# The Early Indian Wars of Oregon/Rogue/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III.
SMALL MILITARY FORCE OF THE PACIFIC AFFAIRS OF THE INDIAN SUPERINTENDENCY THE TREATY OF WALLA WALLA CONDUCT OF THE CHIEFS AT THE COUNCIL SPEECH OP CAYUSE HEAD CHIEF THE INFLUENCE OF LAWYER OPPOSITION OF KAMIAKIN TREATY SIGNED RENEWAL OF TROUBLES IN SOUTHERN OREGON- MURDERS VOLUNTEER COMPANIES AND REGULARS DISAGREE TROUBLES ON THE COQUILLE MURDER OF TRAVELERS IN ROGUE-RIVER AND UMPQUA VALLEYS THE LUPTON AFFAIR MASSACRES OF OCTOBER NINTH DEATH OF MRS. WAGONER BRAVERY OF MRS. HARRIS ARMING OF THE PEOPLE HOSTILITIES GENERAL THE NINTH REGIMENT BATTLE OF SKULL BAR MORE MURDERS GUARDING ROADS AND SETTLEMENTS BATTLE OF HUNGRY HILL CONDUCT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS BY THE SUPERINTENDENT THE GOVERNOR CALLS FOR VOLUNTEERS NINTH REGI MENT DISBANDED NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN BATTALIONS CONSOLIDATION INTO THE SECOND REGIMENT OF OREGON MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS REGULARS ASSIST THE TERRITORIAL FORCES ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE "THE MEADOWS" FIGHT OF ALCORN ON LITTLE BUTTE CREEK FIGHT OF RICE ON ROGUE RIVER BATTLE OF "THE CABINS" FIGHT ON APPLEGATE CREEK BY BRUCE, O NEAL, AND ALCORN THANK LESS SERVICE NORTHERN COMPANIES DISCHARGED RECRUITS CALLED FOR.
THE total military force in the department of the Pacific at the expiration of 1854 was twelve hundred, dragoons, infantry, and artillery, of which three hundred and thirty-five were stationed in Oregon and Washington. But others were under orders for the Pacific coast. The army bill had failed to pass in Congress, and only through smuggling a section into the appropriation bill providing for two more regiments of cavalry and two of infantry, was any increase in the army made possible. This was accom plished by the delegation from the Pacific; and it was further provided that arms should be distributed to the militia of the territories, according to the act of 1808, arming the militia of the states. No other or special pro vision was made for the defense of the northwest territories, and this was the military situation at the beginning of 1855.
It should be noted before entering upon the recital of the events of this year that the superintendent of Indian affairs, Palmer, was able in the month of October preced ing to assure the tribes with whom he had made treaties
(332) ​
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that they had been ratified by congress, although with some amendments to which they gave their assent with evident reluctance. One of these allowed other tribes to be placed on their reservation an intrusion which the jealous nature of the Indian resents with bitterness; another, consolidated all the Rogue-river tribes in one an equally offensive measure for the same reason.
Palmer had intended to remove the Indians of the Wallamet valley east of the Cascades, but found them un willing to go, and the Indians on the east side of the mountains unwilling to receive them on account of their diseased condition. As this was a reasonable ob jection from a civilized point of view, he gathered them upon a reservation called the Grand Rond, in the county of Polk, to the infinite disgust of the settlers in that district. But Palmer was a man who took his own way about things, and as he did his work thoroughly, without pother, those from whom he derived his authority seldom meddled with him. If he was arbitrary, he was generally in the right, and it saved a deal of trouble to give him the management. He had much ado to secure and keep worthy agents, on account of the small amount allowed them in salaries so small indeed as to offer an argument for, as well as an inducement to peculation. He had, however, at the different agencies such men as Philip F. Thompson, E. P. Drew, Nathan Olney (who succeeded Parrish), R. R. Thompson, W. W. Raymond, William J. Martin, and Robert Metcalf. S. H. Culver was superseded on the Rogue- river reservation by George H. Ambrose; and Ben Wright was appointed to the charge of the tribes on the southern coast.
No treaties, other than the informal and temporary agreements made by Dr. White under the provisional government, had ever been made with the tribes of east ern Oregon or Washington; nor had the subject been ap proached when 1. 1. Stevens, the newly appointed governor of Washington crossed the country at the head of an ex​
pedition surveying for a Pacific railroad route, and had conferred with several of the tribes on the north side of the Columbia concerning the sale of their lands. They had seemed well disposed towards the government and willing to sell, and Stevens had so reported. On the strength of this report Stevens and Palmer had been ap pointed commissioners to make treaties with these tribes, and money had been appropriated for the purpose.
But in the time which had intervened between Stevens first appearance among them and the spring of 1855 many things had occurred to change the friendly feeling then expressed into one of doubt, if not of fear and hostility. For there are no greater gossips and newsmongers in the world than Indians, whose childish imaginations quickly seize upon any hint of coming events to distort and mag nify it. They had been alarmed by the rumor of Palmer s design of settling the Wallamet tribes east of the moun tains. They weie informed of the troubles in southern Oregon from the coast to Goose lake, and of the expedi tions sent out against the Modocs and against the Snakes. The Cay uses had not forgotten the tragedy of Waiilatpu, and their punishment; the Nez Percés were, as they had been always, cautious and conservative. It was, in truth, not a propitious time for treaty making with the powerful tribes of the trans-Cascades country.
But the command having gone forth, Governor Stevens made some preliminary movements during the winter of 1854-5, by sending among the Indians of eastern Wash ington, Mr. James Doty, already known to them as his trusted aid, who explained the nature of the council to which they were invited in May, securing their promises to be present, and also their assent to the proposition to purchase their lands, except such portions as they wished to reserve for their permanent homes. The first council was to be held with the Yakimas, Cayuses, Walla Wallas, and Nez Percés, in the Walla Walla valley, on an ancient council ground of the Yakima nation, selected by Kamia​
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kin, chief of this people, and about five miles distant from Waiilatpu.
The goods and agricultural implements intended for presents to the chiefs, together with the necessary supplies for a large camp, were transported above The Dalles in keelboats, the first freight carriers on the upper Columbia river, and this their first freight. The goods were disem barked and stored at Fort Walla Walla of the Hudson's Bay Company, then in charge of Mr. James Sinclair. The commissioners were escorted from The Dalles to the council grounds by forty dragoons under Lieutenant Archibald Gracie, which force was raised to forty-seven by the ad dition en route of a squad which had been out for a week in the vain search for some Indian murderers.
From Walla Walla, the commissioners repaired at once to the council ground, leaving their escort to follow. The spot selected proved to be a beautiful one, and was made comfortable by the erection of a long arbor for dining, supplied with tables made of logs split down the middle and placed upon rude trestles with the flat side up. Seats were similarly improvised, and the place made to wear a picturesquely inviting aspect. Plenty of time was allowed for these preparations and for the arrival of the military, that is to say, from the twentieth to the twenty-fourth, be fore the Indians, ever dilatory on such occasions, began to assemble.
The first to arrive were chiefs Lawyer and Looking Glass of the Nez Percés, who encamped near the commissioners after having displayed with their followers in their war costume, the startling evolutions described in the account given by Dr. White's visit to the Nez Percés in 1843. Two days later the Cayuses arrived, making a similar display; and on the twenty-eighth the Yakimas, the whole assem blage numbering between four and five thousand persons, of both sexes and all ages. When all were assembled, two days more were consumed in the effort to get to busi ness, the majority of the Indians being sulle ​nly opposed
to the matter in hand, and some, especially the Cayuses, being evidently hostile, regarding the troops with scowling disapproval.
On the thirtieth, the council was finally opened and its object explained. But it was soon apparent to the com missioners that dealing with the tribes of the interior, healthy and robust, besides having had the benefit of the teaching and example of honorable traders and sincere Christian missionaries, was a more difficult matter far than making treaties with the decaying tribes of the Wallamet and lower Columbia, or the wild men of the southern Oregon valleys and coast.
