History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 56

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880

USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 56
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 56
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 56

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

believer in the Smohollah doctrine, whose converts were called 'dreamers,' an order of white-man-hating prophets which had arisen among the Indians.2

The commissioners recommended that the teachers of the dreamer religion should not be permitted to visit other tribes, but should be confined to their re- spective agencies, as their influence on the non-treaty Indians was pernicious; secondly, a military station should be established at onee in the Wallowa Valley, while the agent of the Nez Percés should still strive to settle all that would listen to him upon the reser- vation; thirdly, that unless in a reasonable time Joseph consented to be removed, he should be foreibly taken with his people and given lands on the reservation; fourthly, if they persisted in overrunning the lands of settlers and disturbing the peace by threats or other- wise, sufficient foree should be used to bring them into subjeetion. And a similar poliey was reeom- mended toward all the non-treaty and roaming bands.

The government adopted the suggestions as offered, stationing two companies of cavalry in the Wallowa Valley, and using all diligence in persuading the Ind- ians to go upon the reservation, to which at length, in May 1877, they consented, Joseph and White Bird for their own and other smaller bands agreeing to remove at a given time, and selecting their lands, not because they wished to, but because they must, they under- standing perfectly the orders issued concerning them. Thirty days were allowed for removal. On the twenty-ninth day the war-whoop was sounded, and the tragedy of Lost River Valley in Oregon was reenacted along the Salmon River in Idaho.

For two weeks Indians of the bands of Joseph, White Bird, and Looking-glass had been gathering on Cottonwood Creek, at the north end of Camas

2 They held that their dead would arise and sweep the white race from the earth. Joseph said that the blood of one of his people who had been Blain in a feud, by a white man, would 'call the dust of their fathers back to life, to people the land in protest of this great wrong.' See Sec. Int. Rept, 608, 45th cong. 2 sess.

500

INDIAN WARS.

prairie, which lay at the foothills of the Florence Mountains, about sixty-five miles from Lewiston, with the ostensible purpose of removing to the reservation. The white settlements extended along the prairie for considerable distance, the principal one-Mount Idaho -being central. Other settlements on Salmon River were from fifteen to thirty miles distant from Mount Idaho, in a south and south-west direction.

General Howard was at Fort Lapwai, and cogni- zant of the fact that several hundred Indians, with a thousand horses, were on the border of the reserva- tion without coming upon it. On the afternoon of the last day of grace he directed Captain Perry, whom we have met before in the Modoc country, to have ready a small detachment which should start early on the morning of the 15th to obtain news of the actions and purposes of the Indians. That same evening the general received a letter from a promi- nent citizen of Mount Idaho, giving expression to his fears that the Indians did not intend to keep faith with him, but took no measures to prevent the exe- cution of their design should the settlers' fears prove true. In the morning, at the time and in the man- ner before indicated, the detachment trotted out toward Cottonwood Creek to bring in a report. It re- turned at noon, having met two reservation Indians excitedly bearing the news that four white men had been killed on John Day Creek, and that White Bird was riding about declaring that the non-treaty Ind- ians would not go on the reservation.

Howard hastened to the agency to consult with Montieth, taking with him the Indian witnesses, who, on being questioned, represented that the white men were killed in a private quarrel. This report neces- sitated sending other messengers to prove the truth of the Indian statement before the general command- ing in Oregon would feel justified in displaying any military force. Late that afternoon they returned, and with them another messenger from Mount Idaho

501

PERRY'S DEFEAT.

with letters giving a detailed account of a general massacre on Salmon River,3 and the destruction of all the property of the settlers, including their stock, which, if not driven off, was killed.

There were at Fort Lapwai two companies of cav- alry-Captain Perry's troop F, and Captain Trimble's troop H-numbering together 99 men. On the night of Friday, 15th, Perry set out with his command, and came upon the Indians in White Bird cañon early Sunday morning. Perry immediately attacked, but with the most disastrous results. In about an hour thirty-four of his men had been killed and two wounded, making a loss of forty per cent of his com- mand. The volunteers, who were chiefly employed holding the horses of the cavalrymen, sustained but a slight loss. A retreat of sixteen miles to Grange- ville was effected, the dead being left upon the field.

