# California Inter Pocula/Chapter 19

The portion of this chapter concerning the Modoc War was written by Frances Fuller Victor, according to William Alfred Morris in "The Origin and Authorship of the Bancroft Pacific States Publications."
CHAPTER XIX.
SOME INDIAN EPISODES.
Believe me, it is not necessary to a man's respectability that he should commit a murder. Many a man has passed through life most respectably, without attempting any species of homicide. A man came to me as the candidate for the place of my servant, just then vacant. He had the reputation of having dabbled a little in our art, some said, not without merit. What startled me, however, was, that he supposed this art to be part of the regular duties in my service. Now that was a thing I would not allow. So I said at once, 'if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing'; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.
—De Quincey.
The natives of California were quick to learn the purchasing power of gold, but they did not thereby become greedy of it like their white brethren. When they wanted a sack of flour, or a few pounds of tobacco, or a bottle of brandy, some of them went to the river and washed out the gold necessary for their purchases. They were badly cheated at first, having no knowledge of the value white men put upon the metal, and they would as readily give a handful of it as a smaller quantity, if they had it, for whatever struck their fancy, something to eat, or to drink, a gaudy handkerchief, or a garment.
Time and intercourse with the more cunning race sharpened their wits a little. Then they adopted a method of their own in making purchases. In parties of five or ten they would first stroll through the store, carefully observe several articles, and settle in their own mind what they would buy, but saying nothing to the shop-keeper. Then they would retire to a little ​distance, and seating themselves in a circle on the ground gravely discuss matters. One after another they then went to the store and made their purchases, returning afterward to their place in the circle. And their method of barter was frequently in this wise: Upon a leaf, or piece of paper, one would pour out perhaps a teaspoonful of gold-dust, and taking it to the shopkeeper, point to the article desired and ejaculate, ugh! which being interpreted meant, "I will give you this for that." If the shopkeeper took it, well; if he refused it the Indian would withdraw, increase the pile of dust, and return, repeating the operation until the amount was large enough to procure the article. Again, if it was biscuits they desired, of which a teaspoonful of dust in the days of '48, would buy but half a dozen, and they wanted several dozen, they would go and come, never at any one time bringing more than the first measure of dust, receiving six each time until they had secured all they required, or until their dust was gone.
The Mexican scrape was quite becoming to the California root digger, and took his fancy wonderfully. In the absence of a scrape, however, an American blanket would do, and for this, of a quality worth $4 or $5, they cheerfully paid Weber, the Coloma shopkeeper, $100. Before the end of 1848 thousands of savages, who up" to that had lived on roots and acorns, and had paraded the forests as naked as Adam in the garden, were arrayed in gorgeous apparel costing $500, conspicuous in which was gaudy calico, red handkerchiefs, hat, shirt, pantaloons, and blanket or scrape. For food, in place of acorns and mashed grasshoppers, they purchased almonds and raisins at $16 a pound; and for a bottle of whiskey they paid $16.
While the Reverend Mr Colton was playing miner on the Stanislaus, in the autumn of 1848, there came to his camp three wild men, attracted thither by a red belt which each of them wanted ; so they first bought it and then gambled to see which should have ​it. "They could speak only their native dialect," said Colton, "not a word of which I could understand. We had to make ourselves intelligible by signs. They wanted to purchase the belt, and each laid down a piece of gold, which were worth in the aggregate some $200. I took one of the pieces and gave the Indian to whom it belonged the belt. They made signs for a piece of coin. I offered them an eagle but it was not what they wanted; a Spanish mill dollar, but they wanted something smaller; a fifty-cent piece, and they signified it would do. Taking the coin they fastened it in the end of a stick so as to expose nearly the entire circle, and set it up about forty yards distant. Then they cast lots, by a bone which they threw into the air, for the order in which they should discharge their arrows. The one who had the first shot drew his long, sinewy bow and missed; the second, he missed; the third, and he missed, though the arrow of each flew so near the coin that it would have killed a deer at that distance. The second now shot first and grazed the coin; then the third, who broke his string and shot with the bow of the second, but missed. And now the first took his turn and struck the coin, whirling it off at a great distance. The other two gave hiim the belt which he tied around his head instead of a blanket, and away they started over the hills full of wild life and glee, leaving the coin as a thing of no importance in the bushes where it had been whirled."
To the discharged volunteer, Henry I. Simpson, who was there in August 1848, the natives at work near Mormon island appeared exceedingly singular. They "were dressed in strange fantastic guise; instead of the breech clout, which used to be their ch ief article of the toilet, gaudy calicoes, bright colored handkerchiefs, and strips of red cloth were showily exhibited about their persons. The first party with whom we came up, consisted of an old Indian with his squaw, and a youth about fifteen; they seemed to ​be working; on their own account, though most of the Indians work by the day for some employer, who furnishes them with food, and pays a regular per diem—sometimes as much as twenty dollars a day, but more generally at the rate of an ounce and a half of gold, the current rate of which is from ten to twelve dollars per ounce. When we came within sight of this party, they were in a short, deep ravine, very busily employed digging with small machetes, or Spanish knives; and as soon as they perceived us, they looked with some vexation of manner, as though they feared we were coming to interfere with their rights of discovery. I may here remark that a nice regard is almost always had for such rights. A party finding a good bed of gold, is seldom or never interfered with by others—at least the immediate vicinity of their operations is not trespassed upon. As an evidence of this feeling of natural justice, I learned that there was, at the mill of Captain Sutter, a fine bank of deposit which had not been touched, out of respect to the rights of the captain, who, of course, had no real ownership in the matter. The Indians soon became satisfied that we had no intention of trespassing, and began their work again, the old fellow jabbering away in bad Spanish in reply to our inquiries. He had about his person, in an uncouth-looking buckskin pouch, from six to eight ounces of gold, as I should judge, which he exhibited with some exultation. While we were engaged with the old man, the boy, who had progressed some few yards ahead in his work, uttered a sudden, ugh! which is the Indian expression of wonder. We all turned toward him, and saw him holding up, with an expression of irrepressible delight, a large lump of gold incrusted with earth and gravel, which seemed as big as a man's fist. The old fellow rushed toward him with quite an un-Indian-like eagerness, and taking it from his hand, commenced rapidly cleaning it of the dirt and gravel, which he accomplished with peculiar skill, and in less than a minute ​exhibited to us a lump of apparently pure gold, which I should judge weighed at least six or seven ounces. We all examined it closely and with open admiration. Whether it was a craving of avarice that seized my heart, or because I admired the specimen as one of the finest I had seen, I will not pretend to determine; but, as it was, I felt a strong desire to possess the piece. I suppose my feelings were legible in my countenance, for the old Indian looked knowingly into my eyes, and then, after a few words in his own language with his squaw, he took the gold in his hand and proffered it to me, taking hold, at the same time, of a bright scarlet sash which I wore around my waist, thus evidently offering a trade. ]\Iy sash was a fine one, and though worth by no means the intrinsic value of the gold, would perhaps have sold for much more in that region, for the Indians had been known to gratify their fancies at much more exorbitant prices: it was not this, however, that made me hesitate, but rather that it seemed like speculating upon the ignorance of the savage. ' Take it, Harry,' said Charley to me, 'I do not like to impose on the old fellow, Charley,' said I. 'Pooh, some less scrupulous person will sell him a few yards of printed calico for it; so it amounts to the same thing in the end.' Doubtless the Indian thought that our hesitation arose from a desire to enhance my demand for the sash, for he held a few minutes longer consultation with his squaw, and then commenced undoing his pouch, as if he intended to offer an additional price. I shook my head, however, to indicate that he should stop, and undoing the sash I gave it in exchange for the gold. Certainly vanity is a sweet morsel to the human heart; even the habitual stoicism of the savage yields to its magic influence. No sooner had the old man obtained possession of the coveted treasure, than both his wife and son gathered around him, forgetting entirely their work in extravagant admiration of the gaudy plaything they had purchased ​so far beyond its value. We left them to their enjoyment, and proceeded on."
Says one who visited the Stanislaus in October 1848 of some natives he saw at work in that vicinity: "On the plain we fell in with the camp of Mr Murphy, who invited us into his tent, and set before us refreshments that would have graced a scene less wild than this. His tent is pitched in the midst of a small tribe of wild Indians who gather gold for him, and receive in return provisions and blankets. He knocks down two bullocks a day to furnish them with meat. Though never before within the wake of civilization, they respect Ids person and property. This, however, is to be ascribed in part to the fact that he has married the daughter of the chief—a young woman of many personal attractions, and full of that warm wild love which makes her the Haidee of the woods. She is the queen of the tribe, and walks among them with the air of one on whom authority sits as a native grace—a charm which all feel, and of which she seems the least conscious."
In a melancholy strain, which, coming from him approaches the grotesque, Sutter thus describes his experiences in mining with the natives: "Even the Indians had no more patience to work alone, in harvesting and threshing my large wheat crcp out, as the white men had all left, and other Indians had been engaged by some white men to work for them, and they commenced to have some gold for which they were buying all kinds of articles at enormous prices in the stores; which when my Indians saw this, they wished very much to go to the mountains and dig gold. At last I consented, got a number of wagons ready, loaded them with provisions and goods of all kinds, employed a clerk, and left with about one hundred Indians, and about fifty Kanakas who had joined those I brought with me from the Islands. The first camp was about ten miles above Mormon Island, on the south fork of the American river. In ​a few weeks we became crowded, and it would no more pay, as my people made too many acquaintances. I broke up the camp and started on the march further south, and located my next camp on Sutter creek, and thought that I should there be alone. The work was going on well for awhile, until three or four travelling grog-shops surrounded me, at from one and a half to two miles distance from the camp; then of course, the gold was taken to these places, for drinking, gambling, etc., and then the following day they were sick and unable to work, and became deeper and more indebted to me, and particularly the Kanakas. I found that it was high time to quit this kind of business, and lose no more time and money. I therefore broke up the camp and returned to the fort, where I disbanded nearly all the people who had worked for me in the mountains digging gold. This whole expedition proved to be a heavy loss to me."
One Sunday in August 1850, in the town of Sonora, a person called Cave in conversation with a gambler named Mason, pointing to an Indian who was lounging about the street, offered to lay a wager that he could induce the native to rob or kill him. Mason accepted the offer. Cave then drew the native aside, told him that Mason had a large sum of money hidden ; told him where he should find it, and that if he would rob or kill Mason he should have half of it and no harm should befall him. Placing an unloaded pistol in his hand Cave urged him on to the consummation of the deed. Irresolute, bewildered, worked upon more by the exhortations of Cave than any desire to do wrong, the native hesitatingly entered Mason's house, looked around and came out without touching a thing. Mason was watching for him and as soon as he was fairly on the street again shot him dead.
For specimens of Indian warfare we must go north. The natives of California valley were a mild race, and when the miners shot them down the survivors ​seldom retaliated. In the vicinity of the Oregon border, however, on both sides of the line, it was quite different. The inhabitants were a bolder, braver people, who would not tamely submit to every indignity.
During the year 1852 there were several new mining fields discovered in northern California and southern Oregon, and the natives thereabout being high-spirited and strong, and the miners overbearing, it is no wonder there were many outrages on both sides.
Conspicuous among the savages was a Shasta, called by the white men Scarface, and another named Bill, and Sullix the bad-tempered, who in cunning, treachery, and cruelty, were equal to any of the white men invading their domains—only the latter were the stronger. E. Steele, of Yreka, was a favorite of the Shastas, who named him Jo Lane's Brother. Among the Rogue river chiefs, some of whose people belonged to the Shasta nation, were Tolo and John, Sam and Jo; then at the foot of the Siskiyou mountains, was Tipsey, or the Hairy, second to none in war and diplomacy.
White men imposed upon the Shastas, and from time to time these chiefs had killed white men. Sometimes Steele played successfully the part of peacemaker; oftener there was fighting.
On one occasion, while a surveying party was at work in his vicinity, Scarface said to them, " You white men who are so good and so great, why do you come into our country and kill our men, ravish our women, and go around with a compass and chain crying ' stick, stuck,' set up a few stakes and call the land your own when you have not paid a cent for it?"
Cardwell, an old Indian-fighter of that vicinity, tells many stories of this aboriginal. "This same old Sullix sat upon one of the sills of my mill," he says, "while I was at work boring and mortising on it, watching the road alive with men coming into the valley after the discovery of the ​Jacksonville mines, and he remarked to me that it had never been the intention of the Indians to give up the country, but they had meant to let a few whites settle here, and get as nmch property around them as they could, and then go to work to wipe them out; but they were discouraged by the unexpected influx of people. He then consoled himself by telling me one of his adventures. Some time ago, with two other Indians, he was on the Klamath river, and late one day they saw two white men slipping along and trying to avoid being seen. He and his companions watched them, and observing where they camped that night, stole up and murdered them both. He seemed to rejoice over the bloody deed. 'But now,' said he, 'we have waited too long to carry out our design; the whites have overpowered us.' He would work himself into a great rage talking of these things; his eyes would fairly turn green. When he told me of the murder on the Klamath, I came near striking him with my chisel; and I then and there made up my mind that if an opportunity ever presented I would kill that Indian, I afterwards had the pleasure of shooting him, but it did not kill him. This was in the subsequent Indian troubles."
Cardwell states further that a few days after he had selected his mill site at the present town of Ashland, Tipsey's band had a quarrel with a Shasta band over on the Klamath, in which Tipsey was wounded in the chin, and two of his men were killed. The bloody arbitrament having proceeded thus far peaceful negotiations were begun. The money value of the dead Shasta was about equivalent to Tipsey's chin. On the other side a Shasta chief was killed. "They settled the matter," continues Cardwell, "by standing off the two chiefs, but several horses were demanded by Tipsey in payment for his two braves killed, with the understanding, however, that if Tipsey recovered, the horses were to be paid back as idemnity for the death of the Shasta chief. Tipsey recovered, and the ​Shastas came over, about one hundred strong, and demanded the horses. Tipsey refused to deliver them up, and sent to Butte creek for help, determined to give the Shastas battle. The reënforcements swelled the number to about one hundred and fifty. The Shastas also received reënforcements, making the number on each side about the same. Their manner of going to battle was extremely diverting. The prairie where Mr Lindsay Applegate's farm is, was the battle-field. The Shastas were collected on one side of the prairie, and the Rogue Rivers opposite. Each built a large fire at the place where they were assembled. Ten, fifteen, or perhaps fifty would start out from one side and go scampering across to within sixty or eighty yards of the opposite party, when about the same number would start after them, chasing them back, and shooting at them all the way to be chased over the fields in their turn. This kind of warfare lasted for three days, the contestants fighting about six hours a day. They then compromised the matter, reminding us in all this of the highly rational way France and Germany have of settling their quarrels.
At no period in the history of savage warfare are found more brave deeds by heroic women than during the Indian troubles of 1855.
Coming down the Rogue River valley, spreading devastation on every side, on the morning of November 9th, a large band of savages appeared before the house of Mr Wagoner, who was absent on a mission of courtesy to Sailor diggings, leaving his wife and child there alone.
As the Indians approached the house, and set fire to it, Mrs Wagoner knew that her fate was sealed, that there was no escape from death or dishonor. She was a beautiful woman, educated and refined. New York being her native state, and having been some time on the frontier, she spoke the local dialect fluently. But she made no attempt to use her powers of persuasion at this juncture, knowing that such ​effort would be useless. The enemies of her race were at her door; they were savages, maddened by years of wrong and the shedding of much innocent blood. Their wives and daughters had been outraged and slain by the white men; for a brief moment they might enjoy revenge.
Barring the door, and refusing admittance to any, refusing even to parley, she proceeded quietly to arrange her beautiful hair, and dress herself with neatness and decorum, as if for an important occasion; then drawing to her the child, and fdding it to her heart in the last embrace this side of eternity, she seated herself in the middle of the room, took the child in her lap, pillowed its head upon her breast, and thus, while singing to it a lullaby, she met her doom. She heeded not the approaching flames; she heard not the savage yells; nor was she conscious of the glittering eyes that peered at her through the crevices of her cabin. Already in spirit she was far away from that horrible scene, safe with her child beyond the skies.
The leading events of the insurrectionary movement of the Modocs I have presented in my general history, but the subject is worthy of more extended treatment than I was able then to give it. I have, therefore, reserved sufficient space for fuller detail in this volume.
To the early incomers the Modocs were a wild, unknown people, and scarcely ever seen. Indeed, Modoc is a Shasta word, signifying stranger, or hostile, and so was taken up and applied to these savages by white men hearing the Shastas speak of them.
When Superintendent Huntington made the treaty of 1864 with the Klamaths and Modocs, that portion of the latter tribe which lived on the border of California, and acknowledged Keintpoos,—individually known in the settlements as Captain Jack—for their chief, he had no great difficulty in gaining the consent ​of this personage to the terms of the treaty. Yet even then, circumstances existed which would make the observance of the conditions of the treaty exceedingly irksome to Captain Jack, who had acquired that love of civilized as well as savage vices which unfitted him for encagement on a reservation. The bad character of the Shastas, Pit Rivers, Lower Klamaths, and other tribes occupying the country in the vicinity of the mines, was not altogether in consequence of their association with vicious white men ; such association, however, gave them every opportunity to practice whatever vices they might have. They were so given to quarreling among themselves, that it was only when at war with others that harmony reigned in the household.
Some of these savages were always hovering about mining camps and were often employed as servants in town houses. They had a good understanding of the English language, and were not unaware of the civil war being carried on at the east, from which they were led to believe the white race, of whose numerical strength they had a feeble idea, was in a condition to be successfully attacked and possibly exterminated. This idea prevailed to a great extent among all the natives, from the Missouri to the Pacific. When Superintendent Steele of California, entered upon the duties of his office, in 1863, he found the Klamaths and the Modocs, under their chiefs Lalake and Schonchin, preparing to make war upon the settlers of northern California and southern Oregon, having already begun stealing cattle and plundering and killing white men travelling through their country. The operations of the 1st Oregon cavalry and the establishment of Fort Klamath to prevent these outrages, are known to the readers of my history. These measures, together with the killing of two of the most vicious of the Klamath sub-chiefs, resulted in bringing these Indians to a realization of the power of the white men, and the necessity of a treaty.
​In February 1864 these border Indians, who belonged some to California and some to Oreo-on, but who knew nothing of the 42d degree of latitude which formed the boundary between, and who were in the habit of visiting Yreka, the residence of Superintendent Steele, being led to fear that they would be punished by the Oregon troops for their misconduct, sought the advice of Steele who made with them a sort of treaty of friendship and peace. This treaty was made solely with Steele, and witnessed by a justice of the peace, E. W. Potter, and the sheriff cf Siskiyou county, D. Kearn. It required of the Indians nothing but their promise to live in peace among each other and with the white men, to refrain from killing, and stealing from members of the several tribes, and from interrupting the travel of individuals of one tribe through the country of another. The penalty for breaking this promise was to be given up to the soldiers for punishment. They were required to respect the lives and property of white men, negroes, and. Chinamen, allowing them to pass through the country claimed by them without molestation, or being taxed for right of way, or robbed of their property or money, but they were permitted to charge a fair price for ferrying travellers across streams, or acting as guides if desired to do so.
They agreed not to get drunk when they came to the settlements, nor to steal while on these visits, nor to rob the sluice-boxes of Chinamen, but promised to remain out of town at night in their own camps. They also promised not to sell their own or the children of other Indians, or to sell their women to white men unless the purchasers would go before a justice and marry these women, nor to bring their arms into the settlements, except to be repaired. On the part of the white people it was agreed by Steele that they should be protected when they came to the settlements; but they were counselled to obtain passes from the officers at the forts, and the Modocs and ​Klamaths were informed that they were subject to the inspection, protection, and restraint of the officers at Fort Klamath.
The motive which led the California superintendent to make a treaty with Indians whom, by his own confession, he knew did not belong to his district, might be questioned—indeed was questioned afterward, with severity; but there was no reason to doubt that to his judgment he seemed to be doing what was best at the moment. But he was not unaware that a treaty with the Klamaths and Modocs had for a long time been in contemplation, and was likely to occur at any time, since congress had made an appropriation for that purpose, and the Klamaths had been fed at Fort Klamath during the winter; and his long experience should have told him that savages are never able to comprehend, nor ever willing to consent to receive instructions from two sources.
It is easy to see how the treaty made with Steele in February, which permitted the Indians to visit the settlements, where, in spite of their promises, they found means to carry on their former nefarious trade in prostitution, should have affected the attitude of Captain Jack and band toward the treaty authorized by the government, and made with the Klamaths and Modocs in October following. This band of Modocs was composed in part of vicious renegades from other tribes, and had their home about Tule and Clear lakes, in what was known as the Lost River country, where formerly they used to lie in wait for parties of emigrants whose road lay around the shores of the lake, and from which they now had an easy and short road into Yreka and the mining settlements. Admitting the attachment of aboriginals to particular localities, which would make them reluctant to remove from Lost River, Captain Jack could not willingly have resigned the advantages which the treaty with Steele gave him over that which Sconchin, the head chief of the Modocs, agreed to accept from Huntington; ​and it very soon was understood that though Jack had signed the treaty with the other chiefs, he had no intention of keeping it. This probable repudiation of the treaty during the interval before it was known to be ratified by congress, and before the agency was well established, was not, however, a subject of serious concern.
In the meantime they were not keeping their agreement either with Steele or the United States. In the ;autumn of 1867 two of them were apprehended by Agent Applegate, and placed in chains at Fort Klamath, for distributing ammunition to the hostile Snakes; and in the following year, having refused to come on the reservation, military aid was asked to compel them to remove. In 1869 the settlers of Siskiyou county petitioned General Crook to remove the Modocs to the reservation, as their presence in that district was detrimental to the interests of the people. In reply, Crook stated that the Modocs would have been removed before this, but for a report from the former commander at Fort Klamath that the Indian department did not supply sufficient food there, and that they would not submit to remain upon a reservation where they were not fed, and could kill but little game. After some weeks, however. General Crook, on the demand of Superintendent Meacham, ordered the commanding officer at Fort Klamath, Lieutenant Goodale, if he believed the Indian department prepared to take charge of them in such a manner as to give no cause of complaint, to bring Jack and his band upon the reservation.
Accordingly, in December, Meacham, accompanied by a detachment of troops from the fort, repaired to Stone Bridge, on Lost river, where he met Captain Jack and his band, and informed them of the purpose of the government to insist on his observance of the treaty. During the night following the council. Jack, with a few of the most desperate characters in his following, left the camp and fled to the lava beds, ​on the south side of Tule lake, leaving two sub-chiefs, George and Riddle, with the women and children, in the hands of the superintendent. Meacham did not, as Jack hoped, return at once to the reservation with these, but remained in camp, and sent messengers to him, after which diplomatic correspondence, lasting two or three days. Jack finally consented to go with the rest upon the reservation, saying, however, to George, that he did not intend to stay.