Watchful, shy, and reticent, little progress was made day after day in the negotiations. Speeches were delivered on both sides, and although glimpses of shrewdness, and bits of eloquence adorned some of them, they advanced the real issue not at all. Concerning the sale of the Cayuse lands, the head chief gave* utterance to the following fanciful thoughts:
I wonder if the ground has anything to say? I wonder if the ground is listening to what is said. " ; I hear what the ground says. The ground says, "It is the Great Spirit which placed me here. The Great Spirit tells me to take care of the Indians, to feed them aright. The Great Spirit appointed the roots to feed the Indians on." The water says the same thing, "The Great Spirit directs me feed the Indians well." The grass says the same thing, "Feed the horses and cattle." The ground, water, and grass say, " The Great Spirit has given us our names. We have these names and hold them. Neither the Indians nor the whites have a right to change these names." The ground says, "The Great Spirit has placed me here to produce all that grows on me trees and fruit." The same way the ground says, " It was from me man was made." The Great Spirit in placing men on the earth desired them to take good care of the ground, and do each other no harm. The Great Spirit said, "You Indians who take care of certain portions of the country should not trade it off except you get a fair price." n
This speech was as interesting as any, and in its closing sentence embodied the summing up, which in brief was an
II Kips Indian Council, pp. 22- 26. ​
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effort to heighten the value of the lands, and claim the highest price, quite like more civilized men.
But, claiming that their lands were worth a high price was not done expecting to sell ; it was only to discourage buying. Over and over the commissioners set forth the advantages to the red race of acquiring the knowledge to be imparted by the white race. Their logic and painstak ing explanations fell on closed ears. Owhi, a chief of the Yakimas and brother-in-law of Kamiakin, was wholly op posed to a treaty sale of the Yakima lands, as was Kam iakin also. Peu-peu-mox-mox had abandoned his usual deference to white men s views, and stood up bravely for the right of his race to hold the soil. The Cayuses were all against the treaty. Joseph and Looking Glass, war- chief of the Nez Percés, were opposed to it. Only Lawyer, who had been head chief of the Nez Percés ever since the Cayuse war, and the death of Ellis and Richard, threw his influence on the side of the commissioners, to whom his word had been given previous to the opening of the nego tiations.
Two contrary opinions have been held concerning Law yer one, that he was vain and selfish, attaching himself to the power that could keep him in office; and the other, that he was a wise and shrewd politician, doing always what was best for his people. Probably he was a little of both, as Lieutenant Kip says: "I think it is doubtful if Lawyer could have held out but for his pride in his small sum of book lore, which inclined him to cling to his friend ship with the whites. In making a speech he was able to refer to the discovery of the continent by the Spaniards, and the story of Columbus making the egg stand on end. He related how the red men had receded before the white men in a manner that was hardly calculated to pour oil upon the troubled waters; yet, as his father had agreed with Lewis and Clarke to live in peace with the whites, he was in favor of making a treaty."
The numerical strength of the Nez Percés was such that ​
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on securing their alliance depended the fate of the treaty, if indeed they escaped becoming involved in war on ac count of it, as at some points in the discussion seemed im minent. Even among the Nez Percés themselves there was discord. Looking Glass, from the time he appeared at the council, had been insolent in his behavior, and the little force of fifty troopers were kept ready for action in case of an outbreak. Joseph, who pretended to a more distinguished line of ancestry than Lawyer, and who thought he should have been high chief in his place, as he probably would have been but for the interference of the white admirers of Lawyer, determinedly refused to sign the treaty.
The proposition in the treaty most difficult to gain ac ceptance was a common reservation for all the tribes pres ent in the Nez Percés country. Finding that this feature of the treaty would defeat it if further insisted upon, the commissioners finally proposed separate reservations in all the tribal lands, to which proposition there was a general and apparently a cordial assent. Kamiakin only would agree to nothing. When pressed by Stevens to express his views, he exclaimed, "What have I to say?" and relapsed into sullen silence. Two days afterwards, on the eleventh of June, he signed the treaty along with all the other chiefs, giving as a reason for his change of purpose that he did it for the good of his people. Joseph, some years later, denied having signed this treaty, and pretended to the ownership of the Wallowa valley in Oregon, a claim not justified by the facts, 12 but asserted by his son, Young Joseph, and made the basis of a bloody war in 1877.
The Nez Percés received for their lands outside an ample reservation, two hundred thousand dollars in annuities; the Cayuses and Walla W T allas were united and given a reservation in the beautiful Umatilla valley, and received one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The Yakimas received the same as the Nez Percés, and were allowed the
12 Woods Status of Young Joseph, etc., p. 36. ​
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best lands on the south side of the Yakima river. In each case there was the express provision that all the lands not included in the reservations were open to settlement from thenceforward, excepting those improved by the Indians who were to receive pay for such. Mills, schools, mechanic arts, and all the usual aids to civilization were assured. A year was allowed in which to remove to the reservation, and accustom themselves to their new conditions. In short, the treaty as a treaty was irreproachable, although those concerned in framing it had been at so much trouble to secure its acceptance.
The demeanor of the chiefs after signing was cordial, many of them expressing their thankfulness that the nego tiations had ended so happily. The goods intended for presents were distributed; agents were appointed, R. R. Thompson to the Umatilla; W. H. Tappan to the Nez Percé; and A. J. Bolan to the Yakima reservation.
On the sixteenth of June, Stevens proceeded northward to treat with the Spokanes, Coeur d Alenes, and other tribes in Washington territory, while Palmer returned to The Dalles, making treaties with the tribes between Powder river and the Cascade range, purchasing all the land in eastern Oregon north of the forty-fourth parallel, and as signing the Indians to a reservation including the Tyghe valley, and some warm springs, from which it took its name of Warm Springs reservation.
After accomplishing all this really arduous work, Palmer returned home, well pleased to have succeeded so well and entirely unaware that he, with all his party and the troops, had barely escaped massacre at the council grounds in the Walla Walla valley through the refusal of Lawyer to con sent to the treachery. Such, the Nez Percés afterwards de clared was the truth, and the demeanor of the Cayuses and Yakimas certainly sustained the charge.
It has since been alleged in palliation that the treaties were forced upon the Indians; that their objections were not regarded ; that a general council furnished the oppor​
tunity and the temptation for intrigue; that the commis sioners should have been escorted by a larger body of troops and have been surrounded by every impressive ceremonial, this being the way to make sa.vages as well as civilized men respectful. Quien Sabc? It was well at any rate that Lawyer was able to avert the blow.
While the superintendent of Indian affairs was busied with treaty making in the north, trouble was again brew ing in southern Oregon. Following some minor disturb ances, on June first Jerome Dyar and Daniel McKaw were murdered on the road between Jacksonville and Illinois valley. On various pretenses the Indians, especially those living formerly on Applegate creek and Illinois river, roamed about the country off the reservation, and in June a party of them made a descent on a mining camp, killing several men and capturing property of considerable value.
A volunteer company calling themselves the "Independ ent Rangers" was organized at Wait s mill in Rogue-river valley, and commanded by H. B. Hayes, who reported to John E. Ross, colonel of the territorial militia, for recogni tion, which went in pursuit of the guilty Indians. This was the first organization of any military company since the treaty with the Rogue-rivers in 1853. The agent on the reservation hearing of the movement, notified Captain Smith of Fort Lane, who took out his dragoons and gathered up all the straying Indians he could find, brought them back to the reservation where they were safe. A portion of them who were not brought in were pursued into the mountains, and one killed, A skirmish took place, in which a white man, one Philpot, was killed, and several horses wounded. Skirmishing continued for a week, without very serious results on either side.
In August, a white man having sold a bottle of whisky to some strolling Indians from the reservation, they attacked a party of miners on the Klamath, killing John Pollock, William Hennessey, Peter Heinrich, Thomas ​
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Gray, Edward Parrish, John L. Fickas, F. D. Mattice, T. D. Mattice, and two other men known as Raymond and Pedro. Several Indians were also killed in the fight.
A company of volunteers was organized on the south side of the Siskiyous, and commanded by William Martin, proceeded to the reservation, and demanded the surrender of the murderers, which demand Captain Smith refused on technical grounds. He could not deliver persons charged with crime into the hands of a merely voluntary assemblage of men. Later, however, in November, some arrests were made on a requisition from Siskiyou county.
Another affair in the month of August produced a strong feeling against the military even more than the Indians. An Indian in the Port Orford district shot at and wounded James Buford near the mouth of Rogue river. Ben Wright, the agent, delivered the Indian to the sheriff of Coos county, who, having no place in which to confine his prisoner, delivered him to a squad of soldiers to be taken to Port Orford and placed in the guardhouse. While the canoe containing the prisoner and his guards was passing up the river to a place of encampment, it was followed by Buford, his partner Hawkins, and O Brien, a trader, determined to give the Indian no chance of escape through the sympathy of the military authorities. Watch ing their opportunity they fired upon the canoe, killing the prisoner and another Indian. The fire was promptly returned by the soldiers, who killed at once two of the white men, and mortally wounded the third.
