USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 30
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
227
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
rush of the enemy upon our position in the morning; to retreat further by day, with our wounded men and property, was out of the question; to retreat slowly by night equally so, as we could not then be in position to fight all next day; it was therefore necessary to relieve ourselves of all ineumbrances and to fly. We had no horses able to carry the guns over eighty miles without resting, and if the enemy should attack us en route, 'as, from their ferocity. we certainly expected they would, not a soldier could be spared for any other duty than skirmishing. For these reasons, which, I own candidly, seemed to me more cogent at the time than they do now, I resolved to bury the howitzers. What distresses me is that no attempt was made to bring them off; and all I can add is, that if this was an error of judgment it was committed after the calmest discussion of the matter, in which, I believe, every officer agreed with me.
"Enclosed is a list of the killed and wounded. The enemy acknowledged a loss of nine killed and forty or fifty wounded, many of them mortally. It is known to us that this is an underestimate, for one of the officers informs us that on a single spot where Lieutenants Gregg and Gaston met in a joint charge twelve dead Indians were counted. Many others were seen to fall.
"I can not do justice in this communication to the conduct of the officers through- out the affair. The gallant bearing of each and all was accompanied by an admirable coolness and sound judgment. To the skill and promptness of Assistant Surgeon Randolph the wounded are deeply indebted.
"Be pleased to excuse the hasty appearance of this letter; I am anxious to get it off, and have not time to have it transcribed.
"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"E. J. STEPTOE,
"Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel United States Army."
CHAPTER XXV
DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE STEPTOE RETREAT
INDIAN HOSTILITY A SURPRISE-HOSTILES OPEN FIRE-OFFICIAL REPORT OF KILLED AND WOUNDED -- FATHER JOSET'S ACCOUNT OF THE TRAGEDY-DEVILISHI INTRIGUES OF THE PALOUSES-RECOLLECTIONS OF A SURVIVOR-STEPTOE SAVED FROM ANNI- HILATION BY NEZ PERCE ALLIES-FAITHFUL OLD TIMOTHY-MEMORIAL PARK MARKS THE SITE OF STEPTOE'S LAST STAND-PATRIOTIC GIFT OF DAUGIITERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
In all the trade of war, no feat Is nobler than a brave retreat. -Butler's Hudibras.
L IEUTENANT GREGG, in Steptoe's command, wrote to a friend at Fort Vancouver that when they left Walla Walla no one thought of having an encounter, for the Spokanes had always been considered as friends of the whites. It was therefore a surprise when these Indians halted the soldiers and pro- tested against their further advance into the country. Gregg reported that the Indians were well mounted, armed principally with rifles, and were extended along Steptoe's flank at a distance of 100 yards. After Steptoe had talked with the chiefs he informed his officers that they would have to fight, as the Indians were constantly growing more menacing and insulting. The soldiers dared not dismomit, and remained in the saddle for three hours until the Indians dispersed with the setting of the sun.
This was Sunday, the 16th, and the morning following the command started on the retrograde movement towards Walla Walla. The Indians opened fire as the troops were crossing a little stream, and within twenty minutes the firing was gen- eral. Gregg reported the losses at two officers, five men and three friendly Indians killed, ten men wounded, and Sergeant Ball, who had greatly distinguished himself in the action, as missing. He added. "It will take a thousand men to go into the Spokane country."
OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE KILLED. WOUNDED AND MISSING IN THE BATTLE AT TE-IIOTO- NIM-ME, MAY 17, 1858.
Killed-Brevet Captain O. H. Taylor, Second Lieutenant William Gaston, Privates Alfred Barnes, Charles II. Harnish, James Crozet, Vietor Charles DeMoy, First Sergeant William C. Williams.
229
230
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
Wounded-James Lynch, Henry Montreville. Elijah R. Birch, James Kelly, William D. Micon, Hariet Sneekster. James Healy, Maurice Henley, Charles Hughes, John Mitchell, Ormond W. Hammond. John Klay and Gotlieb Berger.
After the command had retreated to Walla Walla intense and bitter interest centered around the source of the Indians' supply of ammunition, and unjust and unfounded rumor asserted that Father Joset, the Jesuit priest at the Coeur d'Alene mission. had supplied it. In an official report Steptoe discredited that rumor, and gave his belief that it had been supplied either by the traders at Fort Colville or the Mormons from the Utah country. Father Joset was deeply grieved by the cruel rumor, and said to Steptoe that it was a charge too monstrous for him to notice in a formal way.
