THE WAR IN THE UPPER COUNTRY
While the war of the Sound was thus vigorously and successfully
prosecuted, operations east of the Cascades were marked by lack of vigor
and purpose, and no impression was made upon the hostile tribes, except
to encourage them to continue on the war-path. The Oregon volunteers,
who wintered in the Walla Walla valley, crossed Snake River in March,
advanced a short distance up the Palouse, then traversed the country
over to the Columbia below Priest's Rapids, from which point they
returned to Walla Walla, and in May moved back to the Dalles and were
disbanded. Thus it will be seen how easy it would have been for the
regular forces, supporting and supplementing this movement of the Oregon
volunteers across Snake River, to have made the effective campaign that
Governor Stevens outlined to Wool. With a little reinforcement, the
volunteers could have pushed beyond Priest's Rapids up the left bank of
the Columbia, driving the hostiles across the river into the Yakima
country, when the main columns of regulars, entering that country from
the Dalles and up the Yakima River, could have "put the hostiles to
their last battle."
But it was not until May that Colonel Wright marched from the Dalles
into the Yakima country with five companies of regulars. He found the
hostiles in strong force on the Nahchess River, one of the upper
tributaries of the Yakima. Instead of fighting, he stopped to parley
with them; but after a week of talking to no purpose, he sent back for
reinforcements.
At this juncture, the hostile Indians on the Sound having been
thoroughly subdued, and those of the upper country being still in
unbroken strength and confidence, Governor Stevens, on May 28, proposed
to Lieutenant-Colonel Casey a joint movement of their respective forces
across the Cascades:--
"I would suggest your sending three companies to the Nahchess,
retaining one at or near the pass, and advancing the others into the
Yakima country.
"At the same time I will put my whole mounted force through the
Snoqualmie Pass and down the main Yakima. The Northern battalion
shall occupy posts on the line of the Snoqualmie from the falls to
the eastern slope. A depot shall be established on the eastern
slope; all the horsemen will then be available to strike and pursue
the enemy."
But Casey, strictly forbidden by Wool to recognize the volunteers, sent
two companies under Major Garnett to reinforce Wright by the circuitous
Cowlitz and Columbia route, declining to "send him across the Nahchess
Pass, for the reason, first, I consider there would be too much delay in
getting across. In the next place, I have not sufficient transportation
to spare for that purpose." From Steilacoom to Wright's camp on the
Nahchess was barely a hundred miles by the direct route across the pass;
by the Cowlitz-Columbia route it was three hundred and fifteen miles,
for a hundred and fifteen of which the troops could be transported by
water, leaving two hundred to march. By these facts, and by the ease and
celerity of Shaw's march a few days later over the rejected route, the
validity and candor of Casey's "reason" may be judged.
Such a combined movement would have given Wright ample reinforcements,
and in the mounted volunteers the very arm he most needed; for infantry
could never reach the Indians on those plains in summer unless the
latter chose to fight. And for the second time he was given the
opportunity, by availing himself of the coöperation of the volunteers,
to inflict a severe punishment upon the enemy. Unhappily Wool's orders
tied his hands, and Wright himself was imbued with Wool's delusion that
the Indians of the upper country--the great hostile tribes that had
plotted and brought on the war fresh from treacherously signing the
treaties at Walla Walla, had murdered the miners and agent Bolon, and
had plundered Fort Walla Walla, and laid themselves in wait to cut off
Governor Stevens and his party--were innocent and peaceably disposed
Indians, who had been forced to war by the aggressions of the whites.
Upon Casey's rejection or evasion of the joint operation he proposed,
Governor Stevens determined to push his mounted men across the
mountains, and throw upon that officer the burden of protecting the
settlements upon the Sound against hostile incursions. Accordingly he
offered to turn over to him his posts on the Puyallup, and on Connell's
and South prairies, and the colonel received and occupied them, for
which he was censured and rebuked by Wool as soon as the latter was
informed of it. The governor was convinced that the war could be brought
to a close only by subduing the hostile tribes of the upper country;
that until this was done the Sound country was liable to their raids and
stirring up of fresh outbreaks among the Sound Indians; and that every
day's delay in striking them was helping Kam-i-ah-kan and his emissaries
in winning over the Spokanes, Coeur d'Alenes, and disaffected Nez
Perces to their side. He also deemed it necessary to send supplies and
Indian goods to Craig and Lawyer, and strengthen their hands in keeping
the Nez Perces loyal, now left more exposed by the withdrawal of the
Oregon volunteers from the Walla Walla valley. He proceeded, therefore,
to carry out his plans, cherished from the beginning, of striking a
blow in the upper country.
