CHAPTER XIX.

WAR AND DEVELOPMENT.

1858-1862.

WAR DEPARTMENTS AND COMMANDERS-MILITARY ADMINISTRATION OF GENERAL HARNEY-WALLEN'S ROAD EXPEDITIONS-TROUBLES WITH THE SHOSHONES-EMIGRATION ON THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN ROUTES-EXPEDITIONS OF STEEN AND SMITH-CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE SHOSHONES-SNAKE RIVER MASSACRE-ACTION OF THE LEGISLATUREPROTECTION OF THE SOUTHERN ROUTE-DISCOVERY OF THE JOHN DAY AND POWDER RIVER MINES-FLOODS AND COLD OF 1861-2-PROGRESS OF EASTERN OREGON.

In the summer of 1857 General Wool, who was so much at variance with the civil authorities on the Pacific coast, was removed from this department, and the command given to General Newman S. Clarke. The reader will remember that Colonel George Wright had been left by Wool in command at Vancouver in the spring of 1856. Not long after, on account of the hostilities of those tribes which had taken part in the Walla Walla treaties of 1855, Wright was removed to The Dalles, and Colonel Thomas Morris took command at Vancouver. In the mean time two new posts were established north of the Columbia, one in the Yakima country, and another in the Walla Walla Valley; and for a period of two years Wright, embarrassed by the policy of the commanding generals, outnumbered and outwitted by the Indians, was engaged in a futile endeavor to subdue without fighting them. The Indians being emboldened by the apparent weakness of the army, in the spring of 1858 the troops under Colonel Steptoe, while marching to

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Colville, were attacked by a large force of Spokanes and Coeur d'Alênes, and sustained a heavy loss. Awakened by this demonstration of the hostile purposes of the confederate tribes, Clarke prepared to inflict condign punishment, and in September of that year Wright marched a large force through their country, slaying and destroying as he went. This chastisement brought the treaty tribes into a state of humility. In the mean time E. R. Geary had been appointed superintendent of Indian affairs in Oregon and Washington, and in the spring of 1859, congress having ratified the treaties of 1855, he made arrangements with them for their permanent settlement on their reservations, four in number, namely: Simcoe, Warm Spring, Umatilla, and Lapwai; but unfortunately for the credit of the government with the Indians, no appropriation was made by congress for carrying out its engagements until the following year; nor was any encouragement given toward treating with other tribes in the eastern portion of the state.

By an order of the secretary of war of September 13, 1858, the department of the Pacific was subdivided into the departments of California and Oregon, the latter under the command of General W. S. Harney, with headquarters at Vancouver. This change was hailed with delight by the Oregonians, not only because it gave them a military department of their own, but because Harney's reputation as an Indian-fighter was great, and they hoped through him to put a speedy termination to the wars which had continuously existed for a period of five years, impeding land surveys and mining, and preventing the settlement of the country east of the mountains. Harney arrived at Vancouver on the 29th of October, and two days later he issued an order opening the Walla Walla Valley, closed against settlement ever since 1855, to the occupation of white inhabitants.

By this order Harney's popularity was assured. A joint resolution was adopted by the legislature con

gratulating the people, and asking the general to extend his protection to the immigration, and establish a garrison at or near Fort Boisé.1 A considerable military force having been massed in the Oregon department for the conquest of the rebellious tribes,2 Harney had, when he took command, found employment for them in explorations of the country. The military department in 1858 built a steamboat to run between The Dalles and Fort Walla Walla,3 and about two thousand settlers took claims in the Walla Walla and Umatilla valleys during this summer. The hostilities which had heretofore prevented this progress being now at an end, there remained only the Snake,* Klamath, and Modoc tribes to be either conquered or conciliated. Little discipline had been administered in this quarter, except by the three expeditions previously mentioned of Wright, Walker, and Haller.

Harney, though more in sympathy with the people than his predecessors, was yet like them inclined to discredit the power or the will of the wild tribes

1 Clarke and Wright's Campaign, 85; Or. Laws, 1858-9, app. iii.; Or. Statesman, Feb. 8, 1859.

2 Besides the companies stationed to guard the Indian reservations in Oregon in 1857, there were 3 companies of the 9th inf. at The Dalles, one of the 4th inf. at Vancouver, one of the 3d art. at the Cascades, 3 of the 9th inf. at Fort Simcoe in the Yakima country, and at Fort Walla Walla 2 companies of inf., one of dragoons, and one of art. U. S. H. Ex. Doc. 2, vol. ii. pt ii. 78, 35th cong. 1st sess. In the autumn of 1858 three companies of art. from S. F., one from Fort Umpqua, now attached to the department of Cal., and an inf. co. from Fort Jones were sent into the Indian country east of the Cascade Mountains. Kip's Army Life, 16-18; Sac. Union, Aug. 23, 1858.

3 This steamer was owned by R. R. Thompson and L. Coe, and was named the Colonel Wright. Harney mentions in a letter to the adjutant-general dated April 25, 1859, that a steamboat line had been established between The Dalles and Walla Walla, and that in June when the water of the Columbia and Snake rivers should be high, the steamer should run to the mouth of the Tucannon, on the latter river. U. S. Mess. and Docs., 1859-60, 96, 36th cong. 1st sess.; S. F. Bulletin, April 28, May 13 and 30, and Sept. 13, 1859. It is worthy of remark that the first steamer to ascend the Missouri to Fort Benton made her initial trip this year. This was the Chippewa. Id., Sept. 17, 1859; Or. Argus, Sept. 3, 1859.

