Charles Stuart Drew's accurate, but very one-sided, view of the Rogue River Indian wars. Biographical references on various Drews at the bottom of the page.

    Believing that the rights and interests of the people of Oregon, as connected with the allowance of their war debt, now pending before Congress, are seriously endangered because of the evil reports that have been placed upon record respecting it, and the origin of the war on account of which it was created, I have thought it proper to present to you at this time a circumstantial account of the origin and the early prosecution of the war in question, for which pay is now claimed and is justly due. In the arrangement of this account, I have alluded to other Indian wars and difficulties that have occurred in Oregon, because their history, too, has been grossly perverted and then made use of in making up a case against the war under consideration. I have, however, confined myself mainly to the simple statement of facts, leaving comments to be made by those who shall hereafter discuss the subject to which these facts relate. Much that I have stated touching matters in Southern Oregon and Northern California is the result of my own observation, having resided in that section of country some seven years, commencing with the year 1851. From November, 1852, until after the closing scenes of the war of 1855-56, I was a resident of Rogue River Valley, and participated with my fellow citizens in suppressing Indian hostilities that occurred there during that period. For this reason, I have gone more into the details of Indian murders, volunteer service, &c., in that region, than in any other.

	Page
List of actual murders from November, 1847, to January, 1857	3
Massacre by Coquille Indians--Account of the same by one of the survivors	8
Attempted outbreak of the Rogue River Indians--Massacre of immigrants by the Modoc tribes--Volunteers raised at Jacksonville and Yreka--Affair of Captain Ben Wright	10
Massacre of miners by the Rogue River Indians--Trial of the Indians before a citizens' jury--Their conviction, confession, and execution	13
The origin of the Rogue River Indian war of 1853--Organization of volunteer forces--List of volunteers killed and wounded--Treaty of the 10th of September, 1853--Continued hostility of the Indians	12
The murder of Gibbs, Hudgins, and others--Treachery of the Indians	16
Continuation of hostilities by the Indians of Southern Oregon in 1854--A war council held by the tribes of Southern Oregon and Northern California--A war of extermination the theme--Volunteers ordered to the relief of the overland immigration	17
The massacre of immigrants near Fort Boise--Statement concerning it	20
Hostile demonstrations of the Southern Oregon Indians in 1855--Origin of the war of 1855-56--Organization of Colonel Ross' regiment of volunteers--Organization of the volunteer force under the proclamation of Governor Curry--List of killed and wounded of Ross' regiment--Ditto (not complete) of the first and second regiments	21
Superintendent Palmer's report relative to Indian. difficulties in the Port Orford district, &c., in 1854	35
"The Topographical Memoir and Report of Captain T. J. Cram, relative to the Territories of Oregon and Washington," (H. Doc. No. 114, 35th Congress, 2nd session)	36

    In 1847, November 29.--Dr. Marcus Whitman, a Protestant missionary, Mrs. Whitman, two orphan children, and thirteen other persons, eleven of them newly arrived overland from the East, were murdered by Cayuse Indians at and near the mission established by Dr. Whitman, in Walla Walla Valley. The Indians were in no manner provoked to the commission of this massacre. Oregon, at that time, had only a government of its own, the laws of the United States not having been extended over it until the following year.
    1850.--Early in the summer, eleven men, names unknown, were murdered by Indians of Southern Oregon, at what is now Port Orford. They had embarked at San Francisco for a cruise along the Oregon coast south of the Columbia River, with the view to ascertain what inducements that region of country offered to settlement. They proceeded to Port Orford Bay, where they come to anchor; and satisfying themselves that this bay possessed merits as a harbor, went on shore to make a cursory examination of the country adjacent. Hardly had they touched the beach, however, when they were attacked by a large body of Indians, and every man of them was killed on the spot. They had seen no Indians before the moment of the attack, and, therefore, could have given no provocation. The Indians were not punished.
    August.--Messrs. Spink and Cushing, packers, were murdered, and their train and loading destroyed by Indians, on Klamath River. No provocation given and none claimed. The murderers were not punished.
    In 1851, January.--James Sloan, ---- Janalshan, ---- Bender, and ---- Blackburn were killed by Indians, at Blackburn's ferry, on Klamath River. The Indians attacked this place in large numbers; but it was defended by the citizens until relief came from distant settlements, when the Indians withdrew. The Indians destroyed several thousand dollars' worth of stores and other property. No provocation given and none claimed. The Indians were not punished. The parties killed are believed to have been formerly of Ohio.
    May.--Four men, miners, names unknown, were murdered at two different places (two in each) on the road between Rogue River and Grave Creek, by Rogue River Indians. No provocation is known to have been given. The Indians claimed none. They were not punished.
    Same month.--William Mosier and ---- Reaver (or Reavis) were murdered near Yreka, California, by Rogue River and Shasta Indians. No cause known, and none supposed to exist. The murderers were not punished.
    About this time ---- Dilley, a packer, was murdered by Rogue River Indians, near a place now known as Camp Stuart, so called from it being the place where Captain Stuart, United States army, died of wounds received at the hands of those Indians in the following autumn. No provocation was given for the murder of Mr. Dilley. The Indians were not punished.
    August.--Cornelius Doherty, recently from Texas, and Jeremiah Ryan, of Maryland; John Holland, of New Hampshire; J. P. Pepper and P. Murphy, of New York, also newly arrived on the Pacific coast, were murdered by Southern Oregon Indians, at the mouth of Coquille River. Three of their five companions who escaped were severely wounded at this time. The Indians had not the slightest cause for the commission of this murder, as I shall proceed to show by and by.
    October.--Mr. Moffitt, a drover, was mortally wounded by Rogue River Indians, near Camp Stuart. No provocation given or claimed. Major Kearny, United States army, visited Rogue River Valley about this time, and obtained a promise from the Indians that they would commit no more depredations upon the whites.