In the mean time Howard was using all despatch to concentrate a more considerable force at Lewiston and Lapwai; the governors of Oregon and Washing- ton were forwarding munitions of war to volunteer companies in their respective commonwealths; and Governor Brayman of Idaho issued a proclamation for the formation of volunteer companies, to whom he could offer neither arms nor pay, but for whom a tele- graphic order from Washington soon provided the former.4

" So far as can be gathered from the confused accounts, the first four men killed were on White Bird Creek. They were shot June 14th as they sat playing cards, the Indians being about 20 in number who did the shooting. That same morning they shot Samuel Benedict through the legs while about his farm-work. In the evening they went to his house and murdered him, together with a German named August, Mrs Benedict and two children es- caping by the aid of an Indian.

# The first company of volunteers was organized at Mount Idaho, where a fortification had been erected. A part of these, under A. Chapman, were with Perry on the 17th. Another company, organized for defence merely, was at Slate Creck. The governor of Idaho ordered to the hostile region, June 20th, a company under Orlando Robbius of Idaho City. A company was organized at Placerville, under J. V. R. Witt. Capt. Hunter of Columbia county, Washington, with 50 volunteers, reported to Howard on the 22d; also Capt. Elliott from the same county with 25; Page of Walla Walla with 20 mon, and Williams with 10; and about the same time Capt. MeConville of Lewistou with 20 volunteers-making altogether a force, in addition to the regulars, of about 150 men.

502

INDIAN WARS.

Not until the 22d were there troops enough brought together, from Wallowa, Walla Walla, and other points, to enable Howard to take the field. At that date 225 men, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, were ready to march.5 Such defensive measures as were possible were taken to secure the settlements, and the little army commenced a pursuit which lasted from the 23d of June to the 4th of October, with enough of inter- esting incidents to fill a volume." The first skirmish took place on the 28th, when Howard, who had two days before arrived at White Bird cañon to collect and bury Perry's dead, and been reënforced with about 175 infantry and artillerymen,7 discovered the Indians in force on the west side of Salmon River not far from opposite the mouth of White Bird Creek. They flaunted their blankets in defiance at the soldiers, dashed down the bare hillside to the river bank, dis- charged their rifles, and retreated toward Snake River, uninjured by the fire of the troops. Crossing the turbulent Salmon with no other aid than two small row-boats, the army took up the stern chase on the 2d of July. Before starting upon it, Whipple was sent on a march of forty miles toward Kamiah to check the reported preparations for war of the band of young Looking-glass, son of the old chief of that name; but having to rest his horses at Mount Idaho,

6 Companies L, Capt. Whipple, and E, Capt. Winters, cavalry; companies D, Capt. Pollock, I, Capt. Eltonhead, E, Capt. Miles, B, Capt. Jocelyn, H, Capt. Haughey, 21st infantry; and E, Capt. Miller, 4th artillery. Howard's rept, in Sec. War Rept, 1877-8, 120. Capt. Bendire from Camp Harney and Maj. Green from Fort Boise were ordered to the valley of the Weiser to prevent Joseph's retreat to Wallowa, and to cut off communication between him and the Malheur Shoshones, or Winnemucca's Piutes.

" A very good narrative of the campaign is contained in a pamphlet of 47 pages by Thomas A. Sutherland, a newspaper writer who accompanied How- ard as a volunteer aide-de-camp, entitled Howard's Campaign against the Nez Percé Indians, 1877. Portland, 1878. There is also a partial review of the campaign, written by C. E. S. Wood, in the May number of the Century mag- azine, 1884, which contains also a portrait of Joseph. My account is drawn chiefly from the different official reports in the Sec. War Rept, 1877-8.

îCompanies M, Capt. Throckmorton, D, Capt. Rodney, A, Capt. Ban- croft, and G, Capt. Morris, 4th artillery; and E, Capt. Burton, 21st infantry. A company of volunteers under Capt. Page of Walla Walla, scouting along the ridge to the right of the canon, discovered the Indians. This company returned bomo on the 29th, escorting, together with Perry's company, a pack- train under Lieut Miller of the Ist cavalry to Lapwai, for supplies.

503

HOWARD'S CAMPAIGN.

the chief gave him the go-by, and escaped to Joseph, with his people, leaving over 600 horses in the hands of the troops. Whipple then marched back to Cot- tonwood, where there was a stockade, and scouted to keep the road from Lapwai open for the supply train under Perry.