The indignation aroused by this affair against the mili tary was intense. The cooler heads saw that technically the soldiers were in the right; but the majority could not Percéive the propriety of putting white men on a par with Indians. Even an Indian, they felt sure, would never have shot down men of his own race in defense of white men. A contempt, too, for military dignity was supplant ing respect. An Indian had shot into a crowd in which ​
Lieutenant Kautz was standing, the ball passing so near that Kautz believed himself to be struck, and fell to his knees. On examination it was shown that the bullet had not touched the lieutenant, and that he had fallen simply from the nervous shock of a belief in a wound. This in cident was greatly enjoyed by civilians, and helped to allay some of the irritation in the public mind of this part of the country. But, although soberer counsels prevailed over an inclination to fight both soldiers and Indians, there was in the air that threat of something to come which would not allow of rest either to the white or the red man.
On the second of September, Greenville M. Keene of Tennessee was killed on the reservation while attempting, with several others, to recover some stolen horses. Two of the party were wounded and forced to retreat. On the twenty-fourth, Calvin Fields of Iowa and John Cunning ham of Sauve Island, Oregon, were killed, and Harrison Oatman and Daniel Britton wounded, while crossing the Siskiyou mountains with loaded teams. Their eighteen oxen were also slain. Captain Smith on receiving the news ordered out a detachment, but was unable to make any arrests. On the twenty-fifth, Samuel Warner was killed near the same place.
Notwithstanding these acts of hostility, such as usually precede a general outbreak, Agent Ambrose occupied him self in writing letters for the public press over the signa ture of "A Miner," in which he declared the innocency of the reservation Indians and their good disposition towards the white inhabitants. "God knows," he said, "I would not care how soon they were all dead, and I believe the country would be greatly benefited by it, but I am tired of this senseless railing against Captain Smith and the In dian agent for doing their duty, obeying the laws, and preserving our valley from the horrors of a war with a tribe of Indians who do not desire it, but wish for peace, and by their conduct have shown it." The nom de plume ​
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of "Miner" did not long deceive any one in southern Oregon; nor the affectation of sentiments often ascribed to miners in the first lines of this paragraph, tend to con ciliate this class.
Early in October a party of roving reservation Indians were discovered encamped near the mouth of Butte creek, on Rogue river, and it was suspected that among them were some who had been annoying the settlers. Upon this suspicion a company of about thirty men, commanded by J. A. Lupton, proceeded before daybreak on the eighth of October to attack this camp, which was surprised and terribly chastised, twenty-three being killed and many wounded before it was learned that the majority of the victims were non-combatanls, or old men, women, and children. The survivors took refuge at Fort Lane, where their wounds, and their wailings for their dead, excited much pity in the breasts of Captain Smith and his troopers, who went out to view the field after the slaughter, instead of preventing it. In this affair Lupton, who was major of militia, was killed, and eleven of his company wounded, a proof that the Indians were not all unarmed.
This occurred on the morning of the eighth of October. It has been sometimes alleged that the events following 011 the ninth were the immediate outcome of the attack at Butte creek, but such could not have been the case. Savages do not move with such celerity. They could not have armed and organized in a day, and must for some time have been making preparations for war before they could have ventured upon it. Armed Indians were by the treaty made suspects, and to have been armed and supplied with ammunition evidenced a long period of looking forward to an outbreak. The reservation and Fort Lane favored such an intention. The former was a safe hiding place, and the latter a refuge in case of detec tion or pursuit.
On the night of the eighth two men were killed and another wounded, who were in charge of a pack train at ​
Jewett s ferry. Jewett s house was fired upon, but no one killed. A considerable number of Indians had gathered, apparently by concert, near this place, who about day break proceeded down the river to Evans ferry, where they found Isaac Shelton of the Wallamet valley on his way to Yreka, and mortally wounded him. Still further down was the house of J. K. Jones, whom they killed; also mortally wounding his wife, and pillaging and burn ing his house.
Below this place was the house of J. Wagoner. On the the way to it the Indians killed four men. Mr. Wagoner was absent from his home, having gone that morning to escort Miss Pellet, a temperance lecturer, from Buffalo, New York, to Sailor diggings. The fate of Mrs. Wagoner and her four-year-old daughter, Mary, was never certainly known, the house and all in it having been burned. She was a young and beautiful woman, well educated and re fined, and the uncertainty concerning her death or the manner of it was a horrible torture to her husband, who survived her. One story told by the Indians themselves, was that she fastened herself in her house, carefully dressed as if for a sacrifice, and seating herself in the center of the sitting-room with her child in her arms, awaited death, which came to her by fire. But others said, and probably with truth, that she was carried off, and her child killed because it cried so much. The mother refused to eat, and died of grief and starvation at "The Meadows." Captain Wallen has said that two scalps captured from the Indians at the battle of Cow creek in 1856 were identified as those of Mrs. Wagoner and her child, the mother s beau tiful hair being unmistakable; and the Indian stories may none be the actual truth.
From the smoking ruins of the Wagoner home, the In dians proceeded to the place of George W. Harris, who be ing at a little distance from his house and suspecting from their appearance that they meant to attack him, ran quickly in and seized his gun. As they came on with hostile words ​
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and actions he shot one, and wounded another from his doorway, where he was himself shot down a few moments later, leaving his wife and little daughter to defend them selves, which they did for twenty-four hours, before help arrived.
Dragging her husband s body inside and barring the door, Mrs. Harris instructed her daughter how to make bullets, while she stood guard and prevented the Indians from approaching too near the house by firing through cracks in the walls at every one detected in the attempt to reach it. In this painfully solicitous manner she kept off the enemy until dark, when they withdrew. Alone with her husband s dead body, and her weary and frightened child, she spent the long night. Fearing that the Indians would return with reinforcements in the morning, towards dawn she stole forth, locking the house behind her, and concealed herself and daughter under a pile of brush at no great distance away, where she was found, blackened with powder and stained with blood, many hours later by a detachment of troops under Major Fitzgerald. 13
The other victims of the outbreak of the ninth of Octo ber were: Mr. and Mrs. Haines and two children, Frank A. Reed, William Given, James W. Cartwright, Powell, Bunch, Hamilton, Fox, White, and others, on the road between Evans ferry and Grave creek; two young women, Miss Hudson and Miss Wilson, on the road between Indian creek and Crescent City; and three men on Grave creek? below the road. It was altogether the bloodiest day the valley had ever seen.
When the news that the settlements were attacked reached Jacksonville, a company of twenty men quickly armed and took the trail of the Indians. They were over taken and joined by Major Fitzgerald with fifty-five troop ers from Fort Lane. On arriving at Wagoner s place they found thirty Indians engaged in plundering the premises,
13 Mrs. Harris afterwards married Aaron Chambers. She died in Jackson county in 1869, highly respected by the ​community.
who, when the volunteers the first on the ground ap peared, greeted them with derisive yells, dancing, and in sulting gestures; but when they beheld the dragoons, fled precipitately towards the mountains. A pursuit of two or three miles proved unavailing, the troop horses being jaded by a long march ; and after patrolling the road for several hours, Fitzgerald returned to Fort Lane and the volun teers to their homes to make ready for the prolonged con test which was evidently before them.
An express, carried by T. McFadden Patton, was already well on the road to the seat of government to inform the governor, the superintendent of Indian affairs, and the military authorities at Vancouver of the condition of affairs in the south. So far, however, were the latter from being able to afford any aid, that an express was at that very time on the road to Fort Lane with a requisition for troops to be used in the north, as we shall see hereafter.
On the tenth of October, Lieutenant Kautz had set out from Port Orford with a party of citizens and soldiers to make an examination of a proposed route for a wagon road from that place to Jacksonville. At the great bend of Rogue river, thirty miles from the coast, he found the settlers in much alarm at a threatened attack from the In dians on Applegate creek, and returned to the fort for a larger supply of arms and ammunition, to enable him to engage the hostiles should they be met with. A few days after resuming his march he was attacked, and fought, losing five of his company, three citizens and two soldiers. He was barely able to secure an orderly retreat with the remainder of his party, and the Indians were only pre vented from securing a considerable amount of ammuni tion by his caution in unloading the pack animals at the beginning of the engagement.