    In 1852, June 2.--Calvin Woodman, a miner of Scotts River, was murdered in Scotts Valley, by Indians of the Rogue River tribes. No provocation was given. The Indian who actually fired the fatal shot was afterwards captured, as was his accomplice, by a company of volunteers of Yreka. The criminals were then tried before a citizens' jury, where, their guilt being proved beyond a doubt, the principal was hung; but, it being difficult to make the Indians understand why an accessory should be punished with the principal, the accomplice was set at liberty. Mr. Woodman was a native of Maine.
    Same month.--James L. Freaner, John Brando, ---- Jackson, ---- Warren, and a Mexican called Adobe John, were murdered in Pit River Valley, by the Indians of that name. This was a party that left Yreka to view and locate a wagon road from Sacramento Valley to the southern boundary of Oregon, for which Colonel Freaner and others had procured a charter. Nothing definite as to the fate of this party was known until some four years afterwards, when the Indians themselves boastfully disclosed the particulars. Of course they did not plead justification. Colonel Freaner was the "mustang" of Mexican war notoriety. Brando was a native of Maine.
    About this time an American, name supposed to be Lockwood, and three Mexicans, all packers, were murdered near Sugar Loaf Mountain, on the old trail between Shasta City and Yreka, by the Indians just mentioned. A German was also murdered at this place, some two days after, by the same Indians. A partner of the German, though very severely wounded, made his escape to Yreka. All these murders were entirely unprovoked, and for none of them were the Indians punished.
    August.--Mr. Coats, John Ormsby, James Long, Felix Martin, Mr. Wood, and thirty-four others, whose names are not known, were murdered by Modoc and other Indians on the Southern Oregon emigrant road.
    December.--William Grendage, Peter Hunter, Mr. Bruner, Mr. Palmer, William Allen, two brothers Bacon, and one other, whose name is unknown, were murdered by Rogue River Indians, near the mouth of Galice Creek.
    In 1853, May or June.--An American and a Mexican, miners, were murdered in their cabin, in the neighborhood of Cow Creek, by Southern Oregon Indians. No provocation, and no punishment.
    August 4.--Edward Edwards, a farmer, residing six miles from Jacksonville, was murdered at noonday at his own house by Rogue River Indians, who had secreted themselves in some brush near by. No provocation given, nor were the Indians called to an account.
    August 5.--Thomas Wills, merchant, of Jacksonville, was shot and mortally wounded by Rogue River Indians just as he was entering the town. No provocation, and no attempt at punishment.
    August 6.--Richard Nolan and another person, whose name is not known, miners, of Jackson Creek, were murdered at their claims, about a mile from Jacksonville, by Rogue River Indians--the same party, probably, who shot Mr. Wills. No provocation.
    August 17.--John Gibbs, William Hudgins, ---- Whittier, and two others were murdered by a tribe of Rogue River Indians, who were professedly friendly, and were at the time being wholly subsisted and maintained by Mr. Gibbs and other citizens at private expense.
    October 6.--James C. Kyle, a merchant, of Jacksonville, was murdered within six miles of home, and two from Fort Lane, by Rogue River Indians, belonging to Table Rock reservation. The murder was entirely unprovoked. A Mr. Bell and partner and a miner called Jack were murdered by Indians of Lower Rogue River, about this time, and, as in the other case, without any provocation.
    In 1854, January.--Hiram Hulen, J. Clark, J. Oldfield, and Wesley Mayden were murdered by Rogue River, Shasta, and Modoc Indians while looking for stock which these Indians had stolen. Distance from Fort Lane about 25 miles, and about 30 from Fort Jones. Mr. Clark formerly lived in Michigan, and Mayden in Minnesota. The Indians were not punished.
    April 15.--Edward Phillips, a miner, of Applegate Creek, was murdered in his own house by Rogue River Indians. Distance from Fort Lane about 14 miles. The murder was wholly unprovoked, and no attempt was made to punish the Indians for it. Mr. Phillips was a native of New York.
    June 15.--Daniel Gage was murdered by Modoc Indians on the road between Jacksonville and Yreka. Distance from Fort Jones about 35 miles, and Fort Lane about 20 miles. No provocation given, and the Indians were not punished. The Indians destroyed the most of Mr. Gage's (and Claymer's) pack train and a valuable lot of merchandise,
    June 24.--Mr. McAmy was killed, near De Witt's ferry on Klamath River, by Rogue River and Shasta Indians.
    Thomas O'Neil was murdered by Klamath Indians about this time. It is not known whether there was any provocation in this or the foregoing case. It is certain, however, that the Indians were never called to an account in either.
    August 19.--W. G. Perry and George Lake, emigrating from Iowa, and E. B. Cantrell from Illinois, were murdered by Indians east of Fort Boise; and.
    About the same time, John Crittenden, John Badger, Alexander Sawyer, and ---- Wood, also emigrating to Oregon, were murdered at Gravelly Ford, by the Snake Indians.
    August 20.--Alexander Ward, Mrs. Ward, and their seven children, Mrs. White and child, Samuel Mulligan, two brothers Adams, W. Babcock, John Frederick, Rudolph Shultz, Mr. Ames, and a man unknown, emigrants from Missouri and Western States, were killed by the Indians on Snake River. No provocation given.
    September.--Stewart, of Corvallis, Oregon, was murdered by Klamath Indians, on the Middle Oregon emigrant road, where he had gone to meet some friends whom he expected overland, via this route. This murder was entirely unprovoked. The Indians were not punished.