Meantime Howard was following Joseph through the mountainous region on the west side of the Salmon. When he arrived at Craig's crossing of the river he learned that the Nez Percés had already recrossed at a lower point, and doubling on their track had re- turned to Camas prairie, and were keeping the cavalry at Cottonwood penned up in the stockade.

One of two scouts sent out to reconnoitre in the direction of Lawyer Creek cañon was captured. The other escaping to the quarters of the troops, Whipple despatched to the assistance of the captive ten men under S. M. Rains, guided by the survivor. Before the main command could mount and overtake this detach- ment, the whole twelve had been ambushed and slain. This was on the 3d of July. On the 4th Whipple marched to meet Perry, and escorted him to Cotton- wood without encountering Indians; they were sur- rounding the station with the design of capturing the supplies. Rifle-pits and barricades were constructed, and Gatling guns placed in position. Skirmishing was kept up until nine o'clock that evening, but so inade- quate was the force to the situation that the enemy was suffered to move off unmolested toward the Clear- water the following morning. A company of seven- teen volunteers, D. B. Randall captain, coming from Mount Idaho, encountered the enemy within a mile of Cottonwood, and escaped, after a severe engagement, only by the assistance of a company of cavalry from that place, which rescued them after half an hour of exposure to the Indian fire.8

8 When Randall saw their intention and his situation, he ordered, not a retreat, but a charge through the Indian line, a dash to the creek bottom abont a mile from Perry's camp, there to dismount and return fire, until relief should be sent them from that place. The order was obeyed without falter-

504

INDIAN WARS.

When Howard heard of the appearance of the Ind- ians on Camas prairie he treated it as the rumor of a raid only, and ordered McConville's and Hunter's vol- unteers to reënforce Perry, in command at Cotton- wood. This force performed escort duty to the wagon conveying the wounded and dead of Randall's com- mand to Mount Idaho, and returned in time to meet the general when he arrived at Cottonwood via Craig's ferry, sixteen miles distant from that camp. McCon- ville then proposed to make a reconnoissance in force by uniting four volunteer companies in one battalion, and discover the whereabouts of the Indians. Ac- cordingly, he soon reported them within ten miles of Kamiah, and that he with his battalion occupied a strong position six miles from Kamiah, which Howard requested him to hold until he could get his troops into position, which he did on the 11th, McConville withdrawing ou that day? to within three miles of Mount Idaho to give protection to that place should the Indians be driven in that direction.

Joseph was at this time in the full flush of success. He had abundance of ammunition and booty. His return to Camas prairie and the reservation grounds had drawn to him about forty of the young warriors

ing and the positien gained, but Randall was mortally wounded in the charge. He sat upon the ground and fired until within five minutes of his death. The remaining sixteen made no attempt to run toward camp, trusting in the com- mander of the troops to be rescued, which rescue was afforded them after an hour ef hard fighting. In the mean time B. F. Evans was killed, and A. Bledland, D. H. Houser, and Charles Johnsen weunded. The other members of this brave cempany were L. P. Willmete, J. Searly, James Buchanan, William Beemer, Charles Chase, C. M. Day, Ephraim Bunker, Frank Vancise, George Riggings, A. D. Bartley, H. C. Johnson, and F. A. Fenn.

9 There secm te have been the usual jealousies and misunderstandings between the regulars and volunteers. McConville was blamed for leaving his position, which Heward designed him to hold as a part of the enveloping force: but the volunteers certainly did not lack in courage. They were only 90 streng, and were attacked by the Indians on the night of the 10th, lesing 50 of their horses. Howard was then across the south branch of the Clearwater, 4 miles beyond Jackson's bridge, undiscovered by the Indians, who were giving their whole attention to the volunteers, whe thus performed a very impertant duty of diverting observation frem the army while getting in posi- tien. Being separated from Heward by the river, and having lest a large number of their horses, it was prudent and good tactics to retire and let the Indians fall inte the trap Howard had set for them, near their own camp, and to place himself between the settlements and the Indians. See Howard's re- port, in Sec. War Rept, 1877-8, 122; Sutherland's lloward's Campaign, 6.