It is not difficult. now. to comprehend the origin of a story so diametrically in conflict with the truth. From the beginning of the unrest. Father Joset had pleaded incessantly with the Indians for peace. As a result of his labors, a large number of the Coeur d'Alenes. probably half of the tribe, had declined to be drawn into the fighting. In his zeal to prevent the impending clash, the priest had followed his wards to the very point of conflict. remonstrating with them till his own life was imperilled. When the sokliers, not understanding his motives, saw this man of God mingling with their savage enemies, they were startled, and sprang to the conclusion that he had been instrumental in inflaming their minds, and out of that belief grew the wild rumor that he had supplied them with ammunition.
We quote now from a letter of Father Joset. to Father Congiato, superior of the missions in the Rocky mountains, in relation to 'the events of the unfortunate 17th of May, and of the causes which have brought such sad results':
"Do not think. my reverend father. that I am beknowing to all the affairs of the savages; there is a great deal wanting; they come to us about the affairs of their conscience, but as to the rest they consult us but little. After the battle Bonaventure, one of the best young men in the nation, who was not in the fight, and who, as I will tell later, has aided us a great deal in saving the lives of the Americans at the mission at the time of the battle, said to me. 'Do you think that if we thought to kill the Americans we would tell you so?' Even among the Coeur d'Alenes there is a certain mumber that we never see. that I do not know in any manner. The majority distrust me when I come to speak in favor of the Ameri- cans.
"Last winter Michelle said to me: 'Father, if the soldiers exhibit themselves in the country (of the mountains) the Indians will become furious.' I had heard rumors that a detachment would come to Colville, and I intended to go to inform Colonel Steptoe of this disposition of the Indians. Toward the beginning of April it was learned that an American had been assassinated by a Nez Perce. Im- mediately rumor commences to circulate that troops were preparing to cross the Nez Perces (the Snake river) to obtain vengeance for this crime. Toward the end of April at the time of my departure the chief. Pierre Pralin, told me not to go now: to wait some weeks to see what turn affairs are going to take. 'I am too hur- ried!' I replied to him. 'Hean not wait.' Arrived at the Camas prairie. I met the express of the great chief Vincent : this told me to return. his people thought there was too much danger at that moment. I replied that I was going to wait three days to give the chief time to find me himself; that if he did not come I would
231
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
continue my route. I said to myself, if Vincent believes really in the greatness of the danger, however bad or however long the road may be, he will not fail to come. In the meantime I saw several Nez Perces. Their conversation was gen- erally against the Americans. One of them said in my presence, 'We will not be able to bring the Coeur d'Alenes to take part with us against the Americans; the priest is the eause ; for this we wish to kill the priest.'
"Vineent marehed day and night to find me. He said 'We are not on good terms with the Nez Percees and the Palouses; they are after us without cessation to determine us in the war against the Americans. We are so fatigued with their underhand dealings that I do not know if we will not come to break with them entire- ly. Their spies eover the country. When the young men go for horses, they will kill them secretly and start the report that they have been killed by the Americans. Then there will not be any means to restrain our people. We hear the chief of the soldiers spoken of only by the Nez Perees, and it is all against us and to excite our young people. I have great desire to go to see him (Steptoe).'
"It was agreed that when I should go down I should take him to see the colonel. It is then I learned a part of the rumors which were spreading over the country. A white man had said: 'Poor Indians, you are finished now ; the soldiers are pre- paring to eross the river to destroy you; then another five hundred soldiers will go to establish themselves at Colville; then five hundred others will join them; then others and others till they find themselves the strongest ; then they will chase the Indians from the country.'