In looking over the field it was Percéived that all the Indians in the country from Yreka to the Umpqua canon, and from the coast to Modoc land, were hostile, with the ​
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exception of Sam and his band, who, since the treaty of 1853, had apparently kept faith with the government. But so subtile is the Indian character that few trusted in this appearance. For while even one chief is friendly the treaty payments go on; the reservation is a refuge from avenging pursuit of robbers and murderers, and the pro tection of government troops is accorded so long as any portion of a tribe remains true to its obligations. It is, therefore, plainly to the interest of the Indians contem plating mischief to possess the privileges of a reservation, and the fact that a considerable portion of a tribe makes its home there, is no security against hostilities by the lusty warriors, who are excused by their chiefs on account of youth for the commission of acts of a criminal nature. This lesson had been impressed upon the people by the events of the past few years, and rilled them with doubt concerning any Indian probity.
It now behooved the inhabitants of southern Oregon to prepare to meet the emergency. Estimating the number of Indians who could be called warriors at no more than four hundred, four times that number of white men would be required to subdue them on account of their better knowledge of the country, their ability to appear simul taneously at several points, and of disappearing rapidly on the approach of troops, wearing out the horses and men engaged in pursuit. They were, besides, well armed and supplied with ammunition; whereas the volunteers had neither in any amount. The men mustered between the ninth and eleventh only numbered one hundred and fifty, because no more could be armed. The Indians had slyly bought up all the rifles and revolvers in the country, and were skilled in the use of them. The only thing that was attempted for several days was to protect the most exposed settlements, and keep open the roads north and south.
A company of which J. S. Rinearson was captain, was on the tenth, divided into squads, and sent, te ​n to the
mouth of the Umpqua canon, five three miles south to Leving s place, five to Turner s, seven miles further south, and six to the Grave-creek house. On the eleventh, thirty men made a scout down Rogue river to the mouth of Galice creek, twelve of them having no other arms than pistols. They were provisioned, blanketed, and sometimes armed by the settlers they served.
The United States troops in southern Oregon at this time were two full companies of dragoons at Fort Lane, under Major Fitzgerald and Captain Smith, and sixty-four infantry at Winchester, in the Umpqua valley, under Lieu tenant Gibson, escort to Lieutenant Williamson on his survey of a railroad route from the Sacramento to the Wallamet, and who now retraced his steps to Fort Lane. The small garrison at Port Orford was not available, and Fitzgerald s company was ordered north before troops were put in the field here, leaving one company of dragoons and one of infantry to defend the isolated southern divis ion of the territory.
On the twelfth of October, Colonel John E. Ross of the ninth regiment of Oregon militia ordered Major James H. Russell to report to him without delay. Some captains of militia were already in the field, while other companies were commanded by any men who had the qualities of a leader, and on the application of citizens, these were duly commissioned. At the request of M. C. Barkwell, a com pany was raised by R. L. Williams for the protection of his neighborhood. The settlers at Althouse, on Illinois river, petitioned to have Theoron Crook empowered to raise a company to range the mountains in that vicinity. 14
14 This petition was signed by Hiram Rice, J. J. Rote, Frederick Rhoda, Lucius D. Hart, S. Matthews, Charles F. Wilson, Elias Winkleback, S. P. Duggan, John Morrow, Allen Knapp, W. H. B. Douglas, William Lane, J. T. Mann, George H. Grayson, R. T. Brickley, J. H. Huston, L. Coffey, H. Kaston, John Murphy, B. B. Brockway, A, L. Scott, George W. Comegys, James C. Castleman, D. D. Drake, John R. Hale, E. R. Crane, Alden Whitney, Joshua Harlan, S. H. Harper, M. P. Howard, R. S. A. Colwell, George Lake, Thomas Lake, George Coblence, Jacob Randbush, Peter Colean, U. S. Barr, William Lance, Robert Rose, N. D. Palmer, James Hale, E. D. Cohen, Sigmund Heilner, William Chapman, John E. Post, John W. Merideth, A. More, Thomas Ford, ​
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The settlers and miners of Phoenix mills, 15 Illinois valley, Deer creek, and Galice creek, also petitioned for permission to raise companies for defense, and the outlying settlements prayed for guards to be sent them.
The volunteer companies raised before the twentieth numbered fifteen. Of twelve of them the following infor mation has been preserved: T. S. Harris, captain of company A; James Bruce, company B; J. S. Rinearson, company C. Rinearson s lieutenants were W. P. Wing, I. N. Bentley, and R. W. Henry. R. L. Williams was captain of company D; E. B. Stone, first lieutenant, and E. K. Elliott, sergeant. W. B. Lewis was captain of company E; his lieutenants, W. A. J. Moore and . White; his ser geant, I. D. Adams. A. S. Welton was captain of company F; Miles T. Alcorn, captain of company G, his lieutenant being J. M. Osborne. W. A. Wilkinson was captain of company H; T. Smith, captain of company f : S. A. Frye, captain of company K ; Abel George, captain of company L, and F. R. Hill, captain of company M. The names of Orrin Root, T. J. Gardner, M. M. Williams, M. P. Howard, and . Hayes appear in official correspondence as captains ; the names of Daniel Richardson, H. P. Conroy, and . Morrison as lieutenants, and W. M. Evans as orderly sergeant. C. S. Drew was appointed adjutant; C. West- feldt, quartermaster and commissary, and C. B. Brooks, surgeon. J. B. Wagoner and John Hillman were em ployed in the dangerous duty of express riding, Wagoner remaining in the service as long as the first volunteer organization lasted. Other names here preserved are those that have cropped up in the correspondence gathered to
and . Gilharts. This list is copied from B. F. Do well s collection of Indian war documents, from which, too, many facts have been drawn for this history.
15 The petition from Phoenix mills was signed by S. M. Waite (founder of Waits- burg, Washington ), Samuel Colver, Joseph Tracy, Jarius F. Kennedy, M. M. Williams, and J. T. Gray. The petitioners from Illinois valley and Deer creek were : John D. Post, William Chapman, G. E. Briggs, J. N. Knight, A. J. Henderson, William B. Hay, L. Reeves, Joseph Kirby, R. T. Olds. Samuel White, William E. Randolph, Frederick Rhoda, L. D. Hart, Alexander McBride, C. C. Luther, S. Scott, O. E. Riley, J. T. L. Mills, and . Coltinell : Copied from B. F. Dowell s Indian icar documents. ​assist in the collection of Indian war claims by B. F. Dowell of Jacksonville, already referred to in a previous note.
Considering the obstacles to be overcome, and the perils of the service, the organization of the ninth regiment by Colonel Ross was creditable to that officer and the men enlisted. As fast as they could be armed, men were sent to guard exposed settlements, and scouts were kept on the move, looking for the enemy, as well as detachments ordered to attend pack trains on the roads leading from Crescent City to the various mining camps, or from Jacksonville to the volunteer camps; for the Indians must now depend chiefly upon what they could capture for their supplies.
The first engagement between the volunteers and Indians occurred on the seventeenth of October, at Skull bar of Rogue river, a short distance below the mouth of Galice creek, where company E was encamped. In camp were gathered all the miners from the diggings in the vicinity, including some Chinese who had been driven from their claims, besides some captive Indian women and boys.
Skull bar lay on the south side of the river and had for a background a high ridge, covered with a dense growth of hazel and young firs. The thickets had been cut away for some distance that no lurking places for the foe might be afforded within rifle shot of the camp, and a breastwork of logs thrown up on the side most open to attack.
It was discovered on the day above-mentioned that the forest on the hillside was swarming with Indians, and to drive them back J. W. Pickett, with six men, charged the bushes. He was received with a galling fire, and fell, his men being forced to retreat. Lieutenant Moore then took a position, sheltered by a bank, on that side of camp from which attack seemed most imminent, where he fought for four hours under a heavy fire, himself and nearly half his ​
THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 351
men being wounded, when they also were compelled to re treat. Captain Lewis was himself three times struck and severely wounded.
The Indians discovering that the weakest point in the volunteer position was on its left, made a bold attack in that quarter, but lost by it one of their most powerful Shasta warriors, which incident for a brief space operated as a check. Then, finding that the volunteers were not dis lodged with rifle balls, they shot lighted arrows into their camp, giving them much ado to prevent a conflagration. Indeed, during the fighting the mining town of Galice Creek was consumed, with the exception of one building, occupied as the company s headquarters. When night closed in, nearly one-third of company E were hors de combat. The killed were J. W. Pickett and Samuel Saun- ders; the mortally wounded, Benjamin Taft and Israel D. Adams; the severely wounded, Lieutenant Moore, Allen Evans, Milton Blackledge, Joseph Umpqua, John Ericson, and Captain Lewis. In his report to his colonel, Lewis boasted that he had "fought the hardest battle ever fought this side of the Rocky mountains." More than two thou sand five hundred shots had the enemy fired that day, but his men had not flinched. Two facts are brought to light by this report one, that the camp was ill chosen; the other, that the Indians possessed an abundance of am munition which they must have been a year in gathering.