505

BATTLE OF THE CLEARWATER.

of the treaty bands, and twenty or more Cœur d'Alênes, thirsting for the excitement of war. He expected to be attacked, but from the direction of the volunteers, on which side of his camp he had erected fortifications. On the other he had prepared a trail leading up from the Clearwater as a means of escape in case of defeat, and made many caches of provisions and valuable property. The camp lay not far from the mouth of Cottonwood Creek, in a defile of the high hills which bordered the Clearwater. A level valley of no great width was thus bounded on either side of the river. When Howard placed his guns in position for firing into the enemy's camp he found that on account of the depth of the cañon which protected the Indians he only alarmed instead of hitting them, and they ran their horses and cattle beyond range of tlie artillery up the stream, on both sides of the Clearwater, getting them out of danger in ten minutes.

Hurrying the guns to another position around the head of a ravine, a distance of a mile and a half, the Indians were found to have crossed the river, and thrown up breastworks ready for battle. Firing com- menced here, and Howard's whole command was posted up and down the river for two miles and a half, in a crescent shape, with supplies and horses in the centre. So active were the Indians that they had almost prevented the left from getting into position, and had captured a small train bringing ammunition, which the cavalry rescued after two packers were killed. Their sharp-shooters were posted in every conceivable place, and sometimes joined together in a company and attacked the defences thrown ur by the troops. To these fierce charges the troops rejnied by counter-charges, the two lines advancing until they nearly met. In these encounters the Indians had the advantage of occupying the wooded skirts of the ravines, by which they ascended from the river bottom to the open country, while the soldiers could only

506

INDIAN WARS.

avoi l their fire by throwing themselves prone upon the earth in the dry grass, and firing in this position. All the time the voice of Joseph was heard loudly calling his orders as he ran from point to point of his line. And thus the day wore on, and night fell, after which, instead of the noise of battle, there was the death-wail, and the scalp-song rising from the Nez Percé camp. The only spring of water was in the possession of the Indians, and was not taken until the morning of the 12th.

Howard then withdrew the artillery from the lines, leaving the cavalry and infantry to hold them, and Captain Miller was directed to make a movement

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with his battalion, piercing the enemy's line near the centre, crossing his barricaded ravine, and facing about suddenly to strike him in reverse, using a howitzer. At the moment Miller was about to move to execute this order a supply train, under Captain Jackson, was discovered advancing, and Miller's bat- talion was sent to escort it within the lines, which

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PURSUIT OF JOSEPH.

was done with a little skirmishing. This accomplished, he marched slowly past Howard's front, and turning quickly and unexpectedly, charged the barricades, about two o'clock in the afternoon. After a few moments of furious fighting, the Indians gave way, their defences were taken, and they fled in confusion, the whole army in pursuit, the Indians retreating to the Kamiah ferry and the trail to the buffalo country by the Lolo fork of the Clearwater.

Joseph was not in a condition to leave Idaho at once. He therefore encamped four miles beyond Kamiah, over a range of hills, and sent word to Howard that he wished to surrender. The general had spent the 14th in reconnoitring, and had started on the 15th to march with a column of cavalry twenty miles down the Clearwater and cross at Dunwell's ferry, hoping the Indians would believe he had gone to Lapwai. But Joseph had been once taken by a strategic movement of that kind, and had no fear of another. He rose equal to the occasion, and by another ruse de guerre induced Howard to hasten to Kamiah to listen to his proposal of surrender. At Kamiah he met, not Joseph, but a head-man from his staff, who entertained him with a talk about his chiefs, while one of his people fired on the general from an ambush. This put an end to negotiations; the mes- senger surrendered with his family, and a few recruits from the neighboring tribes whom the battle of Clear- water had satisfied with war, and Howard again pre- pared to follow Joseph.10

It was not until the 17th that the pursuit com- menced. On that day Colonel Mason, with the cav- alry, the Indian scouts, and McConville's volunteers, were ordered to make a two days' march to discover the nature of the trail, and whether the Indians were

10 Sutherland says that Joseph really desired to surrender, and was only deterred by the answer of Howard, that if he would come in with his warriors they would be tried by a military court, and get justice, with which prospect Joseph was not satisfied. Howard, however, states in his report that he regarded the proposition to surrender as a ruse to delay movements.

508

INDIAN WARS.

keeping on toward the buffalo country. They found the trail leading over wooded mountains, where masses of fallen timber furnished frequent opportunities for ambuscades, and on the 18th, when within three miles of Oro Fino Creek, the scouts and volunteers ran into the enemy's rear-guard. Ouly the tactics of the scouts, by drawing the attention of the attacking party, saved the volunteers from severe loss. Three of the scouts were disarmed, one wounded, and one killed. The enemy sustained a loss of one warrior killed, and two pack-animals. After this involuntary skirmish, the troops hastily retreated to Kamiah, where they arrived that night.

