USA > Oregon > Douglas County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 39
USA > Oregon > Jackson County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 39
USA > Oregon > Josephine County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 39
USA > Oregon > Coos County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 39
USA > Oregon > Curry County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 39
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The first step in Enos' portentious plan was to slaughter Wright and the settlers along the coast. On the evening of February 22, having completed his arrangements, Enos with a sufficient force of his Indians fell upon the scattered settlement at the south side of the mouth of the river, and finding Agent Wright alone in his cabin, entered it seen but unsuspected by him, and with an axe or club slaughtered this hero of a hundred bloody fights. So died perhaps the greatest of the Indian fighters whom this coast ever knew. Concluding this villainy the Indians sought new victims, and during the night killed mercilessly, with shot or blows, twenty-four or twenty-five persons, of whom the list is here presented, as given by various authorities: Captain Ben Wright, Captain John Poland, John Geisel and three children, Joseph Seroc and two children, J. H. Braun, E. W. Howe, Barney Castle, George McClusky, Patrick McCollough, Samuel Hendrick, W. R. Tullus, Joseph Wagoner, Seaman, Lorenzo Warner, George Reed, John Idles, Martin Reed, Henry Lawrence Guy C. Holcomb and Joseph Wilkinson. Three prisoners they took-Mrs. Geisel and her remaining children Mary and Annie, the three of whom, after suffering the worst hardships at the hands of the Indians, were delivered from them at a later date, and now live to recount with tears the story of their bereavement and captivity.
A large portion of the inhabitants thereabouts had gathered on that fateful night at the Big Flat to attend a dance given there, and so failed of death; and on the morrow these set, out for the ransacked village, and arriving there found that the Indians had gone, leaving the fearful remains of the butchery. The corpses were buried ; and the remaining population, numbering perhaps 130 men, scantily supplied with fire-arms and provisions, hastened to the north bank of the river, and sought protection in a fort, so-called, which quite providentially stood there, having been con- structed previously by some whites in anticipation of such need. Here the survivors gathered and for a time sustained a state of siege with the added horrors of an immi- nent death by starvation. Their only communication from without was by means of two small coasting schooners which made occasional trips to Port Orford or Crescent City. At the former place lay Major Reynolds with a force scarcely suffi- cient to maintain order ; and when the messengers from Gold Beach arrived and told their direful tale, the citizens of the post with their families and most valuable goods took refuge at the barracks, whence the commander refused to move. He advised an entire abandonment of the settlement at Gold Beach, but as the Indians surrounded it and commanded all approaches by land, it was obviously impossible for the beleaguered citizens to escape, unless by sea, and that recourse was also cut off. Meantime the now aroused savages were not idle. Every dwelling and every piece of property of whatever description that fire could touch was destroyed. The country was devastated utterly, and only the station of Port Orford remained inhab- ited, if we except the fort at the mouth of the river. The buildings at Gold Beach were all burned, and an estimate of the property destroyed along the coast fixes the damage at $125,000. Subsequent to the first attack a number of other persons were
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killed by the Indians, these being Henry Bullen, L. W. Oliver, Daniel Richardson, Adolf Schmoldt, Oliver Cantwell, Stephen Taylor, and George Trickey. By an unhappy chance H. I. Gerow, merchant ; John O'Brien, miner; Sylvester Long, farmer ; William Thompson and Richard Gay, boatmen, and Felix McCue, were drowned in the breakers opposite the fort, while bringing aid and provisions from Port Orford.
At the same time the messenger proceeded to Port Orford application was made to Captain Jones of the regular army, who was stationed at Crescent City, and this officer offered the services of twenty-five troops, and except for General Wool's com- mands, would have instantly taken the field with that small force and marched to the assistance of the besieged citizens. But as we shall see a concerted movement against the Indians was about to be made wherein the scattered companies of regulars were each to bear a part. The citizens of Crescent City quickly organized a company of men, of whom G. H. Abbott was chosen captain ; T. Crook, first lieutenant, and C. Tuttle, second lieutenant; and these made preparations for a campaign against the Indians and were of much use in the hostilities which followed. The Crescent City people appealed to the troops in arms in Jackson county, and then mostly lying inac- tive at Vannoys', Fort Hays, Forest Dale, and other places, for assistance in putting down this new uprising and saving the lives of the coast people, but without effect, since the officers feared the consequences that might follow a withdrawal of any troops from the valley.
