USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 16
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 16
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 16
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In April a large body of Stikines repaired to the waters of the gulf of Georgia, within easy distance of the American settlements, and made their sorties with their canoes in any direction at will. On the 8th the John Hancock, being at Port Townsend, ex- pelled sixty from that place, who became thereby much offended, making threats which alarmed the inhabitants, and which were the occasion of a public meeting on the following day to request the governor and Commander Swartwout to send a war-steamer to cruise between Bellingham Bay and the other settle- ments on the lower Sound and Fuca Sea.28 During
27 Phelps describes Patkanim as he returned from Olympia with his com- pany after being paid off, in April, 'arrayed in citizen's garb, including congress gaiters, white kid gloves, and a white shirt with standing collar reaching half-way up his cars, and the whole finished off with a flaming red necktie.' Patkanim had 80 warriors of the Snoqualimich and Skokomish tribes, and was assisted by a chief called John Taylor.
28 Olympia Pioneer and Dem., April 25, 1856. I find in the journal kept by W. S. Ebey, who lived on Whidbey Island, frequent reference to the depredations of the northern Indians. They visited the island on the morn- ing of Jan. 19th, committing a number of thefts, taking the property of settlers,
135
HOSTILITIES ON THE SOUND.
the whole summer a feeling of insecurity and aların prevailed, only alleviated by the cruising of the men-of- war. That they still infested these waters at mid- summer is shown by the account of Phelps of the departure of the Decatur from the Sound in June, which he says was "escorted by our Indian friends, representatives from the Tongas, Hydah, Stickene, and Shineshean tribes," until abreast of Victoria. They were glad to see the vessel depart.
In October a small party of Stikines attacked a small schooner belonging to one Valentine, killing one of his crew in an attempt to board the vessel, and severely wounding another. They were pursued by the Massachusetts, but escaped. At the same time other predatory detachments of a large party landed at different points, robbing the houses temporarily vacated by the owners, and not long afterward visited the Indian reservation near Steilacoom and carried off the potatoes raised by the reserve Indians. At the second visit of the robbers to the reservation, the Nisquallies killed three of the invaders, in conse- quence of which much alarm existed.
Swartwout then determined to drive them from the Sound, and overtaking them at Port Gamble on the 20th, found them encamped there in force. Wish- ing to avoid attacking them without sufficient appar- ent provocation, he sent a detachment under Lieu- tenant Young in a boat to request them to leave the Sound, offering to tow their canoes to Victoria, and in- viting a few of the principal chiefs to visit the ship. To these proposals they returned insolent answers, ges- ticulating angrily at the officers and men, challenging them to come ashore and fight them, which Young was forbidden to do.
and also articles belonging to the revenue-cutter Rival. Ebey mentions that in Feb. the people on the mainland were apprehensive of an attack, and were collecting at Bellingham Bay, where a company was organizing for defence. The Chimakums near Port Townsend fled to the island for protection from the northern Indians, of whom they were much afraid. Ebey's Journal, MS., iii. 226-9, 253-4, 255; Ballou's Adventures, MS., 16.
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INDIAN WARS.
A second and larger expedition was fitted out to make another attempt to prevail upon the Indians to depart, by a display of strength united with mildness and reason, but with no better effect, the deputation being treated with increased contempt. The whole of the first day was spent in useless conciliation, when, finding his peaceable overtures of no avail, Swartwout drew the Massachusetts as close as possible to their encampment, and directly abreast, and stationed the Traveller, a small passenger-steamer running on the Sound at this time,29 commanded for this occasion by Master's mate Cummings, with the launch of the Massa- chusetts commanded by Lieutenant Forrest, both hav- ing field-pieces on board, above the Indian encampment, where their guns would have a raking fire upon it. Early in the following morning Lieutenant Seinmes was ordered to take a flag of truce and reiterate his demand of the day before, pointing out to the Indians the preparations made to attack them, and the folly of further resistance. They were still determined to defy the power which they underrated because it appeared suppliant, and preparations were made for charging them and using the howitzer, which was carried on shore by the men in the launch wading waist-deep in water. Even after the landing of the men and gun they refused to consider any propositions looking to their departure, but retired to the cover of logs and trees with their arms, singing their war- songs as they went.
