USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 72
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29 Or. Spectator, April 20, 1848; Gray's Hist. Or., 562-4.
721
PROPERTY RETURNED.
earnest of good faith on both sides, William Craig as agent should accompany and reside amongst them,30 with authority to settle all disputes. A school-teacher and a blacksmith were promised them as soon as peace should be restored, with the assurance that no other white man should settle on their lands without their consent; but they were warned not to interfere with the missionaries still at Chemakane, nor to molest immigrants or travellers as they passed through the country, or Americans coming among them to trade, to all of which they readily agreed. After addresses by other commissioners and Colonel Gilliam, tobacco was distributed and an American flag presented; this was followed by an entertainment in the evening, at which the Indians exhibited the war-dance.
All this talk was an irritation to Gilliam, who beheld the guilty Cayuses slipping through his fingers and moving off toward the Nez Perce country while he was forced to confer with their relatives, lingering only near enough to get news of what transpired at the council, but ready to elude him when he should move. On the 8th the Nez Percés were permitted to visit the Cayuse camp twenty-five miles away, in the hope that when they learned the result of the council they might be induced to surrender the murderers, and on the 9th the army began to move in that direction. After advancing a few miles towards the crossing of the Touchet, they were met by Sticcas, coming from the Cayuse camp with several hundred dollars' worth of mission and emigrant property and money, which was given up in the hope of winning a favorable opinion for those who consented to its restoration.
Sticcas wished to hold a council, to which request Gilliam objected, believing it to be merely an artifice to gain time; but as two of the commissioners present
30 Craig was appointed agent March 10th, and went to take charge of the mission property at Lapwai, and to render 'all the assistance in his power ' to the Nez Percés. Or. Archives, MS., 133.
HIST. OR., VOL. I. 46
722
THE CAYUSE WAR.
added their solicitations to the entreaties of Sticcas, the volunteers encamped, Captain English with forty- two men being ordered back to Fort Waters with the cattle and other property brought in by the Cayuses. In the talk with Sticcas which followed, the chief announced that the Cayuses had decided that they would not surrender Tauitau nor Tamsucky. Gilliam proposed that for the person of Joe Lewis he would release five others of the guilty; but as this would be in violation of the agreement that the commissioners had made with the Nez Percés, they refused their consent, and withdrew from the council, returning with English to Waiilatpu, and thence to Fort Walla Walla, the Dalles, and Oregon City.
The commander had long wished to be freed from the peace commission, which was daily lessening the probabilities of the capture of the murderers. How- ever that may be, Gilliam made his own agreement with Sticcas, who returned to the Cayuse camp, and soon after the volunteers, one hundred and fifty-eight in number, resumed their march toward Snake River. On the 11th they met three Indians bearing a flag, and driving some of the horses which had been stolen while the army was en route to Waiilatpu, which they were restoring as a peace-offering. These Indians reported that Sticcas had taken Joe Lewis, and had started with him to meet the volunteers, but that he had been rescued, and the property retaken, which the chief was bringing to deliver to Gilliam.31 This intel- ligence caused Gilliam to hasten forward, as he now strongly suspected Sticcas of deception. On the 13th, while encamped at a spring near the Tucannon River, he received a message from Tauitau, who professed friendship, and an intention to forsake the company of the hostile Cayuses, adding that he was encamped on the Tucannon, a little farther up, and that Tam- sucky had gone to Red Wolf's place on the Snake River in the Nez Percé country ; and Tiloukaikt had
31 Letter of Lieut. Magone, in Or. Spectator, April 6, 1848.
723
FIGHT WITH THE PALOUSES.
fled with the rest of the Cayuses down the Tucannon with the intention of crossing the Snake River into the Palouse country.
To many commanders this strategic division of the enemy would have boded ill, but Gilliam seems not to have been daunted, and taking as verity what might well have been doubted, determined to act without loss of time. Mounting his men after dark, he marched for the mouth of the Tucannon, arriving before daybreak near the Indian camp. As soon as the morning dawned he advanced, but was arrested when within four hundred yards of the lodges by the approach of an old unarmed Indian, with one hand on his head and the other on his heart, who hastened to . assure Gilliam that he had made a mistake, and that this was the camp of Peupeumoxmox, who would not fight the Americans. The murderers, he said, were gone, and the only recourse for the Americans was to take possession of their stock which was feeding on the surrounding hills. The volunteers proceeding into camp, found only a few warriors painted and armed, who appeared friendly. Disappointed in his purpose, Gilliam could see no better course than to follow the old man's suggestion and drive off the enemy's stock, thus crippling him in his resources.