Such was the facility with which the Indians, knowing every part of the country, could move undetected from point to point, that while the regulars under Captain Judah, and volunteers under Bruce and Harris, were in hot pursuit of, without finding the enemy, they were appearing and vanishing in a manner so illusory as to bewilder the military authorities, whether local or national. At the very time that Colonel Ross announced his opinion, upon evidence, that the main strength of the Indians was centered at "The Meadows," a narrow stretch of bottom land below Galice creek, where mountains rise on either ​
side of Rogue river high, craggy, timbered for the most part densely with live-oak, manzanita, chinquapin, and chaparral, with occasional bald, grassy slopes, the meadows being covered with rank grass and shrubs, on which cat tle could subsist even in winter, they were away on Cow creek committing depredations.
On the twenty-third, while a party of wagoners and drovers were at the crossing, they were ambushed and attacked; Holland Bailey of Lane county being killed, and four others wounded. The remainder of the party retreated with all the haste possible, pursued and har- rassed for several hours. On the same day the houses of Turner, Bray, Redfield, Fortune, and others in Cow-creek valley were burned. It was impossible to guard every settler s home, but the families were gathered at a few for tified places, while the men were on duty elsewhere, and the Indians were destroying their property. Not a settle ment but was threatened, not a pack train on the road but was liable to capture, nor any traveler s life safe. 16
This condition of affairs prevented any concerted action, had it been desired, between the regular and volunteer forces; or any massing of their strength, but kept both in rapid and exhausting movement.
However, on the twenty-eighth, Fitzgerald, being in the Grave-creek hills, south of Cow creek, discovered an Indian encampment, and wishing to attack it sent a dispatch to Ross, who immediately ordered Captains Harris, Welton, George, Williams, and Lewis to reenforce him. Bruce and Rinearson coming in a little later, were also ordered to Grave creek, where on the thirtieth, were concentrated two hundred and fifty volunteers, and one hundred and five
10 The following incident, illustrative of the times, is furnished by John Wallen, later a captain in the volunteer force : Ivens train was ahead, my own next, Lin- ville came behind me, then Fox and Templeton, and last a Spanish train. As we started down the mountain the Indians fired upon the trains. I had dismounted, and as the firing commenced I sprang upon the bell pony, which was passing me without a rider, and started in a run down the mountain. I passed Ivens, and soon Linville passed me. When we reached a place of safety I found all had escaped unhurt except Ivens, who was slightly wounded, and had his clothes riddled with ​
THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 353
regulars, although on account of the illness of Fitzgerald, only a portion of his troops were available.
When Ross arrived at the rendezvous late that night, he found Captain Smith of the first dragoons impatient to attack. Spies from his own and the volunteer force had found the enemy s position to be on a hill difficult of approach, and well fortified. A map had been made for use by the officers, and Smith assumed command of the combined forces. Although it was already half past ten o clock in the evening, orders were issued to march at eleven.
Smith s plan was to plant howitzers on an eminence three-fourths of a mile from that occupied by the Indians, and having divided the companies into three columns, stationed so as to enclose the Indians, to open his battery upon them before he had been discovered. His design was frustrated through some one having set fire to a tree, and after a toilsome night march he was unable to surprise the enemy. On arriving on the edge of a ravine in front of the enemy s position, instead of shelling the Indians in their stronghold, a charge was ordered. The hill on which the Indians were fortified was bald on the south side, by which the troops were approaching, except for a short but tangled undergrowth with which also the ravine they had to cross was filled. On the north of the Indian position there was a heavy forest.
It should be here stated that an unexpected reenforce- ment had arrived during the night, consisting of two companies of a battalion called out by Governor Curry ; their captains being Joseph Bailey and Samuel Gordon. To these two companies was assigned the duty of flanking
bullets. The bell boy had mounted a fast horse, and lying low on his back had not been hit. The Indians captured six mules belonging to Ivens, fifty to Fox and Tem- pleton, and forty-one to me, with the packs, which cost me five thousand and one hundred dollars. We had a number of cases of bullets and several kegs of powder, also nails. The Indians opened one keg, and finding it contained nails, supposed the others were also nail kegs, and left them unopened. Six days after they attacked Althouse on Galice creek, Ivens and Sanders being unable to escape for several days; also the Applegate house, which was guarded by Wylie, French, Haines, and Louton. ​
23
on the north to intercept the Indians in the woods when the charging force should have driven them from their fortification.
The captains who led in the charge were Binearson and Welton, their companies being augmented by portions of others, and a part of the regular force also, all rushing with eagerness to fire the first shot. As had been antici pated, the Indians took shelter in the woods, but were not met by Bailey and Gordon as designed, their men finding it impossible to penetrate the dense and tangled under wood in a body; and were not driven back upon the com panies of Harris and Bruce, who were awaiting them in concealment, as had been anticipated. These two com manders therefore joined the army in front. Thus nothing happened but the unexpected.
The day passed in vain efforts to get at the Indians, who could not be approached without extreme peril, until three o clock in the afternoon, when Captain Smith, with a small force of dragoons, made an assault. Several rounds were discharged with the short cavalry arms, which were wholly ineffectual against the rifles of the Indians, when the troopers fell back, having several killed and wounded. Firing continued until dark, when the whole force went into camp at a place named by them "Bloody Spring," where the wounded were being cared for, and where they all went supperless to their blankets.
At sunrise the next morning the Indians attacked and engaged the troops for several hours, when, being repulsed, they withdrew. The troops then marched back to Fort Bailey on Grave creek, bearing their w^ounded on litters. In this battle the volunteers lost twenty-six men killed, wounded, and missing. Company A lost Jonathan A. Pedigo, mortally wounded, and Ira May field, L. F. Allen, William Purnell, Williams Hans, John Goldsby, and Thomas Gill, wounded severely. Company B, Charles Goodwin, wounded mortally. Company C, Henry Pearl, Jacob W. Miller, and James Pearcy killed ; Enoch Miller, ​
THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 355
W. H. Crouch, and Ephriam Yager wounded. Company D, John Winters killed; John Stannes, and Thomas Ryan wounded. Company F, John Kennedy mortally wounded. The company of Captain Bailey lost John Gillespie, killed ; John Walden, John C. Richardson, James Laphar, Thomas J. Aubrey, and John Pankey wounded. Gordon s company had Hawkins Shelton, J. M. Fordyce, and William Wilson wounded. The regular troops lost three killed in action, one by accident, and seven wounded, among whom was Lieutenant Gibson. The Indian loss could not be known, but was much less than that of the volunteers, as from the nature of their relative positions it must be. Thus the second battle with a considerable Indian force was fought with a great sacrifice of life, 17 and without any gain in peace or possessions. "God only knows," wrote a corre spondent of the Oregon Statesman, "when or where this war may end. * * * These mountains are worse than the swamps of Florida."
We come now to consider some collateral circumstances and influences affecting the management and the morale of the war. Before the news of the ninth of October reached the superintendent of Indian affairs at Dayton in the Wallamet valley, owing to the general restlessness of the Indians assigned to reservations, as well as those still roving, he had issued "regulations for the guidance of agents" in his superintendency, "pending existing hostil ities," as follows:
i? The Ashland Tidings of October 19, 1877, has a tribute by J. M. Sutton to Volun teer Pedigo, who, with Miller, Pearcy, Pearl, and Winters, was buried at Fort Bailey: "Jonathan A. Pedigo was a young man who had just passed his majority. * * * My only intimacy with him was during our service in the war of 1855, from the seventh day of October to the time of his death, less than one month. Yet during this short period all of his comrades had learned to love the name of Jonathan A. Pedigo for the great benevolent heart that beat within his bosom. Brave to a fault, ever ready to do his duty and more, the old men of our company, of whom we had several, were relieved by his ever-ready hand from much of the rigor of Indian war fare. He would attend to their horses, and occasionally take their places on guard on a cold or rainy night. Being large and robust, his greatest pleasure seemed to be in relieving the hardships of those possessing, in a smaller degree, the power of ​endurance."
