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 31
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lies at its base, and across this meadow and up the hill was carried the supply of water that saved the lives of wounded soldiers and served to refresh the weary comrades who fought so gallantly to save the command.
Particularly elear and vivid were the recollections of Private Thomas J. Beall, and the lapse of fifty years had not dulled his gratitude to the faithful Nez Perce guides. He recalled their names with fondest recollection-pious names they hore in token of the labors of zealous mission bands. There was Timothy, a chief, and Levi and Simon, and half-breed Charlie Connors. "who was killed on yonder hill the night that we escaped."
In the dusk of the summer night loyal Timothy volunteered to seout under cover of darkness out beyond the skirmish line. in search of some possible opening in that terrible cordon of savage foes. And Steptoe accepted the brave service, and never questioned Timothy's loyalty or judgment when he returned after an hour of perilous adventure and reported that he had found a gap and through it could lead the soldiers, perhaps to safety and home. The way led aeross the little valley, over a shallow in the stream, and thenee up a steep hill on the other side, so steep indeed that the hostile Indians had not thought it worth their while to guard.
Three survivors of the Steptoe and Wright campaigns went over the extended Steptoe battlefield at Rosalia, Whitman county, June 14th, 1907, and explained to nearly sixty visitors from Spokane and many citizens of Rosalia, the seenes and stirring events in that disastrous fight. These survivors were Thomas J. Beall, who now lives near Juliaetta, Idaho. He was Colonel Steptoe's chief-packmaster in the Steptoe battle ; Michael J. Kenny who also took part in the battle and who came to the reunion from Walla Walla: J. J. Rohn, also from Walla Walla, who was with Colonel Wright's command the following autumn and was a part of the detachment sent by Colonel Wright to the scene of the Steptoe battle, to recover the remains of the officers and men who fell in that action.
A memorial park marks now the site of Steptoe's last stand. Citizens of Rosalia donated three acres, and Esther Reed chapter of Spokane of the Daughters of the American Revolution has taken up the commendable work of erecting there an enduring monument to the memory of the soldier band who fought with such heroic fortitude in order that we who came after, and our children and children's children might have the blessing of enduring peace. The chapter has pledged the completion of that work, and the historie eminence will bear a fitting granite obe- lisk.
The site was formally dedicated. June 15, 1908. with an impressive programme before an assemblage of more than 1,000 people. Special trains brought two hun- dred regulars from Fort Wright and interested citizens from Spokane and Colfax, and the visitors were met in Rosalia by a special reception committee comprising Mayor F. M. Campbell and Mrs. Campbell, Tom Prichard. marshal of the day, assisted by 1. W. Anderson; Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Cheat, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Helmer, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Wilmer. Mr. and Mrs. Ralston MeCaig, Mr. and Mrs. M. W. Merritt, Mrs. T. R. Lewis, Miss Kate Woods, S. W. Towne, T. F. Donohoe, E. W. Wagner and others.
Esther Reed chapter was represented by Mrs. M. J. Gordon, regent ; Mrs. F. H.
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Crombie, vice-regent ; Mrs. J. W. MacIntosh, recording secretary ; Mrs. J. S. Moore, registrar ; Mrs. William H. Smiley, treasurer, and Mrs. J. T. Cooper, director.
A procession was formed and marched to the battle ground, and arrived there, the Colfax band played patriotic airs while the people cheered and waved flags. Prayer was offered by the Rev. F. N. Smith of Rosalia, and H. M. West, on behalf of the citizens of Rosalia presented the deed of gift of the park to J. R. Rupley, chairman of the Whitman county board of commissioners. Mrs. M. A. Phelps, chairman of the Steptoe Monument association, responded to the presentation of the deed on behalf of the Daughters of the American Revolution. General T. R. Tannatt of Spokane, a member of the West Point Graduates association whose long army service in the west had brought him into intimate relationship with many of the officers who fought in the Indian wars of the '50s, reviewed the careers of Taylor, Gaston and Gregg.
In the afternoon formal and eloquent addresses were made by Governor Albert E. Mead, Colonel Lea Febiger, then commanding at Fort Wright, and Judge Stephen J. Chadwick, then of the superior bench of Whitman county and later of the state supreme court.