When there could no longer be any doubt of their warlike purpose, an order was given to fire the Travel- ler's field-pieces, which were discharged at the same instant that a volley blazed out of the muzzles of sixty guns in the hands of the Indians. The ship's battery
29 J. G. Parker owned the Traveller. It was a small iron steamer, which in 1855 was shipped from S. F. on the brig J. B. Brown, and run for two years carrying the mail. It was afterward sold to Capt. Horton, who chartered it to the Indian department, and was lost at Foulweather Bluff. l'arker continued in the steamboat business, and ran the Messenger for some time between Olympia and Seattle. In his Puget Sound, MS., G-14, is a his- tory of early steamboating, complete and valuable.
137
KILLING OF EBEY.
was then directed against them, and under cover of the guns, the marines and sailors on shore, led by Forrest and Semmes, charged the Indian encamp- ment situated at the base of a high and steep hill surrounded by a dense undergrowth and by a living and dead forest almost impenetrable. The huts and property of the Indians were destroyed, although a desperate resistance was made, as futile as it was determined. After three hours the detachment re- turned on board ship, firing being kept up all day whenever an Indian was seen. During the afternoon a captive woman of the Stikines was sent on shore to offer them pardon, on condition that they would surrender and go to Victoria on the Massachusetts, their canoes being destroyed; but they answered that they would fight as long as one of them was left alive. However, on the morning of the 22d the chiefs made humble overtures of surrender, saying that out of 117 fighting men 27 had been killed and 21 wounded, the rest losing all their property and being out of provisions. They were then received on board the Massachusetts, fed, and carried to Victoria, whence their passage home was assured.
Swartwout in his report to the navy department expressed the conviction that after this severe ehas- tisement the northern Indians would not again visit the Sound. In this belief he was mistaken. On the night of the 11th of August, 1857, they landed on Whidbey Island, went to the house of I. N. Ebey, shot him, cut off his head, robbed the premises, and escaped before the alarm could be given. This was done, it was said, in revenge for the losses inflicted by the Massachusetts, they selecting Ebey because of his rank and value to the community.30
30 Ebey was in his house on the island with his wife, his three children, ard George W. Corliss and wife. At one o'clock he was awakened by the bark- ing of dogs, and going to the door, opened it. The other inmates of the house heard two shots fired, and soon after Mrs Ebey saw her husband at the win- dow of her room with his hand pressed to his head. She called to him to come in through the window, but he appeared not to hear or understand. Two other shots were then fired, when he fell. The Indians being for the
138
INDIAN WARS.
Numerous depredations were committed by them, which nothing could prevent except armed steamers to cruise in the Fuca strait and sea.31 Expeditions to the Sound were made in January, and threats that they would have five heads before leaving it, and among others that of the United States inspector at San Juan Island, Oscar Olney. They visited the Pattle coal mine at Bellingham Bay, where they killed two men and took away their heads. They visited Joel Clayton, the discoverer of the Mount Diablo coal mines of California, living at Bellingham Bay in 1857, who narrowly escaped, and abandoned his claim on account of them.32 Several times they reconnoitred the block-house at that place, but with- drew without attacking. These acts were retaliatory of the injury suffered in 1856.33
moment busy with their victim, Mrs Corliss sprang out of the window, which opened on a piazza, followed by Mrs Ebey and the children, and a moment after by Corliss, who had remained to hold fast the door between them and the hall of the house which the Indians were entering. He then retreated through the window, and fleeing to the woods, all escaped the bullets sent after them in the darkness. Mrs Corliss, who was a daughter of Judson, who settled on Commencement Bay in 1833, ran to the house of R. C. Hill, over half a mile away, and gave the alarm. Believing that a descent of the northern Indians upon the settlemeuts of the lower sound, such as they had long dreaded, had been begun, the women and children were hurriedly gathered at the house of Harmon, and preparations made for defence. When daylight came the murderers were gone, and with them the head of Ebey, from which they took the scalp, afterward recovered by the H. B. Co., and placed in possession of his niece, Mrs Almira N. Enos of S. F. Victoria Gazette, Nov. 4, 1838; Puget Sound IIerald, Dec. 9, 1859; Ebey's Journal, MS., vi. 282; H. Ex. Doc., 39, 11-12, 35th cong. Ist sess .; Overland Monthly, xi. 205.
31 As early as January following the chastisement given by the Massa- chusetts, these Indians visited the Sound. At Whidbey Island they created so much alarm that a company of 35 men was organized in April, with R. V. Peabody captain and George W. Beam and C. C. Vail lieutenants, to defend the settlements. Ehey's Journal, MS., v. 29. In May several families aban- doned their houses through fear of them. In June 1858 they attacked a party of miners six miles from Whatcom, killing all but two, who escaped. Several hundred dollars' worth of goods were taken. Joseph Foster of Seattle was among the killed. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., June 18, 1858.