The operations of the regular army which resulted in freeing Curry county from the presence of hostile Indians, are thus alluded to by Captain Cram. On the ninth of November, 1855, General John E. Wool, in command of the military department of the Pacific, while on his way to the Yakima country where war had broken out, arrived at Crescent City, and there learned of the existence of hostilities in Southern Oregon, of the formation of the "southern army" of volunteers, and of the fight at Hungry hill. Deeming the volunteers, with the assistance of the few regulars at Forts Lane and Jones, sufficient for the occasion, and there being no regular troops available for service in this district, General Wool gave himself no further concern about the matter, being averse to winter campaigns. General Wool's presence in Southern Oregon, says Captain Cram, was exceedingly opportune. He was enabled to judge of the measures necessary to be taken by his own command, and acting upon the basis of humanity for the Indians and with a due regard for the safety of the settle- ments, he instructed commanders of posts to receive and protect such friendly Indians as chose to come in and remain at the military posts. These were the precautions taken in consequence of "a due regard for the safety of the settlements:" Captain Jones, who was posted with his company of fifty men at Fort Humboldt, received orders some time during the war to proceed to Crescent City and "protect all supplies and public property, also to guard the friendly Indians gathered there by the superin- tendent of Indian affairs in Oregon;" and Major Reynolds with his company of just twenty-six artillerymen was ordered to remain at Fort Orford, ninety miles above Crescent City and thirty miles from Gold Beach, the spot where the Indians' blows must soonest fall, and only distant some forty or less miles from the common rendez- vous of all the hostiles. It would require no generalship to ascertain the unprotected
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state of the settlements along the coast. Absolutely no protection, military or natural, existed for the community at Gold Beach, excepting that these people had raised, as before mentioned, a small company, part of whom were stationed at the big bend of Rogue river, some fifteen miles above its mouth and a strategic point, where they acted as a guard to prevent the hostiles commanded by John, Limpy and other chiefs from communicating with or annoying the Indians of Gold Beach district, as before men- tioned. Had those indomitable warriors been disposed to attack the coast people, there was absolutely no power at hand capable of making a successful resistance. The garrison at Big Bend would have been crushed, the friendly Indians scattered, and scenes of blood enacted similar to those we have recounted. Why the hostile Indians made no such attempt is a subject for speculation; certainly the regular army did nothing to prevent it. When spring came, General Wool, "being previously well advised as to the topography of the district and of the probable positions of the Indians," and having been informed of the imminent danger of the coast settlements, proceeded, leisurely enough, to "put in effect a plan for terminating the Rogue river war by United States troops." Which war he proposed to terminate thus is not known; but it is plain that two separate wars had gone on during the weeks succeed- ing the "Ben Wright Massacre"-the one being by the Coast Indians against the coast colony, the other by John and Limpy and their bands against the volunteers of the southern army. From and after the arrival of the United States troops at the mouth of the Rogue, we can only recognize a single contest, the exigencies of war having brought about an alliance of the savages, and the mutual though reluctant co-opera- tion of the regulars and volunteers.