CHAPTER XXVI
COLONEL WRIGHT'S CAMPAIGN OF REPRISAL
WAR DEPARTMENT ACTS WITH QUICK VIGOR-STRONG COMMAND SENT OUT FROM WALLA WALLA-SAVAGES MASS FOR THE CONFLICT-ARE INSOLENT AND DEFIANT-BOLDLY ATTACK THIE TROOPS-ARE ROUTED WITH HEAVY LOSS NEAR MEDICAL LAKE-LT. KIP'S GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE-WILD FLIGHT OF THE ALLIES-NEZ PER- CES CELEBRATE WITH A WAR DANCE-HOSTILES RALLY FOR ANOTHER ATTACK-FIRE THE PRAIRIE GRASS-SCENES OF WILD CONFUSION-BATTLE OF THE SPOKANE PLAINS.
The setting sun With yellow radiance lightened all the vale: And, as the warriors moved, each polished helm Corslet, or spear, glaneed back in gilded beams. The hill they elimbed; and halting at its top. Of more than mortal size, towering they deemed An host angelie clad in burning arms.
-John Home.
T HE war department was quick to grasp the unpleasant fact that Steptoe's repulse made necessary a campaign of resolute vigor and stern reprisal. Intoxicated by their victory, the hostile tribes grew more arrogant and con- fident than before, and boasted that they would drive baek any force that the govern- ment might dare to send north of Snake river. Clamor rose louder and more angry with each passing week for the massacre or expulsion of every white man in the country, and it became apparent that nothing short of complete chastisement would allay the bitter hostility of the savage mind.
Accordingly it was decided to hurry reinforcements to Fort Walla Walla, and to send a strong column under Colonel George Wright into the Indian country.
These preparations consumed a period of abont three months. Before leaving Walla Walla Colonel Wright dispatched conriers to the friendly Nez Perees, asking them to meet him at the fort. When they arrived a council was held under an im- provised arbor, and they were told by the commander that so long as they remained faithful they should have the protection of the strong arm of the law. After several chiefs had spoken, about thirty warriors volunteered to accompany the command.
The first detachment. under Captain Keyes, moved out from the fort on the morning of Angust 7, charged with the duty of selecting a crossing at the Snake and choosing a site for the necessary field work to guard it, and at the same time to keep
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open the line of communication with Fort Walla Walla. Captain Keyes selected the crossing at the mouth of the Tucanon, as it offered an abundance of good wood and grass, and designated it "Fort Taylor" in honor of the Captain Taylor who had fallen in Steptoe's battle of May 17. Here a fortification was ereeted, a road con- structed for the use of the troops in descending from the plateau to the stream, and a large flatboat built to ferry the command across the Snake.
A severe storm delayed the crossing two days, but on August 25 and 26 Wright made the passage successfully with his entire command, without loss or accident, and went into camp on the north bank with a force of 570 regulars, thirty friendly Nez Perces, 100 employes and 800 animals of all kinds, with subsistence for thirty-eight days. Brevet Major Wyse, with company D, Third artillery, was left to occupy Fort Taylor to protect the stores and boats and keep open the line of communication.
"Marching from Snake river on the morning of the 27th," runs the official report of Colonel Wright. "our route lay over a very broken country for a distance of four- teen miles, where we struck the Pelouse river and eneamped on its right bank. Re- suming our march on the 28th. I halted. after a march of six miles and a quarter, at a point where the trail divides-that to the left leading to Colville direct, and that to the right more to the eastward. After consulting our guides and examining our maps and itineraries, I determined to march on the trail to the right; accordingly, on the 29th, we advanced. The country presented a forbidding aspect; extensive burnt districts were traversed, but at the distance of twenty miles I found a very good encampment, with sufficient grass, wood and water. Up to this time we had seen no hostile Indians, although Lieutenant Mullan, my engineer officer, with our eagle-eyed allies, the Nez Perces, had been constantly in advance and on cither Hank ; signs, however, had been discovered, and I knew that our approach was known to the hostiles.
"Advancing on the morning of the 30th, occasionally a few of the enemy were seen on the hilltops on our right flank, increasing during the day and moving parallel with our line of march, but too remote and too few in number to justify pursuit.