The Tucannon runs through a deep cañon, and to reach the hills where the cattle were grazing required a toilsome march up a steep ascent for a quarter of a mile. No sooner was this elevation gained than they beheld the cattle swimming across the Snake River. The enemy had outwitted them, and there was noth- ing left but to collect about five hundred head of stock, mostly horses, and return to the Touchet.
They had not proceeded more than a mile in that direction when they were attacked in the rear by four hundred Indians, the majority being Palouses. A run- ning fight began, which lasted all day, the army being obliged to encamp several miles from the Touchet, on a small stream, where without food or fire they passed
724
THE CAYUSE WAR.
a wretched night. So much did the Indians annoy them by firing into camp, that the captured stock was turned out in the hope that with that they would be content to depart. This, however, did not suffice, for when the volunteers were ready to move in the morn- ing, the Indians swarmed about their heels and hung upon their flanks.
It soon became evident that the battle was to be at the crossing of the Touchet. When within two miles of the ford the Indians made a dash to pass the vol- unteers and take up their position, the river-bottom affording a thick cover of shrubby trees. White men and reds contended bravely for precedence, and the smoke of their guns mingled as they approached the crossing.32 In this engagement the Cayuses did not show that apparent ignorance of tactics displayed at the battle of Umatilla, and warming to their work kept the army of Oregon for an hour at the ford before it all gained the southern side. Unequal as the numbers were, the volunteers achieved a decided victory. Though sustaining a loss of ten wounded, none were killed. The Indians, on the other hand, had four killed and fourteen wounded.33 No attempt was made to follow the Americans across the Touchet. The whoop and yell, and rattle of musketry which had been continuous for thirty hours, ceased, and from the farther side of the stream came the wild and mel- ancholy death-song which attested their loss. On the 16th the army arrived jaded and famishing at Fort Waters, having eaten nothing except a small colt for three days.34
32 Captain Maxon in his report says that the courage and determination of a few young men saved the army from a heavy loss and perhaps from being cut to pieces; and mentions in a subsequent letter the names of captains Hall, Owens, and Thompson, sergeants Burch and Cooke, Quartermaster Goodhue, Judge Advocate Rinearson, and Paymaster Magone. English being at Waiilatpu did not participate in this battle, nor Thomas Mckay, who had returned sick to Walla Walla when the commissioners left. See Or. Specta- tor, April 6, 1848; Gray's Hist. Or., 568.
33 This is the number of killed and wounded given by Craig in a letter found in the Or. Archives, MS., 138. A writer in the Catholic Magazine, vii. 491, states that there were 50 Indians killed; but this number is entirely too great. 34 Crawford's Nar., MS., 121.
725
DEATH OF GILLIAM.
The late expedition and its results had demonstrated that notwithstanding the desertion of the Cayuses by the Nez Percés, Walla Wallas, and Yakimas, they still had a powerful ally in the Palouse tribe, which occupied a sort of neutral country between the Nez Percés, Spokanes, and Cayuses, and were largely aug- mented in numbers by outlaws from the surrounding tribes, which circumstance lowered their rank among the savages. But in their present rather friendless condition the Cayuses were glad to avail themselves of these or any other auxiliaries.
On the 18th Gilliam held a council with his officers, when it was determined that one hundred and fifty men should proceed to the Dalles to escort a supply- train to Waiilatpu, where provisions and ammunition, as well as men were wanting; and that the colonel would accompany them in order to more readily con- fer with the governor on the situation of affairs, leaving the command of the fort to Lieutenant- colonel Waters. Accordingly the companies of cap- tains Maxon and McKay, with other officers and men, set out on the 20th for the Dalles with wagons for the transportation of supplies. They had reached the springs beyond the Umatilla and were encamped for the night, when as Colonel Gilliam was drawing a rope from a wagon to tether his horse, it caught on the trigger of a gun and discharged the contents into his body, killing him instantly. Thus died an honest, patriotic, and popular man, whose chief fault as an officer was too much zeal and impetuosity in the per- formance of his duties; whose glory would have been to die in battle, but who perished by accident in the discharge of homely labors. 35
The death of Gilliam left the command temporarily in the hands of Captain Maxon. From his report to General Lovejoy, which he despatched by C. W.