Meacham established Jack's band at Modoc point on upper Klamath lake, where Sconchin also wns temporarily located before removal to Camp Yauiax, and where they were to all appearance contentedly settled. Ha gave them a supply of clothing and provisions, and on the 1st of January, 1870, turned over to the new agent at Klamath, O. C. Knapp, the business of seeing that Crook's fears concerning their comfortable subsistence were not realized. For, as if the Indians could not be wholly entrusted to the Indian department, military officers were, in the autumn of 1869, substituted for the agents previously employed, not only at Klamath, but at each of the reservations in eastern Oregon, and on many of the reservations in California and elsewhere.
As if to sustain the military character for superior humanity, and also perhaps to make a favorable impression upon Jack's band, while all the Indians received ample allowances these were particularly well supplied, receiving more in proportion than the Klamaths, and being favored in other ways. But to these kind influences Jack was insensible. Early in the spring he left the reservation with all his people, about two hundred and fifty in number, and returned to Lost river to fish and to be within easy reach of Yreka. And it was evident that force would have to be used to compel this band to remain upon the reservation. Information was at once sent to the superintendent, residing at Salem, who thereupon made a demand upon the officer in command at the fort to take meas​ures to return these Indians, which effort for some time, however, remained unattempted. In the meantime misunderstandings arose between the superintendent and the agent, the former accusing the latter of allowing the Klamaths to ceaselessly annoy and insult the Modocs, whom he had ordered to change their location, and surrounded them with Klamaths, to their great dissatisfaction, under a pretense of preventing their escape.
If there was one thing more than another on which Superintendent Meacham prided himself, it was his knowledge of and influence over Indians, Like Steele, who had accepted the chieftainship of Jack's band in 1864, he was flattered by being looked up to by savages. He had a theory that if a man only felt sufficiently his common brotherhood with the wild men, he would be able to control them through their affections; and although Jack seemed rather an unpromising subject for such practise, he anticipated the greater distinction from success. He was, therefore, indignant when it was reported to him that Knapp had done anything to displease Captain Jack, who, he said, could not be blamed for leaving the reservation under the circumstances.
The circumstances as alleged by Jack were, that his people were obliged to labor at making rails, that they had little to eat, that the water on the reservation was frozen, and that Captain Knapp moved them from place to place; to which Knapp replied that they were placed at Modoc point at their own request, and their proposed removal, about the 1st of April, was to a suitable place for opening farms and for obtaining wood and grass. It was this prospect of having to allow his men to be degraded by labor, instead of living off the sale of women and children, which hastened Captain Jack's departure. Meacham thought differently; and in his dissatisfaction requested that some distinct special regulations should be promulgated, whereby the relative positions of the military ​and Indian departments might be understood, embarrassment removed, and harmony made possible.
That there was some such necessity is apparent from the fact that enmity existed between Knapp of the agency and Goodale of the fort. Knapp, though it was his duty to have called upon the commanding officer of Fort Klamath to brinoj the absconding Indians back, neglected to do so, upon his own belief that the force at that post was insufficient. This neglect caused Goodale to be censured, who placed the blame very promptly where it belonged; though at the same time he was compelled to admit that the judgment of Knapp in this matter was correct, and that he had not force sufficient to compel Jack to return if he did not wish to, as plainly he did not.
A year and a half elapsed, during which nothing was done to bring back the absentees. Captain Jack, grown bolder through success, and the encouragement given to his rebellion by that class of men known in the mines as "squaw men," meaning men who had taken to wife Indian women, either with or without the customary marriage ceremonies, and by other low-class whites, if not by the advice of some more responsible person, made him set up a claim to a tract six miles square, lying on both sides of the Oregon and California line, near the head of Tule lake, where he proposed to establish himself as chief of the 200 or far persuaded to follow him. Superintendent Meacham was too much occupied with Commissioner Brunot in examining into the condition of the Indians of Oregon generally to give his personal attention to the behavior of Captain Jack, whom he the more willingly left to his own devices because he sympathized with him.
In August 1870 Crook was relieved from the command of the department of the Columbia by General Canby, and sent to fight the Indians in Arizona. For ​the same purpose the military stations in Oregon were depleted, there being but one company, K, of the 23d infantry, at Fort Klamath, under Lieutenant Goodale, and no cavalry; while at Camp Warner, the nearest post to Klamath, there was one company of cavalry and one of infantry. It could not be expected that one of these posts could assist the other, each having to keep in check a thousand savages, who might at any moment take advantage of relaxed vigilance to renew hostilities. Wherefore Jack continued to reside at Lost river, visiting the reservation from time to time, clandestinely, to draw away other Modocs.
But Sconchin, the head-chief of the tribe was able to keep a minority of the people on the reservation. History repeats itself in the wilderness as well as on the ashes of Empire. An Indian must be old to have any wisdom; it is always the "young men" who cannot be controlled, and who are the leaders in war. Sconchin had enjoyed his day as the blood-thirsty enemy of the white race, and many were the victims of his savage ferocity, when from a watch tower in Clear lake his spies looked for the dust of some toiling emigrant train, for which he arranged the ambush at Bloody point. That was all changed now. He had found the white men stronger than he, and wisely consented to be forgiven, and fed for the remainder of his days. Besides he was chief, and a chief must have a respectable following; therefore his advice to the Modocs was to keep the treaty, and avoid hostilities with the United States government. He had been rewarded for his good behavior by being allowed to take his people to Camp Yainax, near his former home, in Sprague valley, about the time that Jack left the reservation.
The Klamaths used formerly to be the friends of the Modocs, though they seemed not to have been so thoroughly base in their dispositions. Under Lalake they had been known to be guilty of murder and other atrocities; but after coming on the reservation, ​and being instructed, and especially after Lalake was deposed and a remarkable young savage, named by the agent Allen David, promoted to the chieftainship, their ambition seemed to be to advance in civilization, which they were aware could be done only by conforming to treaty regulations and cultivating the friendship of the government. This conformity of the Klamaths, a source of pride, and perhaps of boasting with them, was obnoxious to Captain Jack, and a cause of his late feeling of hostility to-the Klamaths; the more so that the latter had acted with the whites against the hostile Snakes, and had helped to arrest the two Modocs guilty of carrying ammunition to the enemy, and afterward held in chains at Fort Klamath until the war ended. Such was the relative position of Jack and his band to Sconchin's band and the Klamaths in the summer of 1870.
I have elsewhere remarked that the constant scouting necessary during the Indian wars had revealed to the white men every feature of eastern and southern Oregon, hitherto but little known. Drew's reconnoissance from Fort Klamath to the Owyhee had led to the construction of the central military road from Eugene city to the eastern boundary of the state; and the adaptability of the country to stock-raising being understood, invited its settlement by that class of farmers, who began to establish themselves in the numerous small valWs lying between the frequent ridges, very soon after the confirmation of the Klamath and Modoc treaty; so that in 1870 there were many settlers living in secluded homes miles apart, scattered over the Klamath basin from the reservation south to the Tule and Clear lakes.
Since Jack had resolved to lay claim to that portion of the country about Tule lake—a claim favored by Meacham, of which fact Jack could not have been ignorant—the settlers in the vicinity of Lost river had felt some uneasiness, which was increased to alarm ​when in August, Jack's band began to kill their cattle, a sure indication of a determination to bring on hostilities. He had at this time about 200 followers, Sconchin having succeeded in withdrawing from his influence nearly seventy, who had been living at Camp Yainax, and which addition to his following made him the equal with Jack in point of numbers. Just before depredations were begun, Agent Knapp held a council with Jack, whom he met in Yreka, when the latter informed him that he would not go upon the reservation, and refused even to come to Camp Yainax to see the superintendent who was expected there. Having thus thrown down the gauntlet, it was but one step more to kill the stock of the settlers.
Now commenced that preliminary warfare the frontiersmen only too well understood. Roaming about the country in small parties, selecting a time when the men belono;ino; to a farm were absent from their houses to dash up to the doors on horseback, dismount and demand a cooked meal of the frightened women, during the preparation of which they freely occupied chairs or beds, making insulting gestures and remarks—these were the indications of what was surely to follow. To these outrages the settlers singly dared offer no resistance; nor could they collectively have done more than to hasten the outbreak. It was the duty of the superintendent to call for the arrest of these savages, and of the commander of Fort Klamath to perform it; but for reasons already alluded to, no arrests were made.
During the summer of 1871 the insolence of Jack's band increased alarmingly. They frequently came upon the reservation, and about Forts Klamath and Warner, behaving in a defiant manner, saying that they had friends in Yreka who gave them passes and they should go where they pleased. So far as the assertion that they had "papers" was concerned, it was true that they carried letters written by persons of presumed ​respectability living in Yreka, testifying to the good conduct of Captain Jack; and it was also true that some of the settlers living nearest to Jack's rendezvous were averse to his being removed, feeling sure that the attempt would bring on a conflict which might prove fatal to them.
At length Jack precipitated the necessity for arresting him by going upon the reservation and killing an Indian doctor of Sconchin's band, who as he alleged, had caused the death of two members of his family. Whether he believed that this was so, or only wished to carry out his defiant intentions, the result was the same; the terms of the treaty making it the duty of the government to defend the Indians on the reservation from their enemies, and on application of Ivan Applegate, commissary at Yainax, an attempt was made by the commander at Fort Klamath to arrest Jack, which effort was rendered effectual by those white friends of the renegade Modocs, the squaw men, living along the route travelled by the troops in going to Yreka.
In October 1870 Agent Knapp of Klamath reservation, was relieved by John Meacham, brother of the superintendent, who was in charge at the tune of the attempted arrest of Jack. There had also been a change of commanders at the fort. Captain James Jackson, 1st cavalry, having been ordered to this post, with his company, B, and to assume the command. When Agent Meacham informed the superintendent of the course pursued by the Modocs, that functionary desired that no arrests should be made until a conference should have been had with Jack and his band, at the same time naming John Meacham and Ivan Applegate as his representatives to confer with them. This desire having been communicated to General Canby, that officer directed Captain Jackson to suspend any measures looking to the arrest of Jack or his followers until further advice, but to keep his com​mand in readiness to act promptly and efficiently for the protection of the settlers in the vicinity, should the conduct of the Indians make it necessary. At the same time a confidential order was issued to the commanding officer at Vancouver to place in effective condition for field service two companies of infantry at that post.
In the meantime the superintendent was pursuing his temporizing policy, advising the government to stultify itself by yielding to the demands of these Indians, and setting the example to other discontented bands, of which the warlike Snakes constituted several, to make similar requirements. His recommendations were met by counter advice from other persons interested in the proper settlement of the Indian question, and were not yet acted upon; while the encouragement thus held out to Jack's band to consider the Lost river country as their own, was doing its work in augmenting their stubbornness and insolence.
John Meacham, acting under instructions from the superintendent, sent Sconchin to find Jack and endeavor to obtain a conference. Sconchin carried a letter to a man named Fairchild, living on the road from Tule lake to Yreka, well known to the Indians, and influential among them. Fairchild and Schonchin, together, found and conversed with Jack, who would not agree to the proposition for a conference, and Sconchin returned to Camp Yainax.
In the early part of the summer of 1871, Jesse Applegate settled at Clear lake upon a tract of land owned by J. D. Carr, and lying partly m Oregon and partly in California, which was selected as a stock rancho from the swamp lands of the states, and of which Applegate was agent. On the settlement being made at Clear lake. Jack demanded of Applegate a stated allowance of Subsistence in consideration of having permission to settle in the country that he claimed, which demand was promptly refused, Apple​gate not choosing to recognize his right to levy assessments on citizens residing on land to which the Indian title had been extinguished. On this refusal by Applegate, Jim, one of the firmest of Jack's chosen friends, at the head of fifteen or twenty young warriors, set out upon a tour of the farms in Sangell valley, lying to the north of Clear lake, alarming the people by their insolent behavior, and causing them to complain to the agent at Yainax, and through him to the superintendent. These things led to the attempt to obtain a conference with Jack, to secure which he was given to understand that the killing of the doctor would be overlooked, and he allowed to remain for the time in the Lost river country upon his promise to conduct himself peaceably.
At length he informed Applegate of Clear lake that he would consent to see the commissioners appointed by the superintendent to confer with him, provided they would come to him at Clear lake, attended by not more than four men, he agreeing to have with him the same number. On this announcement Jesse Applegate sent a messenger in haste to Yainax, and Ivan Applegate and John Meacham repaired at once to the rendezvous, attended by two white men and two Indians from the reservation. The distance to be travelled was sixty miles, and they arrived there on the 15th, where they found Jack surrounded by twenty-nine warriors in the paint and feathers of war.
The conference opened awkwardly, Jack seeming embarrassed and disinclined to talk. But Black Jim occupied some time in denouncing the officers of the military and Indian departments in terms of bitter invective, after which Jack found words, and gave the commissioners a history of his grievances. He gave as a reason for not returning to the reservation that he feared the Klamath "medicine," though Camp Yainax, where the Modocs were living, was forty miles from the Klamath agency. He complained that the ​Klamaths made him angry by assuming to own the wood, grass, and water on the reservation, drawing an effective picture of the miseries of such a state of dependence. He denied that his people had ever done anything to disturb the settlers, though they had in the summer of 1870 driven away several families who had settled around the north end of Tule lake the previous winter, when Jack and his band were on the reservation, where he was expected to remain. H. F. Miller subsequently returned, and made some arrangement with the Indians, paying them an assessment, and being one of those whites opposed to the removal of the Indians from interested motives. Jack demanded to know who had given information against him, but the knowledge was withheld, for obvious reasons.
The conference amounted to this, that Jack promised to listen to the agent's advice, not to do anything to annoy the settlers, and not to resist the military, and was given permission to remain where he was until the superintendent should come to see them. Agent Meacham wrote to the superintendent that no danger was to be apprehended at that time of any serious trouble between the Modocs and the settlers. Yet on that same night, after the commissioners had started on their return to Yainax, it was warmly debated in the Modoc camp whether or not to open hostilities at once by killing the Clear lake settlers.
The report of Meacham's conference with Jack, and his assurance that no immediate danger existed, was communicated by the superintendent to Canby, who in turn communicated the same to the commander of the division at San Francisco, and the matter rested. This impression was strengthened by the report of the military inspector, Ludington, who entered Oregon from the south by the route passing by camps Bidwell, Warner, and Harney, that the people along the route seemed free from any fear of Indians, and that any rumors to the contrary were occasioned by the ​petty annoyances of individuals or small parties of Indians visiting the settlements, but unattended by violence or threats. The military department, excepting the inspector, who did not visit Klamath, and Jackson, who should have been better informed, could not be blamed for not knowing the true position of affairs, since it was the duty of the Indian department to give such information as the welfare of either settlers or Indians required, and the superintendent had reported that there was no danger.
But so the settlers of Lost river, Link river, Klamath, and Tule lake districts did not feel. On the contrary, they petitioned the superintendent of Indian affairs, and the general commanding the department of the Columbia, to remove the Modocs to the reservation, saying that the conduct of the Indians was such that they dared not allow their families to remain in the country, and in fact a number of families were removed to Rogue River valley, in anticipation of a conflict with the Modocs, some families going and returning several times as they were more or less alarmed.
The petition of the settlers did not reach headquarters until late in January 1872, though it must have been in the superintendent's hands. That complaints were made by the citizens to the commander at Fort Klamath is shown by the correspondence on file in the department. Captain Jackson having been asked to be more explicit in making statements.
On the 25th of January the superintendent sent the petition to Canby, with a request that the Modocs be removed to Camp Yainax, and suggesting that not less than fifty troops be sent to perform the duty of romoving them. Jesse Applegate was instructed to accompany the expedition, if not objected to by the military.
To Meacham's letter, Canby replied that he had considered the Modoc question temporarily settled by the permission given them to remain where the com​missioners had found them in the previous August; and that he did not think it would be expedient to send a milltary force against them until they had been notified of the determination of the government to make the change contemplated, and notice given of the point selected, as well as the time fixed upon for removal; but that in the meantime the commanding officer at Fort Klamath would be directed to take all necessary measures to protect the settlers, or to aid in the removal of the Modocs should forcible means be required.
In reply to Canby, Meacham gave as a reason for previous action that in his report for 1871, he had recommended that a small reservation be made for the Modocs at the north end of Tule lake, but that the department had not yet taken any action in the matter; and accounted for his change of policy in asking for their removal to Yainax by saying that they had agreed to remain where the council was held at Clear lake, whereas they were then at Tule lake, sixty miles from the council ground, and had consequently forfeited all claims to forbearance. He repeated his request for their removal to the reservation, and recommended that Captain Jackson be instructed to arrest Jack, and five or six of his head men, and hold them in confinement until further orders were received from Washington; but the military orders show that Jackson was only instructed to keep the department informed of the condition of affairs relative to the Modocs.
There was at this time a continual interchange of correspondence between the superintendent and Canby; and it appears that Meacham was able to thoroughly infuse into the mind of the general that the Modocs were in the position of a helpless and injured people, who had been driven from the reservation by their enemies the Klamaths. In a letter to Canby dated February 18, 1872, he repeated that they were abused by the Klamaths, and that the sub​agent falling to protect them they left the reservation, having been upon it but three months, in the winter of 1869-70. Why they had refused to come upon the reservation before that time, he did not say, nor make any reference to the fact that they were coerced into coming at that time; and that consequently their dislike to the reservation did not have its foundation in the conduct of the Klamaths during those three months. Thus while Canby was asked to compel the Modocs to go upon their reservation, he was furnished with a cogent reason for hesitating to do so; and was placed by the statements of the superintendent of Indian affairs in the position too often occupied by the military department, of opposition to the people whose property and lives were involved. And not only Canby, but the commander of the division, who received his information from Canby, was influenced in like manner.
Alarmed by the delay in arresting Jack and his confederates, a petition was forwarded by the people of Klamath basin to Governor Grover, of Oregon, to urge the superintendent to remove the Modocs, or in case this was not done, to authorize the organization of a company of mounted militia, to be raised in the settlements for three months' service, unless sooner discharged by the governor. In this petition the settlers reiterated their former statements, saying they had been harassed for four years by the Modocs, who were about 250 in number, with about eighty warriors every day growing more insolent.
The military, said the petitioners, are keen to extend the desired protection, but are subject to the superintendent's order, who has turned a deaf ear to our numerous petitions; and unless the governor could help them there was no further authority to which they could appeal. They were scattered over a large area of country, and in case of an outbreak the loss of life would be heavy, a contingency they were seeking to avoid
​Governor Grover at once called upon Superintendent Meacham, who thus urged renewed his application to General Canby for troops to arrest Jack, seconded by a letter from the governor. To this application Canby replied that he had sent an order to the commanding officer of the district of the lakes to establish in the threatened neighborhood a cavalry force sufficient to protect the settlers; adding that until the questions submitted by the superintendent to the commissioners of Indian affairs at Washington should be settled, it was his duty to prevent a war if possible; but if that could not be done, all the forces needed to suppress the Indians would be applied. According to these instructions Major E. Otis sent a detachment of fifty cavalry and three officers to establish a temporary camp in the Lost river district, which for the time relieved the settlers without removing the cause of their anxiety.
Early in April Meacham was relieved of the superintendency, and L. B. Odeneal appointed in his place. The position, owing to the Modoc difficulty, was not without serious responsibilities, and so Odeneal felt it to be. One of his first acts was to take counsel of Major Otis in regard to the propriety of permitting Jack's band to remain any longer where they were. Otis made a formal recommendation in writing, that the permission given them by Meacham the previous August should be withdrawn, and they be directed to go upon the reservation; but that the order should not be given before September, so that in case they refused, the military authorities could put them upon it during the winter season, which was considered the most favorable time for the undertaking. Otis further recommended placing Jack and Black Jim on the Siletz reservation, or any other place of banishment from their people; and stated as his reason for this advice that in his judgment there would be no peace for the people, to whom they were ​insolent and insulting, so long as permitted to roam about the country, without the presence of a considerable military force to compel good behavior. In order to make room for the Modocs, and remove all cause of complaint it was proposed to place Otseho's band of Snakes, together with Wewawewa's and some others, on a reservation in the Malheur country. The same suggestion was made in a communication to Canby April 15th.
While these matters were under discussion an order arrived from the commissioner of Indian affairs to remove the Modocs, if practicable, to the reservation already set apart for them under the treaty of October 1864, and to see that they were properly protected from the Klamaths—showing that Jack's story of abuse had reached Washington. The superintendent, if he could not remove them, or could not keep them on the reservation, was instructed to report his views of locating them at some other point, naming and describing such place as he selected.
Not wishing to make the journey to Klamath, Odeneal wrote to agent Dyar at the reservation and Commissary Ivan Applegate, at Yainax, to see Captain Jack, and endeavor to persuade him to return to the reservation. Previous to this order, on the 3d of March, Major Otis had made an attempt similar to the one now required of the agent at Klamath. By means of his Indian scouts under Donald McKay, he opened communication with Jack, assuring him of the peaceable nature of his mission, and inviting him to meet him at Linkville, a settlement founded by George Nourse at the lower end of the upper Klamath lake. But Jack declined to meet the major anywhere but in his own country. After considerable negotiation it was arranged that the meeting should take place at Lost river gap, the soldiers to be left at Linkville, and Jack's warriors, except half a dozen men, to be left away from the council ground. Otis went to the rendezvous with Agent High, two of ​the Applegates, three or four settlers as witnesses, and three or four Klamath scouts, and found Jack awaiting him with thirty-nine fighting men, as on a previous occasion he had met Meacham. The council proved as little productive of satisfactory results as the former one.
When the order came from the commissioner through Superintendent Odeneal to inform the Modocs of the wish of the government that they should comply with their treaty obligations, Schonchin was employed to act as messenger and arrange for a conference. As before he required the agents of the government to come to him, and the rendezvous was appointed at the military camp at Juniper springs on Lost river. Dyar and Applegate, attended by the head men of the reservation Modocs, met Jack and his favorite warriors on the 14th of May, when every argument and inducement was held out to influence them to keep the treaty; but all to no purpose. Promises of ample protection, subsistence, and privileges were of no effect. The unalterable reply of Jack was ever to the effect that he should stay where he was, and would not molest settlers if they did not locate themselves on the west side of Lost river near the mouth, where he had his winter camp. The settlers he said were always lying about him and trying to make trouble; but his people were good people and would not frighten or kill anybody. He desired only peace, and was governed by the advice of the people of Yreka who knew and understood him.
At this conference Sconchin made a strong appeal to the Modocs, urging them to accept the benefits of the reservation, and pointing out the danger of resisting the efforts of the government to induce them to comply with the terms of the treaty. But all was in vain, and Jack as heretofore occupied his position of defiance to the (government.
As the commissioners were instructed, in case the Modocs refused to go upon the reservation, to select ​and describe some other location favorable to the purpose of carrying out the attempt to tame them, they reported that no situation outside of the reservation had been found so suitable as the reserve itself for the purpose, all the good agricultural land being taken up, and most of the grazing land having been located as state land In addition, the settlers were determined in their opposition to having the Modocs located in their midst at Lost river. They recommended, therefore, that they be placed on the reservation.