"After marching eighteen miles I encamped, and about 5 p. m. the Indians approached our pickets and a sharp firing commeneed. I immediately moved out with a portion of my command and the enemy fled. I pursued them for four miles over a very broken country, and then returned to camp at sunset. All was quiet during the night, and at 6 o'clock this morning we were again on the march. Soon the Indians were seen in small parties at the distance of two or three miles on the hills, and moving as yesterday, with their numbers gradually inereasing and ap- proaching a little nearer, but I did not deem them worthy of notice, only taking the precaution to halt frequently and close up our baggage and supply trains as com- pactly as possible. Our march this day was ten miles longer than we anticipated, and for a long distance without water : and, at two miles from this camp, the Indians made a strong demonstration on our supply train, but were handsomcly dispersed and driven off by the rear guards, and infantry deployed on cither flank.
"My men and animals require rest; I shall remain here tomorrow; I have a good camp, with an abundance of wood, water and grass."
The command was now well advanecd into the Spokane country, and was mov- ing over the clevated and broken plateau which forms an indistinct boundary between the Palouse region, the Big Bend country, and the Spokane valley proper. Little
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time. however, remained for rest, for the savage foe was massing for the confliet, eager for the impending elash, still flushed with his reeent victory over Steptoe's little column, and confident that a few more suns at furthest would witness a repeti- tion of that disaster and perhaps on a more sanguinary seale.
On the morning of September 1st, Indians in greater numbers were seen posted on the surrounding hills. They were defiant and insolent, and seemed eager for an engagement. Wright met the challenge by ordering out a large part of his force to drive the enemy from the hills and engage the main body of the warriors, reported by the seouts to be eoneentrated just beyond an overlooking eminenee. After advanc- ing a mile and a half, this foree of 220 men came to the foot of the hill and promptly dislodged the savages. The dragoons first reached the summit, and after exehanging a volley. drove back the Indians' skirmish line, and held the position till the foot soldiers eame up.
On the plain below the enemy was massed, and every spot seemed alive with the red warriors which the soldiers had come so far to fight. The seene was in the vieinity of Four Lakes, near the present town of Medical Lake, and about twenty miles from the falls of the Spokane. The Indians. mounted. were in the scattered woods on the shores of the lakes, in ravines and gullies, and dashing madly over the open ground. Kip reported that they seemed to eover the country for a distance of two miles. "Mounted on their fleet, hardy horses, the crowd swayed back and forth, brandishing their weapons, shouting their war cries, and keeping up a song of defianee. Most of them were armed with Hudson's Bay muskets, while others had bows and arrows and long lances."
In his deseription of the seenes that followed, Lieutenant Kip has left us a graphie portrayal that is suggestive of the best lines of Walter Scott:
"They were in all the bravery of their war array, gaudily painted and decorated with their wild trappings. Their plumes fluttered above them, while below skins and trinkets and all kinds of fantastie embellishments flaunted in the sunshine. Their horses, too, were arrayed in the most glaring finery. Some were even painted, and with colors to form the greatest contrast ; the white being smeared with erimson in fantastie figures, and the dark colored streaked with white clay. Beads and fringes of gaudy colors were hanging from their bridles, while the plumes of eagle feathers, interwoven with the mane and tail, finttered as the breeze swept over them, and completed their wild and fantastie appearance."
But a disheartening surprise was in store for them. Steptoe's troops had been equipped with antiquated arms inferior to those carried by the savages, but the men under Wright were armed with the latest military rifle which propelled a minnie ball with great aecuraey and long range. It soon became apparent that consterna- tion had seized the red warriors, for they retreated before the death-dealing fire of the soldiers. At first they came resolutely forward to engage the invaders, advane- ing rapidly, firing, and then retreating with great quickness and baffling irregularity. But as the line advaneed, an inereasing number of Indians were seen to fall from their saddles, although their fire was impotent against the troops. As in the Step- toe fight. they made desperate and successful efforts to prevent their dead falling into the hands of the soldiers. One Indian was seen leading off a horse with two of his dead companions bound to it.
As the steadily advaneing troops drew nearer and the fire grew more heavy, the Vol 1 -16
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whole array that bad been gathered in the woods and ravines around the base of the hill broke and fled towards the plain.