On June 12 Lieutenant-Colonel Shaw marched from Camp Montgomery with one
hundred and seventy-five mounted men of the Central and Southern
battalions, under their respective majors, Blankenship and Maxon,
comprising Captain Henness's Company C, Maxon's Washington Mounted
Rifles, Company D, under Lieutenant Powell, Captain Miller's Company J,
and a pack-train of twenty-seven packers and one hundred and seven pack
animals, under Captain C.H. Armstrong, the regimental quartermaster and
commissary. On the 20th he reached the Wenass branch of the Yakima, with
the loss of only one animal, finding the road good for a mountain road.
Colonel Wright was still parleying with the Yakimas, trying to patch up
a peace, and not only with them, but also with Leschi, Kitsap, Stahi,
Nelson, and Qui-e-muth, the hostile chiefs who had fled from the Sound
country, and would vouchsafe no information or suggestion to the
volunteer colonel, except the statement that the regular troops were
amply sufficient for the Yakima. Shaw therefore continued his march,
crossed the Columbia at old Fort Walla Walla, and reached and made camp
on Mill Creek, in the valley, on the 9th of July.
Having seen the necessary arrangements made, and orders given for Shaw's
march, the governor hastened in person to the Dalles, arriving there
June 12, where he had already assembled Captains Goff's and Richards's
companies, in anticipation of operating in the upper country.
He had previously, on April 27, inquired of Colonel Wright if he
intended to occupy the Walla Walla valley, and if, in case it were not
occupied, and the Oregon volunteers there were withdrawn, he could
furnish an escort of one company to guard the train to the Nez Perce
country. To this Wright replied that it was no part of his plan of
campaign to occupy the Walla Walla country, "as we are assured that the
Indians in that district are peacefully inclined," and that the matter
of an escort was referred to General Wool, which, of course, was
equivalent to refusal. The governor, on receiving this reply, at once
wrote Wright:--
"My information in regard to the Indians in the Walla Walla, and on
the Snake River, is that they are determined to prosecute the war.
This was the declaration made by the prominent chiefs of the Cuyuses
to the express of Mr. McDonald some weeks since. This is the opinion
of my agent in the Nez Perce country and of the Nez Perce chiefs,
and it would seem to be indicated by the recent attack by the
Indians on the volunteers at the Umatilla.
"I have therefore thought it my duty to communicate these views, and
I will suggest that you receive with great caution any information
of their peaceful intention, to the end that you may not be thrown
off your guard."
Thus Wright was fixed in the opinion that these Indians were peaceably
disposed, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. He ignored the
information and views given him by Governor Stevens, who, as
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, was especially charged with the care
and management of them; the information furnished by the Hudson Bay
Company's officer at Colville; the opinions of the Nez Perce chiefs and
agent Craig; and even a recent attack actually made upon a post of
Oregon volunteers on the Umatilla.
The governor now notified Wright of Shaw's march and orders to coöperate
with him:--
"His orders are to coöperate with you in removing the seat of war
from the base of the mountains to the interior, and for reasons
affecting the close of the war on the Sound obvious to all persons.
"He will then push to the Walla Walla valley, crossing the Columbia
at Fort Walla Walla.
"The supplies and escort for the Walla Walla will move from the
Dalles on Friday morning.
"The Walla Walla valley must be occupied immediately, to prevent the
extension of the war into the interior.
"Kam-i-ah-kan has, since your arrival on the Nahchess, made every
exertion to induce the tribes thus far friendly to join in the war.
He has flattered the Spokanes, where he was on the 25th of May, and
has endeavored to browbeat the Nez Perces. The Spokanes have
answered in the negative, and the Nez Perces will, I am satisfied,
continue friendly.
"I am ready, as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to take charge
of any Indians that may be reported by yourself as having changed
their condition from hostility to peace.
"From all I can gather, I presume your views and my own do not
differ as to the terms which should be allowed the Indians, viz.,
unconditional submission, and the rendering up of murderers and
instigators of the war to punishment.
"I will, however, respectfully put you on your guard in reference to
Leschi, Nelson, Kitsap, and Qui-e-muth, from the Sound, and suggest
that no arrangement be made which shall save their necks from the
executioner."
But the governor's wise and patriotic efforts to secure coöperation, and
this fine opportunity to strike the enemy a crushing blow, were
frustrated by Wright's pacific attitude and the cold shoulder he turned
to Shaw. It was indeed hard to induce concert of action, especially
aggressive action, between authorities who knew the Indians as hostile
and murderous, and to be subdued only by defeat and punishment, and
officers who regarded them as wronged, and deserving to be made peace
with and protected. Thus Wool's pernicious and inexcusable views and
orders paralyzed the campaign of his subordinate, who shared his
delusion.
The governor remained at the Dalles some two weeks, combining and
expediting the movements of his two columns to the Walla Walla valley,
and gaining the latest information from the Indian country, and returned
to Olympia June 30.
