Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-02-05
EVENING STAR.
THE WAR IN OREGON.
| ICoNCLUDED.l |

cannot close this communication without
| reverting to few statements made in GeneraIs
Wool and Palmer official dispatches, and also
Agent Ambrose.
Gen. Wool and Gen. Palmer say that the
Indians attacked by party under Maj Lup-
| ton were friendly and on their way TO the re-
serve Such is rot the fact They were on
their way to the reserve, have no doubt but
were they peaceable? They had been traiIed
from the murders on the Syskion mountain
committed about week previous, and The
scalp of a white man was found in their ran.
chos. Look at the conflicting statements of
Wool and Palmer, and also of Agent Ambrose,
who was on the ground. Wool and Palmer
were from three hundred to three thousand
miles distant Palmer says thirty persons
men, women and children +" Wool says
twenty FIVE in all, nineteen being women
and children " Agent Ambrose says thir-
ty-twO in all, eight of them men," and fur-
ther says. " the attack was made so early in
the morning that the women were undistin-
guishable from the men 1t seems very sim
gular that such discrepancy should occur in
official documents.
Gen Wool has set himself up as a comman-
der, legislator, and Judge, and has endGa.
vored TO influence Congress about the pay
ment of the war debt. The General has COM
mitted great military blunder himself, and,
because the Governor of our Territory acted
promptly and with knowledge Of the circum-
stances which reflected some on the Generals
hardness, he che GeneraD would like to
Compound for crimes he Is incII1td To
Dy damEirg those he has a mind to.n
Gen. Wool knew that war existed in south
ern Oregon from the Sth of October 1859, and
In the early part of November he sent the
only company, under Major Fitzgerald that
at that time could be of any service, to the
Dailes-Capt Smiths company being hardly
sufficient to retain and keep peace with those
Indians on the reserve at Fort Lane-thus
leaving the country destitute Of protection
against those hostile sayages who, at that
time, were numbering, burning, and piunder-
Ing all over the country and not until the
middle OF Narch-sOne six months after the
war broke out-was there any United States
troops sent to the assistance Of the people In
southern Oregon.
Had 1t not been for tho volunteers during
this time what would have become of the
country! Those who reside there can best
answer. Had body Of one hundred ard
fifty troops been stationed az the big bend of
Rogue river within a month or six weeks after
the war broke out to stop communication
amongst the Upper and Lower Rogue River
Indians, all the murders and destruction of
property at the mouth of Rogue river could
have been prevented Here were the lives of
some forty OF our citizens, and S250, 900 worth
of property, sacrificed TO either the incapacity
or wliful mismansgement, or bad information
OF an officer whom we pay 1892 per month for
experimenting these very military move
ments which he has so wantOnly neglected
Ard when the troops came to that part Of
Southern Oregon they were under the COM
mand VI LIT Col. Buchanan, who forthwith
sent orders TO Capt Smiths command to Join
him at the mouth cf Rosue river, leaving
Rogue river valley to be protected by either
volunteers or the citizens themselves This
part Of the southern country, too, being ex
posed to the Indians Of John, George and Linn
py, who were the most warlike Indians on the
PAciic coast.
How can General Wool account to the coun-
try tor neglecting - send troops TO Southern
Oregon and Northern California! Will il be
said that nearly six months is too short time
Il get troops from San Francisco to Crescent
City or Port Oxford, when they could have
been landed from the steamer the third day
from San Francisco? How will he acuuit his
conscience. having the means, not to use it for
the protection Of those citizens who were so
inhumanly murdered on tie night of the I'D
vi February, 1886, at the mouth Of the Rogue
river, and within three days sail of General
Ncols headquarters But as soon as Col.
Buchanan came up, instead Of Furnishing those
murdeIers, be, from his acts, apparently had
instructions to coax them into a treaty But
even then, mono Of them would come to terms
but showed fight at the mouth of the river:
and when the Colonel was urged to give them
battle by Cspt. Bledsoe, Of the volunteers, be
very graciously said 9 it was not his day for
lighting" At that time the Indians were all
around his camp firing into it, While stop
ping at the mouth Of Rogue river with his
commend, the Colonel killed several beef cat.
tic belonging 70 some of the citizens, who
mlnaged, with the assistance of some volun-
re- n h.. H.
property was destroyed by the Indians; and
when the owners told the Colonel that they
would like to Lave pay for their cattle, or,
they would rather he would not kill them,
the Colonel told them I" he had captured thc m
from the Indians, and they therefore belonged
10 the United State " Thus what the Indians
leit, the Colonel took good care not to leave
Having only one company of volunteers on
Rogue river, near its mOuth-and that consist.
ed only OF about fifty men-it was not enough
to attack large body of tho enemy, and Cap
tain Bledsoe, who was commanding, urged the
necessity upon Col B to allow a company of
regulars to CO operate with him up the river;
but the Colonel refused to do this, and spurned
the idea. Capt Bledsoes men were well ac-
quainted with the country, and rendered i'm
portant service, and could have done more,
could he have induced the regulars to move
In concert with him. But that was beneath
old John, through the fundamentally of Chief
George, out-generaled Col. B and got him TO
divide his command and send Capt. Smith up
to the Big Bend to receive some of them as
prisoners, when the command had thirty one
nen killed and wounded, with but little or no
loss on the part of the Indians
Some three or four days after this affair,
Capt Bledsoe again urged him to send com.
pany with him to large camp Of the enemy.
who were cOngregated some eight miles below
the mouth of Illinois river, on Rogue river.
Col. B. this time reluctantly consented, and
sent Capt, Anger, who took the north side of
the river, and Capt Bledsoe with his company
of volunteers On the south side; and on the 5th
of June they attacked them, and completely
routed them, killing fourteen on the ground
and some twenty five in the river; sight were
killed on the side of the volunteers, and six ON
the side of the regulars.
1 only revert to these things to show that
even Gen. Wool's saying there was no war
did not prevent his regulars from getting bad.
~ whipped sometimes; and it is now uues-
ton OF doubt, whether if the volunteers had
anN A-ll