This was the moment eagerly awaited by the dragoons, and when the order was given to charge. the companies that had been with Steptoe and seen Taylor and Gaston fall before the fire of the redmen, went wild with the spirit of vengeance. Up to this moment the mounted men had been held in the rear of the foot soldiers, but galloped forward between the company intervals when they heard the command- ing voice of Captain Grier shouting. "Charge the rascals!" In a twinkling the dragoons were upon the madly retreating Indians. Out came the sabers, dashing in the mellow autumn sunlight, and with clatter of hoof and rattle of arms, and nerce yells of the victors and shricks of the vanquished, the work of cutting down the laggards was accomplished with a resolution and thoroughness that struck terror to the fleeing foes. Lieutenant Davidson shot one warrior from the saddle, with a blow of his saber Lieutenant Gregg split the skull of another. It became a wild race for life. with the fleeing Indians dashing desperately for cover in the rocks and woods. Only the jaded condition of the soldiers' mounts saved the fugitives from complete destruction. The troops had been on the march for twenty-eight days, there had been constant scouting. and at night the horses were picketed with insnili- cient grazing area. and they were consequently no match for the fresh mounts of the Indian fighters.
So completely were the horses exhausted. that they were passed by the foot troops, who advanced and drove the enemy under a constant fire for about two miles.
As the Indians had scattered under wide cover, Colonel Wright ordered a bugle recall, and the flushed and triumphant soldiers returned to camp. The fighting had lasted four hours, and extended over a field of three miles. Not a man was killed or wounded, while the Indians had suffered a loss of fifteen or twenty killed and forty or fifty wounded. Their dead included a brother and brother-in-law of Chief Garry of the Spokanes.
In their precipitate fight the Indians threw away their impedimenta, and the plain was strewn with muskets, quivers, bows and arrows, blankets and robes. There was much gaiety as the troops came in with trophies of the tight. particularly when an officer appeared with two buffalo robes and a blanket wrapped around himself and horse.
A little later the Nez Perce allies straggled in. They had pursued the fleeing enemy ten miles, and came back even richer in spoils than their white comrades. Deplorably, their collection contained several scalps, and "Cutmouth John." who had received in the Whitman massacre a frightful wound that hideously marred his features, was most jubilant of all as he waved his bloody trophy high above his head. A grand war dance. protracted far into the night, celebrated the day's events to the complete satisfaction of the allies.
Colonel Wright. in his official report. "took great pleasure in commending to the department the coolness and gallantry displayed by every officer and soldier en- gaged in the battle."
To recruit the weary animals after the battle of the Four Lakes, the command rested there for three days. No hostile Indians appeared to disturb the well-earned rest, and the Nez Perce scouts, after reconnoitering the surrounding country, re- ported that none were in sight.
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At 6 o'clock on the morning of September 5 the column broke eamp and started through the broken country for the Spokane river. After a march of five miles, the enemy was seen collecting in large numbers on the right. For some time they rode parallel to the troops, all the while inereasing in numbers and insolence. The lesson of the 1st was incomplete, and the hostiles had seemingly renewed their courage, their confidenee and insolenee indieating some newly conceived plan of battle in which they were plaeing high confidenee. This they quickly put into execution. A high wind was blowing from the south, and the Indians firing the dry grass of the prairies, a roaring sea of flame was soon rolling upon the command, enveloping it in dense clouds of smoke. Under cover of this bank of smoke, the redmen partly eneireled the troops and poured in a rifle fire upon them. The pack train promptly closed up and was guarded by Captain Dent's company of rifles, a company of the Third artillery and a company of dragoons, while the remainder of the command made ready to repulse the foe.
A curious and exciting seene attended these preparations. While the Mexican muleteers were driving the 400 heavily loaded paek animals to a eenter, many of the hostiles, wild with rage and excitement, were indulging in the most daring feats of horsemanship, dashing down steep hills with all the reckless abandon at their command, the while shouting in defiance and taunting the soldiers to meet them in aetion. Their courage was of short duration, for when the soldiers, flushed with reeent vietory, charged through the smoke and flames, they quiekly broke and fled to the eover of woods and canyons. But they had short respite in the woods, for the howitzers soon shelled them out of that eover. It was then that the great war chief Kamiaken of the Yakimas had a narrow escape from death, a shell bursting in a tree-top above him and sending down a branch that inflicted a severe wound.
Then the infantry renewed the charge and rapidly drove the skulkers on towards the river, until the country for a distance of four miles, which had recently been swarming with them, was eleared of their presenee. Among those who fell in this stage of the fighting was a chief upon whose saddle was found the pistol used by Lieutenant Gaston in the Steptoe campaign.
Fighting of this nature, alternate charges by dragoons and infantry, continued all the way to the Spokane river, over the present military reservation of Fort Wright.