    November 2.--Alfred French was murdered by Indians of Southern Oregon, near Crescent City, California. The murder was wholly unprovoked. It is not probable that more than three of the Indians actually participated in this affair, but many were accessory to it, both before and after the fact. The particulars of the murder were not ascertained until after a jail-full or more of the Indians had been arrested for the act, when they gave such information as led to the discovery of Mr. French's body and the arrest and conviction of the principal in his murder. Mr. French was formerly connected with the publication of The Independence Chronicle, at Independence, Missouri.
    In 1855, May 8.--Hill, a miner on Indian Creek, was murdered by Rogue River Indians. The murder was entirely unprovoked, and was committed in his own house. The Indians were not punished.
    June 1.--Jerome Dyer and Daniel McKew were murdered on the road between Jacksonville and Illinois Valley, by Rogue River Indians from Table Rock reservation. Distance from Fort Lane, about sixteen miles.
    June 2.--Philpot was murdered by the Indians just mentioned. No provocation given in either case.
    July 27.--Peters, a miner, was murdered near Yreka by Rogue River and Shasta Indians. Distance from Fort Jones, about twenty miles.
    July 28.--William Hennessey, Edward Parrish, Austin W. Gay, Peter Hignight, John Pollock, four Frenchmen and two Mexicans, names unknown, were murdered at Buckeye Bar, on Klamath River, by Rogue River Indians from Table Rock reservation, aided, probably, by some of the Shasta and Klamath tribes. Distance from Fort Jones, about fourteen miles. No provocation given, either in this case or that of Mr. Peters.
    September 2.--Granville M. Keene was killed by Modoc and Rogue River Indians, near the head of Rogue River Valley. He was killed while in pursuit of a horse which these Indians had stolen.
    About this time, Mrs. Clark and her son, of Yamhill County (Middle Oregon), were murdered by Indians of the Tillamook tribe. No provocation given. One Indian was hung for this murder.
    About this time, also, Agent A. J. Bolon, ---- Matteese, Elisha Plummer, and six others whose names are unknown, were murdered by the Yakima and other Indians of Northern Oregon and Washington Territory.
    September 24.--Calvin M. Fields and John Cunningham were murdered on the road between Jacksonville and Yreka, by Rogue River Indians from Table Rock reserve, aided, probably, by Indians from the Klamath Lake country.
    September 25.--Samuel Warner was murdered near the place where Fields and Cunningham were, and by the same Indians. No provocation given in either of the cases just cited. Distance from Fort Lane to where the three last-mentioned persons were killed, about twenty-five miles.
    October 9.--Mrs. J. B. Wagoner, Mary Wagoner, Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Jones, Mr. and Mrs. Haines and two children, George W. Harris, Daniel W. Harris, Frank A. Reed, William Gwin, James W. Cartwright, Powell, Bunch, Fox, Hamilton, White, and probably several others, were killed between Evans' ferry (Rogue River) and Grave Creek by Rogue River Indians from Table Rock reserve; aided by Indians of the Umpqua tribes. Distance from Fort Lane about twenty miles. No provocation given.
    Same day.--Messrs. Hudson and Wilson, packers, were murdered on the road between Crescent City and Indian Creek, by Rogue River and Klamath Indians. No provocation.
    October 16.--Holland Bailey, farmer, was murdered in Cow Creek Valley by Cow Crock and Umpqua Indians, No provocation given,
    November 16.--Charles Scott and Theodore Snow, miners, were murdered on the road between Yreka and Scotts Bar, probably by runners from the Rogue River Indians to those on Salmon and Lower Klamath rivers.
    In 1856, February 23.--Indian agent Ben Wright, John Poland, H. Braun, E. W. Howe, Mr. Wagner, Barney Castle, George McCluskey, Mr. Lara, W. R. Tullus, James Seroc and two sons, Mr. Smith, Mr. Warner, John Geisel and three children, S. Heidrick, Pat. McCullough, and four others, names unknown, were murdered by a tribe of Rogue River Indians who were in charge of Agent Wright and were professedly friendly.
    March 2l.--Whiting and Bell, partners in trade, were murdered near Port Orford, by Southern Oregon Indians.
    March 26.--George Griswold, Norman Palmer, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Mr. Watkins, James St. Clair, and eleven others were killed at the Cascades (on the Columbia River) by Indians of that vicinity. No provocation given.
    June.--Charles Green and Thomas Stewart, miners, were murdered on McKinney's Creek, near Fort Jones, by Shasta or Klamath Indians. No provocation given. The Indians were not called to an account.
    In 1857, January.--Harry Lockhart, Z. Rogers, Adam Boles, D. Bryant, and a German called John were murdered by the Pit River Indians in the valley of that name. No provocation given. Mr. Rogers was a native of Maine.
    I have now proceeded with these recitals of Indian murders as far as it seems necessary for present purposes that I should, though they might still be continued. The hostility of the Modoc, Pit River and Klamath Indians has continued unabated since the date last mentioned, down to the present, and the murders and other depredations committed by them have continued in about the same ratio as before. The Rogue Rivers and other tribes of Southern Oregon, after having been repulsed in their attempt to devastate that region of country in 1855, by "Oregon volunteers," surrendered themselves into the keeping of the regularly constituted authorities of the general government, and were removed to quarters where they are subsisted at the public expense, and where it is hoped they may be forever restrained from a renewal of their bloody work of former years.