32 Roder's Bellingham Bay, MS., 22-4.
33 The various mounted volunteer companies engaged in war or defence during Mason's administration were the following: Companies A, Capt. Wil- liam Strong, and B, Capt. Gilmore Hays, were mustered into the regular service and furnished their own horses; companies E, Capt. Isaac Hays, F, Capt. B. S. Henness, K, Capt. John R. Jackson; Cowlitz Rangers, Capt. H. W. Peers, Lewis River Rangers, Capt. William Bratton, in the service of the territory, furnished their own horses; Stevens Guards, Capt. Higgins, were furnished horses by gov .; Spokane Invincibles, Capt. Yaniis, horses partly furnished
139
PEUPEUMOXMOX HOSTILE.
Immediately on learning what had occurred in the Yakima country, in October 1855, Indian agent Olney, at The Dalles, hastened to Walla Walla in order, if possible, to prevent a combination of the Oregon Indians with the Yakimas, rumors being in circulation that the Cayuses, Walla Wallas, and Des Chutes were unfriendly. He found Peupeumoxmox encamped on the north side of the Columbia, a circum- stance which he construed as unfavorable, although by the terms of the treaty of Walla Walla the chief pos- sessed the right for five years to occupy a trading post at the mouth of the Yakima River, or any tract in possession for the period of one year from the rati- fication of the treaty, which had not yet taken place.34
Olney declared in his official communications to R. R. Thompson at this time, that all the movements of Peupeumoxmox indicated a determination to join in a war with the Yakimas. Thompson was not sur- prised, because in September he had known that Peupeumoxmox denied having sold the Walla Walla Valley, and was aware of other signs of trouble with this chief.35
At this critical juncture the Hudson's Bay Com- pany's officers, Mckinlay, Anderson, and Sinclair,
by gov. and partly by volunteers; Puget Sound Rangers, Capt. Charles Eaton, furnished their own horses; Nez Peree Volunteers, Capt. Spotted Eagle, furnished their own horses and equipments. Inf. companies: C, George B. Goudy, D, Capt. W. H. Wallace (part of them mounted), G, Capt. W. A. S. MeCorekle, M, Capt. C. C. Hewitt, I, Capt. I. N. Ehey, J, Capt. A. A. Plummer, Nisqually Ferry guards, Serg. William Packwood. Adj .- Gen, Rept, in Wash. Mess. Gov., 1857. See also Roder's Bellingham Bay, MS .; Ebey's Journal, MS .; Morris' Wash. Ter., MS .; Ballou's Adv., MS .; Hanford's Ind. War, MS .; Yesler's Wash. Ter., MS .; Parker's Puget Sound, MS., passim.
34 Palmer, in H. Ex. Doc., 93, 22, 34th cong. Ist scss .; Ind. Aff. Rept, vol. 34.
35 Portland Times, Oct. 21, 1855. There were in all about 60 white men, womeu, and children in the country on the Walla Walla and Umatilla riv- ers. Lloyd Brooks, who came to Vancouver in 1849 as chief clerk to quartermaster Captain Rufus Ingalls, was one. In 1853 he went to the Walla Walla Valley to raise cattle. U. S. Ev. 11. B. Co. Claims, 127. He returned to Vancouver, married a daughter of Gen. E. Hamilton, ter, see. under Gaines, and resided in Portland after 1862. Other Americaus were Bromford, Noble, Victor Trevitt, W. H. Barnhart, Wolf, and Whitney. There were, besides these, the H. B. Co.'s few people at the fort, and the French and half- breed settlers about the catholic mission of Father Cherouse, near Waiilatpu.
140
INDIAN WARS.
the latter in charge of the fort, in conference with Olney, decided to destroy the ammunition stored at Walla Walla to prevent its falling into the hands of the Indians; accordingly a large amount of powder and ball was thrown into the river, for which Olney gave an official receipt, relieving Sinclair of all re- sponsibility. He then ordered all the white inhab- itants out of the country, including Sinclair, who was compelled to abandon the property of the company contained in the fort,36 valued at $37,000, to the mercy of the Indians, together with a considerable amount of government stores left there by the Indian commissioners in June, and other goods belonging to American traders and settlers.
Colonel Nesmith, of the Oregon Mounted Volun- teers, on returning to The Dalles, reported against a winter campaign in the Yakima Valley, saying that the snow covered the trails, that his animals were broken down and many of his men frost-bitten and unfit for duty, so that 125 of them had been dis- charged and allowed to return to their homes. In the mean time the left column of the regiment had congregated at The Dalles, under Lieutenant-Colonel James K. Kelly, and Governor Curry ordered for- ward Major M. A. Chinn to Walla Walla, where he expected to meet Nesmith from the Yakima country.