This report being sent to the superintendent was forwarded to the commissioner at Washington, F. A. Walker, together with his own opinion on the subject, which was that the head men should be arrested and taken to some point remote from their tribe until they should agree to keep the laws, and the remainder b^ removed to Yainax; the time suggested for the accomplishment of this plan being the last of September. On receiving this communication, which was approved the commissioner issued to the superintendent an order to remove the Modocs to the Klamath reservation, "peaceably if you can, forcibly if you must," at the time suggested.
On the 11th of May, Otis reported that since his conference with them in March, the Modocs had been quiet, giving no cause of complaint. They were at that time scattered from Yreka to Camp Yainax, and through the mountains in the vicinity of Lost river, rendering the camp at that place useless, and he recommended its withdrawal, proposing instead of a camp, to make an occasional tour through the country. The troops were accordingly withdrawn about the last of the month. No sooner, however, were the troops returned to Fort Klamath, than the same excitement prevailed as before. Captain Jack with forty armed men presented himself at a camp of the reservation Indians, off on their summer furlough, and behaved in such a manner as to frighten them back to the reservation in great haste. The settlers were ​hardly less alarmed, and talked of organizing a militia company for protection. The usual correspondence followed between the Indian and military departments, Canby assuring the superintendent that the settlers would be protected.
While the Modoc question was thus approaching a climax, influences unknown to the departments were at work to confirm Captain Jack in his defiant course, his friends in Yreka having encouraged him to believe that an arrangement could be made by which he could remain at Lost river by offering to secure the permission of the government. This offer led to further opposition by the Modocs, who in their ignorance of government affairs, and respect for Steele—whom they still regarded as clothed with authority to direct them, and whom they trusted as their confidential friend believed they would be defended in resisting the authorities in Oregon—a mistake which was to lead to the most deplorable consequences.
It was now definitely settled by the proper authorities that the Modocs were to be removed to the reservation before winter. For this purpose superintendent Odeneal repaired to Klamath where he arrived on the 25th of November, whence he sent James Brown, of Salem, and Ivan Applegate to Lost river to request the Modocs to meet him at Linkville on the 27th. At the same time the messengers were instructed to say that the superintendent had only the kindest feelings for them; that he had made ample provision for their comfortable support at Yainax, where, if they would go within a reasonable time, they should be fairly dealt with and fully protected; and if they would go there at once with Applegate, he would meet them there, but if they refused he required them to meet him at Linkville in order that a final understanding with them might be had.
Captain Jackson had been superseded m the command of Fort Klamath by Major Hunt, who in turn ​was relieved July 17, 1872, by Major John Green, in command at this time. Major Otis had also been relieved of the command of the district of the Lakes, June 18th, by Colonel Frank Wheaton, 21st infantry. To Wheaton, Odeneal addressed a communication at the same time, informing him of the purpose of his visit, to carry out the instructions of the commissioner to remove the Modocs to the reservation. Odeneal had been of the opinion, when he came into office, that force would not be necessary; but on learning more about the matter, and conferring with Ivan Applegate, he asked to have a force in readiness sufficient to overawe the Indians, should they prove refractory on receiving his message, so suggesting to Wheaton in preferring his request to have the troops ready for immediate action in case they were needed.
On the 27th the superintendent, in company with Dyar from the Klamath agency, went to Linkville to meet the Modocs, as he had appointed, but there found only his messengers, who informed him of Jack's refusal either to go upon the reservation or to meet him at Linkville. "Say to the superintendent," said Jack, who with a part of his men was in camp at Lost river, "that we do not wish to see him, or to talk with him. We do not want any white men to tell us what to do. Our friends and counsellors are men in Yreka. They tell us to stay where we are, and we intend to do so, and will not go upon the reservation. I am tired of being talked to, and am done talking."
It being now apparent that nothing short of an armed force could influence these Indians to submit to the government, the superintendent sent a report of the late conference of his messengers with Captain Jack, and of the reply of Jack to his proposals, together with the order of the commissioner, to Green, with a request that he should furnish sufficient force to compel the Modocs to go upon their reservation; and in case it became necessary to use compulsory measures, to arrest first of all Jack, Black Jim, and Scarfaced ​Charley, holding them subject to his orders. In reply to this demand, Green sent word that Jackson would at once leave the post with about thirty men.
It had never been in contemplation by the superintendent or agents, or by General Canby, that any number of troops under fifty should attempt to arrest Jack and his head men. Indeed, the general had issued a special order early in September, giving the commander of the district of the Lakes control of the troops at Fort Klamath, that in an emergency he might have men enough to make the attempt at removal successful. On receiving these instructions Wheaton replied that he had directed Green to keep him fully and promptly advised by courier of any chantre in the attitude of the Modocs, and should it be necessary he should move into the Modoc country with every available mounted man from Camp Harney, Bidwell, Warner, and Klamath.
Had a strong force of cavalry been called out, and proceeded with proper caution, doubtless the arrest might have been made. But the officers at Foit Klamath flattered themselves that the Indians would yield at once to the troops, the more so that the weather was stormy and unfavorable to escape. Green, therefore, after despatching a courier to Wheaton, did not wait for instructions or reënforcements, but sent upon this doubtful errand a force of thirty-six men, believing that if surprised the Indians would surrender.
The troops left Fort Klamath at noon on the 28th of November, officered by Jackson, Boutelle, and McEldery. Odeneal, who had sent his messenger Brown to notify all settlers who would be endangered by an unsuccessful engagement with the Indians, also met Jackson on the road about one o'clock on the morning of the 29th, and directed him to say to the head men of the Modocs that he had not come to fight them, but to conduct them peaceably to Yainax, ​where arrangements had been made for their reception; not to fire a gun except in self-defence, after they had first fired upon him; and in every way to guard against any appearance of hostility.
Guided by Ivan Applegate, the troops moved on through a heavy rainstorm, arriving near Jack's camp about daybreak. Jackson then formed his troops in Hue and advanced rapidly upon the Modocs who were surprised but not unprepared. Halting his men at the edge of the camp, Jackson called to them to lay down their arms and surrender, Applegate interpreting and explaining the meaning of the visit, asking them to yield to the authority of the Indian department. A part of them seemed willing to do so, but Scarfaced Charley, Black Jim, and some others retained their guns making hostile demonstrations.
Three-quarters of an hour was spent in parleying, during which these few leaders grew more determined, and at length Jackson ordered Boutelle to take some men from the line and arrest them. As Boutelle advanced in front of his men, Scarfaced Charley exclaimed with an oath that he would kill one officer, and fired at him. This was the signal for hostilities to commence. A volley from both sides opened simultaneously, and Boutelle lost, almost at the first volley, one man killed and seven wounded. The troops kept up a rapid firing, killing in a short time fifteen Indians.
Up to the time that firing commenced. Jack had taken no part in the conversation, but lay sullenly in his tent, refusing to come forth or make any answer to the propositions When hostilities began, however, he showed himself prepared and retreated fighting.
Mr Applegate says that the Modocs had for a long time vigilantly guarded against surprise; and after Ivan and Brown had left. Jack gathered the warriors, so that at the time of the fight their aggregate number of men and boys capable of bearing ​arms was probably twice as great as at the time of Ivan's visit. Every circumstance indicated that they were prepared for any emergency. The horses were all gathered in bands near the encampments, and an Indian evidently on guard, fired his gun and ran for camp shouting soldiers! soldiers! when Jackson's troops first appeared.
The great error of attempting the arrest of the Modoc leaders with so small a force became now apparent. Had Jack and a few others been taken, there would have been nothing to fear from the others, who would have been restrained by apprehension of punishment falling on their leaders. But no arrests being made, the advantage was all on the side of the savages. The already too light force of Jackson was rendered less efficient by having to care for the wounded whom he dared not leave in camp, lest the Modoc women who still remained should kill and mutilate them. Leaving only a light skirmish line in charge of Boutelle, he was forced to employ the remainder of his men in removing the dead and wounded to the north side of the river in canoes, and thence half a mile below to the cabin of one Dennis Crawley. Having done this he returned to the southwest side of the river and dismantled the Indian camp, destroying whatever property it contained, among other things three rifles and two saddles found in Jack's wickiup. In the meantime a party of settlers consisting of Oliver Applegate, James Brown, J. Burnett, Dennis Crawley, E. Monroe, Thurber, Caldwell, and others, who had collected at Crawley's to await the event of the attempted arrest, attacked a smaller camp on the north side, and had one man, Thurber, killed. They then retired to Crawley's place, and kept up firing at long range, preventing the Indians from crossing the river and attacking Jackson's command on the flank and rear. While the fight was going on, two settlers William Nus and Joseph Penning, coming up the road, unaware of danger, were ​fired upon and wounded, Nus fatally, within half a mile of the house, which they reached before Nus died. Applegate, Brown, Burnett, and others then went in various directions to warn the settlers that hostilities had begun, which left but a small force at Crawley's to protect the wounded and the other inmates.
During the forenoon Crawley came to Jackson with the information that the Indians on the north side under two noted Modocs, Hooker Jim, and Curlyheaded Doctor, were preparing to attack his place. On this information, he mounted his men and rode rapidly up the river eight miles to the ford, where alone the cavalry could cross, arriving at Crawley's late in the afternoon. In the meantime the Indians burned some hay, and committed some minor depredations in sight of the troops. Darkness brought a cessation of hostilities.
While these events were taking place, no one seemed to have thought of the danger that threatened the settlers in the lower country around Tule lake. Captain Jackson was ignorant that there M^ere any inhabitants in the vicinity who had not been warned; but on the morning of the 30th, having heard that there was a family named Boddy about three and a half miles below Crawley's, he sent a detachment, guided by Crawley, to ascertain their condition. At Boddy's house no one was found; but everything being in order, with no signs of violence, and the horses being in the corral, Crawley came to the conclusion that the family had been warned, and had fled southward, warning others, and he therefore returned with a corresponding report. Such, however, was not the fact.
While the fight was going on, during the morning of the 29th, a party of Modocs, escaping and making their way toward their afterward celebrated stronghold in the lava beds, had killed three men and one boy of this family who were found in the woods at work cut​ting and hauling fire wood. The women, two in number, were permitted to escape. The Boddy family consisted of William, his wife, his daughter and her husband, Nicholas Schira, and his step-sons, William and Richard Cravigan. Mrs Schira's narrative was substantially as follows: On the morning of the 29th Mr Schira was looking after some sheep on the border of Tule lake, and came in during the forenoon with some ducks he had shot, changing his muddy boots, and afterward taking his team and going to the woods for a load. Mrs Schira subsequently took the wet boots out in the sun to dry them, and it being a quarter past eleven, she thought it time for her husband to be returning. Looking up the road, she saw the team coming without a driver. She went up to the mules and stopped them, took up the lines, and saw that they were bloody. She informed her mother that something had happened to her husband, and after putting the animals in the stable, the two women walked up the road together. About a half mile from the house they found Schira, dead, shot through the head with a revolver. Mrs Schira then remembered her brother Richard, who would be coming home with her husband, and ran on, leaving her mother, who could not keep up with her. As she ran, she saw Hooker Jim's Indian wife emerge from the sage-brush, and afterward Hooker Jim, Curly-headed Doctor, Long Jim, One-eyed Mose, Rock Dave, and Humpy Jerry all well-known Modocs. They did not intercept her, but went toward her mother, who was still beside the dead man, and asked her if there were any men at the house. Knowing well that much depended on her reply, she feigned not to understand their purpose, answering, "No, the mules have run away and killed the driver, and I am looking for our men." At this answer they left Mrs Boddy without molesting her, but could not have gone to the house, perhaps fearing to find men there notwithstanding Mrs Boddy's denial. Other Indians who came that way a day ​later robbed the place of $800, every article of value, and took seven horses besides. The body of Schira, which was not mutilated when she left it, before she saw it again was much mangled. After finding the body of her brother, Mrs Schira, with her mother, fled over the timbered ridge toward Crawley's, but while on the crest, happening to see the men gathered at that place, they mistook them for Indians, and turned toward the highest hills between them and Linkville, where they found snow lying, through which they travelled until late at night, when they sat down under a juniper tree to wait for daylight, by which time Mrs Schira's feet were so swollen that she could not wear her shoes. Tearing up part of her dress, Mrs Boddy bound up her daughter's feet, and they continued their flight, having eaten nothing since the previous morning. When near the bridge on Lost river, about half way to Linkville, they were met by Mr Cole, who conducted them to the bridge, from which place they were taken to Linkville in a wagon by Mr Roberts, where for the first time they heard of the affair of the day before, which had caused their terrible calamities. On the 2d of December Mrs Schira returned, with a party of four volunteers, in a wagon furnished by Mr Nourse, to look for her dead.
On arriving at Crawley's she found that Boutelle had that morning gone down with three men on the same errand, and when he returned had found three of the bodies, Schira, Boddy, and Richard Boddy. The younger brother was not found for twelve days, having fled, on being attacked, from the place where he was herding sheep, and where they expected to find him, into the thick woods, where he was overtaken and killed. The Boddy family were from Australia, and were industrious worthy people.
It did not appear that the party of Indians committed any further murders that day. On the following day they killed a number of persons about the border of Tule lake, and among others their good ​friend H. F. Miller, just when and how there were no witnesses to relate. Living within seventy-five yards of Miller's house was a family named Brotherton, three men of which were killed. The remainder of the family would have shared the same fate but for the courage of Mrs Brotherton, who defended her house and children until relief arrived, three days after the slaughter of her husband and sons.
The account Mrs Botherton gave when rescued was, that on Saturday, the 30th of November, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, she saw at some distance approaching the house, eight Indian men and eight women, who had the horses belonging to her husband. They surrounded the house of John Shroeder, in sight of her own, and shot Shroeder, who was on horseback, and who tried to escape by running his horse, but was * overtaken and killed. Joseph Brotherton, fifteen years of age, was in company with Shroeder, but being on foot, and only a boy, they gave all their attention to the man on horseback. Mrs Brotherton seeing her son running toward the house, went out to meet him with a revolver. A younger boy, Louis, fearing for his mother, called her back and ran after her, but she ordered him back to the house to get his Henry rifle, telling him to elevate the sight 800 yards, and fire at the Indians. He obeyed—his little sister wiping and handling the cartridges. In this manner the mother was protected by one son, while she rescued another. She returned safely to the house and the door was closed and fastened. The Indians then rode past, half a mile, to the tules, where they left their horses, and came back on foot, keeping Miller's house between them and the Henry rifle. Entering Miller's house, they pillaged it, having already killed him. Under Mrs Brotherton's directions, there was a port hole bored on the side of her house toward Miller's. As the auger came through the Indians saw it, and fired, but without hitting anyone. The boy at the ​hole returned the fire and wounded Long Jim. One Indian was killed by Mrs Brotherton.
While this was going on, an Indian woman who had been living with Sover as his wife, came to Mrs Brotherton's door, wishing to be taken in. The Indians ordered her away, and threatened to kill her if she refused to go. She told them to kill her, if they wished, being then in deep grief for her white husband; but they replied that they killed Boston men, not women. At length Mrs Brotherton, whose sympathy was aroused for the poor creature, opened the door to admit her, and Hooker Jim, who was waiting for this opportunity, shot into the opening, fortunately without hitting anyone. At dark the Indians went away, and did not return, though Mrs Brotherton dared not relax her guard, and was not relieved until the third day, when a party under Ivan Applegate came that way, and took the family to Crawley's, ten miles above.
On leaving Mrs Brotherton's, the Indians proceeded along the eastern border of the lake to the house of Louis Land, a stock raiser. What transpired there could only be surmised by those who afterward found the cabin destroyed, and the dead body of his herder in the road near the Brotherton place, where he had fallen after a chase of over nine miles. Land was absent; but a man in his service, Adam Shillinglow, was killed; also Erasmus, Collins, and two strangers riding along the road. The number of white men killed on the 29th and 30th of November was eighteen.
The distance from Crawley's, which was now the central point of interest in the Klamath valley, to Fort Klamath was nearly sixty miles. The agency was a few miles nearer. Camp Yaiuax was about the same distance. It was twenty-three miles to Linkville, where the road to the Rogue River valley left the Klamath basin at Link river; and sixty-five miles from there to Ashland on the other side of the Cas​cade mountains. These distances in a new country without telegraph lines or railroads, were insuperable obstacles to the swift movement necessary to the emergency which had overtaken the people in Klamath valley. Nevertheless, what could be done by rapid riding was done. Couriers flew in every direction with news of the disasters of the 29th.
As soon as the intelligence reached Klamath agency, Dyar raised a company of thirty-six Klamaths, whom he placed under D. J. Ferree, and sent to Crawley's to reinforce Jackson. Oliver Applegate hastened to Yainax, and after talking to Schonchin, who assured him of the good faith of the Modocs at that camp, placed fifteen of Schonchin's people on guard under the white employés, and taking with him nine reservation Indians, part Modocs and part Klamaths, without any other white man he crossed the Sprague river mountains into Langell's valley, and to Clear lake, the residence of his uncle, Jesse Applegate. This severe test of the good will of the reservation Indians was nobly borne by them, demonstrating on their part the utmost regard for Applegate's person and safety on the dangerous journey.
Arriving at Clear lake on the 2d of December, he found his brother Ivan with a party of six citizens from Linkville, who had been through the country to warn the settlers. They left Linkville on the 1st of December, having been compelled to wait for arms to be sent from Fort Klamath before setting out, and accompanied by five cavalrymen, detached from Jackson's command, had already visited all the settlements known to them, and learned the fate of the settlers on Tule lake, sending the remains of the Brotherton family to Crawley's, as already related.
Leaving the cavalrymen at Clear lake to protect the family of Jesse Applegate, Ivan and Oliver joined their forces and searched the country to recover the bodies of the murdered men, without success on that day. On the 3d Oliver Applegate's party found Shil​linglow's body, which one of the Indian volunteers, a son of old Schonchin, bound upon a horse,
Ivan Applegate's party were scattered over several miles of country looking for the dead. Two men, Charles Monroe and George Fisck, were left with a wagon at the Brotherton place to find the body of Schroeder. When they saw the party of Modocs and Klamaths approaching, with their leader disguised as an Indian, supposing them to be the enemy, they fled into the cover of the tall sage-brush and concealed themselves until undeceived by the voice of Applegate, when they joined him and went with him to the house. While Applegate looked over the premises his Indian volunteers sat outside on their horses, and Fisck returned to his search for the missing bodies. Being in the stable, Applegate heard loud shrieks, and looking out saw Fisck riding at the top of his speed, pursued by Scarface Charley and fifteen others. At Schroeder's cabin some of the savages halted to set fire to it, while Scarface kept up the pursuit of Fisck, who finally gained the stable, which Applegate had already began to fortify, piling up logs to strengthen the wall, while three of his Modocs stood guard outside.
As the enemy approached, the guards fired. The fire was returned, when Scarface passed by, and stopped about four hundred yards away to counsel with his party. In order to gain time, Applegate directed Jim Sconchin to go out to them and hold a parley. That Applegate had the most entire confidence in his Indian allies was shown by this action; for had Jim the least desire to join the enemy, some of whom were his relatives, the opportunity was furnished. So far was he from betraying his almost single-handed white leader, that he quite deceived Scarface and his followers, pretending to them to have a party of sympathizers at the stable, and offering to bring them out to confer with him.
During this conference Jim learned that the hostile ​Modocs had planned to finish the work of spoliation on that day. Captain Jack, with eighteen warriors, was to operate on the west side of Lost river to the stone ford, cross there, and join Scarface. After they had killed all the men who were out looking for the dead, and burned all the houses, they would return to Crawley's the same night, and attack Jackson's camp. Charged with these particulars, Jim returned to the stable, which had been hurriedly converted into a fort, with port-holes bristling with guns.
Scarface waited some time for the return of his supposed ally, who not coming, he cautiously advanced, and seeing the preparations made to receive him knew he had been outwitted. Fearing to make a charge from that side, he took a circuit and when out of rifle range started at a brisk gait to swoop down upon the stable from the rear. Again Jim Sconchin filled the breach of danger, darting across the open space between the stable and a hayrick, and firing the hay. It flamed up, and the attacking party retired to the shelter of the sage-brush, half a mile off.
In the meantime the party of white men under Ivan Applegate were at no great distance away, and saw much that was transpiring without understanding it. Mistaking his brother's party of Indians for the enemy, and having witnessed the pursuit of Fisck by Scarface and the subsequent burning of the hayrick, Mr Applegate supposed that the greater part of Jack's force was at the Brotherton place, and signaling his men to come together, they hastily retreated to Crawley's to inform the commander of the military forces of the whereabouts of the enemy, and also that Fisck and Monroe were killed, as he believed they were, and as they would have been but for his brother.
The guns that were fired as signals by Ivan Applegate were equally misinterpreted by those in the stable, who feared that Captain Jack had already reached that side of the river, and was attacking the other party. In this supposed imminent peril, a Klamath ​called Whistler was entrusted with the dangerous duty of carrying a message to the military camp under a flag of truce. As he did not return, and it was not considered expedient to stand a siege under the circumstances, when night came on the party mounted and set out for Crawley's, preferring the risk of meeting the enemy to remaining shut up until Jack should appear.
But the non-appearance of Jack, and the apparent inaction of Scarface, were not occasioned by a fight elsewhere, as was conjectured. The company of Klamaths before mentioned as sent by Dyar to reenforce Jackson, had been on a scout down the west side of the river under Blow, one of the head men on the reservation, and returning was seen by Jack, who prudently kept concealed. Scarface, too, had been frustrated in his designs by the flight toward Yainax of two of Sconchin's Modocs, held by him since the affair of the 29th. Seizing a favorable 'moment, they set off" at full speed, pursued by half the hostile party, which depletion of his numbers left Scarface without the strength to make an attack. These at the time unknown but favorable circumstances deprived the retreat of a portion of the danger in which it was thought to be involved, and also prevented the plan of an attack on the military camp from being carried into effect as designed.
Halfway on their journey, Applegate's party were met by Whistler, accompanied by the Klamath chiefs Dave Hill and Blow, with their company of scouts, who returned with them to Crawley's, where the forces were so arranged for the night that the Indians could not attack without exposing themselves to the fire from two camps a short distance apart. It was discovered next morning that some of the Indians had crawled up within two hundred yards of the camps, but fearing to attack had contented themselves with taking two horses to show their daring.
On the morning of the 4th a party of seven citi​zens, with thirty-three Klamaths and friendly Modocs, returned to Tule lake and brought in all the dead except Miller, whose remains were found about Christmas, horribly mutilated; and the Younger Boddy, who was discovered two weeks earlier. On the way to Linkville to bury the dead, on the 5th, Applegate's brothers, who were in charge of the property that remained undestroyed, and of the expedition generally, met a party of fifteen volunteers under Captain Kelly, and learned that their father, L. Applegate, had started for Clear lake with seven men from Ashland. Fearing he might fall into danger with so small a force, they hastened back to camp that night, and joining Kelly's company went on to Brotherton's place with them on the morning of the 6th. When near the lake they could see about a mile away a party of eight, whether Indians or not they could not tell, and riding along the edge of the lake two white men, who they feared were all that was left of the Ashland party. Ivan Applegate rode forward, and found them to be two advanced guards of a company of cavalry from Camp Bidwell on its way to Crawley's. Taking Applegate, whose face was painted, for an Indian, the guards would not permit him to come near, but conversed with him at a distance until informed of their mistake. The party of eight, who were now known to be white men, and believed to be the Ashland party, also concealed themselves in the rocks on the approach of Kelly's party, nor would they come out until the soldiers went to them and explained that their friends wished to join them. It was then found that the party consisted of the seven Ashland men, under Jesse Applegate, his brother being unable to ride any farther. They were trying to save some of the property and stock belonging to ,the murdered men or their bereaved families.