The general's plan is thus outlined in reports of the war department: A detach- ment of one hundred men had been sent from Fort Lane to guard Sam's band to the coast reservation, which left a very small number there for offensive operations. Cap- tain Augur's company of the fourth infantry was ordered down from Vancouver to Fort Orford to reinforce Major Reynolds, which "would afford troops enough to pro- tect the friendly Indians and public stores collected there, and leave another small force disposable for the field." Captain Ord's company of the third artillery, stationed at Benicia, California, was ordered to be in readiness to embark on the steamer for Oregon. Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, major in the fourth infantry, was selected to take charge of the field operations. On March fifth the general embarked at San Francisco with Ord's company, Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, Captain Cram, Lieutenants Bonnycastle and Arnold, and Assistant-Surgeon Milhau, for the seat of war. On the eighth of March Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan landed at Crescent City with Ord's company, and united with Jones' regulars and Abbott's volunteers in a vigorous prosecution of the war. General Wool's plan consisted of the conjoined action of the troops from Crescent City with those from Port Orford and those of Cap- tain Smith, to whom orders had been sent to descend the Rogue river in time to co-operate in the work. Captain Abbott, setting out from Crescent City before the regulars were ready, encountered the Pistol River and Chetco bands and fought them for a day, losing several men who were wounded and Private Miller killed, and ulti- mately being surrounded and forced to take refuge behind logs upon the beach. A night was spent thus when the regulars, 112 in number, under Captains Jones and
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Ord (E. O. C. Ord, late a major-general in the United States service, deceased in 1883), who charged and drove the savages away. Tarrying in the vicinity a few days for the purpose of inflicting a severe lesson on these hostiles, their camp was taken by the volunteers and the fleeing inmates were met and severely chastised by the regulars.
On the twentieth of March Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, with the regulars from Crescent City, arrived at the mouth of Rogue river, having left Captain Abbott at Pistol river to keep open communications with Crescent City, the base of supplies. Operations on the lower Rogue began by an assault upon the Makanootenai rancheria, about ten miles up-stream and four or six below Big Bend. Captains Ord and Jones took the town, killing several Indians and driving the rest to their canoes. One man, Sergeant Nash, was severely wounded. A few days later a detachment of Captain Augur's company reached the mouth of Illinois river and found some ten or twelve Indians belonging to John or Limpy's band, and fought them. The Indians strove des- perately and five of them fell dead before the conflict was decided. Captain Augur had thus far failed to effect a junction with his superior officer and after the fight found it necessary to return toward Gold Beach. The Indians of the np-river band followed him closely, entering his camp as soon as he had abandoned it and whooping, burning loose powder and dancing to testify their joy at his presumed defeat.
Captain Smith set out from Fort Lane with eighty men-fifty dragoons compris- ing his own company, and thirty infantrymen. All of these went on foot, and the former carried their musketoons, "an ill-featured fire-arm that was alike aggressive at both ends " and which contributed to the inefficiency of that branch of the service as much as any cause. However, it is a matter of fact that the United States government is always at least a score of years behind the age in the armament of its troops, so the reader should not be surprised to learn the peculiarities of the musketoon, the princi- pal weapon of mounted troops in that decade. Captain Smith marched down Rogue river, up Slate creek to Hays' farm, from thence to Deer creek and thence down Illinois river to the Rogue, and encamped a few miles further down that stream, having come to his destination.
Negotiations had been in progress for a few days, thanks to the exertions of Pahner, superintendent of Indian affairs, and it was hoped that an agreement would be reached, at least with the Coast Indians who were now much scattered. Enos, with quite a number of his followers, had joined the up-river bands who were lying on the river above the Big Bend. Some others had gone to Port Orford and placed themselves under the protection of the military there, and no malcontents were left upon the coast save a few Pistol river and C'hetco Indians who had not yet been sufficiently pacificated. Several actions had taken place at various points along the coast, the results of which were calculated to humble the Indians. On the twenty-seventh of March a party of regulars were fired upon from the brush while proceeding down the banks of the Rogue, whereupon they charged the enemy and killed eight or ten savages, with a loss to themselves of two wounded. On April 1, Captain Creighton with a company of citi- zens attacked an Indian village near the mouth of the Coquille river, killing nine men, wounding eleven and taking forty squaws and children prisoners. These Indians had been under the care of the government authorities at Port Orford nntil a few days before the fight and only left that place because some meddlesome whites had represented to
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them that it was the soldiers' intention to kill them. Consequently they left, and Creighton with his men pursued and attacked them. Again, a party of volunteers intercepted several canoe loads of Indians near the mouth of the Rogue river and killed eleven males and one squaw; one male and two squaws only escaped. On the twenty- ninth of April a party of sixty regulars, convoying a pack-train, were attacked near Chetco by the remnant of the band of savages of that name, supposed to number about sixty, but probably less, and two or three soldiers were killed or wounded. The battle ended by the defeat of the natives, who lost six braves killed, and several wounded. In the month of April three volunteer companies operated on the coast, and did much service in spite of their being badly armed and equipped. These were the Gold Beach Guards, the Coquille Guards and the Port Orford Minute Men.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE WAR ENDED.