"Still another white man had seen five hundred soldiers eneamped upon the Pa- louse preparing themselves to eross the river. All the above passed three weeks before the last events. Among other things Vineent said to me: 'If the troops are coming to pass the river, I am sure the Nez Perees are going to direet them upon us. ,
"On the 15th of May I received another express from Vineent. The troops had passed the Nez Perees (the Snake) ; they had said to the Coeur d'Alenes that it was for them the soldiers wished. Vincent desired me to go to aid him in pre- venting a confliet. He told me to be quick-the troops were near. I set out in an instant. The distance from the mission to Vineent's eamp was, I think, about 90 miles ; as the water was very high, I could only arrive on the evening of the 16th. Vincent told me he had been kept very busy to restrain his young men ; that he had been at first to the chief of the soldiers, and had asked him if he had come to fight the Coeur d'Alenes : that upon his negative reply he had said: 'Well, go on,' but to his great displeasure he had camped in his neighborhood ; that then he had made his people retire. Still a bloodthirsty Palonse was endeavoring to excite them. Later other Indians confirmed to me the same report; they were Vineent and the Spokane's chief who prevented the fight on the 15th. The chiefs of the different tribes and a quantity of other Indians gathered around me. I spoke to them to persuade them to peace. I told them that they did not know with what intention the chief of the soldiers was coming; that the next day they should bring me a horse, and that they might aecompany me till in sight of the soldiers : that I would then go alone to find the officers in command, and would make them to know then what was now doubtful; they appeared well satisfied. I said still to Vineent to see that no person took the advance.
232
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
"The same evening they came from the camp of the Palouses to announce that one of the slaves of the soldiers (it is thus that they call the Indians who accom- pany the troops) had just arrived. The chief of the soldiers had said, according to him, 'You Coeur d'Alenes, you are well-to-do: your lands, your women. are ours.' I told the Coeur d'Alenes not to believe it; that no officer ever spoke in that way; tomorrow. I said, I will ask the chief of the soldiers if he has said that.
"The next morning I saw the Spokane's Tshequyseken (medicine man). Said he to me: 'Yesterday evening I was with the chief of the soldiers when a Palouse came to tell him that the priest had just arrived ; he has brought some powder to the Coeur d'Alenes to encourage them to kill the soldiers.' Then, turning around towards the Coeur d'Alenes I said: 'Do you see now the deceit of this people? They go and slander us before the soldiers, and slander the soldiers here.'
"When they had brought me a horse I went to the camp of the soldiers; they were far off. 1 set ont in their direction to join them. I saw Colonel Steptoe, made him acquainted with the dispositions of the Indians, the mistrust the presence of the troops would inspire, and how I had been kept from going to inform him in the spring. . .
. H'asked him if he did not desire to see the chiefs. Upon his reply that his dragoon horses were too much frightened to stop long. I observed to him that they could talk in marching; he then said he would take pleasure in seeing them. I went to seek them, but could find only Vincent; him I conducted to the Colonel; he was fully satisfied with him. One of the Indians who accom- panied the troops gave Vincent a blow over the shoulders with his whip, saying to him, 'Proud man, why do you not fire?' and then accused one of the Coeur d'Alenes who had followed Vincent of having wished to fire upon a soldier. Vincent was replying to the colonel when his unele came to seek him, saying the Palouses were about commencing to fire. I warned the colonel of it and then went with Vincent to try and restrain the Spokanes and Coeur d'Alenes; when we had made them acquainted with the disposition of the colonel they appeared well satisfied. Victor. one of the braves who has since died of his wounds, said. 'We have nothing more to do here, we will each one go to his home.' Jean Pierre, the chief, supported the proposition of Victor; then Malkapsi became furious. } did not at the time know why. I found ont later that he wished all to go to the camp of Vincent to talk over their affairs. Malkapsi slapped Jean Pierre, and struck Victor with the handle of his whip. I seized the infuriated man and a few words sufficed to cahn him.
"I set out then with a few chiefs to announce at the camp that all was tran- quil: a half hour or an hour later, what was my surprise to learn that they were fighting. I had to ask for a horse, and there was in the camp only old men and women ; it was about three o'clock when they brought me a heavy wagon horse. I set ont, however, with the hope of getting there by night. when I was met by an Indian who told me it was useless to fatigue myself, 'the Indians are enraged at the death of their people, they will listen to no one,' whereupon I returned to my tent. the dagger in my heart.
"The following is the cause of this unhappy conflict as it has been related to me: The parents of Malkapsi, irritated and ashamed of his passion, said to him, 'What do you do? You maltreat your own people. If you wish to fight, behold your enemies' (pointing to the troops), then saying. 'Oh. well let us go and die.'