Entering lower Klamath lake from the south is a small stream forking toward the west, the southern ​branch being known as Cottonwood, and the western branch as Willow creek. On each of these branches, at the crossing of the roads, was a rancho; that on the Cottonwood being owned by Van Brewer, and that on Willow creek by Fairchild. Another stream entering the lake on the west side was known as Hot creek; and here too, at the crossing, was a settler named Dorris. Others were living in the vicinity. Between Dorris' and Fairchild's places was an encampment of forty-five Indians called the Hot Creeks, a squalid band, not yet hostile, but which might become so if left to the persuasions or coercion of Captain Jack. These the settlers, after the fight at Lost river, determined to remove to the reservation. The Indians were not unaware of the position in which Jack's band was placed by their refusal to go upon the reservation. Being greatly frightened they easily yielded, and on the 5th of December started for the reservation under the charge of Fairchild, Dorris, Colver, and others whom Dyar had been notified to meet at Linkville, where the Indians would be turned over to him. But being told by a drunken German that if they started for the reservation they would be killed on the way, they fled.
Fairchild, Dorris, Ball and Beswick then determined to make an effort to persuade Captain Jack to surrender, submit to the authorities, and prevent the impending war. Being personally well known to the Indians, they went accompanied by three of the Hot Creeks, and without arms, to seek Jack among the Juniper ridges between Lost river and the lava beds south of Tule lake. They were successful in finding him, and used every argument to influence him to accept the proffered peace but without avail. Jack rejected any and all overtures that looked toward any interference with his liberty, and boldly declared his desire to fight, telling Fairchild that he wished the soldiers to come, and was prepared for them. Toward ​his visitors, who he knew were actuated by a desire to save him as well as the white men, he conducted himself in a friendly manner, even lending Fairchild a horse to ride, his own having strayed, or having been stolen by Jack's band.
In this conference Jack reiterated his charges against the Indian department, and denied all responsibility in the matter of the fight of the 29th of November, saying that the troops fired first; also denying that he or Scarface had had anything to do with the murder of the settlers which followed, saying that Long Jim was accountable for those atrocities; pretending to be quite above killing settlers, and able to fight armed men. The result of the conference was twofold. It gave Jack an opportunity to gain over the Hot Creeks who accompanied Fairchild and through them the whole band; and it convinced the military that no terms need be demanded of the Modocs until they could enforce an unconditional surrender. War was inevitable; and the settlers along^ the route from Lost river to Fairchild's immediately removed their families to Yreka, while those in other parts of the country were removed to Rogue River valley. Men who must remain in isolated localities surrounded themselves with stockades.
When Colonel Wheaton received the letter of Superintendent Odeneal, before referred to, it found him confined to his bed with quinsy. He immediately answered that steps had already been taken to concentrate, if necessary, all the available mounted men of Harney, Bidwell, Warner, and Klamath to compel the removal of Jack's band to the reservation, should they resist; but he trusted there would be no serious difficulty when the attempt came to be made.
In reply to the letter of Colonel Green informing him of Jack's refusal to move, or even to listen to any further parley on the subject, and of Superintendent Odeneal's. requisition for a force to intimidate him, ​Wheaton replied that being ill, he directed the commanding officer at Fort Klamath to represent him, and compel the Modocs to recognize the superintendent's authority, using all the force at his command to this end, and promising to reinforce him with Captain Perry's troop F. of the 1st cavalry, and also a detachment from Camp Bidwell, under Lieutenant J. G. Kyle, which would give him seventy-five cavalrymen in addition to Jackson's troop, making an aggregate force of 150 completely equipped cavalry. He directed him to proceed at once upon this duty, in every way sustaining the Indian department, but adding that nothing more than a show of military force would be required to awe sixty armed Modocs into submission. The consequence of not having made a sufficient show of such force is already known. Before Wheaton's order arrived at Fort Klamath the mischief had been consummated.
The moment that news of the disaster reached Camp Warner, Wheaton dispatched Perry's troop, by the way of Yainax, to join Jackson at Crawley's, and ordered Captain Bernard from Camp Bidwell, with all the men that could be spared from that post, to the same point, by the way of the southern emigrant road. Perry's company left Bigg's rancho, at the north end of Goose lake valley, on the night of the 3d of December, and Captain Bernard's troop left Bidwell, ninety-six miles from Crawley's, on the forenoon of the following day. Both were ordered to make forced marches, and not to wait for supply-trains, which would follow; and yet with all the haste that could be made, a week had elapsed, and ample opportunity afforded the Modocs to remove to any stronghold they might select, before reënforcements or supplies reached the camp at Crawley's.
In order to protect the roads between Linkville and other settlements, and the route to Yreka, which seemed the first and most important duty, Captain ​Bernard's troop was stationed at Land's place, which was on the east shore of Tule lake, on the border of volcanic country popularly known as the lava beds, and which extended around the southern shore of the lake westward for fifteen miles. From Bernard's camp to that particular portion of the lava beds where the scout had discovered Captain Jack's band to be safely stationed, was about thirteen miles, the trail to the stronghold being over and among masses of broken rock of every size, and similar in character to that which had afforded the Pit Rivers their secure hiding-places when General Crook attacked them in the autumn of 1867. On the west side of the lava beds was stationed Perry's command, at Van Bremer's rancho, distant twelve miles from the stronghold, at the crossing of Cottonwood creek by what was known as Lickner's road, and not far south of the crossing of the Yreka road; while Jackson remained at Crawley's where Green had his headquarters.
As fast as transportation could be procured, the material of war was being gathered. The governors of Oregon and of California were called upon for aid by the citizens of both states, the war being almost equally in both. Governor Booth of California responded by sending arms and ammunition on the call of the settlers near the boundary, the arms being out of date, and the ammunition two sizes too large for the arms Governor Grover, requested by Superintendent Odeneal to furnish arms to the people of Oregon, responded by forwarding an immediate supply. The Washington Guard of Portland, Captain Charles S. Mills, tendered its services to the state, but were declined only because a company of volunteer militia organized at Jacksonville, and another company raised in Klamath basin had already been accepted; the former under John E. Boss, and the latter under O. C. Applegate. Applegate's company consisted of seventy men, nearly half of whom were Indians from the reservation, mixed Klamaths, Mo​docs, Snakes, and Pit Rivers. They were occupied during the time the regular troops were massing their material, in scouting through the country, to prevent not only fresh outrages on citizens, but to intercept Jack's messengers and spies, whose visits to Camp Yainax were a source of some uneasiness.
Now that Jack had decided upon war, his great endeavor was to gain over the Modocs on the reservation as he had done the Hot Creeks, and in order to do this he employed threats as well as entreaties. Those who would not help him were to be considered his enemies, and killed as if they were whites. The Hot Creeks, being off the reservation and unprotected, were easily convinced that their safety lay in following Jack; the reservation Indians were differently placed. So long as they were loyal to their treaty obligations, they could demand the protection of the government. It was even for their interest to assist in putting down Jack, who they knew would scruple at nothing to carry his points, or to draw them into the trouble he was himself in. Sconchin and the most intelligent of the reservation Modocs understood this perfectly. At the same time there was always the possibility that Jack might carry out his threat to destroy the camp at Yainax, in which case trouble would follow, either through the conflict of the two bands, or through the reservation Indians being frightened into compliance with Jack's demands. Nor was compulsion alone to be feared, but the influence of the feeling of kinship, which is strong among the Indians. In order to guard against a surprise, the agency buildings were enclosed by palisades, and a guard maintained day and night.
When Canby received the report of the battle of the 29th of November and the subsequent slaughters, he ordered Colonel Mason, with a battalion numbering sixty-four men, to proceed to the Klamath country to join the command of the district of the Lakes. ​On the evening of the 3d of December Mason, left Portland by special train, accompanied by captains George H. Burton and V. M. C. Silva, and lieutenants W. H. Boyle and H. De W. Moore. On arriving at Roseburg, the roads being very heavy with mud and the transportation of baggage difficult, the remainder of the march to Jacksonville and over the mountains in rain and snow occupied nearly two weeks, so that it was past the middle of December when Mason reported to Green at Crawley's. It was not until about the same time that Wheaton, having recovered from his indisposition, reached Green's headquarters from Camp Warner by the way of Fort Klamath, where he found the supply of ammunition nearly exhausted by issues to the settlers on the day after the battle at Jack's camp, necessitating the sending of Captain Bernard with a detachment and wagons to Camp Bid well for a supply.
Meantime neither the Indians nor the troops were idle. Captain Perry was still at Van Bremer's with forty cavalrymen. Colonel Ross, in command of the Jacksonville volunteers, was at Snell's place, near Whittles' ferry. On the 16th of December detachments from both companies made a reconnoissance of Jack's position, approaching it within a mile, and being led to believe that it could be surrounded so as to compel him to surrender. Of the strength of the Modoc position the military authorities knew nothing except by rumor up to this time, and had not yet learned definitely much. Few whites had ever visited this place, the access to which was extremely difficult. It was known that the lava beds contained an area of ten miles square, broken by fissures and chasms from ten to a hundred feet in width, many of them a hundred feet deep, and that it abounded in caves, one of which was said to contain fifteen acres of clear space, with an abundance of good water and many openings, the largest of which was of the size of a common door. There were places in the lava beds where grass grew ​in small flats, the trails to which were known only to the Indians, and where their horses were secure. From the rocky pinnacles with which the region was studded, the advance of an enemy could be discovered five miles off; while from their secure hiding-places the dwellers in this savage Gibraltar could watch their approach within twenty feet. When the stores collected in the caves were exhausted, they could steal out through the winding passages, and watching their opportunity drive in the cattle found grazing outside the lava beds; or could in the same stealthy manner procure fish and fowl from the lake. Nothing could be stronger or better chosen than the Modoc position. Should ammunition fail them, they could still make arrows. Even in cold weather little snow fell in the lava beds, and that little soon melted away from the warm rocks. The reconnoissance revealed many if not all these advantages, and impressed all minds with the certainty that it would be by hard fighting that Jack would be dislodged. Among other things, it revealed the apparent necessity of using howitzers and shells to drive them out of their hiding-places, and terrify them. An order was accordingly sent to Vancouver for two howitzers, waiting for which occasioned still further delay and much, impatience among the troops, both regulars and volunteers, the latter having enlisted for thirty days only, and the time being already half spent in comparative inaction. The weather was very cold, besides, and the state troops but ill supplied with blankets and certain articles of provision. Another difficulty presented itself The volunteers being state troops had organized to fight in their own territory, whereas the Modoc stronghold lay just over the fine in the state of California; but Wheeler and Green recognized and legalized the invasion of California by ordering Ross to pursue and fight the hostile Indians wherever they could be found, regardless of state lines.
​Actual hostilities were commenced on the 2 2d of December by Jack's band in force attacking a wagon from Camp Bidwell, with a small detachment under Bernard, when within a mile of camp at Land's, on the east side of Tule lake. One soldier, five horses, and one mule were killed at the first fire delivered from an ambuscade. The sound of their guns being heard at camp. Lieutenant Kyle hastened to the rescue with nearly all the troops, only ten being mounted. Skirmishing was kept up throughout the day, the Indians being driven from one rocky ledge to another by the superior arms of the troops, the range of which seemed to surprise them greatly. Their object in attacking was to capture the ammunition in the wagon, in which attempt they failed, losing their horses, and four warriors killed and wounded. A bugler whom they pursued outran them, and made good his escape to Crawley's, when Jackson's troop was at once sent to the aid of Bernard, but before his arrival the Indians had retreated. About the same time the Indians showed themselves in small parties on Lost river, opposite the military headquarters, inviting the attack of the soldiers, and also on the mountain near Van Bremer's, where Perry and Ross were encamped. Evidently the apparent hesitation of the troops had given them much encouragement.
About the 25th of December Wheaton, who was awaiting the arrival of the howitzers and of ammunition from Camp Bidwell before making an attack on the Modoc stronghold, had as above mentioned ordered the Oregon volunteers to the front. Captain Applegate, anticipating an early engagement, and fearing what might happen in the event of the Modocs being driven from the lava beds without being captured, sent information of the coming battle to the settlers, and instructed them to fortify. The people in Langell valley nearest the stronghold, preferred going to Linkville; and while a party of five families were en route they were fired upon by Modocs concealed in ​the rocky ridge near the springs on Lost river, twenty miles from that place, but were relieved and escorted to their destination by a scouting party. A supply train on its way from Fort Klamath to headquarters was also attacked, and a party of the escort wounded, being relieved in the same manner by the volunteers.
Applegate having transferred the case of Camp Yainax to Dyar, who with a guard of fifteen men proceeded to take charge, and watch over the friendly Modocs in case of a visit from the hostilos, hastened to join Green's forces at the front, where drilling and scouting continued to occupy the time. Green, who retained command of the troops, under Wheaton, was ordered to attack the Indians whenever, in his judgment, sufficient supplies and ammunition had been received, but not to attack until these had been furnished, and in the meantime to make frequent reconnoissances.
Green had never fought the Oregon Indians, and was confident that when his preparations were complete, he should achieve an easy victory. With the howitzers, and one snow storm, he said, he was ready to begin.
On the 5th of January, Captain Kelly of the volunteers, with a party of twelve men, and five Indian scouts, made a reconnoissance to look for a more practicable route than the one in use from Van Brimmer's. Green's headquarters, to the Modoc stronghold. On the way they came upon a party from Jack's camp of about twenty warriors, evidently upon a foraging expedition, who retreated toward camp on being discovered, and were pursued by the volunteers for three miles. When overtaken they had dismounted and fortified. The volunteers also dismounted, answering the fire from the rocks which soon brought to the rescue of the beseiged the remainder of Jack's warriors. The soldiers then retreated to an open field, followed by the Modocs, who, finding their position unfavorable for attack, returned to their stronghold.
​A run by Applegate with twenty men, around Van Brimmer's hill, as the ridge between Van Brimmer's and the lava beds was called, revealed the fact that the Modocs used this height as an observatory whence they informed themselves of the movements of the troops. Scarface afterward said that Applegate's party passed within twenty feet of his hiding place, but he could not safely attack. On the 12th of January a scouting expedition, consisting of thirteen men under Perry, a few Klamath scouts under Donald McKay, thirty men, half of them Indians, under Applegate, and the whole under Green, made a reconnoissance to the lava beds from Van Brewer's, to ascertain the practicability of taking wagons to a position in their front. On the appearance of Green with Perry's detachment, the Modoc pickets fired on them from a rocky point of the high bluff, on the verge of the lava beds. Perry returned their fire, and drove the Modoc guard over the bluff, shooting one of Shacknasty's men through the shoulders. Applegate came up in time to observe that the Modocs were scattering in small parties to ascend the bluff and get on the flank of the troops, when he distributed his Indians along the bluff for a considerable distance, in the rocks, to intercept them.
Scarface, who was standing upon a high point in the lava beds, discovered the movement, and cried out in a stentorian voice to his warriors, "keep back. I can see them in the rocks." The Modoc guard then fell back half way down the hill, where they made a stand, and uttered speeches of defiance to the soldiers, and entreaty to their Indian allies, reproaching them for joining themselves to their natural enemies the white men. Captain Jack and Black Jim were very confident, daring the troops to come down and fight them on the lava beds. Hooker Jim said, once he had been a peace man, but was now for war, and if the soldiers wanted to fight, the opportunity should be afforded them. One of their medicine men then ​made an address to the scouts, entreating them to join the Modocs, saying that if all the Indians should act in concert they would be few enough. Donald McKay answered them in the Cay use tongue that their hands were red with the blood of innocent white people, for which punishment would surely fall upon them. Jack then said he did not want to fight Cayuses, but soldiers; and growing indignant, finally invited them to come and fight him, saying he could whip them all. The Klamaths asked permission to reply, but were checked by Green, who did not think the communication profitable to either side.
A retreat was ordered, it not being the intention of Green to fight on that day, and with so small a force. To this Applegate's Klamaths were opposed, saying that the troops had the advantage of position, and could easily do some execution on the Modocs. As the force of Green withdrew, Jack's men resumed their position on the high bluff, and Applegate's company being then on the summit of the second ridge wished to open on them, but were restrained, and the command returned to headquarters.
It was now the middle of January, and nothing had been done to relieve the public suspense. The settlers in Klamath valley remained in the fort. The road from Tule lake southward was closed. Fairchild and Dorris had converted their places into fortified camps. There was talk of other settlers being exposed, and of volunteer companies forming in some of the northern California towns to go to their assistance; in fact Mr Dorris had been selected to make personal application to the California governor in their behalf. But this functionary had other advisers, and had made or did soon make a recommendation to the government to set apart five thousand acres of land, in the vicinity preferred by Captain Jack, as a reservation for the Modocs; and implied at least that it was a desire for speculation on the part of the Indian department in ​Oregon which brought on the war; a charge justly resented by the people of southern Oregon The government, however, declined to yield any further to the demands of Captain Jack or his intercessors.
On the 16th of January, everything being in readiness and the weather foggy, which answered in lieu of a snowstorm to hide the operations of the troops, the army moved upon Jack's stronghold. General orders had been issued on the 12th concerning the disposition of the troops, and the most perfect understanding prevailed as to the duty expected of every division of the forces. The regulars in the field numbered two hundred and twenty-five, and the volunteers about one hundred and fifty. The latter consisted of the Jacksonville company, the Klamath company, and Fairchild's California company of twenty-four sharpshooters who offered their services on the 16th.
At four o'clock in the morning Colonel Green, with Captain Perry's troops, moved up to the bluff on the south-west of Tule lake, to clear it of Modoc pickets and scouts, and cover the movement of the main force to a camp on the bluff three miles west of the Modoc stronghold, located so as not to be observed by the enemy. By three in the afternoon the whole force on the west side of the lake, consisting of Mason's battalion; two companies of infantry under Captain Burton and Lieutenant Moore; a detachment of another company, under sergeant John McNamara; the Oregon volunteers, commanded by General John E. Ross; two companies under captains Hugh Kelly and O. C. Applegate; Lieutenant Miller's howitzer battery; Captain Fairchild's sharpshooters—all but seven of the scouts, dismounted, and provisioned with cooked rations for three days, had been meanwhile encamped in a juniper grove, with a picket line thrown out along the edge of the bluff, and another around the camp.
Captain Bernard's force on the east side of the ​lake, consisting of his own and Captain Jackson's companies, and twenty regularly enlisted Klamath scouts under Dave Hill, had been ordered to move up to a point not more than two miles from the Modoc position, to be in readiness to attack at sunrise ; but proceeding in ignorance of the ground, he came so near to the stronghold that he was attacked and obliged to retreat with four men wounded.
The camp was early astir on the morning of the 17th. As the troops looked down from the high bluff upon the lava beds, the fog which overhung it resembled a quiet sea. They were to plunge down into this, and feel for the positions assigned them. Mason with the infantry occupied a position on the left of the line, resting on the lake, with Fairchilds sharpshooters flanking him; to the right of the infantry were the howitzers; in the centre General Wheaton and staff, Major General Miller and General Ross and staff; on the right of the generals captains Kelly and Applegate; and on the extreme right Captain Perry's troops, dismounted; Colonel Green in command of the whole. Descending the bluff" by the narrow trail, surprised at meeting no Modoc pickets, the troops gained their positions in the order given about seven o'clock. Hardly had the line formed when the Modocs opened fire. It had been the design of Wheaton to move out on the right until Green's command met Bernard's in front of the Modoc position, when three shots should be fired by the howitzers to announce a parley, when Captain Jack would be given an opportunity to surrender. But to carry out this programme, it was soon discovered, was impossible. The Modocs were not to be surrounded in their stronghold and asked to capitulate, but forced the troops to fight for every foot of ground on the way toward it.
On account of the density of the fog—which now was found to be an obstacle instead of a help to success in reaching the central cave, the Indians having ​the advantage of being familiar with the passages among the rocks, whereas the troops were obliged to scramble over and among them as best they could, at the risk of falling any moment into an ambush—the movement aimed at on the right was extremely slow. Nevertheless, it was steadily pushed forward, all caution being used, the men sometimes lying down and crawling prone over the rocks within a few yards of the Indians, who could be heard talking, but who seldom could be seen, though they were able to see through openings in their defences the approaches of the troops as far as the fog would permit.
The howitzers, which had been so much relied upon to demoralize the Indians proved useless so long as the enemy's position was concealed from view. The line, after advancing a mile and a half, was halted, and a few shells thrown, causing some excitement among the Modocs, over whose heads they passed, falling beyond Bernard's line on the east side of the stronghold; but through fear of hitting Bernard's troops the firing of the battery was suspended and Green pushed on the west line by a series of short charges another mile and a half passing over ravines running and sounding the war-whoop.
It is related by Applegate that Green, who during this advance carried one of his gloves carelessly in his hand, was frequently shot at by the concealed Modocs, who attributed his immunity from harm to some charm or "medicine" contained in this glove. They also shot at Captain Applegate and his brother Ivan who accompanied him, with similar results, from which they inferred these persons had received protection from a miraculous power, and that powder and shot were wasted upon them. The recklessness of Green was remarked upon by his command as well as by the Indians.
About one o'clock the extreme right of the line, which now enveloped the stronghold on the west and south, was brought to a halt by an immensely deep ​and wide ravine which separated it from Bernard's line on the other side, and which strongly guarded the stronghold, being close at hand. Green at once saw that it could not be crossed without an immense sacrifice of life. A consultation with Wheaton and other officers led to a change of plan, and it was determined to move the west line by the left around the north side of the Modoc position, along the shore of the lake, connecting^ with the right of Bernard's force from that direction. An order was given to reorganize the line for withdrawal, which, owing to the difficult nature of the ground, was not understood by all the officers, and created a confusion which but for the all-enveloping fog might have resulted in a heavy loss.
"While we were charging down this ravine," writes Applegate, "I fell, probably from the effect of a shot. Recovering myself, I joined the line, jumped the cañon at the bottom, and took up position on a sage plain on the other side. Such a volley met us that the sage brush was mown down above our heads where we lay. Then came the order Look out for Bernard! The volley was from his line. While preparing to charge the stronghold, I saw the troops on the left withdrawing. I did not understand the movement, but kept place in the skirmish line. I saw a soldier fall, one of Perry's men, and took charge of him. On nearing the brink of the stronghold I found most of the troops had passed under the bluff, and the rapid firing gave notice that a severe conflict was going on there. A message was received from General Wheaton to report to headquarters for orders, which I did, and found that the regulars had already passed around to the north side of the lava bed to join Bernard, and that Wheaton wanted the volunteers to remain with the headquarters. I was ordered to take my men to the lake for water, after which I formed a line in advance of ​headquarters in a series of crags parallel with the stronghold, and fought the Modocs as we moved.