On learning of the general uprising, while en route, Chinn concluded it impossible to enter the country, or form a junction with Nesmith as contemplated;
36 Evidence of William Charles, iu H. B. Co. Ev. H. B. Co. Claims, 173. This was the end of the company's occupation at Walla Walla, later known as Wallula. The end of their occupation of forts Hall and Boisé occurred about the same time-Fort Boisé a little earlier, aud Fort Hall a little later. The Indians about the former post were imbittered, seeing the company's agent ou good terms with Major Haller and the American soldiers, and be- cause he refused to sell them ammunition. Fort Hall was abandoned because it could not, on account of the Indian hostilities, be communicated with in the usual way, which was by Walla Walla and Boise from Vancouver. 'Our two expressmen, Boiselere and Desjardins, had been killed between Fort Hall and Walla Walla. I had orders from Chief Factor McTavish to have the company's effects at Fort Hall, men and property, withdrawn to the Flathead post by a party sent from there for them, which was done, the active theatre of hostilities not being so much in the direct course of that party.' Angus McDonald, in Il. B. Co. Ev. II. B. Co. Claims, 162.
141
END OF THE WALLA WALLA CHIEF.
hence he determined to fortify the Umatilla agency, whose buildings had been burned, and there await re- enforcements. Arriving there on the 18th of No- vember, a stockade was erected and named Fort Henrietta, after Major Haller's wife. In due time Kelly arrived and assumed command, late reënforce- ments giving him in all 475 men.
With 339 men Kelly set forth for Walla Walla on the night of December 2d. On the way Peupeumoxnox was met at the head of a band of warriors displaying a white flag. After a conference the Indians were held as prisoners of war; the army marched forward toward Waiilatpu, and in an attack which followed the prisoners were put to death. Thus perished the the wealthy and powerful chief of the Walla Wallas. 37
A desultory fight was kept up during the 7th and 8th, and on the 9th the Indians were found to have rather the best of it.38 On the 10th, however, Kelly was reënforced from Fort Henrietta, and next day the Indians retired, the white men pursuing until night- fall. A new fortification was erected by Kelly, two miles above Waiilatpu, and called Fort Bennett.
It was now about the middle of December, and Kelly, remembering the anxiety of Governor Curry to have him take his seat in the council, began to pre- pare for returning to civil duties. Before he could
37 Though coming to them under color of peace, it was charged upon the chief that he intended to entrap them. However this may have been, the vol- unteers, not content with putting so powerful an enemy out of the way, amused themselves that evening in camp by cutting off bits of his scalp as trophies; and when the scalp was entirely gone, the assistant surgeon of the regiment cut off his ears, and it was said that some of his fingers were taken off. Parrish probably exaggerates somewhat when he says: 'They skinned him from head to foot, and made razor-straps of his skin.' Or. Anec., MS., 87.
38 Killed: Capt. Charles Bennett of Co. F, the same who was connected with James Marshall in the discovery of gold in Cal .; 2d Lieut J. M. Burrows, Co. H, Simon S. Van Hagerman, Co. I. Mortally wounded, who lived but a few hours: E. B. Kelsey, Co. A; Henry Crow and Casper Snook, Co. H; Josephı Sturdevant, Co. B; Jesse Flemming, Co. A. Dangerously wounded: Capt. Layton, and privates T. J. Payne, Nathan Fry, and F. Crabtree, Co. H; J. B. Gervias, Co. K. Severely wounded: Capt. A. V. Wilson, Co. A; Capt. L. Munson, Co. I; Ser .- Maj. Isaac Miller, Co. H; Private G. W. Smith, Co. B. Slightly wounded: Privates A. M. Addington, Co. H; Franklin Duval, Co. A. Etuns, Or. Mil. Organization, 90. On the 9th and 10th, wounded, A. Shepard, Ira Allen, and John Smith. Estimated Iud. killed and wounded, 100.
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INDIAN WARS.
leave the command he received intelligence of the resignation of Nesmith, and immediately ordered an election for colonel, which resulted in the elevation to the command of Thomas R. Cornelius, and to the office vacated by himself of Davis Layton. The place of Captain Bennett was filled by A. M. Fellows, whose rank in his company was taken by A. Shepard, whose office fell to B. A. Barker. With this partial reorgan- ization ended the brief first chapter in the volunteer campaign in the Walla Walla Valley.