    In arranging the foregoing list, I have had recourse to H. Mis. Doc. No. 47, 2nd session, 35th Congress, which contains many of the names mentioned, and much information with regard to the service of volunteers for which pay is now claimed at the hands of Congress. None are included in the list who were killed while bearing arms against the Indians by whom they were killed. The list of actual murders foots up as follows: Total number of persons murdered between November, 1847, and January, 1857, a period of a little over nine years, as per list, 259. Twelve others, whose names are not in my possession, are known to have been killed by the Indians of Southern Oregon and their immediate allies, in 1854-55-56, and I estimate the number killed during these three years by the Indians of Northern Oregon and the Territory of Washington, that are not included in the list, at 26; and among them Colonel Moses, collector at Puget Sound. This gives a total of 297. Add to this number the 64 that were murdered at different times and various places in Oregon, prior to 1847, and it is increased to (361) three hundred and sixty-one. Of these, 237 were murdered by the Indians of Southern Oregon and their allies, the Shastas, and the Klamath, and Pit Rivers; and 124 by the Indians of Northern and Middle Oregon, and the Territory of Washington. Of the 237 charged to the Indians of Southern Oregon, &c., 169 were committed after the spring of 1852, the time when the Rogue River country commenced being settled; 119 after the establishment of Fort Orford and Fort Jones, the latter in November, 1852, and 100 after the establishment of Fort Lane, in September, 1853, while all three of these posts were garrisoned by United States troops. Of the 124 committed by the Indians of Washington Territory, Northern and Middle Oregon, 81 were committed after the first of 1854. In the remaining number, I have included the crew of the ill-fated Tonquin. But, in no other instance have I gone back to an earlier period than 1834, the date of the first efforts of Protestant missionaries to Christianize the Oregon Indians.
    I have included the murder of the Agent Wright, &c., in the list, though it occurred (February 23) some months after the war in the Rogue River country had commenced. But it was perpetrated by a tribe of Indians who were professedly friendly, and were being subsisted by the Indian Department. For similar reasons, I have included the massacre at the Cascades (March 26), and some others of lesser note, in the same category.

    As the Indians of Oregon, especially the Rogue River and contiguous tribes, are so often represented as the perfect embodiment of all that is generous and noble, I trust that a sample or two of their wonted magnanimity will not be considered out of place here. One of the survivors of the massacre by the Coquille Indians, in August, 1851, in his account of that affair, says: ''We left Port Orford with only about five days ration, and had been out twenty. We had failed to reach the settlements, and were now trying to make our way back to whence we came. On our arrival at the Coquille River, our leader, who was  also our guide, gave out from hunger and fatigue, and declared that he could proceed with us no further. Just at this time, we discovered a small party of Indians coming up the river in canoes. This was a most welcome sight, as it gave us hope that from them we might obtain something to eat. In this, however, we were sorely disappointed, for they would furnish us with nothing whatever in the shape of food.
    "After some deliberation as to what we should do, we decided to trust to the professed friendship of the Indians, and to take passage with them to the mouth of the river, as we could then keep our guide along with us. Accordingly we engaged our passage, for which we gave the Indians all our blankets.
    "We had proceeded down the river but a short distance when we came to a small Indian village, where the Indians were preparing to catch salmon. Here we made another unsuccessful attempt to obtain food. Proceeding on, not yet knowing what stream we were on, the next day, about noon, we arrived opposite a large Indian town within sight of the river's mouth. It had been our intention to proceed immediately to Port Orford via the beach the moment we should arrive at the coast; but the Indians thus far had manifested no particular hostility towards us, except to refuse us food, which our guide was anxious to make one more effort now to obtain. Against this the rest of our company remonstrated; but as all the company, except the guide, were recently arrived on the Pacific coast, and consequently knew nothing of the treacherous character of the Indians, his counsels finally prevailed, and we changed our course for the Indian town. Before reaching it, however, we perceived there were as many as one hundred warriors collected in the vicinity of where we were to land; but as they seemed to comprehend our condition, and manifested a disposition to minister to our necessities by showing us food, &c., our confidence in their friendship, which had at first been somewhat shaken, was again restored, and we prepared to disembark, determined to sell the shirts off our back for any quantity of food, however small. We had only touched the shore, however, when we were set upon by the entire body of the Indians and completely overpowered before we had time to make even a show of defense. Five of our number fell on the spot, and the other five, three of them severely wounded, barely escaped. How any of us escaped seems miraculous. We gave the Indians no cause for their attack upon us. We paid them what they required for our passage, and offered to them pay for whatever we tried to obtain of them."
    It was the neighbors of these Indians, it will be remembered, who murdered the party of eleven at Port Orford the year before. What is true with regard to the perfidy and treachery of any one of these tribes, is true of all that ever infested any portion of Southern Oregon. None ever lost an opportunity to murder a white man unless controlled by fear of punishment or the loss of annuities, and instances are very rare in which they have been controlled even by these considerations. War has ever been their most cherished passion, and in order to secure its indulgence there is, as a general rule, no present advantage that they will not sacrifice, and no future consequences that they will in the least regard. It is claimed that, in the fall of 1851, the Coquille Indians, to whom the statement I have just quoted refers, were chastised by a force of United States troops under the command of Lieut. Colonel Casey. But the action of these troops amounted to little more than a march into the country occupied by these Indians, and then out of it. The Indians were not in the least subdued, and continued their depredations as before, though fortunately with less success, because their former acts of perfidy had learned the whites to guard against them. No attempt, I believe, has ever been made to punish the Indians who murdered the party of eleven at Port Orford in 1850.

    The murder of Calvin Woodman, June 2, 1852, in Scotts Valley, and the escape of the murderer to Rogue River, led to a timely prevention of a general outbreak of the Rogue River, Shasta, and surrounding tribes, which must have been exceedingly disastrous to the young settlements then just planted in that region. At the time of this murder, the tribes of Rogue River Valley and the Modocs had already entered into arrangements with each other for the extermination of the whites of the Rogue River country, and also such of the overland immigration as should attempt to pass in over the Southern Oregon route. But, fortunately, the trail of the murderers of Mr. Woodman brought to the camp of the most warlike tribe of the Rogue Rivers (Sam's) a company of Yreka volunteers, under the command of E. Steele, Esq., a gentleman favorably known to the Indians, but who, now that they were bent on war, had no influence whatever over them. After some skirmishing, however, which was participated in by a volunteer company from Jacksonville, the Indians, finding themselves out-generaled, and that the loss in killed was all on their side, expressed a willingness to "make another peace." Fighting was then suspended, and the Indian agent sent for, to whom they promised they would remain peaceable in future; but it amounted to nothing but a promise after all, as subsequent events fully prove. A detailed account of this affair may be found in H. Mis. Doc. 47, second session Thirty-fifth Congress, pages 47-50.