On this trip the governor summarily dismissed a quartermaster at
Vancouver for dishonest conduct, and the incident was made the subject
of a caricature by John Phoenix, the _nom de plume_ of that inveterate
wit and joker, Lieutenant George H. Derby, who was then stationed at
Vancouver.[11]
It will be recollected that the governor left Captain Sidney S. Ford in
the Walla Walla to organize a company for home defense of the few
settlers who had returned with the Oregon volunteers. He succeeded in
raising twenty-five men, but was soon succeeded by a company under
Captain Henry M. Chase, composed of ten whites and forty-three Nez
Perces. On the withdrawal of the volunteers, they, too, had to be
disbanded, and the valley was wholly abandoned.
On the 22d the two companies under Captains Goff and Williams, who
succeeded Richards, mustering one hundred and seventy-five men, with a
train of forty-five wagons and thirty-five pack-animals, in charge of
Quartermaster Robie, marched from the Dalles, and on July 9 joined Shaw
on Mill Creek, except a detachment of seventy-five men under Captain
Goff, which left the train on the Umatilla to go to the assistance of
Major Lupton, of the Oregon volunteers, who was in the presence of a
force of the enemy in the Blue Mountains. Goff and Lupton followed the
hostiles across the mountains, and on the 15th and 16th inflicted a
sharp blow upon them on Burnt River.
Lieutenant-Colonel Craig, with a force of seventy-five Nez Perce
volunteers under Spotted Eagle, marched from Lapwai and joined Shaw's
command, also on the 9th, so that the three columns, starting from
points as widely divergent as Puget Sound, the Dalles, and Lapwai, all
met in the valley on the same day. The Nez Perces gave assurances of the
continued friendship of the tribe, and Robie proceeded with the train of
Indian goods to their country under their escort alone.
Thus far Shaw had encountered no enemy in his march, the Yakimas being
virtually protected by Colonel Wright and his parleyings, and the
Cuyuses and Walla Wallas having left the valley; but learning that the
hostiles were in the Grande Ronde valley in force, he determined to
strike them. Moving by night by an unused trail across the Blue
Mountains, guided by the faithful Nez Perce chief, Captain John, he
encountered the enemy on the third day, July 17, in the open valley.
Although taken by surprise, they received him in a defiant attitude;
large numbers of braves, mounted and armed, and with a white scalp borne
on a pole among them, confronted him, while the squaws were fleeing
across the valley to seek refuge, and, on Captain John's approaching
them to parley, cried out to shoot him. Upon this, throwing off his hat,
and with a shout, the tall, rawboned leader of the volunteers instantly
charged at the head of his men, his long red hair and beard streaming in
the wind, broke and scattered the Indians, chased them fifteen miles
clear across the valley, killed forty, and captured a hundred pounds of
ammunition, all their provisions, and over two hundred horses and mules,
many of which bore the United States brand, and had been evidently run
off from Wright's and Rains's commands. Shaw's loss was only three
killed and four wounded.
Having driven the hostiles beyond the Grande Ronde, and not having
sufficient supplies to warrant pursuing them farther, Shaw returned to
his camp in the Walla Walla.
Meanwhile Robie had been threatened and ordered out of the Nez Perce
country by the disaffected portion of that tribe, and had returned by
forced marches to the valley, but on learning of Shaw's victory, and in
answer to his message that "if they beat their drums for war, he would
parade his men for battle," the recusant chiefs again made professions
of friendship. Lawyer and the majority of the tribe were unwavering in
their friendship, but there were a considerable number who sympathized
with their Cuyuse kindred, and repented having made the treaty, among
whom Looking Glass, Red Wolf, Joseph, and Eagle-from-the-Light were
leaders.
One of the first acts of Colonel Wright at the Dalles had been to
release the Cuyuse war chief, Um-how-lish, whom the governor had
captured and brought to that point, and to allow him to return to his
people, accepting all his professions at par. Under this encouragement
some of the friendly Cuyuses and the families of some of the hostiles
had taken refuge among the Nez Perces, despite the governor's refusal to
permit them to go there. The very thing he apprehended occurred, viz.,
the disaffected and hostile Cuyuses, visiting their kindred with, and
mingling among, the Nez Perces, had stirred up considerable disaffection
in this hitherto faithful tribe. Moreover, the Yakima emissaries had
assured the Nez Perces that the Spokanes were about to break out against
the whites, and threatened them with the same treatment accorded the
whites, unless they, too, would make common cause against the
encroaching race. Lawyer and Craig, therefore, were sorely troubled to
hold firm the wavering friendship of the disaffected part of the tribe,
and had written the most urgent messages to the governor for assistance.
Hence his great anxiety to have the Walla Walla valley held in force,
and to get through to the Nez Perce country a train bearing supplies and
encouragement to the faithful chiefs.