OFFICE SUPERINTENDENT INDIAN AFFAIRS, DAYTON, O. T., October 13, 1855.
It is hereby ordered that the Indians in the Willamette valley, parties to the treaty of the tenth of January, 1855, shall be forth with collected upon the reservations heretofore or now to be assigned to them, to remain under the direction of such persons as may be appointed to act for the time being as their local agents.
The names of all adult males, and boys over twelve years of age, shall be enrolled, and the roll called daily.
When any one shall be absent at rollcall, the fact shall be noted, and unless a satisfactory reason be rendered, the absentee shall be regarded as a person dangerous to the peace of the country, and dealt with accordingly.
Any Indian found outside of his designated temporary reserva tion, without being able satisfactorily to account therefor, shall be arrested and retained in custody so long as shall be deemed neces sary ; or should he be a stranger, not belonging to any of the bands of this valley, he* shall be placed for safe keeping in the county jail, or taken to Fort Vancouver. But should he prove a spy from the enemy, he will be immediately turned over to the military author ities.
Any Indian who has joined or may hereafter join the hostile bands, give them informatioH, or in any way aid or assist them in making war against the whites, shall be regarded as having thereby forfeited all rights under the treaty, and excluded from any benefits to be derived therefrom. He will, moreover, be regarded as an en emy ; and it will be the duty of all friendly Indians to deliver up such to the agents or civil officers, and in no case to afford them en couragement or protection.
The persons designated to act as local agents will use a sound dis cretion in regard to the number of firearms Jndians may be per mitted to retain at their encampments.
No Indian will be permitted to leave his assigned encampment unless by written permit from the local or special agent.
The local agents will each be furnished with proper supplies of flour and beef, and will issue rations to the Indians when necessary of one pound each per day to each adult, and less in proportion to children, as they may judge them to require.
Should any member of these bands desire to reside with and labor for the settlers, he may be permitted to do so, the agent ob taining a guarantee from the person for whom the labor is per formed, in each case, for the fidelity and good conduct of the Indian. Every effort will be made by the local agents to ascertain whether any Indians of the valley have left the settlements with hostile in tentions ; and the names of such, together with the proofs, will be reported to this office. ​
THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 357
E. R. Geary will superintend the arrangement of encampments, and designate persons to act as local agents for the respective bands.
Berry man Jennings is appointed special sub-Indian agent for the Willamette valley, and as such will cooperate with Mr. Geary in carrying into effect the foregoing regulations.
The encampments assigned the several bands, and the name of the local agent for each, will be reported to this office, and published in the papers of this valley for the benefit of all concerned.
The same precautions will be observed in regard to the tribes and bands within this superiri tendency embraced in the treaties lately negotiated east of the Cascade mountains; and agent R. R. Thomp son will assign the temporary encampments to the several bands, and designate proper persons to act as local agents, call the rolls, and distribute the necessary rations.
Agent Ambrose will make similar arrangements in regard to the Indians in the Rogue-river district, embraced in the treaties of the tenth of September, 1853, and eighteenth of November, 1854.
The various rolls will be kept with accuracy and care, and for warded to the superintendent s ofhce at Dayton; it being deter mined to make these rolls the criterion in the payment of annuities; and no Indian whose name is not enrolled, and who cannot give a satisfactory reason for the omission, or who shall refuse to comply with the foregoing regulations, shall be embraced in said payment.
This order, though it may be regarded as arbitrary, and unwar ranted in the ordinary state of affairs, is, in view of existing hostil ities, deemed necessary, as it is extremely difficult to distinguish among our Indian population, the well disposed and friendly from the vicious and hostile ; and from the fact that representations have been made warranting the belief that members of one or more bands have already left this valley and joined the hostile tribes north of the Columbia river.
The measure is deemed no less a security to the white settlements than to the friendly bands of Indians ; nor is it designed to abridge in the least the rights secured by the treaties to the Indians, but if possible to avert hostilities with these bands.
Citizens generally are requested to give this order a proper inter pretation, and to exercise a due degree of forbearance in their deal ings with the Indians ; but at the same time to keep a vigilant watch over them, and report to the acting agents the presence of strange Indians among us; and render such aid, in their apprehen sion, as may tend to protect our persons and property, arid secure
peace.
JOEL, PALMER, Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
Since preparing the foregoing regulations, information has been received at this office that a portion of the Indians in ​southern
Oregon and northern California have exhibited hostile demonstra tions endangering the peace of the settlements in the valley; it is, therefore, ordered that the Indians embraced in the treaties of nine teenth of September, 1853, being the Cow-creek band of Umpquas, and those of the Umpqua and Calapooia tribes, treated with on the twenty-ninth of November, 1854, be assembled on the reservation designated by that treaty.
William J. Martin is appointed special sub-Indian agent for the bands embraced in these two treaties, and as such will cooperate with agent George H. Ambrose in carrying out the foregoing regu lations. Sub-Indian agent E. P. Drew, and special sub-Indian agent Benjamin Wright, will, if they believe the peace of the settle ments require it, adopt the same precautions with the tribes and bands within their districts.
JOEL PALMER.
It will be seen from this action of the superintendent that before he had been made aware of the great provoca tion given the white population of southern Oregon to treat as " persons dangerous to the peace of the country," and to be "dealt with accordingly," all Indians absent from their reservations, as well as strangers roving over the country, he had arrived at conclusions which justified them in holding this view.
Governor Curry, too, on receiving information of the ninth of October massacres, together with a petition from Umpqua valley asking for five hundred volunteers to defend the country, issued a proclamation October fifteenth, calling for five companies of mounted men to constitute a northern battalion, and five companies of mounted men to constitute a southern battalion, to remain in service until discharged; each company to consist of sixty men, with the usual complement of officers, making a total of seventy-one, rank and file; each volunteer to furnish his own horse, arms, and equipments, and each company to elect its own officers, and thereafter to proceed at once to the seat of war.
The proclamation required Jackson county to furnish the number of men called for to form the southern bat talion, who should rendezvous at Jacksonville, elect a major to command, and report to headquarters. ​
THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 359
The northern battalion was ordered to be raised two companies in Lane, and one each in Linn, Douglas, and Umpqua counties, to rendezvous at Roseburg. Adjutant- General E. M. Barnum left the movements of the two bat talions to their respective commanders, directing, however, that all Indians should be treated as enemies who were not unmistakably friends. The only "instructions" were to endeavor to act in concert with the regular army officers.
It would be hard to see in what respect the course pur sued by the volunteers in the field differed from the governor s or the adjutant-general s, or even the Indian superintendent s directions; yet five days later Governor Curry ordered disbanded the battalion already in the field from Jackson county, and raised under the militia law of the territory, because, forsooth, information had reached him that Indians had been slaughtered "by a rabble from the neighborhood of Yreka," 18 and he, by inference at least, classed all the men of the south in arms against the Indians with that rabble, by which was meant Major Lup- ton s party, which attacked the Indians off the reservation on the morning of the eighth of October, and whose action, if doubtful in appearance at the time, was justified by the events which immediately followed it, showing that the Indians were, as he believed, prepared for mischief.
Notwithstanding the disbanding of Ross regiment on account, presumably, of their hostility to the Indians, the men were invited to reenlist in the southern battalion to fight these same Indians. The odium thus was left to rest upon the officers, who were largely of a political party opposed to that to which the governor belonged; and this was supposed to account for the slight put upon those who had hastened to the defense of their country at her mo ment of greatest peril.
The first effect of the governor s proclamations was to suspend volunteering. On the seventh of November, the
18 Oregon Statesman, Januar ​y 27, 1857.
ninth regiment was assembled by order of Colonel Ross at Fort Vannoy on the Illinois river, in order that all who desired to continue in service might be mustered in under the new organization. On the tenth, Captains Bruce, Will iams, Wilkinson, and Alcorn offered and were accepted in the order named. Bruce being elected major, his first lieutenant, E. A. Rice, was elected captain of company
A, which then stood, Rice, captain; John S. Miller, first lieutenant; J. F. Anderson, second lieutenant. Company
B, Williams, captain; Hugh O Neal, first lieutenant; M. Bushey, second lieutenant. Company C, Wilkinson, cap tain; C. F. Blake, first lieutenant, Edwin Hess, second lieutenant. Company D, Alcorn, captain; James M. Mat- ney, first lieutenant; John Osborne, second lieutenant. The mustering officer was John K. Lamerick; the adju tant-general of the command, 0. D. Hoxie.