Usefulness of the Volunteers -Council at Oak Flat-Chief John Refuses to Treat-Military Operations-Bat- tle of Big Meadows-Indian Tactics-Arrival of Augur-Movements of the Volunteers-Proclamation of Disbandment-The Indians Surrender-At the Reservation-The End Financial History of the War.
The Indian occupancy of Southern Oregon was now reaching its last days. The soil whereon the red man had trod and from whence arose the smoke of his camp fire, was about to pass forever into the possession of an alien race. The stormy scenes of the past six years were about to close, and the striving of white and red men had reached its climax. Hemmed in on all sides, without resources, without friends, the hostile tribes felt ther inability to cope with the organized forces now directed against them, and succumbed to the inevitable. Yet they did not relinquish their native land without tremendous struggles. The severest conflict of the war was the last. The part the volunteers took in the termination of hostilities was very creditable. Major Bruce, it will be remembered, was left in charge of the construction of the proposed fort at the Big Meadows, which was named Fort Lamerick, and was garrisoned by the companies of Blakely, Bledsoe, Barnes, Keith, and Noland, (successor of Captain Buoy), aggregating rather more than 200 effective men. Being above the position occupied by the hostile Indians, Fort Lamerick proved well situated for the purposes for which it was held, and being so strongly garrisoned the Indians were effectually prevented from re-occupying their old haunts to the eastward. While the troops were doing the indispensable duty of confining the savages to the lower part of the river the citizens, safely immured in their own houses, were actively engaged in complaining that the army did nothing and should be discharged. If there was a time when their
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services were valuable it was now that Old John and his allies, rendered desperate by dearth of provisions and the near approach of the regulars, songht to escape from the mountain fastnesses which had been to them a prison. The consequences of a raid by these desperate Indians upon the valleys and inhabited places would have exceeded any ills yet known or imagined save the massacre of Wyoming, which might again have been enacted. In a word, the volunteers rendered the invaluable service of con- fining the enemy to a tract of uninhabited country where they could do no damage, and from whence it was impossible for them to escape.
On the twenty-first and twenty-second of May, Superintendent Palmer and the commander-in-chief held a conference with the Indians, invitations to all of whom had been extended. This is officially known as the Council of Oak Flat, the locality being on the right bank of the Illinois river, some three miles above its mouth. Nearly all the regnlar troops were present, making quite a display of force, the aggregate number of regulars at hand being about 200. Almost all the hostiles were present, and awed, no doubt, by the impressiveness of the spectacle, most of them agreed to surrender on a certain day. Not so however with chief John. This undaunted chieftain, when called upon to speak, said to Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan : " You are a great chief ; so am I a great chief; this is my country ; I was in it when these trees were very little, not higher than my head. My heart is sick fighting the whites, but I want to live in my country. I will not go out of my country. I will, if the whites are willing, go back to the Deer creek country and live as I used to do among the whites; they can visit my camp and I will visit theirs ; but I will not lay down my arms and go to the reserve. I will fight. Good bye." And so saying, he strode into the forest.