    Though Indian hostilities in the Rogue River country were quelled for the time, unfortunately, it was not so along the Southern Oregon emigrant road, near its western terminus. The Modocs, agreeable, no doubt, to the programme arranged with the Rogue Rivers, commenced an indiscriminate slaughter of the first immigrant trains that came within their reach, and so thoroughly did they perform their hellish work, that it seems almost a miracle that one man should escape from their hands to carry the sad tidings to the settlements. But so it was. One man, out of a party of eighty, saved himself when his companions were falling and being hacked in pieces all around him, by mounting a pack horse, without saddle or bridle or other equipments, and charging directly through the Indian forces. After riding in this manner over one hundred miles, he reached Yreka, and made the acts of the Indians known. A company of volunteers was immediately organized, and under the command of Captain Ben Wright, dispatched to the scene of difficulty, where it arrived just in season to save the destruction of a train of "sixteen wagons and somewhere between forty and sixty persons." (See H. Mis. Doc. 47, second session Thirty-fifth Congress, pages 41-42.)
    A few days after Captain Wright's company had left Yreka, another company was organized, and left for the same destination, under the command of Captain Charles McDermitt, who was then sheriff of Siskiyou County (California), in which Yreka is situated; and about the same time a company from Jacksonville (Oregon), went out on the same service, under command of Colonel John E. Ross, and these volunteer forces were soon after followed by Major Fitzgerald, United States army, with a small detachment of dragoons. With all these forces in the field, the Indians were kept from the road, and were unable to commit any more depredations upon the immigration of that season. Twenty-two bodies were found by Captain Wright's company, and fourteen by the company from Jacksonville. Three others were found by other parties, making the total number of persons actually ascertained to have been killed, thirty-nine, as I have stated.
    In order to become fully assured that the last of the immigration had passed the most dangerous portions of the road, the force of Captain Wright remained upon the trail some days after the other companies had retired from the field. The Indians, now that there was little hope of more immigrants to murder and plunder, turned their attention to the few volunteers left, hardly thirty men, rank and file, and by double-dealing and treachery attempted to cut them off. By means of a squaw, they expressed a desire to make a treaty. Captain Wright, though having no confidence whatever in their professions, informed them that he was ready to hear what they had to say at any time. Accordingly, they appointed the next morning as the time for a talk, and at the same time requested that some fifty or more of them, who were to take part in the proceedings of the next day, should come into camp and remain overnight. This request, too, was granted. Unbeknown to the Indians, however, they were closely watched during the night, and there was no time that their intended victims were not ready for immediate action; that they meditated an attack in the morning when the time arrived for the proposed talk appeared evident before they had long been in camp, and by morning, Wright, who understood something of their language, knew all their plans, and had arranged his own accordingly. I need not enter into detail in alluding to this affair, but suffice it to say, the ''biters were bitten;" hence, the wails of a few pseudo-philanthropists and demagogues who pervert the truth respecting this matter, and then use their perversions to the disparagement of volunteer service subsequently rendered against the same enemy.
    Colonel Ross expended nearly one thousand dollars in this campaign, and the members of his company also contributed freely of their means, and neither he nor they have ever asked for, or received, one dime in payment, either for such expenditures or for services rendered. Captain Steele, also, who, as I have shown, ventured very material aid in suppressing the outbreak in Rogue River Valley, expended between $2,000 and $3,000 in that service, which has never been refunded to him from any source, nor have his services been paid. I cite these as instances in which "the plunder of the Indians and the federal treasury" has not been the object of "Oregon volunteers," and others of that vicinity, Oregon officials and other public functionaries to the contrary notwithstanding. It is, indeed, susceptible of the clearest proofs that, in no case, have Oregon volunteers been actuated by any such motives.
    Fort Jones was established by Major Fitzgerald after his return from this campaign; but as it was seldom garrisoned by more troops than necessary to hold possession, it was never of much utility.

    The principals in the Galice Creek massacre were the chief "Taylor" and his tribe (Rogue Rivers), with a few individuals from other tribes in that immediate vicinity. The victims were miners. Nothing was known of the fate of these men until some weeks after the murder, when "Taylor," and others of his tribe, visited Vannoy's ferry for the purpose of trading; and exhibiting more gold dust than it was customary for any Indians to have at one time, they were suspicioned of having obtained it by foul means. They were questioned then as to the whereabout of these men. They stated in reply that the party had been washed off from an island on which they were encamped by high water, and all drowned. A further investigation led to the discovery that every one of this party had been murdered by "Taylor" and his band. "Taylor" and some of his headmen were then arrested by the citizens of the neighborhood; and there being no courts yet established in that part of the Territory, they were brought before a citizens' jury, where they were tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hung. Finding that this decree was about to be executed, and seeing no possible chance to escape, they related the particulars of the affair themselves, and boasted of the part they had taken in it. They gave a minute account of the manner in which they tortured their victims after they had disabled them, stabbing them in numerous places with knives, as they said, "just to see 'em jump." Of course, they did not plead justification; but, strange as it may seem, their white apologists now make this plea for them.