On the evening of the 20th Governor Stevens entered the camp, having made his way safely through the hostile country, as related in the preceding chapter. His gratitude to the Oregon regiment was earnest and cordial, without that jealousy which might have been felt by him on having his terri- tory invaded by an armed force from another.39 He remained ten days in the Walla Walla Valley, and finding Agent Shaw on the ground, who was also colonel of the Washington militia, a company of French Canadians was organized to act as home-guards, with Sidney S. Ford captain, and Green McCafferty Ist lieutenant. Shaw was directed to have thrown up defensive works around the place already selected by Kelly as the winter camp of the friendly Indians and French settlers, and to protect in the same man- ner the settlers at the Spokane and Colville, while cooperating with Colonel Cornelius in any movement defensive or offensive which he might make against the Indians in arms. He agreed with the Oregon officers that the Walla Walla should be held by the volunteers until the regular troops were ready to take the field, and that the war should be prosecuted with vigor.
Before leaving Walla Walla, Governor Stevens ap- pointed William Craig his aid during the Indian war, and directed him to muster out of the service, on re- turning to their country, the sixty-nine Nez Perce
39 See Stevens' Speech on the War Debt, May 13, 1858.
143
KELLY'S RECEPTION.
volunteers enrolled at Lapwai, with thanks for their good conduct, and to send their muster-rolls to the adjutant-general's office at Olympia. Craig was di- rected to take measures for the protection of the Nez Percés against any incursions of the hostile Indians, all of which was a politic as well as war measure, for so long as the Nez Percés were kept employed, and flattered, with a prospect of pay in the future, there was comparatively little danger of an outbreak among them. Pleased with these attentions, they offered to furnish all the fresh horses required to mount the Oregon volunteers for the further prosecution of the campaign.
Kelly resigned and returned to Oregon, though afterward again joining his command. Stevens has- tened to Olympia, where he arrived the 19th of Jan- uary, finding affairs in a deplorable condition, all business suspended, and the people living in block- houses.40 He was received with a salute of thirty- eight guns.
The two companies under Major Armstrong, whom Colonel Nesmith had directed to scour the John Day and Des Chutes country, while holding themselves in readiness to reënforce Kelly if needed, employed themselves as instructed, their services amounting to little more than discovering property stolen from im- migrants, and capturing 'friendly' Indians who were said to be acting as go-betweens.
During the remainder of December the companies stationed in the vicinity of The Dalles made fre- quent sorties in the direction of the Des Chutes and John Day countries, and were thus occupied when Kelly resigned his command, who on returning to Oregon City was received with acclamations by the people, who escorted him in triumph to partake of a public banquet in his honor, regarding him as a hero
40 Rept of I. I. Stevens to the sec. war, in Sen. Ex. Doc., 66, 6-8, 34th cong. Ist sess .; Ind. Aff. Rept, vol. 34; Or. Argus, Jan. 12, 1856; Grover's Pub, Life, MS., 58.
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INDIAN WARS.
who had severed a dangerous coalition between the hostile tribes of southern Oregon then in the field and those of Puget Sound and northern Washington.
As many of the 1st regiment of Oregon Mounted Volunteers who had served in the Yakima and Walla Walla campaigns were anxious to return to their homes, Governor Curry issued a proclamation on the 6th of January, 1856, for a battalion of five com- panies to be raised in Linn, Marion, Yamhill, Polk, and Clackmas counties, and a recruit of forty men to fill up Captain Conoyer's company of scouts, all to remain in service for three months unless sooner discharged. Within a month the battalion was raised, and as soon as equipped set out for Walla Walla, where it arrived about the first of March.
Colonel Cornelius, now in command, set out on the 9th of March with about 600 men to find the enemy. A few Indians were discovered on Snake River, and along the Columbia to the Yakima and Palouse, which latter stream was ascended eight miles, the army subsisting on horse-flesh in the absence of other provis- ions. Thence Cornelius crossed to Priest's Rapids, and followed down the east bank of the Columbia to the mouth of the Yakima, where he arrived the 30th, still meeting few Indians. Making divers disposition of his forces, with three companies on the 31st Corne- lius crossed the Columbia, intending to march through the country of Kamiakin and humble the pride of this haughty chief, when he received news of a most star- tling nature. The Yakimas had attacked the settle- ments at the Cascades of the Columbia.
Early in March Colonel Wright, now in command at Vancouver, commenced moving his force to The Dalles, and when General Wool arrived in Oregon about the middle of the month, he found but three companies of infantry at Vancouver, two of which he ordered to Fort Steilacoom, a palpable blunder, when
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