"Hooker Jim was lying behind a wall of stone, appearing to command the Modocs on the left of the stronghold. His voice was known to the Indians with me; he was calling attention to the fact that the regulars were hopelessly separated from the volunteers, and that by moving around our right flank they could cut off our retreat. I sent Lieutenant Hizer to headquarters to report this. I then saw a signal-fire spring up behind Hooker Jim's position, and then another, three hundred yards to the west, and heard the war-cry repeated there, and knew the Modocs were making a movement to cut us off. I then went to headquarters myself and reported the situation. General Wheaton had made preparations to remain in a little cove on the shore of the lake over night, but now determined to return to the high bluff. We could not safely have remained with only a hundred men, burdened with the wounded and artillery, and after fighting the Indians all night we should have been prevented getting to the bluff, and probably all massacred.
"On getting my report. General Wheaton ordered me to withdraw from the rocks and lead the retreat, Kelly to cover the rear, and to fall back four miles. I kept out a skirmish line to the left until the men were exhausted and falling. When it became so dark it became difficult to follow the trail, I put one of my Modocs on the advance as guide, who led us out to the top of the bluff. So suddenly was the movement effected that the enemy did not discover it. We reached camp at eleven o'clock, wearied to death."
The Modocs resorted to many devices to deceive the troops, such as wearing sage-brush fastened on their heads to conceal their movements, and setting up rocks of the size of a man's head on their breastworks to draw the fire of the soldiers, who shot hundreds of bullets before they discovered the trick.
​By the time the volunteers, who during the skirmishing along the route had changed position with Perry's troop, reached headquarters, the regulars, who were now all in the advance, had made the connection by their left with Bernard, encountering a destructive fire as they passed between the stronghold and the lake, where was a ravine only less dangerous than that on the south side. A detachment of Burton's company of infantry and Fairchild's riflemen had pushed forward and taken position in a pile of rocks near this crossing to cover the troops as they passed. But, as Wheaton afterward expressed it, on their side there "was nothing to fire at but puffs of smoke issuing from cracks in the rocks," while every movement of a soldier was likely to be observed by the Modocs, who swarmed behind their well selected defences. The most of the troops passed by crawling over the rocks on their hands and feet, suffering terribly, but Burton's and Fairchild's companies were not able to extricate themselves until after dark. After passing the first ravine, Bernard, who could not be seen for the fog, called across a point of the lake to say that he was within four or five hundred yards of the Modoc position, and Green determined to join him if possible, and chargfe the strong-hold before dark, but after advancing^ alono; the lake shore under fire from the overhano^ino; cliffs, he found himself confronted with a deep chasm in Bernard's front so well defended that he had not been able to cross it all da}", and had also to defend himself from a flank movement by the Modocs on his left. While in this discouraging position, the fog lifted, and a signal was received from the general.
The day was now well-nigh spent, and it was by this time evident that there was nothing to be gained, even with plenty of time, by exposing the volunteers to the same ordeal through which the regulars had passed. It was plainly im]3ossible to capture the stronghold with the men and means at command. Wheaton therefore ordered the volunteers to remain ​where they were, signalled Green to come into camp if he thought best, while he himself prepared to spend the night in a small cove on the shore of the lake.
But the Indians had observed the separation of the volunteers from the regulars, and were making preparations to surround them by getting between them and the high bluff where stores of ammunition and supplies had been, left in charge of only ten men. Signal fires were already springing up in that direction, and other indications given of the intentions of the Indians. Upon this discovery Wheaton determined to fall back to camp, and again signalled Green of his change of plan, authorizing him to withdraw to Bernard's camp at Land's rancho, fourteen miles distant. The forces on the west side were all of Ross' command, a portion of Perry's troop, and the infantry reserve, separated by the fog from the main force during the flank movement. Just at dark the retreat to camp began, Applegate's company leading, the wounded with the artillery in the centre, Kelly's company and Lieutenant Boss' detachment skirmishing with the Indians in the rear. As night advanced the Modocs withdrew, and stumbling along the rocky trail the command on the west reached the camp of the night before about midnight, thoroughly exhausted.
But if they found a march of four miles under the circumstances exhausting. Green's forces were in a worse position. Fearing to expose his men a second time to the peril of passing the Modoc position, when night had fallen he commenced the march of fourteen miles over a trail fit only for a chamois to travel, carrying the wounded in blankets, or on the backs of ponies captured during the day. One of Fairchild's men. Jerry Crook, whose thigh-bone was shattered, rode the whole distance with his leg dangling. His comrades tied a rope to it by which it could be lifted out of the way of obstacles ; but nothing could prevent frequent rude shocks from the rocks and bushes. ​The sufferings of the wounded were horrible. Nor were they ended when they came to Bernard's camp, for on the 19th they were sent to Fort Klamath, seventy miles away, over a rough road, three miles of which were naked boulders. And there were others whose sufferings were agonizing to bear or to behold. It was not until between one and two o'clock P.M. of the 18th that Green's command reached camp. When a halt was called, the men fell asleep standing or riding. Their clothes were in shreds from crawling among the rocks; their shoes were worn away from their feet. If they had been a month in the field, they could not have looked more used up in every way. After making arrangements for the removal of the wounded to Fort Klamath under charge of Jackson with an escort of twenty men on the night of the 19th, Green and Mason returned to headquarters on the night of the 18th, attended by ten Indian scouts, taking the road around the north side of the lake.
The loss sustained in the reconnoissance—it was no more—of the 17th was nine killed and thirty wounded, including in the latter list Captain David Perry and Lieutenant John G. Kyle of the regulars, both wounded at the crossing of the ravine before the stronghold, and Lieutenant George Roberts of the California volunteer riflemen. The dead were left upon the field, or if alive when left, were soon despatched by the Indian women. There was no doubt that the army had suffered a total defeat at the hands of the Modocs, or that the army officers were surprised by it. Their utterances after the affair were very different from their confident predictions before the trial. "The difficulties encountered in moving; to connect our lines by the lake side were very great," Wheaton reports, "the troops being hardly able to crawl over the sharp rocks and ledges that separate them, and at the same time fight a well-entrenched and desperate enemy, proverbially skillful as marksmen, and armed with good rifles. Bernard had been unable during the en​tire day to advance across the gorge in his front; the movement toward his right was not accomplished until nearly dark, and sunset found the troops too much exhausted to render a night attack practicable. It was evident to all that we had not force enough to invest the enemy's position, or artillery enough to shell him out of it. ... I have never before encountered an enemy, civilized or savage, occupying a position of such great natural strength as the Modoc stronghold, nor have I ever seen troops engage a better armed or more skillful foe."
"It is utterly impossible to give a description of the place occupied by the enemy as their stronghold," says Green. " Everything was done by officers and men that could be done; troops never behaved better. They contended gallantly with an enemy hidden by rocks, deep gorges, and fog; we tried it on every side with the same result." "I will leave it to others," remarks Mason, "to find language to convey an adequate idea of the almost impassable character of the country over which these operations were conducted, and which make the Modoc position a second Gibraltar." And Bernard says, "I have wished, respectfully, to say that the place the Indians now occupy cannot be taken by a less force than seven hundred men; and to take the place by an assault by this force will cost half the command in killed and wounded. A large force, well supplied, judiciously handled, moving at night by approaches, piling up rocks to protect themselves so they can operate during the day, may take the place. Howitzers could be effectually used on the east side of the lava beds."
No blame could attach to any in consequence of defeat. The soldier should have anticipations of victory, and a general should believe in his own skill. There had been no drawbacks; the officers had gone into the fight fully prepared, even to the fog which was to conceal their advance; and though this circircumstance, or its constant continuance, was ​mentioned as detrimental, there could be no doubt that it was a great protection to the troops, and that without it the loss would have been twice as great. All through the Indian wars there was no small jealousy between volunteers and regulars. In this instance Applegate was accused of doing nothing with his company when, in reality, he was preparing to charge the stronghold at the other end of the line when ordered to withdraw, and lost two of his men. Boyle says the Oregon volunteers were discouraged, and therefore failed to keep up the connection with the right of Perry, when the fact is that so far from being discouraged or reluctant to join Perry on their right, they had passed Perry and were on his right, and so far in advance of him that when the command was given to withdraw toward the left they did not hear it and were left behind. A portion of Perry's troop which failed to connect was excused on account of the fog. Boyle dismisses the volunteers with the remark that although there were a few brave men among the volunteers, notably, Captain Kelly and Lieutenant Ream, "their services did not remunerate the government for the rations consumed and the large amount of forage furnished their horses." Boyle, being quartermaster, may have felt the drain on his supplies; but as to the value to the government of anything that was done in the Modoc country about this time, there might have been grave question without casting slurs upon the people of Oregon.
For some reason, which could probably be explained in military circles, Boyle also blames Captain Bernard for the slaughter which occurred in passing the stronghold on the north, saying that he did not obey Colonel Green's order to advance his left and draw the fire of the Modocs while the troops were trying to make the connection with his forces; and this, although Green says in his report that he "sent Bernard with his troop to drive them—the Indians—back, which he did successfully." Bernard had more than his share ​of the fighting to do, the Indians in front of him being in greater numbers than at any other point. In a desperate encounter, such as this one, the troops needed the inspiration of cool and confident officers ; but Captain Jackson was so ill this day that, according to Bernard, he should have been in the hospital, "falling several times upon the ground from exhaustion." Doubtless his lieutenants behaved valorously, but it is plain that Bernard had his hands full, and that he received blame which should not have been accorded to him.
The loss on the side of the Modocs was unknown, but was not thought to be great. They were considered to be m as good condition for making sudden descents on the settlements as before the battle ; and Applegate's company was sent to Lost river to protect those nearest to the stronghold. In fact they were scouting within six miles of Lost river on the 19th, when Lieutenant Beam with twenty-five volunteers was on his way to Bernard's camp with the horses belonging to Fairchild's company. They had captured the arms and ammunition of the fallen soldiers, which was considerable, as the troops were ordered to have one hundred rounds on their persons, and fifty rounds in close reserve. The time for which the Jacksonville volunteers had enlisted, thirty days, had expired on the 6th, the prospect of a battle only having detained them beyond that time; and as they had left their homes and business without preparation, at a moment's warning, they were now anxious to return. The possibility that the result of the battle of the 17th might cause an excitement on the reservation, rendered the presence of Captain Applegate at Yainax desirable.
In consideration of these circumstances. General Wheaton, on reaching Van Brimmer's, sent a dispatch to' Portland by the way of Yreka, asking General Canby for three hundred foot-troops and four mortars, and suggesting that the governor of California be ​called upon lo send volunteers to protect that portion of his state open to incursions from the Modocs. To this demand Canby responded by ordering two companies of artillery and two of infantry from the department of California, and one of artillery and one of infantry from the department of the Columbia; and, as the inhabitants of Surprise valley apprehended an uprising of the Snakes on account of the Modoc excitement, a company of cavalry was sent to their protection, making the number of troops, when the reinforcements should arrive in the Modoc country, six hundred exclusive of the garrisons at the several posts in the district of the Lakes. But even with these, the country being in parts inadequately guarded, the general sent a recommendation to army headquarters at Washington that conditional authority should be given him to call upon the governors of California and Oregon for two companies of volunteers from each state.
On the 23d the encampment at Van Brimmer's was abandoned, the troops and stores being removed to Lost river ford, where a permanent encampment was made, and where preparations were carried on for renewing the attack when the reinforcements should arrive. These preparations consisted in constructing two mortar boats with which to attack from the lakeside, while attacking at the same time from the land, surrounding and battering down the stronghold—a plan which, had it been suffered to go into execution, would have put an end to the Modoc war.
But now occurred one of those blunders of administration which have periodically marred our Indian policy
On the 30th of January General Sherman was directed by the secretary of war to notify General Canby by telegraph that offensive operations against the Modocs should cease, the troops being used only to protect the citizens and repel attacks. The explanation soon followed A peace commissioner was to under​take to accomplish what the mihtary had failed to do—conquer the obstinate hostility of the Modoc s and obtain their consent to go upon some reservation, if not upon that one where by the terms of treaty they belonged.
But if Wheaton was surprised at this wholly unexpected change of policy, he was equally mortified at being relieved of his command at the same time by Colonel Alvan C. Gillem of the 1st cavalry. Nor was the dissatisfaction on this account confined to himself, but was shared by most, if not all, of his officers, and the state authorities and people as well.
That Canby regarded the change of policy as a reflection on himself also, seems to be indicated by his telegram to Sherman, in answer to the new order from the president and war department. He said that hostilities with the Modocs could not have been avoided, as they were determined to resist, and had made their preparations; that he had been solicitous that they should be fairly treated, and had taken care that they should not be coerced until their claims had been decided upon by the proper authority; having done that, he now thought they should be treated like any other criminals, as there would be no peace on the frontier until they were subdued and punished. Two or three months later the government was prepared to acknowledge Canby's good judgment.
Sherman replied to Canby protest: "Let all defensive measures proceed, but order no attack on the Indians till the former orders are modified or changed by the President, who seems disposed to allow the peace men to try their hands on Captain Jack." How significant of his opinion of what was going on at Washington is Sherman's dispatch! In the meantime the President and Secretary Delano had an interview with Secretary Belknap, after which Delano informed the secretary of war that he had decided to sand to the scene of the difficulties a commission consisting of three persons, with instruction to ascertain ​
the causes which led to the existmg hostilities, and the most effective measures for preventing their continuance. The Secretary of the Interior further gave it as his opinion in the instructions, that it was advisable to remove the Modocs to " some new reservation, presumably the Coast reservation; and directed the commissioners to endeavor to get their consent to be placed there, unless in their judgment some other place should be better adapted to accomplishing the purpose of the department to make peace. The commissioners were directed not to interfere with the military, otherwise than express a wish that no unnecessary violence should be used toward the Modocs, whose confidence the government desired to obtain, and their voluntary consent to whatever regulations might be made.
As the chairman of the commission, Meacham, had to come from Washington, some time must elapse before the object for which it was organized could be accomplished, or the business begun. This interval was not without its exciting episodes. Between the 17th of January and the 4th of February, eight Modocs had been killed, as many wounded, and nearly all their horses captured, their principal loss occurring on the 25th of January, when, emboldened by their late victory, they attacked the rear guard of Bernard's train while moving camp from the southeast corner of Tule lake to Clear lake. They captured one wagon, when Bernard returned and fought them. No losses were sustained by the troops. The capture of their horses was a serious blow to the Modocs, who were thus deprived of the means of making their predatory excursions into the surrounding country, either for purposes of attack, or to procure subsistence.
Being shorn of a part of his strength, Captain Jack resorted to his native cunning, and allowed it to be s-^id that he was tired of war. A constant communication was kept up between Jack's camp and the Ind ​ian women living with white men in Siskiyou county, the latter visiting the lava beds and carrying information. Soon after the battle of the 17th, and about the time of Bernard's last skirmish, an Indian woman from Dorris' made a stolen visit to Jack's camp, bringino" back with her when she returned another Indian woman named Dixie, who conveyed a message to Dorris and Fairchild from Jack, requesting them to meet him for a conference, at a place appointed, where they might come unarmed, without being molested. Dixie brought the further news, that on the 18tli a quarrel had occurred among the Modocs because Jack and Bogus Charley had not fought on the day of the battle, and that in the difficulty Jack had been shot through the arm, all of which was intended to create the belief that there was a peace party among the Modocs, of which Jack was the head.
This familiar phase of Indian diplomacy did not deceive anyone ; but Fairchild being anxious to converse with Jack, if indeed he wished to have a conference, went out to the bluff overlooking the lava beds, and sent Dixie to inform Jack that he would see him there, and that should he come he would not be harmed; but Jack refused to leave his camp. After sending messages back and forth for some time, Jack offered to come half-way, a proposition declined by Fairchild, who finally sent word he would receive him at his camp on the bluflT anytime up to the evening of the 1st. Jack, however, did not come; and it was believed by many that he had only made an effort to get Fairchild into his power, while others thought he really desired peace, but was afraid to risk being captured. Whatever his motives were, a scouting party of his men, after a quiet interval of two weeks, ventured out and burned the house of Denis Crawley, made historical by the events of the 29th of November, and escaped again to their caves, though pursued by the troops.
Meantime the forces ordered to the Modoc country ​
by Canby were slowly collecting, embarrassed by the difficulty of moving in midwinter. Gillem proceeded to Yreka, where he was met by Major Throckmorton from San Francisco, with his infantry command, and together the^^ pushed forward to Van Brimmer's through a heavy snowstorm, the troops having marched all the way from Redding. A company had been ordered from Camp Gaston, which was compelled to march fifteen daj'S in severe weather before arriving at Yreka. The transportation of supplies was even more difficult than moving troops, though it went steadily on.
On the 3d and 4th of February the Oregon volunteer regulars mustered out. There were at this time 200 men at Wheaton's camp on Lost river, and 100 at Bernard's new camp at Applegate's on Clear lake, while Perry's company was divided between Dorris', Fairchild's and Small's places for their protection. The artillery and other troops were still en route; but there were men enough in the immediate vicinity of the Modoc stronghold to prevent any very open demonstrations on their part had it been their intention to make them. On the 4th of February Gillem took up his headquarters at Van Brimmer's, as being nearer the telegraph station of Yreka, soon after establishing a tri- weekly line of couriers to and from that place. While these preparations were making for war, the commissioners who were to bnng about a peace were also on their way to the front.
When the people most interested in all these proceedings learned that an effort was to be made to coax the Modocs to accept peace and the reservation of their choice instead of punishing them, there was a general feeling of indignation, and the grand jury of Jackson county on the 14th of February indicted eight of Jack's band as being guilty of the slaughter of the 29th and 30th of November on the evidence of Mrs Brotherton and her son who identified them. This step was taken in order to forestall the possible ​
action of the peace commission in removing them beyond the reach of the laws. The sentiment of the sufferers by the Modoc outbreak, and those best informed upon the subject, was that it was an insult to the state, and an outrage upon individuals for the government to open this door of escape for Jack and his band.
The commissioners appointed by the government to conduct the negotiations with Captain Jack were at first A. B. Meacham, L. B. Odeneal, and J. H. Wilbur; but Meacham refusing to serve with either of these men for personal reasons, Jesse Applegate and Samuel Case were substituted. Canby was advised of the appointments, and also that the commissions were instructed to meet and confer with him at Linkville on the 15th of February. The commission was not, however, organized until the 18th, owing to the failure of Meacham to arrive on the day appointed. There was a general feeling that the commission would be a failure, a fact which was acknowledged by its chairman while yet at Yreka, in a telegram to Washington, conveying the intelligence that Governor Grover had filed a protest with the board against any action of the commissicn which should purport to condone the crimes of the Modocs, who should be given up and delivered over to the civil authorities for trial and punishment; and insisting that the commissioners could have no power to declare a reservation on the surveyed and settled lands of Lost river any more than on the settled lands in any other portion of the state. To this protest, which was forwarded to the secretary of the interior, Delano returned answer that the commission should proceed without reference to it; and that if the authority of the United States was defied or resisted, the government w^ould not be responsible for the results, and the state might be left to take care of the Indians without assistance from Washington.
To this somewhat insolent message the people could ​
only reply by still protesting. The commissioners, under tiie orders of the government, repaired to Fairchild's rancho in order to be nearer Captain Jack's headquarters, as well as to be placed in earlier communication with army headquarters and with Washington by means of courier and telegraph, and commenced their labors. On his way to Fairchild's, at Yreka, Meacham expressed the opinion in public that Jack was an honorable man, and would go upon a reservation if requested by him to do so; but in his dispatches to Secretary Delano he was less hopeful. A messenger was immediately sent to Whittle's ferry to secure the services of Bob Whittle and his Indian wife Matilda in carrying on negotiations with Jack. Pending the result of Matilda's interview with Jack, she havinp* been sent to solicit a conference between the Modocs and the commissioners, the board entered upon an investigation, so far as they were able, of the causes of the present attitude of the Modocs toward the government and the people of Oregon.
On the 21st of February, the chairman telegraphed to the acting commissioner of Indian affairs at Washingrton, that his messeng^er to Jack had returned brinafing the intelligence that the Modocs were expecting some one to come to them with a message; that they were tired of living in the rocks, and desired peace; were glad to hear from Washington, but did not wish to talk with anyone who had been engaged in the war; and that if Case and Meacham would meet them outside the rocks they should not be harmed. That was not, however, what was reported to the commission by Bob Whittle, who said that the Indians, twenty in number, met him accidentally a mile and a half from camp. The two parties advanced within 100 yards of each other, dismounted, and laying down their arms, went forward and shook hands. Jack and Sconchin, with seventeen armed men, soon came up, and dismounting, also shook hands. Whittle then made known his errand, and Jack consented ​
to a conference if Steele and Roseborougli, of Yreka, and Fairchild should be present, but declined to meet the commissioners, saying that though their hearts might be good they were unacquainted with them, and desired their friends to be present.
The president had already anticipated their wishes, and by the advice of Canby appointed Koseborough as one of the commissioners; and in company with Steele, who, it was thought, would be useful in communicatino; with the Modocs, the new commissioner was on his way to the front, when a second interview was had with Captain Jack. At this meeting, on the 24th of February, Whittle was met a mile from the lava beds by a party of forty Modocs heavily armed, carrying needle guns, but declaring that they had no disposition to fight, and only wanted peace. Jack boasted to Whittle that he was not yet so thoroughly incensed as he might be, and pointed in evidence ta the fact that the houses of Dorris, Fairchild, Van Brimmer, Small, and Whittle, were jet standing; saying again that he would consent to talk with Steele, Roseborough, or Fairchild. No propositions on either side were made for peace, negotiations of this character being left to be considered in general council, should a council be arranged. Meantime Jack was growing impatient, and expressed a desire to have the meeting^ with the commissioners over, A Modoc named Dave returned to the camp of the commissioners with Whittle, and on the following day took a message to Jack that Fairchild would visit him on the 26th to arrange for the council.
Accordingly, on that day Fairchild visited Jack, accompanied, not by Whittle and Matilda, but by Riddle, and his Indian wife Toby, as interpreters. He was charged to tell Jack that the commissioners would come in good faith to make peace, and though he, Fairchild, could not give them the terms, he would fix upon a place and time of meeting, and whatever he agreed to would be accepted. But Jack would ​
not consent to come out of the lava beds to hold a council, nor would Fairchild agree that the commissioners should go unarmed into the lava beds. Fairchild therefore returned without having come to any arrangement; and with him came several of the worst of Jack's band, Hooker Jim, Curly-headed Doctor, and Shacknasty Jim, who wished to make terms with Lalake, the old chief of the Klamaths, for the return of a band of sixty horses which the Klamaths had taken from the Modocs during the war, and which Lalake now promised to restore. No one had any authority to interfere or to prevent the Modocs thus supplying themselves with horses, while pretending to be waiting to make peace with the agents of the government.