On the eleventh of November, Major Bruce issued the following order:
HEADQUARTERS SOUTHERN BATTALION OR. VOLS.,| VANNOY S FERRY, November 11, 1855. j
Information having been received that armed parties are still in the field with the avowed purpose of waging a war independent of the executive of this territory, and in violation of law and general order No. 11, issued by the governor October 20, 1855, to wit: "It is therefore ordered that the commanding officers of the battalions authorized by the proclamation of the governor of the fifteenth of October instant, will enforce the disbanding of all armed parties not duly enrolled into the service of the territory by virtue of said proc lamation."
As the peace and prosperity of our country depends upon law- and-order-abiding persons, it is, therefore, expected and required that all persons not duly enrolled into the service of the territory by virtue of the proclamation of the governor of the territory of Ore gon, will disband in accordance with general order No. 10. It is also expected and required that all persons belonging to the southern battalion who have been regularly enrolled into the service of the territory will assist in carrying out this order.
Men under persons assuming authority are hereby notified that they are at liberty to enroll themselves under the proclamation, and, according to law. It is confidently expected that persistence in vio lation of this law will cease from and after this date, and that all ​
THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 361
good citizens will see the necessity of cheerfully acquiescing in and strictly conforming to the laws of our country.
JAMES BRUCE, Major. Commanding Southern Battalion Oregon Mounted Volunteers.
The mustering of only four companies left a consider able portion of the country without defense, which being duty represented to the governor, he paid a visit to the south, accompanied by Adjutant-General Barnum, about the last of November; but the inspection only resulted in the consolidation of the northern and southern battalions into one regiment, to be known as the second regiment of Oregon mounted volunteers. 19 Here again occurred an amount of friction dangerous to the efficiency of the ser vice through the election of regimental officers. The command was given to Captain Williams, and the lieuten ant-colonelcy to William J. Martin, major of the northern battalion, who, in the estimation of many, was entitled to be colonel. In all these matters the volunteers took a lively interest.
The northern battalion, now a part of the second regi ment of Oregon mounted volunteers, was officered by companies as follows : Company A of Lane county, Joseph Bailey, captain; Daniel W. Keith, first lieutenant; Cyre- nus Mulkey, second lieutenant. Company B, Lane county, Laban Buoy, captain; A. W. Patterson, first lieutenant; P. C.Noland, second lieutenant. Company C of Linn county, Jonathan Keeney, captain; A. W. Stannard, first lieuten ant; Joseph Yates, second lieutenant. Company D of Douglas county, Samuel Gordon, captain; S. B. Hadley, first lieutenant; T. Prather, second lieutenant. Company E of Umpqua county, W. W. Chapman, captain; Z. Dim- mick, first lieutenant ; J. M. Merrick, second lieutenant. 20
19 This consolidation took place on the petition of William J. Martin, major north ern battalion ; Edgar B. Stone, surgeon ; J. W. Dre\v. Aaron Rose, J. W. Smith, L. L. Bradbury, S. F. Chadwick, P. F. Castleman, assistant quartermaster, and 8. B. Had ley, first lieutenant company D, "and many others."
20 On the thirtieth of December Lieutenant Mulkey resigned, and Charles W. Me- Clure was elected in his place. Lieutenant A. W. Patterson was transferred to the medical department, and L. Poindexter elected in his place : Oregon journals, house, 1856-6, ap. 145. ​
The lettering was changed by the change of organization.
To go back a little: Immediately after the battle at Hungry hill on Grave creek, Major Fitzgerald proceeded to Fort Vancouver, and thence to The Dalles, where he remained in garrison during the winter. The command at Fort Lane was thus reduced to a single troop. Captain Smith had agreed with the volunteer officers to meet them at the Grave-creek house (Fort Bailey) about the ninth of November, prepared to pursue and fight the Indians, and in the meantime scouts from Bailey s company were to find where they were in hiding ; for, as usual, after a bat tle, they had abandoned their position silently and mys teriously, to reappear in some unexpected quarter. But before disappearing they had paid a visit to the reserva tion and burned or destroyed all the property of the peo ple upon it, including that of Chief Sam, and killed the agency cattle. Soon after a number of houses on Jump- Off- Joe creek were burned, hearing of which Martin s and Bruce s commands, together with a small force of regulars from Fort Jones, pursued and fell in with a band at the mouth of Jump-Off-Joe creek, killing eight.
On the nineteenth, Major Bruce, with a part of his bat talion, marched up Applegate creek in company with Cap tain Judah and his troop from Fort Jones, but finding no Indians, returned to headquarters on the twentieth. On the twenty-first, Major Bruce ordered Captains Williams and Alcorn, with their companies, to proceed down the west side of Rogue river, while he, with Captains Rice and Wilkinson and their commands, marched down the opposite side by the way of Grave creek to The Meadows, accompanied by Captain Judah and Major Martin. The several commands arrived in the vicinity of the supposed headquarters of the enemy at daylight on the twenty-fifth, and sent out their spies to discover the Indian camp. Late at night the spies reported the Indians, two or three hun dred strong, on a bar of the river six miles above and very difficult of access. ​
THE ROGUE EIVER WARS. 363
On the morning on the twenty-sixth, Captain Judah, with forty-six regulars, and Major Martin, with one hun dred volunteers, marched to a position opposite the Indian camp, where, according to the plan of attack, they were to be joined by Major Bruce and Captains Williams and Alcorn, with two hundred and eighty -six volunteers. These were to cross the river on a raft, surround the en emy s camp, and give a signal, when Judah was to open fire from his howitzer.
The "best laid schemes," it is, according to the poet, which "gang aft aglee;" and so it was with this one con certed with so much care by a "regular" officer. Wild men, like birds, must be taken on the wing. They will not wait to have salt put upon their tails. Major Bruce was in the act of placing his raft in the water at a little past noon, when the Indians opened fire on him from the cover of the underbrush and timber on the east side. His command was driven to seek shelter and defend itself until dark, when it withdrew, and the whole force went into camp.
It was then determined to send for supplies and reen- forcements, and to force the Indians out of their strong hold. On the first of December an express arrived from Captain Smith, informing Judah that he had reached a point twelve miles below Grave-creek house, but could come no further on account of rain and snow upon the mountains, and that in a few days more the mountains would be impassable. A council being held, it was de cided to return to headquarters to await a change in the weather.
On the forth of December all arrived at the Grave-creek house, where they learned of the governor s proclamation uniting the two battalions into a regiment, and ordering the election of officers as above mentioned. From here Major Bruce proceeded to Fort Vannoy (headquarters), where the election of colonel and lieutenant-colonel was held on the sixth, resulting in the choice ​of Captain
Williams for the first position, and Major Martin for the second. On the seventh the several companies were ordered to different parts of the valley, where grass for their horses could be obtained (it being impossible to procure hay ), as well as to afford protection to those localities.
But the companies were not permitted to remain in quarters. During the absence of the volunteers early in December, some roving bands of Indians were devastating the settlements on the west side of the south Umpqua, destroying fifteen houses, whose inmates had been com pelled to take refuge in forts.
On the twenty-fourth, Captain Alcorn discovered and attacked a camp on the north branch of Little Butte creek, killing eight warriors and capturing some horses. At about the same date Captain Rice found another camp on the north bank of Rogue river, and attacked with thirty men, fighting six hours, killing the adult males, and taking captive the women and children, who were sent to Fort Lane to be guarded.
" These two fights," wrote a correspondent of the Oregon Statesman, "have blotted out Jake s band." That they had done so was a cause of congratulation to the white settlers, who could nevermore hope for security of life or property while they were alive and free. But General Wool in his official report stigmatized their proceedings as murder, and drew a pathetic picture of the women and children of the slaughtered Indians making their way to Fort Lane "for protection," with their limbs frozen. That some had frozen limbs was probably true, for the winter was an unusually cold one, a circumstance as injurious to the volunteers, many of whom were ill-clad, as to the Indians. But war is a trade, whose masters cannot show mercy, even to themselves, peace being obtained only through relentless strife.
About the last of December, 1855, Major Bruce, being informed by express from Stirling, that a party of Indians ​
THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 365
had fortified themselves in three deserted log cabins on Applegate creek, ordered Captains Rice and Alcorn to prepare for a campaign in the mountains, and himself proceeded to Fort Lane to ask the assistance of Captain Smith with his howitzer. Obtaining the promise of this, he made a forced march up to the forks of Applegate creek with Rice s company of forty men on the first of January, and on the second twenty miles further up the creek, where he found an independent company of fifty citizens from Stirling surrounding the cabins.