    Owing to the prompt chastisement inflicted upon "Taylor " and his band, Indian murders in the Rogue River country were less frequent during the early part of 1853, and the Indians generally were more profuse than usual in their professions of friendship. These professions, however, proved only a blind under which these same Indians matured plans for a renewal of hostilities on a larger scale. By resorting to this ruse, the Indians of Rogue River were enabled to augment their strength, unobserved by the whites, by the accession of warriors from the surrounding tribes; and, in the meantime, being allowed to visit the premises of the settlers when so disposed, they managed to steal a considerable number of guns, revolvers, &c., with more or less ammunition. The rubbish thrown into the streets they examined closely, and anything they found in the shape of lead, or other metal that they could mold into bullets, they carried away. These signs, to the few settlers in that region who knew much of Indian character, foreshadowed evil; but the greater portion of the citizens there still placed the utmost reliance in the fair professions of the Indians; and it was not until Edwards, Wills, Nolan, and others had been murdered, and the Indians had appeared in force at Table Rock again, and declared for war, that they became aware of the danger with which they were threatened. There was then no time to parley, and volunteer companies were organized forthwith, and so disposed as to hold the enemy in check until the aid of the regular troops at Fort Jones could be invoked, for which purpose messengers were immediately dispatched to that post. The messengers reached Fort Jones at noon, August 8th, and six hours after Captain B. R. Alden, Fourth United States Infantry, with a detachment of about twenty men--all his available force--was on the march for the scene of difficulty, where he arrived on the 10th.
    Meanwhile, the danger becoming more and more imminent, and it being ascertained that not more than a half score or so of regular troops could possibly be brought into the field for weeks to come, if at all, additional volunteer companies were enrolled, and the term of service of all made "for during the war, unless sooner discharged." Such of the volunteer companies as were organized when Captain Alden arrived placed themselves at the disposal of that officer, and, at his suggestion, were by him formally received into the United States service. Other companies were afterwards raised and received into the service in the like manner. What transpired subsequently, in the field, is principally of record, and need not be repeated here. For those to ponder, however, who seek to disparage the service rendered on this occasion by volunteers, and who so grossly misrepresent and distort the object of the war, I append the list of killed and wounded, which I believe has never been published.
William B. Rose, on detached service, August 10.
Frank Garnett, in affair of Lieutenant Griffin, on Applegate Creek, August 10.
Thomas Phillips, in affair on Applegate Creek, September 14.
First Lieutenant Simeon Ely, in his affair on Battle Creek, August 17.
George W. Anderson, in affair of Lieutenant Griffin, August 10.

William Duke,	]	In affair of Captain Miller, on the Southern Oregon
Joseph Watt,	]	Emigrant road, October 4.

John R. Hardin, mortally, August 10; died August 14.
John W. Hillman, by accidental discharge of gun, August 19.
Isaac Adams, by accidental discharge of gun, August 19.
Zebulon Sheets, in affair of Lieut. Ely, Battle Creek, August 17.
John Alban, in affair of Lieut. Ely, Battle Creek, August 17.
James Carrol, in affair of Lieut. Ely, Battle Creek, August 17.
Henry Flesher, in affair on Evans' Creek, August 24.
C. C. Abbott, mortally (died September 2), in affair on Evans' Creek, August 24.
Thomas Hays, in affair on Evans' Creek, August 24.
    Total killed and died of wounds received during the war, fifteen--including Captain Alden, who died of his wounds in 1855. Wounded, thirteen; of whom Lieutenant Ely, Anderson, Carrol, and Hillman were disabled for life. Total killed and wounded, twenty-eight.
    From the foregoing it would seem that, if the early settlers of Rogue River Valley were the "unprincipled and ungovernable wretches" they  are represented to have been--"far deeper down in the scale of human degradation than any Rogue River Indian was ever known to be," and that they provoked and instigated this war from mercenary motives, as is alleged (House Doc. 114, 2nd session 35th Congress, pages 40-43), they paid dearly for it; and it must appear surpassing strange that they should "originate" another war, so soon after as 1855, with these same Indians. These allegations and innuendos, however, to which I have alluded, both as regards the character of the difficulties of that region, are without the least resemblance of truth, and can never be sustained under oath, either in whole or in part, without subjecting the affiant to the pains and penalties of perjury. But something more of this hereafter.
    The last engagement with the Indians in this war occurred on the 24th day of August, and on the 10th of September a treaty was signed, the terms of which are well known. The Indians were well satisfied with the sale of their lands, and with the country set apart for their exclusive occupation; which, indeed, was of their own choosing, and included much of their best hunting grounds, and, what was of infinitely greater value to them, all their old fisheries. But the spirit of war was still rife in the minds of the young warriors, and the older ones, including most of the chiefs, encouraged it. But one chief only would bide the stipulations of the treaty with regard to the surrender of criminals to be tried by law, and he, for aiding in the capture of a fugitive, was killed by Indians who were bent on a renewal of hostilities whatever the consequence might be. It was in the indulgence of this passion for war that they murdered Mr. Kyle (October 6) in less than one month after the treaty had been signed. This murder was committed, it will be remembered, within about two miles of Fort Lane. In justice to the troops, however, then stationed at that post, it must be said that it was mainly through their exertions that the principal in the murder of Kyle, and the two alleged by the Indians to have been the principals in the murder of Edwards (August 4) and Wills (August 5), were arrested, and finally brought to punishment. It was for aiding in the arrest of these criminals that the chief "Jim," whom I have mentioned as being willing to fulfill his treaty obligations, was killed.
