summers about Camp Warner and Goose
Lake. In March, 1871, the Malheur reservation was declared,
with an area of 2,775 square miles on the north fork of the Malheur river.
In 1873, a portion of those tribes voluntarily went upon that reservation
to reside. Gradually all have been concentrated there; and thus was ended
the Shoshone War and its sequel.
The purposes of the present volume
were rather to exhibit the elements of growth and the progress of the state
than to narrate history, so called. To accomplish such design it was deemed
essential to chronicle the growth and progress of counties, towns and communities,
to note the origin, progress and extent of industrial and commercial enterprises,
and to illuminate that work by the personal history or biography of the
actors who made that progress or controlled and molded
that history. Such having been the objects, it must necessarily preclude,
as also render unnecessary, at this time, an extended reference to those
events and acts upon which the political, commercial and industrial growth
of the State of Oregon had depended. That branch of the work has been committed
to competent hands; and its able and industrious performance will
be presented in subsequent pages. Those exhibits are
as well the sources as they are the illustration of that advancement which
has been so remarkable. Their presentation renders it unwarrantable and
alike unnecessary to trench upon the space allotted for the purposes of
this volume. Nor could the compendium be presented with any satisfaction,
all that is permitted being to cite in the briefest language mere acts
or facts, without reference to those circumstances or surroundings, the
statement of which oftentimes is so necessary to justify historic deductions.
In what follows in concluding this chapter, nothing will be attempted but
the meager naming of the actors, briefly referring to such contemporary
acts as will of themselves indicate personal changes of official
administration and political periods.
In previous pages, reference has been made to the administrations of Governors Addison C. Gibbs and George L. Woods. The former had been elected in 1862, upon the Republican ticket, over General John F. Miller, the Democratic nominee. He had been inaugurated in September of that year, and had continued in office until the installation of his successor, Governor George L. Woods, in September, 1866, who had been elected that summer, defeating Colonel James K. Kelly, his Democratic competitor. Those gentlemen were succeeded in the following order:
In 1870, Lafayette Grover was
elected over Joel Palmer, and in 1874 was re-elected over J.C. Tolman,
republican, and T.F. Campbell, Independent. In September, 1876, Governor
Grover was elected United States senator for the term commencing March
4, 1877. Upon that occurrence, he resigned the office of governor; and,
for the continuance of that gubernatorial term, Stephen F. Chadwick, Secretary
of State, succeeded to and performed the functions of the executive office.
Governor Stephen F. Chadwick was succeeded in September, 1878, by William
W. Thayer, Democrat. In 1882, Zenas F. Moody, Republican, was inaugurated
Governor; and, in 1886, Sylvester Pennoyer, the
present incumbent, was elected and installed as governor.
The state legislature, at its
biennial session of 1862, elected Benjamin F. Harding to fill the unexpired
senatorial term made vacant by the death of Colonel Edward D. Baker, which
expired March 3, 1865. Upon Senator Baker’s death, Governor Whiteaker appointed
Benjamin Stark to fill the vacancy until the legislature should elect.
He served until relieved, in the fall of 1862, by Senator Harding. The
following summary
will exhibit the names and services of Oregon’s United
States senators since the admission of the state:
Delazon Smith, from February
14, 1859, to March 3, 1859; Joseph Lane, from February 14, 1859, to March
3, 1861; Edward D. Baker, from March 4, 1861, to October 21, 1861; Benjamin
Stark, from October until the election of Senator Harding, 1862;
Benjamin F. Harding, from September, 1862, to March 3, 1865; James W. Nesmith,
from
March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1867; George H. Williams, from
March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1871; Henry W. Corbett, from March 4, 1867,
to March 3, 1873; James K. Kelly, from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1877;
John H. Mitchell, from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1879; Lafayette Grover,
from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1883; James H. Slater, from March 4, 1879,
to March 3, 1885; Joseph N. Dolph, from March 4, 1883, to March 3,
1889; John H. Mitchell, from March 4, 1885, to March
3, 1891; Joseph N. Dolph, from March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1895.
Since the admission of Oregon, the state has been represented
in the United States House of Representatives as follows: Thirty-fifth
Congress, ending March, 3, 1859, by Lafayette Grover, Democrat; Thirty-sixth
Congress, ending March 3, 1861, by Lansing Stout, Democrat; Thirty-seventh
Congress, ending March 3, 1863, by George K. Shiel, Democrat; Thirty-eighth
Congress, ending March 3, 1865, by John R. McBride, Republican; Thirty-ninth
Congress, ending March 3, 1867; by J.H.D. Henderson, Republican; Fortieth
Congress, ending March 3, 1869, by Rufus Mallory, Republican; Forty-first
Congress, ending March 3, 1871, by Joseph S. Smith, Democrat; Forty-second
Congress, ending March 3, 1873, by James H. Slater, Democrat; Forty-third
Congress, ending March 3, 1875; Joseph G. Wilson, Republican, was elected.
He died before taking his seat; and, at a special election to fill the
vacancy, James W. Nesmith was elected, and served until March 3, 1875;
Forty-fourth Congress ending March 3, 1877; George A. LaDow, Democrat,
was elected to this Congress. He died before taking his seat; and
Lafayette Lane was elected at a special election, October
25, 1875, to fill the vacancy, and served until March 3, 1877; Forty-fifth
Congress, ending March 3, 1879, by Richard Williams, Republican; Forty-sixth
Congress, ending March 3, 1881, by John Whiteaker, Democrat; Forty-seventh
Congress, ending March 3, 1883, by M.C. George, Republican; Forty-eighth
Congress, ending March 3, 1885, by M.C. George, Republican; Forty-ninth
Congress, ending March 3, 1887, by Binger Herman, Republican; Fiftieth
Congress, ending March 3, 1889, by Binger Herman, Republican; Fifty-first
Congress, ending March 3, 1891, by Binger Herman, Republican.