35 Gilliam left a wife and S children. His body was taken to che Willa- mette for interment by Captain Mckay, whose impaired health obliged him to retire from his command. Or. Spectator, April 6, 1848; S. F. Californian, May 3, 1848.
726
THE CAYUSE WAR.
Cooke immediately on arriving at the Dalles, where he found Captain Garrison in command, the colonists learned not only the events above recorded, but that without more men and means the army was practi- cally useless. Fort Waters was but an enclosure of adobe walls a few feet high. The men in the field were almost destitute of clothing; the horses were worn out with marching, and no others could be ob- tained, as those captured had been claimed by the friendly Indians. The time for which a portion of the army enlisted, three or four months, would soon expire. He stated that one hundred and fifty men only were left at Fort Waters, and almost without ammunition and wholly without bread; while at Fort Lee there were but fifty men and no supplies. Maxon, having pictured their condition in a strong light, ap- pealed to fathers to send bread to their sons, who were enduring cold and hunger to keep danger away from the hearth-stone; to mothers for clothing to shield their soldiers from the piercing airs of winter; to the young women to withhold their smiles from every young man who refused to volunteer to defend her honor and the country of her adoption; and to all to hasten forward the supplies for which he was wait- ing at the Dalles.36 This appeal, which was no doubt necessary if the war was to be carried on, was some- what highly colored as to the commissary department at Fort Waters, where beef and bread were plenty for some time after the departure of Colonel Gilliam for the Dalles.37 These articles were obtained by the seizure of cattle, and wheat, pease, and potatoes found cached by the Indians, but which belonged to the mission estate.
The people, again excited by the report of Maxon
36 Or. Spectator, April 6, 1848.
37 See letter written on the 4th of April by Jesse Cadwallader, in Gray's Hist. Or., 570. The news of Gilliam's death had not at that date reached Fort Waters. The writer complains only of the lack of ammunition, and says he hopes to see Gilliam back in a few days, and more men with him. A letter from Lieut .- col. Waters mentions that they had repaired the mill, and set it to grinding wheat found at the mission.
727
FURTHER RECRUITING.
and the fear that in a few weeks when the snow should be off the mountains the Indians might invade the Willamette Valley, made haste to collect such articles as could be purchased from or spared by all classes, and to forward them to the Dalles. In this work the women of Oregon City heartily joined, organizing a society whose purpose was to support the army in the field,38 and the maidens pledging themselves to treat with avoidance and contempt all able-bodied young men who would not march at once to the seat of war.
The objection offered by many to enlisting or remaining in the army was the fear of losing their land claims by abandoning them at this critical moment, when it was expected that the first mail from the United States would bring news of the passage of an act by congress giving a certain amount of land to actual settlers. But to this fear the young ladies replied that they would see that the soldiers' claims were respected, and exhorted them to "fight on, be brave, obey your officers, and never quit your posts till the enemy is conquered," promising to reward them with their sympathy. 39
The governor issued a proclamation for three hun- dred recruits. Meetings were held in several counties, and about two hundred and fifty men enlisted.40
Before the recruits were ready to march, an express arrived from Fort Waters with letters. Waters wrote to Governor Abernethy, April 4th, that, not seeing
38 The president of this society was Mrs N. M. Thornton, the secretary Mrs E. F. Thurston, and the treasurer Mrs Leslie; the first the wife of the governor's private delegate to congress, the second the wife of the first del- egate elected under the territorial organization, and the third the second wife of Rev. D. Leslie. The committee appointed to collect funds consisted of Mrs Robb, Mrs Hood, and Mrs Herford.
39 Or. Spectator, April 20, 1848.
40 In Linn County H. J. Peterson organized a company, the means to equip it being raised by subscription. They left for Portland April 25th. Clatsop County sent a few volunteers: S. B. Hall, D. H. Kinder, John Richey, R. W. Morrison, and N. H. Everman. Id., May 4, 1848. A second company was raised in Linn County, officered by Granville H. Baber, captain; Jeremiah Driggs, Ist lieutenant; J. M. McConnel and Isaac Thompson, sergeants. Three other companies were organized at Portland, one from Linn, William Pugh, captain; one from Polk and Clackamas, J. W. Nesmith, captain; and one from Yamhill and Tualatin, William J. Martin, captain.
