The Arizona sentinel., 1888-07-21
SHERIDAN IN 1855.
Incidents of His Service as a Lieutenant ii
 the Far Northwest.

Incidents of His Service Lieutenant in
 the Far Northwest.
 Many incidents in General Sheridan's military life have recently been re- called, and some have been spoken of that have never yet been given to the public:
 Among the most interesting of these are incidents of his service in Oregon and Washington Territory, where he was on duty for half dozen years be- lore the outbreak of the civil war. He arrived there as a Second Lieutenant at a turning point in the history of the two Territories, which had just begun to attract attention again, after a pause in their settlement during the period elapsing since the massacre of Dr. Whitman and his associates in Walla Walla valley toward the end of the year 1S47. This region had only a few thousand people, scattered along its coast and its great rivers. Lieutenant Sheridan's duties were in the neighborhood of the Columbia, and particularly near two points known as the Cascades and the Dalles, the form CT being the spot where the river which rises in the Rocky mountains breaks through the Cascade range in its course toward the sea, and the latter forty or fifty miles further east, where, accord ing to the expressive saying, the river ''turns on its edge" The Columbia $ fed by numerous streams, very familiar in the annals of Indian warfare among them the Snake, Willamette, Walla Walla, Wenachee, Deschutes and John Day. Then as now they swarmed with salmon, while the land was stocked with game. Railroads were of course at that time wholly unknown there, and indeed more than a dozen years later there were only twenty miles of rail in operation in the Terri tory.
 A Adragoon who served under Sheridan at that period tells some stories of his career at the far Northwest. It is in- teresting, by the way, to note that Sheridan, though an infantry officer, was assigned to the charge of a small detachment of dragons, as if in fOretokening of his future fame as a cavalryman. One of his duties was to make a march from Fort Reading to the north side of the Columbia river. This was accomplished without serious opposition, except at one point in the Modoc country, where the Indians fired upon the party, but without wounding any body. The ex-dragoon remem- bers that, at Klamath lake, Lieutenant Sheridan deserted a canoe on an island, and, in order to discover wheth- CT it was a clue to any thing else, him self waded through the river and captured it, one man accompanying him on either side.
 Another expedition in which Lieu tenant Sheridan took part was in the Yakima country. While thus engaged, on one occasion he was ordered to cross a stream in order to scout against Indians supposed to be on the opposite shore. He executed this order by plac- ing an infantry sharpshooter in the saddle behind each cavalryman. The stream was not deep, but rapid, and two artillerymen, who followed with the howitzer, were drowned in cross ing. The dragoon who recalls this in- cident says he remembers discharg- ing his piece without aiming, and that Lieutenant Sheridan chided him for having fired before he knew what he was firing at A Cayuse scout em- ployed by Sheridan on this expedition was known as Cut-MOuth John, and on one occasion an Indian called out to him to know if he would talk John replied ferociously: I'll kill you first and talk afterward." The dra,- goon adds that he was as good as his word, and got his enemy's scalp, which he stretched that night with hoop and things. having little scalp dance around it by himself. John used to be on good terms with all the officers, but after Major Rains ordered him to bury that scalp he sulked and had nothing more to do with them. This was the only Indian known to be killed on this expedition.
 On arriving at Yakima Mission, orders were received to proceed with Colonel Nesmith and a party of volun- teers toward White river or Natchez Pass. Major Maloney was supposed to be coming from Fort Steilacoom, on Puget sound, to hem in the Indians from the north. It was showing furi- ously, and the dragoons crossed Bald Hill in a cold storm, Lieutenant Sheri- dan and all his men being compeled to dismount and lead the horses. Further progress being impossible, and Major MalOney not being met, the command returned to the Dalles and camped on Mill creek in tents. The dragons were camped short distance above the fort, which was rebuilding under Captain Jordan. Major Haller was in general command, and the soldiers, says the dragoon, used occasionally to trouble him by raiding on his hogs"
 The events thus spoken of occurred during the autumn of 1855, or little more than two years after General Sheridan's graduation at West Point Washington Letter.
 
 No Change in the Force,