233
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
they ran towards the troops. I do not think there was more than a dozen of them. The affair did not become serious until Jaeques, an exeellent Indian, well beloved, and Zachariah, brother-in-law of the great chief Vincent, had been killed; then the fury of the Indians knew no bounds.
"The next day I asked those that I saw, 'What provocation have you received from the troops?' 'None,' said they. "Then you are only murderers, the authors of the death of your own people.' 'That is true; the fault can in no way be attrib- uted to the soldiers. Malkapsi is the cause of all the evil.'
"But they were not all so well disposed. When I asked others what the soldiers had done to them, they replied to me: 'And what have we done to them that they should come thus to seek us; if they were going to Colville,' said they, 'why do they not take the road; no one of us would then think of molesting them? Why do they go to cross the Nez Perces so high up? Why direet themselves in the interior of our country, removing themselves further from Colville? Is it us who have been to seek the soldiers, or the soldiers who have come to fall on us with their eannon?' Thus, although they avow that they fired first, they pretend that the first act of hostility came from the troops. I asked them if they had taken sealps. They told me no, with the exception of a small piece that had been taken by a half fool. I asked them also if they had interred the dead. They replied that the women had buried them, but that the Palouses had opened the graves which were at the eneampment. It is then also that the Indians told me: 'We see now that the father did not deceive us when he told us that the soldiers wished peace. We forced them to fight. We fired a long time upon them before they answered our fire.'
You will easily believe me, my reverend father, when I tell you I would pur- chase back with my life this unhappy event ; not on my own account; I have been and will be mueh slandered; but what are the judgments of man to me, when God is my witness that I have done everything in my power to preserve peace?
"I am, with respeet, my reverend father, your very humble servant.
P. JOSET, S. J."
Father Joset accused Steptoe's Nez Perce guides with intriguing to bring on a clash of arms between the troops and the Spokanes and Coeur d'Alenes, alleging as a motive their desire to settle old feuds against those tribes, and believing that the soldiers would easily defeat and humiliate their enemies. Without question the guides directed the command to the wrong road, as the direet and natural route to Colville would have led the party more to the west and towards a crossing further down the Spokane. That the guide mistook himself so grossly, he declares, would be absurd to suppose. "I see no other way to explain his eonduet than to say he laid a snare for the Coeur d'Alenes whom he wished to humiliate, and seeing after- wards the troops fall in the ditch that he had dug for others. he has done every- thing possible to draw them from it."
Poor, faithful old Timothy, for his fidelity to the whites ean not be doubted, even though, as Joset charges, he fell into a design to use them to humiliate a tribal enemy, was doubly unfortunate in falling under a cloud of suspicion; for Beall tells us that when Timothy came in from his perilous work of seouting in search of an opening through which the exhausted command might retreat to Walla Walla, a
231
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
number of the soldiers questioned his fidelity, and murmured that he was betraying them into the hands of the savage foe, and would lead them to ambush and de- struction.
The Palouses were Machiavellian in their devilish work of embittering the Spokanes and Coeur d'Alenes against the whites. They made it their chief mission to circulate false rumors, always attributing evil designs to the soldiers, and were deplorably successful in their scheme of poisoning the minds of their childlike and credulous dupes. Lieutenant Mullan has expressed his deepest contempt for the mischief-making role of these Indians, whose tribe, he avers, was made up of renegades from every other tribe in the interior. They bore "a most unenviable reputation for lying and thieving-their best of traits," and he adds that with sneh men for newsmongers and such men for councillors it is not surprising to know that the Indians who had been friendly were misled and misinformed regarding the intentions of the white people. They had been told that the primary and prin- cipal object was for the extermination of the Indian and to put the white man in possession of his women, his wives, his lands, his all.
During all of this time, continues Mullan, the Jesuit fathers had been indefat- igable in their exertions to preserve peace. They pleaded early and late, till their weak voices were drowned in the stronger voices of the hostiles erying for war, until their very motives were suspected and impugned and they themselves threat- ened with a fate which the agitators had now planned for all the whites.
Fifty years after, Major J. G. Trimble, a survivor of the battle, residing then at Berkeley. California, wrote a graphic reminiscence of the retreat: "The com- mand arrived at the butte (scene of Steptoe's final stand) about the middle of the afternoon. The uninjured men spread out in skirmish lines along the north and rast sides of the butte, seeking refuge behind tufts of bunch-grass. Behind them were placed the supplies, the wounded and the two howitzers. The wounded suf- fered severely. The men had been without food since daybreak, and without sleep for more than 21 hours.