    The murder of Kyle gave a fresh impulse to the war spirit that was then pretty generally prevailing among the Indians, and for awhile it seemed very apparent that open warfare would be immediately resumed. But the action of the military just mentioned seemed not to have been anticipated by the Indians who had been taught to regard the regular troops as their especial friends and allies, and served for the moment to disconcert their schemes, and finally to remove their field of operations to a more respectful distance from the military posts. Accordingly, such as were to continue in the actual commission of depredations--and these included the chiefs John, George, and Limpy, who were parties to the treaty just signed, and Tipsy Tyee, who promised at its signing to conform to its requirements--selected the Siskiyou Mountains, towards Yreka, and other mountainous localities towards Crescent City for the scenes of their perfidious and bloody operations in the future. Such as remained upon the reserve in compliance with the treaty were under the immediate control of "Sam," the principal chief of the tribes of Rogue River Valley, who succeeded in establishing the most friendly relations with the military and the Indian departments, and at the same time converted the reservation into a rendezvous, as well as a retreat, for the Indians who were actively engaged in depredating upon the lives and property of the whites, receiving a full share of the plunder thus obtained. Thousands of dollars' worth of property--mostly stock and provisions--were thus lost to the settlers residing even in the immediate vicinity of the reserve, where it was supposed order could be maintained very conveniently by the troops at Fort Lane, for which not one dime has ever been paid by way of remuneration. In connection with the Modoc and Shasta Indians these depredations were continued across the Siskiyou Mountains into the settlements of Cottonwood and of Shasta Valley, and so seriously was life and property jeopardized in that region, especially in the district of Cottonwood, that Captain Alden, still commanding at Fort Jones, placed in the hands of the settlers there all the muskets he could possibly spare from his post in order that they might be the better enabled to defend themselves whenever necessary. That this precaution on the part of Captain Alden was imperatively demanded by the exigencies of the times appears very evident from the murders committed in that vicinity by the Indians in January, 1854, saying nothing of the depredations upon property, which were then of almost daily occurrence, and continued to be so long afterwards.

    The killing of Gibbs, Hudgins, Whittier, and others (August 17), though occurring after hostilities in Rogue River Valley had become general, was nevertheless an outright murder, because it was committed by a tribe of Indians who were professedly friendly, and were, at the time, being wholly subsisted at the private expense of Mr. Gibbs and some of his neighbors, and provided with comfortable quarters within a stockade which the settlers of the vicinity had built for their mutual protection. The Indians being thus comfortably situated were enabled to choose their own time and mode of attack, an advantage they soon availed themselves of by murdering their immediate benefactor, and four other persons who had just arrived overland from the East, and had stopped at this place to remain a few days to avoid the dangers of the war that was raging further on. Mr. Gibbs was shot with his own rifle by an Indian whom he had often employed, oftener fed, and sometimes clothed gratuitously, and in whom he had the utmost confidence. Several persons were wounded at this time, some of them severely, and a considerable amount of property belonging to Mr. Dunn, on whose premises the stockade was built, and to other parties, destroyed. No loss whatever occurred on the part of the Indians.

    The murder of Hulen, Clark, Oldfield, and Mayden (in January) was no new demonstration of hostility on the part of the Indians, but a continuation of that kind of warfare which they had resumed after the close of the Rogue River war of 1853, and the military at Fort Lane had manifested a disposition to compel them to observe their treaty stipulations by taking part in the arrest and trial of the murderers of Edwards, Wills, and Kyle. Hulen and his companions, as will be seen by referring to the list, were killed while in pursuit of stock which the Indians had stolen and driven to the mountains. The troops at Fort Lane interfered with the Indians in this instance only to the extent of marching to the cave (about twenty-five miles distant), into which the Indians had retired alter accomplishing their bloody work, firing two shots from a howitzer, which served only to frighten the Indians into making another promise to behave better in future, and here the matter was dropped and the troops marched back again to Fort Lane, having accomplished simply--nothing. It was to the neighborhood in which Hulen and other victims lived that Captain Alden disbursed the arms, as before mentioned--a precaution that proved to be taken none too soon, and with good cause.
    The Indians now being assured by what had just transpired that they could settle all difficulties with the military and Indian departments by falsely accusing the whites of being "the first aggressors," and by renewing their old promise of better conduct in future, began again to prepare themselves for more extended operations. The better to conceal their intentions, however, they affected to entertain the kindliest feelings towards the whites, alleging on every convenient occasion, that they were desirous that peace and confidence should be fully restored, and that it should become permanent. But in the meantime they were very assiduous in their efforts to procure arms and ammunition, to obtain which they scrupled at nothing. It was for this purpose that they murdered Phillips (April 15), and Gage (June 15), securing in both instances that which they so much coveted.
    About the time of the murder of Gage nearly all the tribes of Southern Oregon and of Northern California met in council at a place on Klamath River, about sixteen miles from Fort Jones, and, perhaps, forty miles from Fort Lane. This council was convened clandestinely and on purpose to arrange a programme for the prosecution of the war then in contemplation. And, but for the influence exercised over the Scotts Valley Indians by E. Steele, Esq., whom I have mentioned as having acted a prominent part in suppressing Indian hostilities in 1852, the fact that this council convened at all would, probably, never have been known to the whites--at any rate, not until after its plans had fully matured and were being put in execution. The fact that this council was to convene was first made known to Mr. Steele, who immediately communicated it to Judge A. M. Rosborough, then an Indian agent for Northern California. Agent Rosborough took prompt cognizance of the matter, and ascertained precisely what the object of the council was. He says (H. Mis. Doc. No. 47, Thirty-fifth Congress, second Session) "In June, 1854, I was informed by several chiefs of the Scotts and Shasta Valley tribes that runners had been sent to their tribes to summon them to a general war council to be held at a point on the Klamath called Horse Creek. I consulted with Lieutenant J. C. Bonnycastle, United States army, then stationed at Fort Jones. He and myself concurred in the propriety of advising the chiefs who had reported the movement to attend the war council and report to us the whole proceedings.