Shaw's victory occurred most opportunely to restrain the disaffected,
and both he and Craig represented that the moral effect of it was great
and salutary upon them. The governor therefore decided to proceed in
person to Walla Walla, and there hold a council with the Indians, in
order to confirm the friendship of the Nez Perces and restrain the
doubtful and wavering from active hostility. He directed Craig and Shaw
to summon the hitherto friendly Indians, the Nez Perces, Spokanes,
Coeur d'Alenes, and friendly Cuyuses, to the council; and also to send
messengers to the hostiles, inviting them to attend it also, under the
sole condition of submission to the government, requiring them to come
unarmed, and assuring them of safe conduct to, at, and from the council.
He took this course in order to give the hostiles every opportunity to
give up the conflict and accept peace, if their minds were ripe for it,
and also to refute the infamous charges of Wool and satisfy the doubts
or scruples of other regular officers, by demonstrating his earnest wish
to end the war and treat the hostiles with all possible leniency. To
this end, on August 3 he wrote a pressing invitation to Colonel Wright
to attend the council, recommended him to establish a permanent garrison
in the Walla Walla valley, and requested a conference at the Dalles on
the 14th of September.
The governor called out two hundred more volunteers to maintain the
strength of Shaw's command, whose term of enlistment was about to
expire, for he deemed it indispensable to hold the Walla Walla valley.
Colonel Wright, acting on Wool's theory of wronged and innocent Indians,
had suffered himself to be completely deceived by the wily Yakimas, and
had given open ear to their lying tales and treacherous professions,
and, without striking a blow, or seizing a single murderer, or exacting
any guaranty for future good behavior,--not even a promise to observe
their treaty and allow whites to come into their country,--had concluded
a quasi-peace with them. This was as great a victory for their diplomacy
as Haller's defeat was for their arms. It rendered Wright's campaign
utterly abortive, saved them from losses and punishment, recognized as
valid their objections to the treaty and the presence of white settlers,
and left Kam-i-ah-kan and his followers free to continue their
machinations among the doubtful tribes, which they were actively
carrying on.
While these wily Indians were thus beguiling Wright, they also tried
their diplomacy on the authorities on the west side of the Cascades. In
May Indian messengers from Ow-hi and Te-i-as--two of the most cunning
and treacherous of the Yakima chiefs, the former second only to
Kam-i-ah-kan, as well as foremost in bringing on the war--approached
Colonel Simmons through friendly Indians, pretending a desire to make
peace, and were sent to Olympia to the governor. After conversing with
them, the latter was satisfied that they came only as spies and
trouble-instigators, but directed them to return to the chiefs who sent
them, bearing his invitation to all who wished to resume friendly
relations to come with their women and children to the prairie above
Snoqualmie Falls, and submit to the justice and mercy of the government;
that only those guilty of murder and instigating the war would be
punished, and all others would be pardoned and kindly treated, like the
Indians on the reservations. At the same time he charged Colonel
Fitzhugh, in connection with Colonel Simmons, with the mission of
bringing about the surrender of the Indians in question in case they
were acting in good faith. Three weeks later, June 20, Fitzhugh reported
that his mission had turned out a perfect failure, that the governor was
correct in his opinion, that the messengers only wanted to gain time and
information, and added:--
"The Indians expected to make better terms with Colonel Wright, who
had been entertaining them and making them presents on the other
side of the mountains, and had told them that he was the 'Big Dog'
in this part of the world, and had come a long distance to treat
with them, and if they would only stop fighting all would be well.
As things now are, they will have to be well thrashed before they
will treat. From the beginning of the difficulty to the present
time, the regulars, from their commander-in-chief down, have
stultified themselves. They have done no fighting, and now they wish
to patch up a treaty, so as to get the credit for putting an end to
the war."
Little did the cunning Ow-hi foresee the tragic fate that awaited him
and his son, only two years later, at the hands of Colonel Wright.
Thus ingloriously was the war carried on, or rather paralyzed, by the
regular forces in the upper country. The only blow inflicted upon the
hostiles of that region during the year was struck by Shaw in the Grande
Ronde, and the effect of that was dissipated by the subsequent behavior
of Wool's officers.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] In this cartoon two settlers in roughest costumes, slouch hats,
woolen shirts, huge muddy boots with trousers tucked into them,
and long, unkempt hair and beard, are represented standing in
front of a log-hut in the woods, while in the distance appears a
building, having over the door the sign "Quartermaster's Office,"
from which a man is being kicked into the street.
"_First Pike._ That's pretty rough, Bill, yanking a man out
of office like that, without giving him ary show or trial.
"_Second Pike._ Well, the governor's generally about right,
and he's dead right this time, you bet."