728
THE CAYUSE WAR.
any Indians for several days, either friendly or hostile, he had sent an express to Fort Walla Walla to gain some information, if possible, concerning them, and had learned from McBean and the chief himself that Peupeumoxmox had revoked his friendship for the Americans, and was now hostile on account of an act of the recent legislature prohibiting the sale of arms and ammunition to the Indians. He complained of being placed by the act on the same footing with the guilty Cayuses, and threatened, if the law should not be abrogated, that his people would also become mur- derers. Sixty lodges, said to contain between two and three hundred warriors, were gathered within a mile and a half of the fur company's fort, which cir- cumstance was considered as being significant of hos- tile intentions. 41
News had also arrived at the fort that the head chief of the Nez Percés, Ellis, with sixty of his men, had died in the mountains, whither they had gone to hunt, of the two scourges, measles and dysentery, which had carried off so many Cayuses. This loss would naturally affect the superstitious minds of the Nez Percés, and it was thought their word to the commissioners would be betrayed, as they had held a great feast with the Cayuses since the last engage- ment at the Touchet. The wound of Five Crows, who was with Joseph, was also likely to carry him off, and altogether the prospect appeared gloomy in respect to breaking up the alliance of the confederated tribes of the Umatilla, the Walla Walla, and the Clearwater valleys. Waters also wrote concerning the Des Chutes chief, Welaptulekt, that he went to Fort Walla Walla and delivered up a large amount of immigrant property, giving as a reason for not
41 The cunning of the savage character has frequently been displayed when one or more tribes have gone to war, by a portion remaining friendly in order to act as go-betweens, to buy ammunition, and carry information. If such was the character of Peupeumoxmox's friendship, the act of the legislature defeated his intention and gave him the provocation he desired for becoming hostile.
729
LEE IN COMMAND.
taking it to Gilliam, that he was fearful he would be killed; but as it was known that he had refused to accept the flag sent to him by the peace commissioners by the hands of his own men, his apology to McBean was regarded as a subterfuge. The same letter con- veyed the information that Tamsucky, Joe Lewis, and Tiloukaikt's two sons were on the road to Fort Hall, the latter three intending to join the Mormons at Salt Lake, while Sticcas and Tauitau were gone to the mountains to remain until the war was over. The other Cayuses, the Palouses, and some worthless Nez Percés were congregating to give the volunteers one more battle before abandoning the country and going to hunt buffalo.
Such was the information which the commander of Fort Waters thought of sufficient importance to despatch to the governor.42 From the Yakima country the news was more encouraging. Some of their chief men visited the Dalles to assure the officer in com- mand of Fort Lee that neither they nor the Spokanes wished to be involved in the war, though the Cayuses had threatened them with the same treatment they gave the Americans if they refused to join in the hostilities. On this representation, that they had resisted entreaties and threats to make them go to war, they hoped to get some ammunition; but were told that until peace was restored no ammunition would be furnished to any Indians; but instead of powder a plough was presented to them, with which they departed apparently satisfied.43
Indeed, the quantity of ammunition which the gov- ernor was able to send to the Dalles on Maxon's demand was so small that none could have been spared, had there been no other reason for withhold- ing it. But such as it was, he returned immediately with it to Fort Waters, leaving the Dalles on the 8th of April with wagons loaded with flour.
42 Or. Spectator, April 20, 1848. See also letter of William Craig, in Or. Archives, MS., 138; S. F. Cabforman, May 8, 1848; Gray's Hast. Or., 575-7. 43 Letter of Captain Maxon, in Gray's Hast. Or., 569-70.
730
THE CAYUSE WAR.
In Maxon's report of the death of Colonel Gilliam he had intimated that Major Lee would be acceptable to the army as its colonel, and the governor, ignoring the next in command, had commissioned Lee, leaving vacant the position of major, which was filled by Lieutenant Magone of the 1st company of Oregon mounted riflemen. Palmer having resigned the office of superintendent of Indian affairs, Lee was appointed to that place also, a combination of powers which it was believed by some would go far toward securing peace. But however Lee's promotion might affect the Indian question, a difficulty arose between Captain William J. Martin's company of the new organization and the colonel, with regard to priorty in regimental number, Martin's company being numbered the 10th, when according to his belief it was the 9th, and con- sidering himself unfairly treated, he deserted at the Dalles with his two lieutenants and twelve privates, and returned to Portland,44 from which place Colonel Lee had departed on the 20th of April with three companies, and a second supply of flour and ammu- nition.