"The Indians kept attacking persistently. They tied bunch-grass to their heads and then wriggled like snakes through the tall grass. To add to the desperation of the situation, the command was running short of ammunition, it having started with only 30 rounds to the man.
"When evening fell the Indians ceased firing, but their campfires blazed all round and made the attempted sortie dangerous. Flight was the only course left. The howitzers were buried and the dead interred. The wounded were tied to horses, the white horses being covered with dark blankets. A few mules were picketed to one side to suggest some sort of trap to the wary savages, and at 9 o'clock at night the command set forth under the guidance of the Nez Perces.
"Through all the weary night the men rode, reaching the Palouse hills at day- break. When they had crossed the river a halt was made and some semblance of order restored to the command, but there was no food to be had. Six men were missing, probably becoming lost in the hurried flight through the dark. The rest of the command soon mounted the jaded horses and rode hard towards the Snake river.
"About dusk the troops reached the top of the long rough descent to the river now known as Steptoe canyon, and at midnight they got to the river, and the faith-
-
ROSALLA, WASHINGTON
Over this ground Steptoe's command retreated in 1555, pursued by one thousand howling, painted warriors. Within a stone's throw of this scene he made his last stand against the hostiles
٢
1 LIA FOUNDATIONO
235
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
ful Nez Perees were there. A strong body of them elimbed to the top of the canyon and stood guard till daylight, when the troops erossed the river. The sqnaws sue- eored the wounded and broiled salmon for the nearly famished men. Had the Nez Perees not remained faithful, it is probable that the entire command would have been destroyed."
According to Trimble the equipment was poor. One company had Mississippi Yager rifles, an arm that earried well but could not be loaded on horseback. The others fought with musketoons, which carried one ball and three buekshot, but these guns were of no exeention at more than fifty yards. The men also had old- fashioned, single barrel, muzzle-loading pistolets, decidedly inferior to those of the Indians. These arms were inferior to the Hudson's Bay rifles of the Indians, and only the determined bravery of the troops, in repeatedly charging the yelling sav- ages saved the command from destruction in the running fight along Pine ereek.
Years afterward, when the smiling arts of peace had conquered these seenes of former warlike aspeet, a number of these antiquated arms were turned by the plough again to the sunshine and the winds. In the heat and stress of battle, weary sol- diers, their ammunition gone, had east them away. And years later, wheels of the howitzer earriages were taken from a deep pool in Pine ereek. near the base of battle hill.
Lieutenant Lawrenee Kip, an officer in Wright's expedition, expressed the con- sensus of official judgment in holding that the retreat was necessary, and, under the ciremstanees, admirably eondneted. "Night at last settled down on the battle- field and found the little command perfectly exhausted and with the ammunition almost gone," wrote Kip. Two officers-Captain Oliver H. P. Taylor and Lieu- tenant William Gaston. both of the First dragoons-had fallen with a number of men. The remainder were gathered on rising ground, while every hill around swarmed with their exulting enemies who seemed to have them now completely in their toils.
"A eouneil of the officers was hastily held by Colonel Steptoe at which there was but one opinion. The foree against them was overpowering. and by the next morning would undoubtedly be still further inereased. Without ammunition they would be almost defenseless, and it was evident that long before the elose of the . next day not one of the command would be left to tell the story of their fight.
"Nothing remained therefore but to attempt a retreat during the night. The bodies of the fallen which were within their reach were buried, the two howitzers were enehed, and the command mounted and struck off in the direction of the Snake river."
In every account of this sad affair the author has discovered an earnest desire to commend the fidelity and fine intelligence of our Nez Perce allies. They saved the command from annihilation. It was the writer's good fortune, in the spring of 1907, to meet a little group of the survivors who were visiting Rosalia as guests of the townspeople. In the work of relocating the various points of interest they lived again in the wild. free past. and many an eye was dim with tears as these grizzled veterans strode still sturdily over the hills and through the pleasant meadows where half a century before they had fought so desperately for life. The prosperous town has preempted a considerable portion of the old battlefield, and straggles ont to the base of the low hill where the last stand was made. The little valley of Pine ercek
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.