On the arrival of Roseborough and Steele the board of commissioners met, when the terms of peace which should be presented to Jack were discussed. The discussion resulted in offering a general amnesty to all Modocs, on condition of their full and complete surrender, and consent to remove to a distant reservation within the limits of Oregon or California; all commissioners voting for these terms except Meacham. Fairchild was also instructed to say that Canby would make peace and conclude terms, Meacham also dissenting from this proposition.
With these instructions Steele proceeded, on the 5th of March, in company with R. H. Atwell, a newspaper reporter, Fairchild, and the interpreters. Riddle and his wife Toby, to the Modoc stronghold, and had a conference with the head men concerning the acceptance of these propositions of the peace commission. Captain Jack gave his consent to the terms offered, and as Steele supposed accepted for his band, though there was evidently some dissatisfaction on the part of a portion of his men. As Steele had but little knowledge of the Modoc language, and as Jack spoke no English except a few English names of things, Steele was deceived as to the real import of ​
what was going on, and misunderstanding Jack's professions of peaceable intent, fully believed he had bound his people to surrender to the government and accept its mercy. The mistake seems to have been a singular one, inasmuch as Riddle and his wife were the best of interpreters, and both Steele and Fairchild familiar with Indian manners; besides which, Scarface could speak English, and probably some of the others.
On returning to headquarters Steele repor-ted that peace was made; the Modocs accepted. An immediate feeling of relief was experienced by the commissioners, who set about preparing despatches and summoning couriers, when Fairchild declared there was a mistake in the report; the Modocs had not agreed to a surrender and removal. So confident was Steele that he had understood Jack correctly that he proposed returning and having a second interview. Fairchild, equally positive there had been a misunderstanding, and fearing the effect when Steele's report became known to the Modocs, declined to expose himself to their rasre. Meacham, in view of these conflicting opinions, cautiously reported that he had reason f )r believing an honorable and permanent peace would be concluded within a few days, at the same time so guarding his statements as to commit himself to no particular theory.
This caution was w^ell timed, as the result of Steele's second interview proved. On returning to the cave the same evening, he found the Indians much excited, by what it was difficult to tell. Hooker Jim and the others who visited the camp at Fairchild's might have been alarmed by stories received from go-between Indian women and vicious white men; this was the view adopted by the friends of the Modocs, But there were other circumstances that looked like premeditated deceit and treachery. The Modocs had been reen forced by twenty warriors, though Captain Jack still professed peace principles. Sconchin was openly hostile, and professed great anger at the pro ​
posal to surrender, rejecting emphatically all offers of peace. Even Steele, whose confidence in the Modocs was so great, was alarmed. That night he slept in the bed of Scarface, who sat beside him until morning to protect him from the bloodthirstiness of others.
In the morning Jack wore instead of his own a woman's hat, and Sconchin, as on the previous evening, made a war speech, violent in tone and manner. When he had finished. Jack threw off his woman's hat and hypocrisy together, and made a very determined war speech, declaring that he would never go upon a reservation to be starved. When told by Steele of the power of the American people, and the futility of resistance, he listened with composure, and then replied, " Kill with bullets don't hurt much; starve to death hurt a heap! "
He referred also to the punishment inflicted on his people when he was a boy by the Yreka volunteers under Ben Wright, and having made as strong a case as he could to justify his actions plainly defied the power of the United States. As much in sympathy with them as was Steele, he was glad to be permitted to return to Fairchild's on the morning of the 4th of March. No full report of this interview was ever made public. It was understood that the peace commissioners offered amnesty to all the Modocs who surrendered as prisoners of war, to remove them to Angel Island in San Francisco bay, and feed and shelter them until a reservation could be found for them in a warmer climate, presumably in Arizona. They were to be comfortably clothed and sheltered where they were until convej'ed to Angel Island, and Canby offered to secure permission for Captain Jack to visit the president of the United States in company with some of his head men.
These offers were, to the comprehension of Jack, but signs of weakness. Why should Canby and the commissioners extend forgiveness to an enemy if they could kill him ? Such an offer could only proceed ​
from a conviction that the Modocs in their caves were invincible; or otherwise the proposition must be a trick to get them out of their stronghold. Jack made a counter proposition, to be forgiven and left in the lava beds. He had only twenty -three warriors, he said, forgetting that on the previous evening Steele had seen sixty-nine at the council. He Avanted Meacham and Applegate, with six men, unarmed, to come on the following day and shake hands with him in conclusion of a peace.
On returnincr from this interview Steele advised the commissioners to cease all negotiations until the Indians should themselves solicit terms; that the Modocs thought the white men were afraid of them, and carried on negotiations solely in the hope of getting Canby and Gillem, Meacham and Applegate in their power, in which event they could certainly kill them. As for himself he would not take the risk again of going to the Modocs.
The second report of Steele produced a decided change in the prospects of the commission, and Meacham at once telegraphed Delano that the Modocs rejected all offers, and that their proposal to meet in full force two of the commissioners and six men, unarmed, in the lava beds signified treachery; that the commissioners were still willing to meet the Modocs, but not on their terms; that the Indians had been reenforced from some source; that protection had been offered to all who would come out of the lava beds; but that the commicsion was a failure and he waited for instructions.
To this candid statement Delano telegraphed that he did not believe the IModocs meant treachery; that the mission should not be a failure; that he believed he understood the unwillingness of the Modocs to confide in him, and that negotiations should be continued. How the honorable secretary came to know so much my authorities do not say. Canby telegraphed to Sherman on the 5th that the reports from ​
the Modocs indicated treachery and a renewal of hostillties. In reply Sherman said on the r)th that the authorities at Washington confided in him but not in the commissioners, and placed the matter in his hands.
While the negotiations with Jack had been in progress the connnissioners were engaged in examining, according to the instructions of the Secretary of the Interior into the cause of the war. On the 22d of February their first report was formulated, in which was recited all the alleged wrongs of the Modocs, as already known to the reader of my general history, dissatisfaction with the Klamath reservation as a place of residence, owing mainly to the domination of the Klamaths and ill treatment by the agents. With reference to these charges, the commissioners remarked that concerning the latter complaint it was well founded; they were satisfied the fault lay in the treaty, and not in the conduct the agents and employes of the reservation. If food and clothing had been insufficient they had nevertheless been impartially distributed. No indulgences had been granted to one tribe or band not extended to all; and while the Klamaths, Snakes, and Sconchin's band of Modocs were contented, Jack and his followers alone found cause to justify a refusal to perform their treaty stipulations.
Out of this refusal had grown the causes which led to the war; the assertion by the Modocs of a right to a country which they had conveyed by treaty to the United States, and which was subsequently settled upon in good faith by citizens of Oregon; their persistence in roaming over, and refusal to abate their pretensions to, this country, treating the settlers as theh tenants, and committing acts which must inevitably lead to collision between the races. Then followed the attempt to compel them to go where they belonged — an attempt ordered by the Indian department at ​
Wasliington—and their resistance. These were the causes which led to the war, as found by the commissioners.
Their instructions also required them to devise the most judicious and effective measures for preventing the continuance of hostilities, and for the restoration of peace. The findings upon this question were rather negative than positive. The commission decided that in any settlement of the existing hostilities it would be inadmissible to return them to the Klamath reservation, or to set apart a reservation for them on Lost river, or anywhere in the vicinity. They objected, also, to a peace on the basis of a general amnesty, which would bring the federal and state governments in conflict, and furnish a precedent calculated to cause misconduct on reservations, besides greatly oftending the friends and neighbors of the slain settlers. It was their opinion that the eight warriors indicted in Jackson county should be surrendered to the state authorities if demanded, though the government should assio'n them counsel for defence, and secure them an impartial trial, protecting them from lawless violence. Should the terms which the commission would submit to the Modocs be accepted, namely, a general amnesty, with the exception of the eight warriors, and removal to a new reservation far away, they should be taken away at once to some fort, other than Fort Klamath, where they could be protected and kept under surveillance until their final destination was decided upon.
The reasons assiofned for these conclusions were that although before the 29th of November it might have been practicable to have assigned the Modocs a reservation on Lost river, the events of that day rendered such a proposition absurd, even had not the previous misconduct of the Indians made it impolitic. There could be no real peace with the Modocs in that vicinity. On the Klamath reservation there could be scarcely less cause of conflict, since the Klamath s had ​
taken part in the war against the Modocs. The Klamaths themselves would object to having the reservation made a penal colony for thieves, with whom they were expected to live on terms of equality. The objections to a general amnesty were founded upon the history of the Modoc rebellion from first to last, culminating in resistance to United States authority, and the slaughter of settlers. To the report of- the commissionei'S Canby gave his approval, with the exception that he held the opinion that the Indians by surrendering as prisoners of war would be exempt from process and trial in either Oregon or California. From this opinion Roseborough dissented, but thought neither state would attempt to punish the wai-riors if satisfied they would be removed to some distant country beyond the possibility of a return. This was so far as the people of California were concerned, who seemed to have more S3aiipathy for the Modocs than for the suffering settlers. But the people of southern Oregon were extremely sensitive on the subject of a general amnesty, and expressed themselves in a manner that was construed by the Modoc apologists to mean general bloodthirstiness on their side. It is not unlikely that representations to that effect found their way to Washington through other avenues than the California newspapers, and that the secretary of the interior feared the effect of such utterances upon the members of the commission ; hence the authority given to Canby to select two other commissioners to fill the places of Applegate and Case, resigned. That Applegate would have resigned had not his relatives been impugned by the allegations of Captain Jack, into which inquiry was ordered to be made, is rendered probable by his separate report made on the 9th of March.
" The commission appointed to examine into the causes and bring to a conclusion the Modoc war, having concluded its labors," writes Jesse Applegate, " it was agreed that each member should submit his ​
own views and opinions of the subject as a final report. In pursuance of which agreement I submit the following opinions: 1st. The causes leading to the war were the dissatisfaction of Captain Jack's band of Modocs with the provisions and execution of the treaty of October 14, 1864, and refusal to abide thereby. To what extent wrongs justified resistance, the commission, having no power judicially to investigate, cannot say. 2d. The immediate cause of hostilities was resistance by the Indians to military coercion. 3d. Unconditional surrender of the Indians, and the trial and punishment of the guilty by the civil authorities, would have been more satisfactory to the whites, and a better example to the Indians, than more lenient conditions. 4th. Terms of surrender were ofifered the Indians to save the further effusion of blood, and secure a permanent peace by the removal of the whole tribe out of the country ; a result scarcely to be hoped for by continued hostilities. 5th. The terms agreed to by the commission were suggested and must be carried into efiect by the military. A commission to negotiate a peace was therefore unnecessary. 6th. A commission to inquire into the causes of the war should be composed of men wholly disinterested in the findings of the commission, directly or indirectly, and clothed with full power to investigate. 7th. Some of the personnel of this commission being obnoxious to the Indians, it was a hindrance to negotiations. Having no power to administer oaths, or send for persons or papers, and the official acts of the chairman to be reviewed, its findings must have been imperfect and unsatisfactory in regard to the causes of the war. I therefore consider the commission an expensive blunder." Mr Applegate's compensation had been fixed at ten dollars a day, and expenses; but with that chivalrous independence which ever characterized the man though accepting the service he declined the pay.
From the 6th of March, it might be said that no ​
peace commission existed. Everything was in the hands of General Canby, who was the representative of the military power in Oregon. As if Jack had anticipated something of this kind, and feared hostilities would be recommenced before the end for which he was now scheming could be accomplished, on the day following Steele's final visit to the stronghold he sent his sister Mary to Canby, to say that he accepted the terms offered on the 3d of present protection and support and removal to a distant country; asking that a delegation of his people might be permitted to accompany the government officers in search of a new home while the remainder of the band waited under the protection of the military. He likewise proposed that his surrender should take place on Monday, March 10th. To this proposition Canby assented, informing Mary that Jack, and as many of his band as were able to come, would be expected that evening, or the next mornino;, and that waggons would be sent to the edge of the lake to bring in the others on Monday; also that if Jack did not come the matter would be referred to the military. But Jack did not come as expected on Thursday evening. Messengers were sent, instead, saying that the Modocs were burjdng their dead, and could not yet leave the lava beds, but would do so soon.
When Mary came the second time, she brought the following messages from Jack and Sconchin, in reference to the threat of Canby to send the troops unless Jack and the head men came at once. Sconchin said, '*I have heard the talk they have sent. I don't want to figlit any more. I don't want to shoot any more soldiers, and I don't want any soldiers to shoot my people. I have but a few men, and I don't want to fight with more men than I have got. I didn't think the peace commission would get mad so quickly, or the soldiers. The talk looks as if they were mad. I want to live in peace. I don't want to go anywliere to fight. I want to live in my own house, and I want ​
to live in peace. I want to know what officer got mad so quickly. There are only two head men of us, and we didn't get mad; we wanted to live in peace. Do they want to come and shoot us again? I don't want to shoot anyone, and I don't want anyone to shoot my men. I have thrown away my country, and now I want to go away and hunt another. I thought they were to come and take me away at once. I wanted time to take my people, some of them are sick, wouldn't be able to go away at once; and I don't want them to go to killing them again. I have got all my people to say yes, that they are willing to go, and not talk bad any more. I don't want this country any more—I want a warmer country. I explained this to my children, and they all say yes and sanction it. I want to remain a little while. Some of my people are sick and can't go, and then the military can go with them."
Jack said: "I am very sad. I want peace quick, or else let the soldiers come and make haste and fight. I want to stay here a little while, so that my people can get ready to go. I say yes to going to a warmer country; and this is the first time I have said yes. I don't want my people shot. I don't want my men to go with guns any more. I have quit forever. I have buried the past, and don't want to be made answerable for the past. I have heard that they wanted to shoot me. That would be like shooting an old woman. I want to talk good words only. I don't want to shoot or be shot. I don't want anyone to get mad as quick as they did before. I want to live in peace. I want to go and see my people on the reservation. My mind is made up to say yes. I have a good heart, and want no mistake made this time, to live with good heart and talk truth. I have no paper men, and can't write on the papers. The papers called me bad, and lied about me. If they don't lie to me I won't lie to them. I want to give up shooting. I never have been out since I came on here. If they had come I would ​have shot them. I never have seen any white men except those who came here. I want Fairchild and Riddle, and anyone else willing to come out. I want to see my people at Yainax. I have thrown away my country, and unless I go I never expect to see my people again; and then I want to go to town, and then I will go away and never expect to return. I want to see what they have to say. My mmd is made up, and I have little else to say. They have got my heart now, and they must look after it and do right. I am nearly well and have a good heart now. I expect Mr. Meacham is very sick and couldn't come. I am nearl}^ well, but am afraid on account of the soldiers on the road. There are so many soldiers around. There are soldiers on Lost river, on Clear lake, and Bernard's soldiers. Wouldn't they be afraid if they were in the same situation ? I want to see their head men who never have been here. I have heard of so many soldiers coming I was afraid. When they visited me they laid down and slept and were not pestered. I had a bad heart yesterday morning when Mr Steele left here, to think that he would not come back or believe me. If I knew the new country I would go out when he came in. I want to visit my people, then the new country, and want the peace commission to go with me and show it to me. I wish to live like the white men. Let everything be wiped out, washed out, and let there be no more blood. I have got a bad heart about these warriors. I have got but a few men, and don't see how I can give them up. Will they give up their people who murdered my people while they were asleep ? I never asked for the people w^ho murdered my people. I only talked that way. I can see how I could give up my horse to be hanged, but I cannot see how I could give up my men to be hanged. I could give up my horse to be hanged and wouldn't cry about it; but if I gave up my men I would have to cry about it. I want them all to have good hearts now. I ​
have tlirown away everything. There must be no more bad talk. I will not. I have spoken forever. I want soldiers all to go home. I have given up now, and want no more fuss. I have said yes, and thrown away my country. I want soldiers to go away, so I will not be afraid. When I go to Yainax I don't want to come back here, but want to go to town, and then to the new country. I wanted to go to a new country and not come back any more to see my people; that is why I wanted to go to Yainax. I want to see how many of my relations would go with me. I feel bad for my people in the lava beds. I would cry if I did not see my people at Yainax. I don't know the new country, and they wouldn't know where they were. I know no country but Shasta and Pitt river. But I say yes, and consent to everything and go away. I don't want to live here any more, because I can't live here any more in peace. I wish to go to the southern country and live in peace. I want my people to stay here till I and some of lily head men go and look at the new country. I want Riddle and some others to go with me. I want clothing and food for my men. I want it given to them here. I don't want them to think I am deceiving them. I want my people to be taken care of while I am looking for the new country. I want to know where they can stay and eat when I am gone. I want to stop with Fairchild. I want to know if they got mad at me so quick because I could not believe them at once. I could not come; I had but two horses, and the Klamaths took my good one. I have no saddle, and my horses have been ridden so much they are not fit to ride. I am a chief; am proud; am ashamed to ride a poor horse. I understand their talk now. It seems now that I have been with them, and talked with them and seen them. I talk with my mouth. They have paper men to write down what I say. I want Fairchild to come tomorrow to see me. Mary has brought back good ​
news. I want to see them as bad as they want to see me. • I don't want Fairchild to be afraid to come out with Mary. I want and hope Mary will come back with message and say yes, just as I have done," Toby Riddle, who interpreted the messages sent by Jack and Sconchin, and who saw through their sinister meaning warned Can by of treachery. And read now, in the light of subsequent events, their intention is plain. Stripped of iteration and verbiage, the messages, while pretending to be for peace, were cunningly arranged to hide a deep-laid scheme. Sconchin affected surprise that the commissioners were so soon offended by the faithlessness of the Modoc leaders, and inquired the name of the officer who was so impatient. Jack wanted peace or war at once, but preferred peace. He promised not to lie to the commissioners if the white men who were sent to him would tell the truth, he of course to be the judge. He was tired of being confined to the lava beds by soldiers on every side of him, and wanted liberty to go to Yainax and to Yreka; after which he would consent to look up a new country for his people, but wished the principal military officers and the peace commissioners to accompany him, while all his people but those he should select to accompany him should be allowed to remain in the lava beds, having first received food and clothing to make them comfortable during his absence. He did not like the demand that he was told had been made for the surrender of the murderers, saying that he had never made any such demand of the white men for killing his people; and proved his magnanimity by the fact that Steele and the intrepreter had slept unharmed in his camp. He was surprised and angry that Steele had not trusted him enough to return again, and wanted Fairchild to come and see him. Though there were profuse professions of a desire for peace, there was little in Jack's message to indicate any degree of humility. On the contrary, the terms, if complied with, would ​
leave him master of the situation—the soldiers withdrawn, his people clothed and fed, and allowed to remain on Lost river, while he went forth free.
In spite of these significant demands of the Modoc leaders, Canby, who had been forced into a position where he felt that he must vindicate the power and the righteousness of the government, as well as his own ability as a representative of both, proceeded with the preparations for receiving the Modocs on the 10th. Tents were put up to shelter them, with hay for beds, new blankets, and plenty of food and firewood, besides many articles of convenience and even of luxury for the leaders. Four wagons, under the charge of Steele and a teamster named David Horn were dispatched to the place agreed upon, at Point of Rocks on lower Klamath lake, where they expected to find Jack and his party. After waiting for several hours and no Modocs appearing, Steele returned to Fairchild's and reported the failure of the expedition.
After this breach of faith, Meacham telegraphed the commissioner of Indian affairs at Washington that every honorable means to secure peace had been exhausted; that the Modocs broke every promise, and offered terms that were entirely inadmissible; that messeno-ers were unwillino; to return to their camp; and intimated that he considered the mission of peace as closed, but awaited orders. He received from the Secretary of the Interior an order to submit his telegrams thereafter to General Canby for approval, and in all proceedings to be governed by his advice until further directed by the department.
In the meantime Canby had telegraphed that although the Modocs had failed to keep their appointment, and some movement of the troops might be necessary, simply to keep them under close observation; he did not reo-ard this last action as decisive, and should spare no efforts to brmg about the result desired. With this the secretary was better pleased, ​
and ill a note to the Secretary of War commented on it warmly in contrast with the expressions of the chairman of the peace commission. Sherman, however, was not so sanguine. He rephed to Canby's telegram that it was manifestly desired by all in authority that the peace .measures should succeed and counselled patience, "But should these peaceful measures fail, and should the Modocs presume too far on the forbearance of the government and again resort to deceit and treachery, I trust you will make such use of the military force that no other Indian tribe will imitate their example, and that no reservation for them will be necessary except graves among their chosen lava beds "
At this time Meacham would willingly have seen the peace commission dissolved, and more than once had signified his readiness to make his final report at Washington. The peace commission was extremely unpopular in his own state, and was likely to ruin his chances for any future political preferment. Subservient as it had been from the first to the advice of the military, by order of the government it occupied a position antagonistic to peace, as it did, by the terms offered by the military, to the authorities of Oregon and the sense of the people. All the other commissioners had resigned and gone home. The delays caused by the commission in the operations of the military forces were likely to defeat the object for which they were assembled, as with the approach of spring the Modocs would escape into the mountains, where no number of troops could hope to capture them, and whence they could descend in small parties to steal and murder at will. The stock-raisers in the vicinity of the lava beds complained that their cattle and sheep were lassoed not only by the Indians, who killed all they needed, but by the army teamsters and soldiers also, who took fresh meat when they desired, thinking they might as well have it as the Indians. The time was at hand for putting in crops, but no ​
farmer in that region would venture to do any tiling on his land until the Modoc difficulty should be settled. Fears were entertained that the Piutes, Pitt Rivers, and Snakes, aggregating two or three thousand warriors, would be induced by Jack's success in resisting- the United States authorities to commence hostilities, and combine with him in a war which might become general. Already that portion of the Nez Perces who had always been disaffected toward the treaty of 1855 were making trouble in the Wallow wa valley, on the eastern border of the state. No formal treaty had ever been made between the government and the Indians subdued by General Crook's operations a few years previous, who now openly rejoiced over the rumors that Captain Jack still defied the power of the soldiers who had conquered them, and the inhabitants were already calling for protection by petitions to the governor. That this threatening , attitude of the Indians was directly due to the influence of the peace commission all were aware; and hence arose the opposition of those not immediately interested in having the Modocs punished for crimes committed by them. Of the importance of these matters to his state Meacham was fully cognizant; and having become convinced that no satisfactory terms could be made with the Modocs, he was quite willing the whole problem should be left with the military for solution. Bat he was not permitted to dispose of the enterprise into which he had brought himself and others in that way. Instead of that, Odeneal, who declined, and then Dyar, was appointed on the commission in the pla^e made vacant by the resignation of Case, and Jesse Applegate's place was filled by E. Thomas, a method ist clergyman of Petaluma, he being the choice of Canby. Thus the commission was reorganized.