In his effieial report Colonel Wright states that he had continuous fighting for seven hours, over a distance of fourteen miles, and finally eamped on the banks of the river, the troops exhausted by a long and fatiguing mareh, without water and for two-thirds of the distance between the four lakes and the stream having been constantly under fire. "The battle was won," Wright adds, "two chiefs and two brothers of Chief Garry killed, besides many of lesser note, killed or wounded. A kind Providenee protected us, although at many times the balls flew thick and fast through our ranks; yet, strange to say, we had but one man slightly wounded."
Wright officially designated this engagement the "battle of the Spokane plains," as the eastern portion of what is now termed the Big Bend country was then known. Ilis official reports and others speak of the Spokane valley as "Coeur d'Alene prai- rie." This seeming error in terms will be better understood when the faet is rcealled that the fur traders who began operating in this region in 1811 ealled the stream from the lake to the present Little Spokane the Coeur d'Alene river, and considered
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the Little Spokane and the stream below its mouth the Spokane. Old maps, reports and narratives frequently refer to the Spokane house at the confluence of the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, or the "Pointed Heart" and the Spokane, Coeur d'Alene being a French phrase translatable as "arrow-hearted," or more literally, "awl-hearted." Lieutenant John Mullan leaves us the following interesting information hearing on this point :
The version given me (says Mullan), and which would appear to be reliable, is as follows: When the English trading corporation known as the Hudson's Bay company, monopolized that whole region of Oregon, their successes in establishing trading stations among the Indians was of the most marked character. No tribe, however hostile or numerous, had been ever known to oppose any obstacle in their way, until they made the attempt to establish a station or post among this small band of Indians, who, tenacious of their rights, and loving their mountain wilder- ness, said to this company: "We are willing to barter our furs and peltries for your powder and ball and such things as you bring for traffic, but we can only make the exchange at certain points," named by themselves; "within the limits of our land you can not enter, but on the banks of yonder river, which marks our border, we will meet you at stated times, and there, and there only, we can trade and traffie." Their determination, which even up to this day (1858) they have most steadfastly clung, became the law of the company, and they so persistently maintained it that the Canadian voyageurs, employes of the company, immediately called these sav- ages "Coeur d'Alenes." Indians having "hearts of arrows," and hence often called "Pointed Hearted" Indians, and the mission "Pointed Heart" mission.
When the disciples of Loyola entered this region (Mullan continues), with the praiseworthy object of establishing their missions at different points in the moun- tains, the Coeur d'Alene country, among other seetions, was selected. "But," said the members of this same company to the fathers, "you are certainly not going to establish a mission among the Pointed Hearts?" "Why not?" said they. "Be- cause," was the reply. "we have tried for years past to surmount, and as yet with- ont success, the difficulties that array themselves against us and forbid the attempt." But the more anxious now, because difficulties did environ their pathway, the noble DeSmet, Joset and Point, in 1842, went forth and successfully established the cross in the Rocky mountains, and, too, in the very heart of the country of these semi- savages ; and the evidences that we now saw around us all bore witness how untir- ing and successful their efforts had been."
CHAPTER XXVII
WRIGHT DICTATES STERN TERMS TO THE VANQUISHED
COMMAND BREAKS CAMP AND MOVES UP THE SPOKANE-GARRY SUES FOR PEACE-WRIGHT HIANGS FIRST VICTIM-CAPTURES AND KILLS VAST HERD OF INDIAN HORSES-RUNNER BRINGS LETTER FROM FATHER JOSET-INDIAN BARNS AND GRANARIES BURNED -- CHIEF VINCENT OF THE COEUR D'ALENES BEGS FOR PEACE-COMMAND MARCHES TO COEUR D'ALENE MISSION-PEACE COUNCIL A SCENE OF BARBARIC COLOR-INDIANS TERRIFIED BY APPEARANCE OF DONATI'S COMET.
W E PAUSE in the narrative to take a prospect of this region as it unrolled before the eye of Wright's command. Walla Walla's fair valley was as unsettled as in the days when the fur trader entered the country a cen- tury ago, for little effort had been made by home-builders to invade it since the atrocities of the Whitman massacre of 1847. Its great beauty and potential fertil- ity, however, were then apparent, and an officer under Wright predicted that it could be brought to the support of a population of 15,000, an estimate that seemed then a rather wild flight into the fanciful. Walla Walla city alone has now a popu- lation in excess of 20,000.
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