The retreat of the cavalry was followed by the re- turn of a small force of the hostile Nez Percés, who, scattering themselves over the country in search of plunder, caused great alarm to the white inhabitants and the reservation Indians. They pillaged and burned some houses on the north fork of the Clear- water, captured 400 horses from the Kamiahs, and rejoined their main army. This raid was the last one made by Joseph's people in Idaho. From this time they pushed on upon their extraordinary exodus, whose objective point became the British possessions.

By the battle of the Clearwater, Joseph's plans were disarranged. Had he been as successful here as up to this time he had been, all the ill-disposed reservation and non-treaty Indians would have gath- ered to his camp and the war would have been much more disastrous than it was. His loss in battle was twenty-three killed, and between forty and fifty wounded, a large percentage out of 300 fighting men. Taken together with the loss of camp equipage and provisions, he had sustained a severe blow, among the severest of which was the desertion of his tempo- rary recruits. Henceforth he could not hope to in- crease the number of his followers in his own country. Howard's loss was thirteen killed, and two officers and twenty-two men wounded.

509

ESCAPE OF THE INDIANS.

The last raid of Joseph had also interfered with the plans of Howard, by compelling him to remain in the vicinity of the places threatened until troops then on the way should arrive to protect them. It was his first intention to march his whole command to Missoula City in Montana, by the Mullan road, where he hoped to intercept Joseph as he emerged from the Lolo canon in that vicinty. He had already tele- graphed Sherman, then in Montana, and the com- manders of posts east of the Bitter Root Mountains, information of Joseph's exodus by the Lolo trail, and asked for cooperation in intercepting him. On the 30th, two weeks after the Nez Percés started from their camps beyond Kamiah, Howard set out to over- take them with a battalion of cavalry, one of infantry, and one of artillery, in all about 700 men, another column having taken the Mullan road a few days earlier.

Captain Rawn of Fort Missoula, on hearing that Joseph was expected to emerge from the Lolo trail into the Bitter Root Valley, erected barricades at the mouth of the canon to prevent it, and hold him for Howard. He had twenty-five regular troops, and 200 volunteers to garrison the stone fort. He com- mitted the error of placing the fortifications too near the exit of the trail, outside of two lateral ravines, of one of which Joseph made use to pass around him and escape, having first consumed four days in pretended negotiations, during which time he made himself master of the topography of the country.

Once in the Bitter Boot Valley, they bartered such things as they had, chiefly horses, with the inhabitants, who dared not refuse,11 and supplied themselves with what they most needed.12

11 One merchant, Young of Corvallis, refused to trade with them, elosed his store, and dared them to do their worst. Gibbon's rept, in Sec. War Rept, 1877-8, GS. Some, however, of the little town of Stephensville, sold provis- ions and ammunition to the Indians, and followed them in wagons to trade. Sutherland's Howard's Campaign, 23.

12 This needs some explanation. There were a considerable number of old Indian traders and Hudson's Bay men in Montana, who could not resist the

510

INDIAN WARS.

There was but a single regiment in western Montana when Howard made his demand for aid. This was the 7th infantry, under Colonel John Gibbon. With- drawing all he could from forts Benton, Baker, and Missoula, Gibbon started in pursuit of Joseph soon after he passed the latter post, July 27th. He had seventeen officers, 132 men, and thirty-four citizen volunteers. On the night of the 8th of August he succeeded in creeping close to Joseph's camp, which was situated on a piece of bottom-land on Ruby Creek, a small stream forming one of the head waters of Wisdom River. At daylight on the 9th he attacked, and the Indians being surprised, their camp fell into the hands of the infantry in less than half an hour. But while the soldiers were firing the lodges, the Indians, who had at first run to cover, began pouring upon them in return a leaden shower, which quickly drove them to hiding-places in the woods. Fighting continued all day without abatement, the Indians capturing a howitzer and a pack-mule laden with ammunition. During the night the Nez Percés es- caped, leaving 89 dead on the field, of whom some were women and children. Gibbon had 29 killed and 40 wounded, himself being one of the latter.13

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 56

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: San Francisco : History Co. Number of Pages: 880

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880