The day after Jack's failure to keep his word with the commissioners, a reconnoissance of the lava beds ​
was ordered by a cavalry company under Colonel Biddle, but nothing was seen of the Modocs. According to a previously expressed desire of Jack's, a messenger was sent to Yainax to invite Chief Sconchin and sub-chief Charley Riddle to visit him, an invitation seconded by the commissioners. After several days of deliberation, Sconchin reluctantly consented, feeling convinced beforehand how useless would be his intervention. At starting he said, " Let me once look into their eyes, and I will know what to report." Thereupon he went, and looked into the eyes of Jack and his brother, and returning assured the commissioners to hope for nothing, that all future negotiations would be unavailing. There could be but one reason why the outlaws wished to see him, which would be an appeal to him for that assistance which had already often been refused to the messengers sent to Yainax. That communication was kept up between the loyal and the rebel Modocs there was plenty of evidence; indeed, the messenger sent to bring in Sconchin found Long; Jim, one of the warriors under indictment, at Yainax.
On the 13th Biddle, while reconnoitering in the vicinity of the lava beds, captured thirty- four horses, and mitjht have killed a number of savages had not his orders forbidden it. The capture of the horses, though an act of hostility not entirely consonant with peace measures, was thought necessary to lessen the chances of escape from the lava beds before a surrender could be effected. In the meantime negotiations had been carried on by means of the Indian women living about the settlements, one of whom after visiting the stronghold brought word that Jack wished for a conference, but was afraid to come out of the lava beds lest Canby should not be able to control his soldiers, in proof of which he mentioned the taking of his horses. Being afraid to come out, he wished Fairchild and Meacham to come to him in his stronghold. ​
About the middle of March, Canby and the peace commission removed headquarters to Van Brimmer's, and the troops now numbering between 500 and 600, were drawn closer to the lava beds.
No material change took place in the attitude of affairs for ten or twelve days. The material of war was slowly brought nearer to Jack's stronghold to convince him of the futility of all attempts at escape. If Jack was waiting to gain time, when the snow being off the mountains the Snakes could come to his assistance, he was in apparent danger of being frustrated, though that he occasionally gained some recruits from renegades of other bands was credited.
On the 19th Meacham wrote to the commissioner of Indian affairs at Washington, that he had not entirely abandoned hopes of success; even that he was satisfied, had no outside treachery intervened, peace would have been accomplished before this. The Modocs, he said, had been informed that the authorities of Oregon demanded the warriors indicted ; also that Jack would surrender them, but dared not. In this letter he advocated a meeting on Jack's terms; and said if left to him he should have visited Jack in the lava beds; and that he was ready to do so at that time, but was restrained by Canby.
It did not appear, however, that anything had occurred that should have changed his mind since he had written that the Modocs meant treachery. That he did not at this time enjoy the confidence of the departments is placed beyond doubt by a telegram from Sherman to Canby, authorizing him to remove from the commission any member he thought unfit, and devolving upon him the entire management of the Modoc question.
Canby did not think it necessary to remove Meacham, the only member of the commission then on the ground, particularly as he was clothed with supreme power. But even Canby could not make all his reports agree, for on one day he thought that the ​
Modocs would readily consent to go to Yainax, should that be thought best, and the next was obliged to report that they were not in a disposition favorable to any arrangement; they had sent one of their women into camp to say that at the last moment their hearts failed them, and they could not make up their minds to go to a new country. Time, the general said, was becoming of great importance, as the melting of the snow would soon enable the Indians to live in the mountains, but he hoped by a system of gradual compression, and an exhibition of the force to be used against them, to satisfy them of the hopelessness ot further resistance, and give the peace party sufficient strength to control the band. On the 22d generals Canby and Gillem made a reconnoissance with a cavalry company, during which an accidental meeting was had with Captain Jack and a party of his warriors. A conference between the generals and Jack and Sconchin was arranged; but instead of Sconchin, Jack brouo-ht Scarface, the acknowledgjed war chief. NotLing could be ellcited from Jack but protestations that ]]e did not want to fight, nor to be shut up in the lava beds, but would go back to Lost river. The gradual compression went on; headquarters were once more removed to the foot of the high bluff, within three miles of the stronghold ; while three other camps weie established within distances varying from four to thirteen miles.
At length on the 24th the new commissioners, Tliomas and Dj'ar, arrived at headquarters; and also Captain O. C. Applegate, with five reservation Modocs who had been sent for by General Canby to assist if possible in the peace negotiations. On the 26th General Gillem and Commissioner Thomas had an interview with Bogus Charley who had been passing freely between the stronghold and the camp of tl e commissioners for several weeks. In this interview it was once more asrreed that the Modocs should come out the following day; but according to their usual ​
tactics a delegation consisting of Bogus Charley^ Mary, another Indian woman named Ellen, and Boston Charley, was sent in their place with a message to the commissioners and Canby of a private nature.
The impression given out at the several interviews held up to this time was that there were two parties among the Modocs, a war party and a peace party, and that Jack was of the peace party, while Sconchin, his rival, was striving for the chieftainship by attempting to lead the majority or war party. That this was simply a device to deceive the commissioners as to their real strength and purpose was afterward made apparent; but at the time it succeeded, as the telegrams of Canby show. After the meeting of the 22nd he said; "The result confirmed the impression j)reviously reported, that the war faction is still predominant. Captain Jack's demeanor was that of a man under duress, and afraid to exhibit his real feelings. Important questions were evaded or not answered at all." This created a feeling of compassion toward Jack in the mind of the general who was conducting the negotiations, and led him to believe more in the final success of the peace commission, Meacham, feeling compelled to follow the lead given, as ordered by Delano, after the late unsatisfactory meetings, again wrote to the commissioner of Indian affairs that the principal impediment to the surrender of the Indians was the fear that the offending warriors would be punished, and that this fear was willfully increased by bad white men, who desired to have the war prolonged from mercenary motives.
This accusation, which gained most credence at the greatest distance from the seat of war, was easy of refutation, since the only men having the opportunity at first to communicate with the Indians were those sent by the commissioners, and another class who lived upon terms of equality with Modoc women, and who could have little of anything to gain by the continuance of hostilities, but whose profits had formerly ​
depended greatly upon the trade of the very Indians now rendered unable to carry on commerce by reason of the war. It was m the power of the military at any time to have prevented the communication existing between these women, who picked up all sorts of stories in their intercourse with low white men and the Indians in the lava beds, had they chosen, simply by sending them to their people with orders to remain there until Jack surrendered. That this was not done was a military blunder. On the other hand, the peace commission, which was military in its feelings, being desirous of establishing the character of the government for magnaminity, encouraged the Modocs while still avoiding hostility to send small parties almost daily to headquarters, where they could observe all that was going on, and where they were sure to hear from those who were most likel}' to seek their society anything and everything. These blunders were the direct cause of the fear which, if any, possessed the Indians, which fear was therefore chargeable to those conducting the peace commission, and not to any other persons. Above all, the authorities at Washington, who had set their hearts upon the success of a doubtful experiment, by insisting upon j)acific measures wdien these measures had been persistently rejected by armed savages, possessed of considerable knowledge of the government, were responsible for the present condition of affairs.
So far was this infatuation carried, that on receiving Canby's telegram saying that Jack still wished to return to Lost river, Delano instructed the general not to require that any of the propositions heretofore made should be accepted, but if the Modocs insisted on not going elsewhere, to allow them a reservation on Lost river; and if they were opposed to the surrender of the offending warriors, not . to insist upon that, but to include them also in the amnesty.
From the 26th to the 1st of April nothing occurred ​
of importance at headquarters, though news was brought from Langell valley that Hooker Jim and a party of Modocs had shown themselves near Alkali lake and driven off a large band of horses; also that on the night of the 24th they were at Yainax where they talked until morning, trying to persuade the reservation Modocs and Klamaths to join Jack, telling them that five tribes had promised to take the war path with him as soon as he left the lava beds, and that unless they united with the war confederacy they would not be safe. They sent their women to a man named Jordan, who lived with an Indian woman, to buy powder, but failed to obtain any. This movement of the Modocs greatly alarmed both the white men and Indians in Sprague River valley; and as the conduct of the Snakes in Goose Lake valley was alarming, a petition was presented to the governor of Oregon for protection.
The raid of the Modocs into Langell valley, and their threats to the reservation Indians, somewhat alarmed the families at the Klamath agency, who were almost entirely unprotected, Dyar being absent on the business of the peace commission, and the other white men assisting the Indians with their farms on different parts of the reservation. Knowing that the Modocs mio;ht in one n12;ht make a descent on the agency, Captain Pollock, in command at the fort, advised the temporary removal of the families to the post, and made a requisition on General Gillem for a few men to guard the government property on the reservation, which requisition was not honored on account of the need of all the troops about the lava beds.
The messenger who carried the despatch at his own instance circulated the rumor in Linkville that the Klamaths had joined the Modocs, the families at the agency had taken refuge at the fort, and the country was in a state of alarm. Happily Captain Applegate chanced to be at Linkville, on his return from the headquarters of the peace commission with his Modoc ​
delegation from Yainax, and was able to quiet the apprehensions occasioned by this unauthorized allegation against the Klamaths. The people on the reservation were at no time afraid of the Klamaths, although they were just then under apprehensions in regard to the hostile Modocs, The Indians on the reservation were fearful of an attack. "Jack had lono; before the war told old Sconchin and other Yainax Indians," says Applegate, "that in case of a war with the whites he would destroy Yainax, and kill the Indians there if they did not join him. Old Sconchin told me this early in the war, and said if Jack's band came to Yainax on a raid, liis men would die fighting for the place and their white friends. The Modocs did scout in the vicinity of Yainax, and it is altogether probable that had we not been constantly on the alert a descent would have been made en us during the first months of the war."
On the 31st of March a movement by the troops in force was made, three hundred marching to the upper end of Lower Klamath lake, and thence on the 1st of April to Tule lake and the lava beds. On the 2d the Modocs sio-nified their willing^ness to confer with the commissioners at a point midway between headquarters and the stronghold. Jack reiterated his terms, to be allowed to have Lost river, with a general amnesty, and to have the troops all taken away. The most that was accomplished was to obtain consent to erect a council tent, the weather being stormy and cold, at a place on the lava beds about a mile and a quarter from the camp of the commissioners, where future negotiations could be carried on. On the 4th a request was made by Jack that Meacham, Roseborough and Fairchild should meet him with a few of his men at the council tent. They went, accompanied by Riddle and his wife Toby as interpreters. Jack was accompanied by six warriors and the women of his own family.
Colonel Mason had been ordered to move his com ​pany to camp two miles from the stronghold on the east side, and the movement seemed to have had some effect in bringing about the interview. The council was opened by Roseborough, who explained to the Indians their position. Jack and Sconchin both replied that they wanted the Lost river country, and reiterated their former demands. Hoseborough replied that it was useless talking about Lost river, because they had sold it, and could not have it back; that blood had been spilled there, and the Modocs would not be able to live there in peace. Jack replied that his young men had done wrong in spilling the blood of innocent men, but declared that had no settler been in the fight of the 29th of November, none would have been killed.
He then recited his grievances while on the reservation. But when shown by the commissioners that he could not have his demand for the Lost river country complied with, or if complied with that he could not enjoy peace there after what had happened, he said that if he could not have that he would say no more about it, but would accept a small reservation in California, including Willow, Cottonwood, and Hot creeks, with the lava beds. This, too, was refused as impracticable.
When Meacham addressed the Indians, they listened with indifference, Tne council lasted for five hours, when it was suddenly terminated by the Indians, who retired, saying if they changed their mind in the matter, they would report next day.
On the following morning Boston Charley came to the commissioners' camp and wished to see Boseborough, to whom he said that Jack desired another interview, when Roseborough replied that he did not wish to talk any more with Jack until he had made up his mind what he would do, Boston then remarked that the Indians might all come in the next day, which led Roseborough to think they really contemplated surrender, A message was immediately sent ​
by Toby Riddle conveying a proposition to Jack to surrender with any others who might elect to do so. The proposition was not only declined, but in such a manner that on her return Toby assured the commissioners and Canby that it would be no longer safe for them to meet the Modocs in council. The information was lightly treated by the generals, and by Thomas — the former feeling behind them the power of the federal government, the latter trusting in the power of the almighty—but was regarded as of more consequence by Meacham and Dyar, who better understood the characters of the informer and of the Indians informed against. Through the indiscretion of Thomas, the Modocs were made aware that their contemplated plan of assassination was understood, a knowledge which undoubtedly hastened its consummation.
On the morning of the 8th Jack sent a messenger to the commissioners, requesting a conference at the council-tent, and a proposition to meet them with only six unarmed men. But the signal officer at the station overlooking the lava beds reporting six Indians at the council-tent and twenty more in the rocks behind them, all armed, the invitation was not accepted, and no meetino; was had. Jack understood from this rejection of his overtures that he was suspected, and that whatever he did must be done quickly. He had gained by his baffling course the time needed, so that should he be compelled to leave the lava beds he could escape, and join or be joined by the Snakes on the east. This he intended to do, first destroying the army generals and the peace commission, by which he expected to throw the troops into temporary confusion, and during the confusion to carry out his plans.
Therefore on the morning of the 10th a delegation from Jack's camp consisting of Boston Charley, Hooker Jim, William, or Whim as he was called, and Dave visited the commissioners at headquarters about three miles from the stronghold, and brought a propo ​sition from Jack that generals Canby and Gillem, with the peace commissioners, should meet the Modocs in conference. The interpreters were sent out to learn Jack's wishes, and also to convey to him a protest from the commissioners, which was in writing, and which Riddle read to Jack, containing the terms before offered—a general amnesty and a new reservation in a warmer climate.
It was evident to Riddle, from the manner of the Modocs, that they were not acting in good faith. Jack threw the paper sent him upon the ground, saying he had no use for it; he was not a white man, and could not read. He also insisted upon the commissioners coming a mile beyond the council-tent, saying he would go no farther to meet them. Light remarks concernino; the commissioners were made in the hearing of Riddle by others of the Modocs. They had also been killing and were drying beef, and had thrown up breastworks of stone to strengthen certain points; all of which were to the interpreters indications that they were preparing for war rather than for peace.
After a good deal of negotiating. Riddle advising against any meeting, it was finally agreed—Thomas being chairman in the temporary absence of Meacham — that the conference should be held between Canby and the commissioners on one side, and Jack with five men on the other, all to go unarmed, and to meet at the place selected by Jack, an extensive basin surrounded by rocks, at eleven o'clock on the forenoon of the 11th. After this decision Riddle called on Canby and advised him to send twenty-five or thirty men to secrete themselves in the rocks near the council ground, as a safeguard against any treacherous movement on the part of the Modocs. To this proposal the general replied that it would be an insult to Captain Jack to which he could not consent; and that besides, the discovery of such a movement by the Modocs would probably lead to hostilities, and be ​
unwise. But aside from this it was a silly suggestion. If Jack's men were hidden behind the rocks the soldiers of course would have been discovered; if they were not there the presence of the soldiers was unnecessary. Again, Boston Charley came into Gillem's camp on the evening of the 10th, and remained there until the commissioners left to go to the council tent next morning, seeing and reporting everything.
When Meachara heard of the arrangement, he remonstrated aoainst oroino- into the hole in the rocks Jack had designated, and indeed against any meeting at all; but he finally jaelded to the wishes of Canby and Thomas, when Jack consented to change the place of meeting to the council-tent, which he did on the morning of the 11th.
Everything being now arranged so far as it could be for what all wished might be a conclusive conference, Riddle once more warned the commissioners that in his belief the Modocs meant to kill them at this meeting, and Toby said the same. But Canby was confident that they dare not attack him with Mason's force where it could be put into the stronghold before the Indians could reach it; that the road to the council- tent had been watched from the signal station all the morning, and that only the number of Indians agreed upon were on the ground, and they apparently unarmed. With simple and refreshing faith Thomas said, "There is no danger; let us put our trust in God; surely he will not let harm come to men engaged in so good a work."
"Trust God, if you want to," growled Riddle, "but I tell you don't trust them Indians." Indeed, so earnest was Riddle that it should be well understood that it was all against his judgment, that he requested Canby and all the commissioners to accompany him to the tent of Gillem, who was ill, that he might make a formal protest in the presence of that officer, plainly stating that he consented to make one ​
of the party rather than lay himself open to the charge of cowardice, and the declaration was there made. Then Riddle proposed that if the meeting must take place, the party should carry concealed arms. To this Canby and Thomas objected, determined on keeping faith with the Indians, though so strongly assured of their treacherous intent. Neither Meacham nor Dyar entertained the same scruples regarding the savages, nor the same trust in the justice of heaven and the protecting arm of providence; though opposed to the meeting, like Riddle they would go rather than be called cowards, or charged with deserting Canby and Thomas. Accordingly Meacham and Dyar concealed each a small pistol upon his person to be used in case of emergency.
At the time appointed the party set out for the council-tent. There were, besides the commissioners, Canby, the interpreter Riddle, and Toby. Meacham and Dyar took their horses to ride, though the nature of the ground made horseback travel slow. Toby also rode, all the others walked. On arriving at the ground, they found Jack awaiting them with the number of followers agreed upon; but these with the addition of Bogus Charley and Boston Charley, who had spent the night at Gillem's camp and accompanied the commissioners to the rendezvous, gave Jack just twice as many as were on the other side, exclu^ sive of the two interpreters.
Jack was indeed a cunning fellow, and nowhere was his shrewdness ever more craftily displayed than in this instance, where by making two of his confederates accompany the intended victims, he could not be accused by them of bringing more than the number agreed upon.
The commissioners' party joined the Indians, who were sitting in a semicircular group about a campfire near the tent. Canby offered them cigars, which they smoked for a little while. The council was then opened by the general, who spoke in a kind and fath ​
erly way, saying he had for many years been acquamted with Indians, and thought he understood them; that he had come to this meeting to talk in a friendly manner to them, and conclude upon a peace; and that whatever he promised them that day, they might be sure they would receive.
Sleacham followed with allusions to his office as a commissioner sent by the government to make peace, and take the Modocs away from a place where blood had been shed, to a new and happier home, where they would be provided with a comfortable support. Thomas made some similar remarks. Jack then spoke, saying he did not wish to quit the country he was in; that it was the only country known to him. He had given up Lost river and he wanted Cottonwood and Willow creeks instead. He wanted the soldiers taken away, and wanted to be left in possession of the lava beds It was soon evident that nothing would be gained by the conference.
Meanwhile the air began to thicken with treachery. As the savages manifested uneasiness on seeing a white man not of the party approaching the place along the trail, D^^ar mounted his horse and riding forth turned back the intruder, that the Indians might not suspect duplicity. When he returned he did not rejoin the circle, but threw himself on the ground at a little distance from it, still holdino; his horse bv the bridle.
Meacham's horse had been standing loose; but as the conference drew toward a close, Meacham secured the animal, still continuing his part in the discussion, the others remaining seated or reclining on the ground. In the midst of Meacham's remarks Sconchin threw in some disrespectful words in his own tongue which the commissioners did not understand. Hooker Jim then arose, and goincr to Meacham's horse took the overcoat from the horn of the saddle and put it on. Then with mocking gestures he strutted back and forth saying in English, "Don't I look like old man Meacham ? " ​
Every one present understood fully the significance of the affront Treachery was rapidly unfolding into death. None durst show alarm; and though each was anxious to catch the eye of the others, none must indulge in a significant glance, lest it should be made the signal for what all felt was impending. True, no guns were visible, but revolvers could be plainly seen beneath the raiment of the savages.
Calmly the general rose from his seat, again referring to his early acquaintance with different tribes of Indians, and pleasantly related that one tribe had elect(3d him chief, and given him a name signifying " Indian's friend ; " and another had made him chief, and given the name of the " tall man; " that he had never deceived them, but had always dealt fairly with them; that he was there that day by order of the president of the United States; that he had no authority to remove the troops, who were there by the president's order, and also to see that everything was done that was right, by both Indians and settlers.
Sconchin replied with the demand that they should be given the Willow Creek or Hot Creek country, and that the troops should all be taken away. While his speech was being interpreted. Jack arose and walked around behind Dyar's horse. At the same time two Indians, carrying several guns each, suddenly appeared, as if arising out of the ground. Jack returned to a position in the circle opposite to Canby, and as Meacham demanded, "What does that mean ? " Jack gave the word in his own language, which meant "all ready," and drawing a revolver from his bosom fired at Canby who was within a few feet of him.
When the Indians carrying guns first came in sight, all but Toby Riddle had sprung to their feet. Toby lay flat on the ground. Simultaneously with Jack's attack on Canby, Sconchin fired on Meacham, and Boston Charley on Thomas.
At the first motion of Jack to fire, Dyar, who was a ​very tall man, and had an advantage of a few feet in distance, started to run, pursued by Hooker Jim. Finding himself close pressed, when he had gone 150 yards, he turned and fired with his pistol, which checked the advance of the enemy. By repeating this manoeuvre several times he escaped to the picket line. Riddle also escaped by running, though he was pursued by Shacknasty Jim, assisted by Brancho, who with Scarface, Steamboat Frank, and Sloluck, had been concealed in the rocks near the council-ground. Toby escaped with only a blow given her by one of the Indians who coveted her horse; Jack interfering, she was permitted to follow her husband.
It was but a few moments after Jack had uttered his "all ready," when General Canby lay stripped naked upon the ground with a bullet hole through his head. A short distance from him was Thomas, also dead, and nearly naked. Near the clergyman lay Meacliam, stripped, and with five bullet wounds — in the face, the left hand, the right wrist, the lobe of one ear, and the side of the head, and a knife-cut on the other side of the head. With all these injuries, however, he was not dead, and revived half an hour later when the troops reached the spot. Can any one tell why, what is so frequently the case, that the two men who trusted in the Lord perished, while those who did not were saved?
Some would say that these chivalrous persons should have exercised better judgment, and not have depended on God to work a miracle to save men from destruction, who, when fairly warned of their danger deliberately walk into it. Even the plea of duty does not here obtain, for there was no obligation resting on them to risk their lives; no principle involved in it, no important issue turning upon it. It made no whit difference to any one whether or not those savages were seen on that particular day, by those particular persons, and in that particular way. The last telegram from Canby on the subject, dated April ​
12th, contained these words ; "In my judgment permanent peace cannot be secured if they are allowed to remain in this immediate neighborhood. The Modoc s are now sensible that they cannot live in peace on Lost river, and have abandoned their claim to it, but wish to be left in the lava beds. This means license to plunder, and a stronghold to retreat to, and was refused. Their last proposition is to come in and have the opportunity of looking for a new home not far away, and, if they are sincere in this, the trouble will soon be ended ; but there has been so much vacillation and duplicity in their talks that I have hesitated about reporting until some definite result was attained. All the movements of the troops have been made deliberately and cautiously, so as to avoid collision and to impress the Indians that we have no unfriendly intent; thus far we have succeeded very well, but their conduct has given so much reason to apprehend that they were only trying to gain time, that I have organized a party of scouts to operate with the troops if they should go to the mountains or renew hostilities."