I use the term Snake in its popular sense and for convenience. The sev eral bands of this tribe, the Bannacks, and the wandering Pah Utes were all classed as Snakes by the people who reported their acts, and as it is impossible for me to separate them, the reader will understand that by Snakes is meant in general the predatory bands from the region of the Snake and Owyhee rivers.

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to inflict serious injury. Yet not to neglect his duty in keeping up an appearance of protecting miners, immigrants, and others, and at the same time to carry forward some plans of exploration which I have already hinted at," toward the end of April he ordered into the field two companies of dragoons and infantry mounted, under Captain D. H. Wallen, to make a reconnoissance of a road from The Dalles to Salt Lake City, connecting with the old immigrant route through the South Pass, and to ascertain whether such a road could not be constructed up the John Day River, thence over to the head waters of the Malheur, and down that stream to Snake River." Wallen proceeded as directed and along the south side of Snake River to the crossing of the Oregon and California roads at Raft River, meeting on his march with none of the predatory bands, which, eluding him, took advantage of being in his rear to make a descent upon the Warm Spring reservation and drive off the stock be

5 Harney was much interested in laying out military roads, and in his reports to the general-in-chief called the attention of the war department to the necessity for such roads in this portion of the United States territory. Among other roads proposed was one through the south pass to the head of Salmon River, down that stream to the Snake River, and thence to Fort Walla Walla, which was never opened owing to the roughness of the country. F. W. Lander made an improvement in the road from the south pass to the parting of the Oregon and California routes which enabled most of the immigration to arrive at the Columbia several weeks earlier than usual. The new route was called the Fort Kearney, South Pass, and Honey Lake wagon road, and appears to have been partially opened in 1858, or across the Wachita mountains. Appended to Lander's report is a long list of names of persons cn route for California and Oregon who passed over it in 1858 and 1859. A party left Fairbault, Minnesota, in July 1858, and travelled by the Saskatchewan route, wintering in the mountains with the snow in many places twenty feet deep. They experienced great hardships, but arrived at The Dalles May 1, 1859, in good health. Their names were J. L. Houck, J. W. Jones, J. E. Smith, E. Hind, William Amesbury, J. Emehiser, J. Schaeffer, J. Palmer, J. R. Sandford. Olympia Herald, May 27, 1859.

Wallen crossed the Des Chutes at the mouth of Warm Spring River, proceeded thence to the head of Crooked River, 160 miles, finding a good natural road with grass and water. He detached Lieutenant Bonnycastle with part of his command to explore the country cast of the route followed by himself, who travelled no farther than Harney Lake Valley, to which he probably gave this name in honor of the commanding general, from which point he turned north to the head waters of John Day River and followed it down, and back to The Dalles, on about the present line of the road to Canyon City. Harney reported that Bonnycastle brought a train of 17 ox-wagons from Harney Valley to The Dalles in 12 days without accident. U. S. Mess. and Docs, 1859–60, 113; U. S. Sen. Doc., 34, ix. 51, 36th cong. 1st sess.

longing to the treaty Indians." A. P. Dennison, the agent, applied to Harney for a force to guard the reservation, but the general, instead of sending troops, ordered forty rifles with ammunition to be furnished, and Dennison resorted to organizing a company among the reservation Indians, and placing it under the command of Thomas L. Fitch, physician to the reservation, who marched up John Day River in the hope of recovering a hundred and fifty head of horses and cattle which had been stolen. His company killed the men belonging to two lodges, took the women and children prisoners, and recaptured a few horses, which had the effect to secure a short-lived immunity only. In August the Snakes made another raid upon the reservation, avenging the slaughter of their people by killing a dozen or more Indian women and children and threatening to burn the agency buildings, the white residents fleeing for their lives to The Dalles. The agent, who was at that place, hastened to the scene of attack with a company of friendly Indians, but not before sixteen thousand dollars' worth of property had been stolen or destroyed. It was only then that a small detachment of soldiers was sent to guard the reservation and induce the terrified Indians as well as white people to return; and a dragoon company was ordered to make a reconnoissance along the base of the Blue Mountains, to recover if possible the property carried off, returning, however, empty-handed; and it was not without reason that the old complaint of the Indian department was reiterated, that the military department would not trouble itself with the Indians unless it were given exclusive control.

"Though Wallen met with no hostile savages in his march to Camp Floyd, he found no less than three commands in the field from that post pursuing Indians who had attacked the immigration on the California road. He mentions the names of a few persons killed in 1859, S. F. Shephard, W. F. Shephard, W. C. Riggs, and C. Rains. Olympia Herald, Sept. 16, 1859. E. C. Hall and Mr and Mrs Wright are mentioned as having been attacked. Hall was killed and the others wounded.

* Ind. Aff. Rept, 1859, 389. vate persons and the Indians.

Indemnity was claimed for the losses of pri