The policy determined upon by the governor and Lee, to be pursued toward the Indians, was to treat all as enemies who should be found armed in the Cayuse country after notice should be given. News of the appointment of a new superintendent of Indian affairs having reached Fort Waters in advance of the reën- forcement, Lee was met by an express from the Nez Percés on John Day River, who brought a request from the tribe for a council, to settle, among other matters, who should be head chief in place of Ellis, on which account he hastened forward, arriving at Waiilatpu on the 9th of May, in advance of the wagons and volunteers. He found that Tauitau,
44 E. Bidwell and H. D. Martin were the lieutenants. The complaint was that they were marched in the rear; were not always allowed beef when the other companies were; and could not have their horses shod in time to march with them from the Dalles, but were ordered to follow and overtake the com- panies of Pugh and Nesmith. Or. Spectator, June 1, 1848.
731
FURTHER COUNCILS.
Sticcas, Camespelo, and some lesser Cayuse chiefs, had returned to the Umatilla, and were profess- ing to be friendly, but it was thought from the nu- merous herds in the valley that they were taking care of the stock belonging to the murderers, who had fled from the country. Welaptulekt was in confine- ment at Fort Waters, awaiting the judgment of the superintendent upon his conduct. Between some of the Cayuses and Nez Percés there was considerable ill feeling because the majority of the latter still de- clined to be forced into a war.45 On being requested by the Nez Percés to appoint a high chief, Lee nominated Richard, on account of his superior attain- ments; and also appointed Meaway, a man of little note, as war-chief, telling the natives if the selections made did no meet their approbation, to make a choice for themselves; but they simply left the matter in abeyance.46
After settling affairs with the Nez Percés, Lee held a council with the Walla Wallas and the Cay- uses of the Umatilla, and found that the accession of men and ammunition to Fort Waters had not been without effect. "The friendship of the Indians," re- marked Colonel Waters, "increases with our num- bers."
Peupeumoxmox, on being reminded of his threat to turn murderer, expressed much shame at having been guilty of such folly. "I told him, and all that were present," says Lee, "that we were bound to hold this country until the murderers were pun- ished, the stolen property returned, and that which had been destroyed paid for; and then asked them what they were going to do. Whether they would try to settle the matter, and let us go home about our business, and leave them to theirs, or would
45 Or. Archives, MS., 139-40
46 Richard does not seem to have acted as the head of the Nez Percés. Gray says that he was ' murdered by a Catholic Indian ' after his appointment. His nomination appears to have been unpopular with the older and more influential men of the Nez Perces.
732
THE CAYUSE WAR.
they hold off as they had done, and leave us here to hold their country with our guns ?" 47
This was not a question easy of answer, in view of the fact that to attempt to deliver up the murderers, one of whom, Tiloukaikt, was still in the Palouse country, would involve them in a war among them- selves; while to refuse to make the attempt would bring them into hostilities with the justly incensed Americans. These hard and unavoidable conditions caused Peupeumoxmox and Tauitau to humble them- selves before the superintendent, and to promise more than they were able to perform had their dispositions in reality been more favorable toward it.
On arriving at Fort Waters, Lee, finding the dis- cipline good and the men satisfied with their com- mander, immediately offered to resign his rank to Waters, whose right it was; and their resignations being sent to the governor, the regiment at once elected Waters colonel and Lee lieutenant-colonel; the whole transaction being conducted with entire unanim- ity and friendliness.48 Preparations were begun soon afterward for invading the Nez Percé country, where it was believed the refuge of the guilty Cayuses would be found; and on the morning of the 17th of May the regiment, now numbering about four hundred and fifty, marched out from the fort, leaving only a small force to garrison the post. That night the army en- camped on the Coppei; and on the following morning Lee was detached, with Captain Thompson and one hundred and twenty-one men, with orders to proceed to the crossing of the Snake River at Red Wolf's camp, to cut off if possible the retreat of the fugitives to the mountains, while Waters would cross with the main force at the mouth of the Palouse River, and prevent their escape to the Columbia.
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