Nothing could be done before the arrival of the howitzer on the afternoon of the fourth, the intervening time being spent in snow from six to twelve inches deep, with severe weather, the volunteers exchanging occasional shots with the Indians. In the three days of waiting and suffering, three Indians were killed and several wounded, while Captain Rice lost one man killed, and the citizen company three wounded.
On the arrival of Lieutenant Underwood from Fort Lane, with forty regulars and the howitzer, a shell was dropped into one of the cabins, wounding one Indian and two children, when several were seen to retreat to another cabin a few yards distant. A few more shells were thrown without effect, when night coming on, the three several companies were posted in a manner which was intended to prevent an escape; the regulars being between the Indians and the hills, and the volunteers and citizens on two other sides, the lines almost meeting.
With all this precaution, about eleven o clock the In dians crept up to the line of soldiers, firing and yelling. In the first surprise a number broke through the line and escaped to the hills; but the regulars recovering them selves turned a. portion of them back towards the creek, across which they succeeded in escaping, the sentinels being unable to get at them by reason 1 of the thickets along the stream, their trail being found by daylight to be stained with blood. ​
It was only the fighting men of the beseiged, however, who had taken wing when the sentinels of the regular force, not liking the cold, and perhaps not liking to fight an unseen enemy, returned to camp; and before their commander could order them back to their posts, the Indian women with their children, and a pack animal, also passed the line, and gained the hills.
On examining the cabins it was found that the Indians had burned their dead, but had left a wounded boy to the mercy of his captors. From him it was learned that the party occupying the cabins belonged to chief Jo; and the skill with which he had fortified his camp would have defied the volunteer arms; it was only the howitzer which could dislodge him. A subterranean passage had been excavated leading from the cabins to the open country and pits dug in each corner of the cabins deep enough to stand in, with loop-holes under the bottom logs through which they could shoot without being exposed; all of which was surprising in savage military science, but was probably learned from communication with white men.
Bruce wished to follow the trail of the Indians, but Lieutenant Underwood declared his men unfit for travel ing in the mountains; and the citizen company were unprepared. They, therefore, returned to Stirling, and Underwood to Fort Lane; while Bruce retired to Camp Spencer, on the lower Applegate creek, to recruit the horses, and give his company a much needed rest after three days and nights of watching in snow and cold, re maining there until the eighteenth. On that date, he was joined by Captains O Neil and Alcorn, with a part of their commands, making his available force seventy-three men, rank and file. Alcorn, with thirty-eight men, took the trail of the Indians up Applegate creek, while Bruce, with O Niel and the remainder, marched up Williams creek. Scouting continued for five days, when Bruce fell in with two Indian spies, running them to camp, a distance of twelve miles. Sending an express to hasten forward ​
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O Neil, the major dismounted his men, twenty-one in all, and stationing Alcorn with eleven men on the left of the canon in which the enemy was encamped, himself occu pied the right with only nine.
It was soon discovered that the Indians were sixty or seventy strong. Firing became general, and both sides sus tained losses. Wiley Cash was killed in this preliminary engagement, and Daniel Richardson severely wounded. Soon after these casualties, eight men were cut off from the little force, when Bruce collected the ten left him and charged the Indians, driving them out of the canon, re lieving the men and securing a favorable position for him self, though surrounded and cut off from his horses. Night coming on, he was compelled to retreat towards these, but found that half of them had been driven off before the arrival of Captain O Niel, who was on the ground with the news that he had sent Lieutenant Armstrong an hour before dark with twenty-two men to engage the enemy on the right, while with twenty men he had flanked their left and fought them until dark.
The night being very dark and cold, the whole force present withdrew to camp five miles distant, when it was discovered that Lieutenant Armstrong had not returned. Instead, he remained on the ground and renewed the attack at daylight next morning, the Indians giving way and retreating soon after daybreak. It was found that they had burned their dead in the night, making it impossible to determine their loss.
" On this day, January twenty-fourth," says Bruce in his report, "the colonel, R. L. Williams, arrived in camp and took the command." In the same report he declares that great credit is due "the captains and lieutenants" for their coolness and determined bravery in their several engage ments. He might well have included all the men in his command. The kind of duty they were required to per form was a drudging and thankless service, which only the desperate situation of the country could have induced ​
them to engage in. Wrote Captain Rice after three months in the field: "With the exception of two weeks on Rogue river, the company has not camped four days at one place."
During all the time since the battle of Hungry hill, the companies which constituted the northern battalion under W. J. Martin, major, and later lieutenant-colonel, were oc cupied in scouting and guarding settlements, or escorting trains and travelers. The stations in this part of the field were Camas valley, twenty miles southwest of Roseburg, tit the head of the Coquille, where Captain Bailey had his winter quarters, with orders to furnish unprotected fami lies in his vicinity with a sufficient force to render them safe; Fort Smith, at the house of William Henry Smith, on Cow creek, where twenty-five men were stationed to escort trains between Umpqua canon and Fort Leland on Grave creek; Camp Eliff, at the south end of the canon, the station of Captain Buoy, who was instructed to protect families and keep open the road between this point and the crossing of Cow creek; Fort Bailey, five miles south of the crossing of Cow creek, where Captain Keeney was stationed to protect the road from there to Grave creek; and Camp Gordon, where Captain Gordon commanded, eight miles above the mouth of Cow creek. Captain W. W. Chapman was ordered to divide his force, about fifty men being at the mouth of the Umpqua, to keep a look out on the reservation at that point, and also on the Coos bay settlement, while thirty men were encamped on Ten- Mile prairie, near the house of L. D. Kent.
To his captains, Major Martin issued the order to "take no prisoners;" yet about Christmas time he had quite a number of prisoners, chiefly women and children on his hands, whom he directed Captain Buoy to escort to the Grand Rond reservation in Yamhill county. Agent Met- calf, however, refused to let them go, for the reason that they were nearly related to the Indians on the Umpqua ​
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reservation, and if removed before the main body of the Indians, would make trouble, and defeat the plans of the Indian department, which had trouble enough already to reconcile the people of Polk county to the contemplated reservation of their western border for Indian uses.
The following monthly report of Captain Chapman, brief as it is, gives a more definite idea of the service than pages of less succinct narrative :
December first, arrived at Little Meadows just at night ; second, was ordered out next morning at daylight ; camped that night on hill west of Whisky creek ; third, by four o clock P. M. reached Grave creek ; lay there until the sixth ; seventh, marched through the canon and reached Roseburg, thirty miles ; ninth, reached Winchester ; tenth, High water ; eleventh, arrived at headquarters at Oalipooya ; on the twenty-first, by order, moved to u Kellogg s " for headquarters ; stationed forty-five men at Providence, at mouth of Umpqua; selected thirty men for Kent s station in Ten-Mile prairie, and ordered remainder to headquarters ; while selecting station below, bad weather, snow, etc., set in, and stopped further progress. It now became necessary to feed the grain I had laid in, in Novem ber instead of grass, as ordered.
Such were the reports mere records of weary marches over nearly impassable roads, in rain and snow, to ward off possible attacks on isolated settlements, or pursue a small band of Indians intent on robbing if not on murder; for by robbery they must now live.
There was neither pay nor glory in that kind of warfare, nothing but self-sacrifice, not even the excitement of good fighting, for the Indians kept in seclusion excepting when their spies reported an opportunity to capture a pack train, or destroy property leit unguarded. This being the situa tion, a majority of the regiment under Colonel Williams applied for their discharge early in January, upon the ground that their term of enlistment had expired, they having been mustered into the service in October under Colonel Ross, and transferred the following month to the second regiment Oregon mounted volunteers. Their horses being worn out, Colonel Williams suggested to Adjutant​
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General Barnum that they be allowed their discharges, and new recruits called for, who would be furnished with fresh horses. An order was accordingly issued to that effect, the enlistments being for three months, and most of the old companies of the southern battalion again taking the field.
During the several weeks before the recruited regiment was ready for service, the southern companies performed the duty of escorting trains and guarding "stations," as fortified houses in which families had taken refuge were called ; and this they did because they must, for to neglect it was to consent to their destruction. For the Indian leaders were still inflexible, and would listen to no over tures. Indeed, when sometimes coming near enough in battle to be addressed, the white commanders attempted to reason with them, they instantly challenged them to further combat, and refused to confer with them on the subject of peace.