The result of the negotiations was the agreement of a great many Indians, notably the coast bands, to come in and give up their arms at a time and place fixed by the superintendent. On or before the twenty-sixth of May they were to assemble at the Big Meadows, and be escorted thence to Port Orford. The whole of the regular troops were at the council, save Ord's company which had been sent to Port Orford to escort a provision train to the command at Oak Flat. Reynold's company was sent out to meet the same train, as its safety was very important. On the twenty-fourth Captain Smith left Oak Flat with his eighty dragoons and infantrymen to proceed to Big Meadows and perform escort duty when the Indians surrendered. He crossed the river and encamped on the north side near the place fixed upon for the surrender. On the twenty-fifth the chief in command moved from Oak Flat down the Illinois, and leaving Jones' company at its mouth, went across the Rogue with Augur's company and set about opening a trail for the passage of the surrendered Indians with their guard, who were expected the next day. On the evening of May twenty-sixth Lieu- tenant-Colonel Buchanan with Augur's company was on the north side of the river, some few miles from the mouth of the Illinois; Captain Ord was about ten miles west of Oak Flat, with the train; Jones was at the mouth of the Illinois; Reynolds about ten miles below that point, on the Port Orford trail; Smith at Big Meadows; and the main body of the Indians were on the bank of the Rogue, about five miles above Smith. The twenty-sixth passed and no Indians came in, but Smith was informed that they wore delayed by slippery roads, and would be in during the next day. During the evening of the same day, George, a well-known chief of the Indians, and previously
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often spoken of, caused it to become known to Captain Smith that an attack was medi- tated on his camp. He instantly set about moving his command to a much more secure position an the river between two small creeks entering the main stream from the northwest. He occupied an oblong elevation some two hundred and fifty yards in length, and about twenty in width. Between this mound and the river is a narrow bottom called Big Meadows, but which was not the same locality designated by the volunteers as Big Meadows, and whereon stood Fort Lamerick. The latter locality is several miles further up the river, and further removed from the stream. The top of the elevation on which Captain Smith was now encamped formed a plateau of size sufficient for one company to encamp upon, and is of slight elevation. Directly to the north is another elevation of equal height and within rifle range of the first. Early in the morning of the twenty-seventh, Smith sent a messenger to apprise Buchanan of his new position, and that the Indians had not come in. He also added to the express: "I think Old John may attack me."
The express reached Buchanan in due time and was sent back to inquire of Smith if re-inforcements were desired ; but finding him surrounded with Indians fighting actively, the express returned to Buchanan, but getting lost in the night, did not reach that officer until the morning of May 28. Buchanan at once ordered Captain Augur to re-inforce Smith, and that officer, marching eighteen miles in four and a half hours, broke upon the savages and scattered them. The story of Smith's defense against large odds is thus told :
Directly after the departure of the messenger, the savages came in from all direc- tions and soon the north mound was covered with them. A body of forty warriors attempted to enter camp, but were halted on the spot and told to lay down their arms at a certain spot. There being a howitzer planted so as to rake that approach, and a body of infantry at hand, the Indians felt it best to retire and consult their chiefs who stood upon the northern mound, where John was actively giving orders. At ten o'clock in the forenoon the Indians, who had completely surrounded Smith's position, made a sudden rush upon it, from both sides; but they were repulsed by the howitzer and infantry. John developed all the tactics and strategy of a consummate general in his management of these and subsequent charges, and from his station gave commands in the Indian tongue, which were distinctly heard in Smith's camp and interpreted to the Captain. Implicit and thorough obedience characterized the conduct of his war- riors, who fought bravely to carry out their commander's intentions. It was a spectacle unparalleled in the annals of savage warfare, to behold a body of undisciplined men move obediently to perform the orders of a leader who was not a leader in the sense to which these children of the forest were accustomed. Disregarding the traditions of his race which impel a chief to perform the most dangerous personal service, John, adopt- ing the methods of civilization, confined himself to the more important duty of organ- izing and directing his warriors. His method of attack was by means of small-arm fire at long range, wherein many of the warriors, particularly of his own band, were adepts; charges by the larger bodies of braves ; and unexpected attacks by smaller numbers, who sought to gain the mound by scaling the steeper portions where the guard was weak. Only thirty of Smith's men had arms adapted to long range shooting, the dragoons' musketoons being useless except at close quarters. John's men, on the con-
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trary, possessed excellent pieces and shot effectively from almost incredible distances. The battle having been prolonged until night, the Indians drew off and encamped, resolved to renew the fight in the morning. Smith occupied his men in constructing rifle-pits and building with his camp equipage temporary defences, and in procuring water from the river for his thirsty troops. On the following morning the Indians again opened fire and continued the battle. Old John put forth all his efforts to seize victory, as there was every chance that re-inforcements for Smith would soon arrive, when all hope of terminating the war favorably to the Indians would be lost. But in spite of his generalship and personal bravery the assaults were successfully repulsed, and owing to the improved system of defences, less damage was caused by the sharp- shooters upon the north mound.
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