Before General Canby had left camp at headquarters he requested General Gillem, should anything happen to confirm him in his suspicions of the treacherous designs of the Modocs, to send Doctor Cabaniss to notify him. Soon after the commissioners reached the council-tent, an Indian approached the picket-line about Colonel Mason's camp, which was located at Hospital Kock, about two miles east of the stronghold, carrying a white flag. Lieutenant Sherwood was sent to meet him. He soon returned and reported that three Modocs wished to have a talk with the commander of the post. Sherwood was then sent to inform the Indians that if they wished to see the colonel they must come inside the picket-line. Lieutenant Boyle of the same regiment, who happened to be present, asked permission to accompany Sherwood, and the two officers again went out to meet the flag ​
of truce, which was half a mile outside the line of pickets. Just before they came to it they were met by one of the Indians, who gave his name as Wooleyhaired Jake, and the names of his companions as Comstock Dave, and Steamboat Frank. He then inquired if Lieutenant Boyle was the commanding officer, and on being told that he was not, invited the officers to go on to where the flag-bearer was in waitino". The manner of the Indians seeminp; to indicate treachery, the two officers being unarmed, declined, but agreed to talk with them if they would come to the picket-post. This the Indians refused, and Sherwood and Boyle started for their camp, a mile distant. No sooner were their backs turned than the Indians began firing, and they began dodging from rock to rock as they ran. Sherwood soon fell mortally wounded; but Boyle escaped, being protected by the fire of the picket-guard who kept the Indians back. The troops soon turned out and brought in the wounded lieutenant, who died three days afterward.
This occurred while Canby was smoking and chatting with the conspirators at the council-ground, and was part of the plan by which Jack meant to deprive the army at once of its principal officers. Had the scheme succeeded as Jack intended, the troops placed by Gillem near the stronghold for the purpose of being ready in this or any other emergency, would have been thrown into temporary confusion, rendering them unable to interfere with the slaughter of the commissioners. In Jack's plan there was nothing lacking.
The officer at the signal station overlooking Mason's camp telegraphed Gillem what had occurred, and the general sent for Cabaniss. A message was written, and the doctor fully informed of the danger of his mission, which indeed he knew beforehand, and was willing to encounter for the sake of General Canby whom he greatly loved. But at the moment the message was handed to him, the signal officer on ​
the west side cried out " They are firing on the council-tent!" The men turned out at the first alarm, Sergeant Wooten, of K company of cavalry, lead'm<y a party without orders. The wildest confusion prevailed; yet in the sole intent if possible to save Canby and the others there was a kind of order. Gillem gave his commands rapidly, and the troops were only too eager to get at the assassins Colonel Miller's battery E, 4th artillery, Major Throckmorton's batteries M and K, 4th artillery, and companies E and G, 12th infantry, under Colonel Wright and Captain Howe, moved forward as rapidly as they could get over the rough ground But before they had proceeded far they met Dyar, with the story of the fatal catastrophe. On reaching the councilground Meacham was found to be alive, and was rescued. The Indians retreated to their stronghold, and the troops followed for half a mile, when they were halted, and at night withdrawn to camp.
Thus ended the peace commission, conceived by place-hunters, and afterward conscientiously insisted upon by well-meaning but uliinformed officers of the government in opposition to the opinions and feelings of the white people most concerned, and of the Indians themselves. Secretary Delano was hanged in effigy at Yreka, and public meetings held to do honor to the memory of General Canby in Portland, where nothing that had happened since the assassination of President Lincoln had so afi:ected the whole community.
In justice to Delano it should be said that he had been subjected to a strong outside pressure from people Avith philanthopic theories and no knowledge of the subject. Letters poured into the department in behalf of the Modocs from individuals and societies of every quality and quarter. On the 19th of March a letter was sent to the president by Bronson Murray of New York, reproaching him for employing the army against the Modocs. "If true, what ​
Steele is reported saying, that the president knows the Modocs are not to blame in this matter, then why should not the army be turned against the Oregonians ? . . . Can you not leave the Modocs at rest ? Give them long, long time. Throw upon Oregon alone the responsibility of this grave injustice. Is there no way but that our army nmst receive in their breasts the bullets which are shot because of the greed and covetousness of the Oregonians?"
The quakers also interested themselves for the Modocs, Alfred H. Love, of Philadelphia, protesting against employing the army in forcing them to make peace, and saying the Peace Society of that city freely discussed and deeply deplored such a cause. Many newspapers took this view of the subject. The people of Oregon survive.
Orders now came from Washington to wipe out the Modocs. On the day after the massacre at the council-orround, the Indians attacked Mason's skirmish line, forcing the left picket post to give way. it was, however, retaken by Lieutenant Thellar, of the 21st infantry, with a portion of Company I, a sharp skirmish being kept up all day and a part of the 13th, the Modocs attacking. On the 14th General Gillem telegraphed Colonel Mason asking if he could be ready to advance on the morning of the 15th; to which Mason replied that he preferred to get his first position at night, and was ready to move that night. Gillem then ordered him to take his position on that night; not to make any persistent attack, and to shelter his men as well as possible. Donald McKay having arrived with a company of seventy -two Warm Spring scouts, which Canby had ordered organized after it became a])parent that the Modocs might reengage in hostilities. Mason was directed to post them on his left, or on the north side of his stronghold, with orders to work around toward Green's right; and be sure to wear their uniforms to prevent ​
mistakes; not to use his artillery except when he thought it would be effective; and to hold every inch of ground gained. "Tell your men," he said, "to remember General Canby, Sherwood, and the flag."
The movement began at midnight, and before daylight the troops were in position, about 400 yards east of the stronghold, the right infantry, under Captain BurtoL, resting on the lake, and on the left the cavalry, dismounted, under Captain Bernard, a section of mountain howitzers under Lieutenant Chapin being held subject to special order. The men had thrown up breastworks of stone to conceal their exact position from the enemy. Soon after daylight the howitzers opened fire, and skirmishing conmienced.
On the west side Perry and Cranston of the cavalry moved at two o'clock in the morning to a point beyond the main portion of the stronghold on the south, where they concealed their men, waiting to be joined at daylight by the infantry and artillery under Miller and Throckmorton, with Green and staff. These left camp at seven o'clock, and soon united with Perry's command. Miller had the extreme right, Throckmorton on his left, and two companies of infantry in the centre; while the cavalry were on the extreme left, touching the lake, the intention being to close in gradually on the stronghold from every side.
The day was warm and still, and it could be no longer said, in defence of failure, that ignorance of the nature of the ground or obscurity from fog prevented success; besides, every man had a personal interest in retrieving the honor of the army from the humiliation of the 17th of January. The first opposition was encountered a mile and a half from Jack's camp, when straggling shots at long range began to fall among the troops, who advanced in open skirmish order along the lake shore, sheltering themselves as best they could under cover of the rocks in their wsiy. On reaching the gorge under the bluff, a galling fire ​
was poured into them from a large party of Modocs stationed there. The reserves coming up an order was given to charge, which was done with such force and rapidity that the Indians were obHged to retire, and the troops took their position. At the same time Mason was doing all in his power to divide the attention of the Modocs, while the army passed this dangerous point. In the charge. Lieutenant Ea;jan was wounded in the thigh, but did not leave the field. Several privates of Miller's artillery command were also wounded. At two o'clock the order was given to advance the mortars under Captain Thomas and lieutenants Cranston and Howe, 4th artillery. By half-past four they were hi position, and the left of the line on the west had deployed down the lake opposite to the stronghold, crossing the open space in front without loss. Half an hour later the Modocs seemed to be concentrating their fire on Mason's troops; but just at this time the mortars began throwing shells into the Modoc position, which gave them a diversion and arrested their fire. So far all went well. The bluff taken by the charge was still in possession of Miller's men, between whom and the main plateau or mesa, in which the caves were situated, only two ledges of rock intervened. On Mason's side, also, the Modocs had abandoned their outer line of defences; but the colonel would not yet expose his men by following them.
At six o'clock the mortars were again moved forward, and by nightfall the troops in front of the stronghold were ready to scale the heights. At midnight Mason took up the position abandoned by the Modocs within 100 yards of their defences. The day had closed with eight soldiers wounded and three killed, and one citizen supposed to be killed. The Indians were nearly surrounded, and fought the troops on every side, seeming^ to indicate more strength than they were supposed to possess. Mortar practice was kept up throughout the night with intervals of tenmin ​utes. The troops, who were provided with three days cooked rations, overcoats, blankets, and 100 rounds of ammunition each, remained on the field without changing position.
Finding when daylight came on the 16th, that Mason's left under Thellar had possession of the mesa, with the Warm Spring scouts on his right, and the whole line unbroken, the Modocs abandoned their strong defences, and passed out by unseen trails, getting on his left and in his rear, preventing his joining Green's right, as directed by a despatch from Gillem, Subsequently he was ordered to advance his right, and join Green on the shore of the lake, which movement cut the Indians off from water. A sharp engagement took place in preventhig the Indians from getting to the lake. By ten o'clock Green's line had scaled the bluff, and reached the top of the ridge next to the stronghold, meeting but little opposition; but it was decided not to push the troops at this point, as there might be a heavy loss without any gain ; and the Avant of water would soon drive the Modocs out of their caverns and defences, while it was not likely they could find a stronger position anywhere. The work of the day consisted simply in skirmishing. No junction was effected between Mason's left and Green's right, the principal resistance being made to this movement, the object of which was apparent at a latter period of the battle.
In the evening the Modocs having a large fire in their camp Thomas dropped two shells into it which were followed by war wdioops, and also by cries of rage and pain. After this the Modocs showed themselves and challenofed the soldiers to do the same. But the soldiers were hidden behind stone breastworks in groups of five or six, with orders at no time to allow themselves to be surprised. In these little forts, built at night, they sheltered themselves, and caught a little sleep, two at a time, wdiile the others watched. ​
The hardest fight during the day occurred when Miller was endeavoring to form a junction with the Warm Spring scouts, and failed As he was crossing a chasm, the Modocs suddenly appeared and cut him off with thirteen men. They fortified themselves, and fought desperately until about four in the afternoon, when, shells beginning to fall in that vicinity, they left cover and ran into the lines amid a shower cf bullets, losing two men killed and one wounded. Atjabi in the evening^ the Modocs made a movement to break through the lines and get to the lake, but were checked by a heavy fire from the troops. The second day ended with some further advances made upon the Modoc stronghold, and the mortar batteries in better position. The blaze of musketry along the lake shore in the closing^ enoaoement at nine o'clock in the evening was likened to the darting of flames on a burning prairie seen at night. Once more the troops remained over night in the field, having nothing warm with their rations but coffee served to them hot.
The condition of the Modocs must have been very miserable, henmied in as they were, cut off from water, and not allowed a moment's rest from flvinof shells. Those who watched them throug-h fieldglasses during the day said that they ran from one point of rocks to another back and forth, with no apparent motive, seemingly dismayed by the peril that environed them. But the work of extermination did not go on as Gillem desired. The Warm Spring warriors reported killing four Modocs and losing one of their own men. How many were killed in their caves was unknown. The casualties on the part of the troops in the two days' fight amounted to seventeen, only five being killed.
Caught thus in his own trap, the time had come when Captain Jack should surely be put to death. On the morning of the 17th the lines met without impcciment, and closed in on the stronghold, finding few ​
Modocs to dispute their passage. About eleven the Indians seemed to rally, and the troops made a general movement to sweep the lava beds. Down upon the fated band they poured, each soldier eager to be first. No quarter now ; think of Canby ! Thus they rushed pell mell into the stronghold. With uplifted sword and gun ready, all breathless they prepared to strike. But what is this ? Where are the dastardly red skins? Utterly vanished! An examination of the ground showed a fissure in the pedregal leading from the caves to the distant hills. This pass had been marked with rocks and poles so that it could be followed in the darkness; and through it had been conveyed to a place of safety the families and property of the savages, men enough only having been left to keep up an appearance of fighting during retreat. It was the effort to keep the pass open and undiscovered, that had so long prevented the junction of Mason's left with jjrreen's right. After having successfully retreated to a place of safety, a portion of the Modoc warriors returned and engaged the troops for about one hour. Before quitting the scene altogether a party of them escaped to the rear of Green's command, and between him and his camp killed a teamster from Yreka named Eugene Hovey, mutilating his body horribly, and taking from him four horses and a mule. Two newspaper correspondents were fired on but they escaped by running.
The news that the strono-hold had been evacuated, and the Modocs had escaped, was carried by messengers in every direction, and the greatest excitement prevailed. The intelligence was received in Yreka with "the greatest amazement," so sure had been the hope of the speedy close of the war whenever the military were permitted to act in their proper capacity. Even now people tried to comfort themselves by repeating that the stronghold was captured. But the mere possession of the classic caves, now that Jack .was out of them, and free to carry on a guerilla war ​fare, was a matter of small felicitation, if not of positive solicitude.
In the caves were found evidences of the death of seventeen of the Modocs as it was believed. It appeared that most of the women and children had been removed previous to the assassination. Many shells were found to have exploded in and about the Modoc camp, from which it is judged that they must have had many wounded. A body was found which was supposed to be that of Scarface Charley, the supposition being confirmed by an old woman found in the cave and taken prisoner. It was also believed that Sconchin was killed. This was afterwards learned to be an error. Their scalps were still safe on their heads, though a sergeant of troop K, 8th cavalry, thought he had secured that of Scarface as a trophy. Query: because savagism scalps, may civilization? Does it make devils of men to fight the devil with his own weapon?
Smoke from fires in the southeast indicated that the Indians were fleeing in the direction of Goose lake or Willow springs. The cavalry was ordered to pursue. Captain Perry setting out on the morning of the 18th to make a complete circuit of the lava beds, which compelled him to march about eiglity miles. The Warm Spring scouts also were scouring the country to the eastward. Both commands were out two days without seeing the enemy. In the meantime Mason was ordered to hold the Modoc fortress with his command, and the property of his camp at Hospital rock was removed to his former camp on the peninsula or Scorpion point. The cavalry not with Perry were ordered to this camp. This left the trail along the lake exposed to attack from the enemy's scouts.
On the 18th the Modocs came in plain sight on a ridge about two mihs off, and seemed by their large fires to be burning their dead. They also fired an ​
occasional sliot during the clay from nearer points. On the morning of the 19th as a pack-mule train was on its way from Scorpion point to Mason's camp on the lava beds with supplies, escorted by twenty men under Lieutenant Howe; it was attacked by eleven Modocs in ambush, who were driven back. Lieutenant Leary, coming to meet the train with an escort, had been less fortunate, losing one man killed and one wounded in passing the same spot. As the train was enterino; the lava beds it was a^ain fired on; and again on returning, at both the attacking points. During the day the Indians crept up to within a few hundred yards of the pickets, firing a volley into camp. A shell dropped among them by Captain Thomas scattered them for that day. They showed themselves however on the 20th: o^oing; to the lake for water they fired on the Warm Spring warriors burying their dead, and even had the audacity to bathe themselves in the lake in sight of camp, only a feeble attempt being made to get at them by the astonished soldiery. In fact, they exhibited no fear about approaching the army camps, and the Warm Spring warriors were posted at the head of the bay between the lava beds and Hospital rock to prevent the Indians visiting the abandoned camp to pick up cartridges, coming to the lake for water, or stealing into Gillem's camp to gather information as spies.
Why did not the troops go forward and grind the savages to powder ? The men were impatient enough to be doing something, and vexed because General Gillem preferred to wait for two companies of the 4th artillery, en route from San Francisco to Fort Crook under Captain John Mendenhall and H. C. Hasbrouck, but which, on the news of the escape of the Modocs at headquarters department of California were telegraphed to proceed by the way of Shasta valley to report to Gillem. They now thought they knew that the Modocs could not be surrounded; or ​
if they were they had to be assailed in their strong position, and killed or captured. To accomplish this it was not numbers that could effect it, but skill and daring. The officers as well as the troops shared in the general impatience at the course of the commanding officer, and went so far as to say that he considered only his own personal safety, remaining in camp during the three days' battle, and after the battle having all the troops that could be spared posted at his camp.
When the peace commission was terminated by the assassination of Canby the whole frontier was thrown into a state of alarm followed by an attempt to place it on the defensive. Governor Grover was informed by telegraph that the road from the Rogue river to Klamath \ alley was dangerous and that the settlers had been warned. He was asked to order out 300 volunteers; and did issue a proclamation calling for that number of men to serve on exposed portions of the frontier. He ordered Ross to raise a volunteer company, and open the road from Jacksonville to Linkville, and to take to the settlers in the Klamath basin forty-eight needle guns with 300 rounds of ammunition, which had been issued a month previous in anticipation of difficulties following the failure of the peace commission, and stored at Jenny creek on the road to Linkville. At the same time the governor sent dispatches to United States senators J. K. Kelly and J. H. Mitchell, directing them to obtain an order from the war department for 500 needle ouns to be turned over to the state of O region for the nearest arsenal, 200 of which were due on a former requisition, and the remainder to be credited to the state on quotas due in the future, which arrangement was effected. When it became known that the Modocs had left their stronghold, great consternation prevailed among the inhabitants of northern California, and the wildest rumors gained credence. On ​
the 19th J. K. Luttrel of the third cono;resslonal district of Cahfornia arrived in Yreka with the intelligence that the Indians of the lower Klamath and Salmon rivers were fully informed on the Modoc war, and there could be no doubt that Modoc runners had visited all the northern California and southern Oregon tribes. He had joined a company of volunteers going out to bring in the remains of young Hovey, shot on the 17th, for the purpose of visiting the scenes of hostilities, and to make a report upon them in his position as representative. The information he acquired, however, was obtained in Yreka, and from the same source that furnished all the information that was permitted to reach Washington at this time.
On the 20th the courier from headquarters to Yreka was fired on while riding express about four miles west of camp, the news of which alarmed the settlers on Willow and Hot creeks, who apprehended visits from small marauding bands of Modocs, and sent their families to Yreka. To add to the excitement, the Indians on the lower Klamath and in Scott valley were holding mysterious dances and ceremonials, decked in their war paint. The same rites had been observed in Goose Lake valley, where also much alarm was felt.
Fresh direction was soon imparted to operations by the discovery of the Warm Spring scouts that the Modocs were, after all, within the lava bed limits, although six miles to the south of the former camp. Here they had strongly intrenched themselves, and were adding to their supplies and courage by frequent descents on goods-trains and wayfarers. Their retreat revealed, they became more daring, and ventured with great bravado within range of the military headquarters only to disappear as if by magic before pursuers. It had been learned by experience that in these natural strongholds, with their knowledge of the ground, they could defy a manifold superior force in compara ​
tive safety, while the besiegers were exposed at every turn or advance.
The press and pubHc alternated between expressing apprehension of Indian raids and condemnation of military maneuvres, and seemed to favor a proposal of certain rash spirits for hunting down the miserable remnant of Modocs at so much per scalp, as the cheapest and surest way of settling the difficulty. In dealing with fiends, fiendish measures were allowable, they argued. Regular warfare was evidently inefficient, and would involve the needless sacrifice of blood and money.
The military naturally scouted the imputation cast on their ability, notwithstanding repeated missteps. During the first march toward the new Modoc retreat, they allowed themselves to be surprised by the enemy, which fell upon the reconnoitering force of Major Thomas, and scattered it in confusion, with the loss of twenty-two killed, and a number of wounded, while only one Modoc perished, through his own carelessness. The result was another period of inaction, to await reenforcements, during which the soldiers freely expressed their lack of confidence in officers whose only achievements seemed to be leading them into traps.
Lack of water compelled the Modocs once more to seek a new refuge. On their way to Snow mountains they came upon a detachment sent to head them off from so undesirable a direction. In the effort to stampede this force, like that of Major Thomas, they were foiled, partly through the promptness of the Warm Spring Indians. The pursuit by the soldiers was, moreover, so hot that the attacking band lost its horses, together with the reserve ammunition. Thus crippled, they were obliged to turn toward Indian Springs, there to be speedily surrounded by the troops. In this dilemma they negotiated through Fairchild, offering to surrender to him if promised their lives. This was agreed to, and on May 22d Fairchild brought in seventy captives, including a ​
dozen warriors, among them Steamboat Frank, Sliacknasty Jim, Bogus Charley, and Hooker Jim.
The band proved to be mainly Cottonwood Creek Indians, who under accumulating reverses had tired of danger and hardships. Not content with abandoning their comrades, the above leading spirits actually volunteered to aid in capturing Jack, who with twenty braves had pushed eastward to Willow creek. Guided by these renegades, captains Jackson and Hasbrouck came so close upon the fugitives that several of their squaws were secured. After being pursued to Langell valley, half their number surrendered, including Scarface Charley Jack availed himself of the parley to hasten away, only to be intercepted by a detachment under Captain Perry, to whom he gave himself up on June 1st together with a few followers. Nearly all the remainder were oathered in durino; the following three days. Thus ended the six months' campaign of the Modocs, which cost the government one third of a million in dollars, exclusive of pay and equipment of troops, and a casualty of one hundred soldiers, killed and wounded, not counting hapless settlers and their heavy losses in property. Of the eighty warriors wdio started the war, fifty survi\?ed, with over a hundred women and children.
General Davis was ordered to try the captives by court-martial, regardless of the demand by Oregon for the surrender of certain murderers among them to her civil authorities for trial. Meanwhile a band of Hot Creek Indians, under transmission to Boyle's camp, were attacked by masked men and four of them shot. No investigation followed this cowardly deed. The court-martial, which sat between the 5th and 9th of July, condemned to death Captain Jack, Boston Charley, Sconchin, Black Jim, Watch-in-tate, and Sloluck. The sentence of the last two was commuted to imprisonment for life at Alcatraz, where they died; the other four expiated their crimes on October 3d, at Fort Klamath. The renegades who had assisted ​
to capture them were granted their Hves, yet two of these were rinofleaders, and the worst characters in the band. The remnant of the Modocs, one hmidred and fifty-five, including forty-two males, were moved to Indian territory, under the chieftainship of Scarfaced Charley, their most cultured representative. School and agricultural training has made them gentle and nearly self-sustainino-. Old Sconchin remains with his peaceable followers on the Oregon reservation.
Whatever the opinion concerning Modoc character and claims, a certain admiration must be accorded to the stubborn determination of the band, and its success in so long resisting with a mere handful of warriors the overwhelming military forces, supported by a w^ide-sprcad community bitterly hostile to Indians. The country was favorable to guerilla warfare, however. The Modocs were acquainted with every foot of the ground, and used to a flitting forest life, while the troops were hampered not alone by inexperience in this respect, but by rigid regulations unduly enforced by officers with deficient training for such service. The former had, moreover, secret allies among the apparently neutral tribes of the region, which were only too glad to aim an indirect blow at the white invaders. Nor were traders lacking, or even officials, who found it to their interest to prolong the campaign. Once started on the war-path, the Indians were prompted both by fear of vengeance and by the hope for some happy turn of affairs to persevere.
Eastern people, safe in their seclusion, could not understand the danger and suffering of pioneers with wives and children and scanty means, exposed to the mercy of exasperated natives. They felt inclined rather to sympathize with a brave minority apparently fiohtincr for hearth and home, for existence, atrainst ruthless frontiermen and soldiers, intent alone on usurpation and glory. Their representations before an administration equally unconscious of the real state ​of affairs brought about the issue of instructions which tied the hands of both settlers and troops, and were the principal cause for the prolongation of the war and the many attendant misfortunes.