    "The chiefs returned from the council and reported the tribes of Illinois River, Rogue River, and the Upper Klamath River, and its tributaries represented in the council, and all but themselves (the chiefs who had reported the movement to me) were for combining, and commencing in concert an indiscriminate slaughter of the whites.
    "The Upper Klamath or Klamath Lake Indians (with the exception of the tribe of which Lalakes is chief) commenced their depredations by killing whites and stealing stock, and a report was current among the friendly Indians that those hostiles intended to destroy the immigrants as fast as they came from the valley of the Humboldt."
    To frustrate the plans of the Indians with regard to the immigration, Governor Davis, of Oregon, in the absence of any action by United States troops, caused a company of volunteers to be enrolled at Jacksonville and dispatched with all possible haste to the scene of danger in the Klamath Lake country. Just in advance of this company on its march into the hostile country were a few citizens from Yreka, who were going to meet some friends and warn them of the impending danger. But on their arrival at the place where the massacre of August, 1852, took place, they found the Indians in force along both sides of the road, well prepared, and evidently with the intent to resume their bloody work of former years upon the first of the immigration that should come within their reach. After some skirmishing they fell back to the Oregon company, which they joined, and thus accomplished the purpose for which they set out. The company remained m the field for some three months, and the good that it accomplished can never be computed except by those on whose behalf it was rendered. Every individual of that year's immigration that passed the Humboldt for Yreka or Jacksonville were guarded through the hostile country, and, so far as injuries by Indians were concerned, either in person or property, reached their destination unarmed. As in all other instances, however, where volunteers have been called into the field in Oregon, the motive which actuated and sustained this service has been grossly misrepresented; by those, too, who should have removed the necessity for its rendition. This being the case, a word in its vindication may not be out of place here. I quote from the reports of officers of the Indian Department, who, be it observed, seldom acknowledge the justness or necessity of any volunteer service ever rendered in the suppression of the Indian wars and difficulties, of which Oregon has been so prolific. General Palmer, in 1854, while Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, reports officially respecting the hostile disposition of the Modocs and Piutes, against whom this expedition was sent, as follows: They "have always evinced a deadly hostility to the whites, and have probably committed more outrages than any other interior tribe. The Modocs boast, the Klamaths told me, of having, within the last four years, murdered thirty-six whites." In a subsequent communication, not official (see House Mis. Doc. No. 47, Thirty-fifth Congress, second session), he says: "That portion of the southern emigrant road between the headwaters of Humboldt River to the crossing of the Siskiyou Mountains has ever been infested by Indians who seldom allow an opportunity to pass without stealing, plundering, and murdering emigrants, if they had the power to do so." Respecting the service of the volunteers, he adds: "In August, 1854, I visited the Indians inhabiting the country about Klamath Lake. That visit, and the presents distributed, the sending messengers to the Modocs, Mo-e-twas (Piutes), and Shoshones, together with the presence of a mounted  and well-armed volunteer force in their country, contributed to restrain those lawless bands from committing their usual depredations.
    "Previous to my expedition to the Klamath country, I had expected that a detachment of United States dragoons would be directed to scour the country between Fort Lane and Fort Boise, on Snake River, crossing the mountains on the emigrant road (the southern) and passing through the country of the Modocs and Shoshones, but from some cause this was not done. * * *
    "There can be no doubt but that the presence of the volunteer force * * * tended materially to render a safe conduct of the emigrants through the country occupied by these lawless tribes in 1854."
    Mr. Palmer visited only the tribe of Lalakes, whom Agent Rosborough represents, and doubtless correctly, as being friendly. Without an escort similar to the one he anticipated, which he mentions, it would have been the height of folly for him to have attempted to visit the hostile tribes, whom the volunteers were sent to hold in check until the immigration should pass them. Mr. Palmer was fully aware of this, and, prior to his setting out for the Klamath country, wrote to Mr. Culver, the agent for the Table Rock reserve Indians, and residing at Fort Lane, that he should anticipate the arrival in that country of troops from that post about the time he should reach it. Mr. Culver replied that no troops would be sent into that country from Fort Lane, but that "fortunately a company of volunteers had been sent out by the Governor, which would doubtless answer the desired purpose." I quote Mr. Culver from memory, as this correspondence does not appear in the regular report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. It may be found, however, on the files of the Commissioner's office. Thus it is evident that Mr. Culver, at the very time this volunteer service was called into requisition, considered it necessary, even for the protection and safety of the highest functionary of the Indian Department in Oregon, whose errand among the Indians was one exclusively of peace, or, in other words, to purchase their friendship for a valuable consideration in such goods as they most desired, and had previously obtained only by murdering and plundering the whites. Mr. Culver's report is entitled to much weight, because his location was such that it enabled him to know of his own knowledge whereof he states. His testimony, too, with regard to the disposition of the Indians at this time, in and around Rogue River Valley, is corroborative of what I have before stated. He says, in his report of July 20 (see Report Commissioner of Indian Affairs, page 296:) "It was, and is now, a general belief among the settlers in the valley that a war with the Indians here this summer is inevitable, and on two or three occasions it appeared as though such a calamity was indeed near at hand. But, by prompt attention, aided by the generous forbearance of our citizens," &c., "peace has, so far, been preserved." This peace was pretty generally observed in Rogue River Valley during the remainder of the year, but only because the proceedings of the council on the Klamath had been discovered. After the Indians became aware that their plans were known to the whites, and that the service of volunteers was again called into requisition to thwart their purposes with regard to the immigration on the Southern Oregon road, those of Rogue River Valley and the immediate vicinity ceased their depredations upon the lives and property of the settlers, in a great degree, and quietly resumed the garb of friendship, which, as a general rule, they retained until the following spring. But while this was the happy result of the precautionary measures adopted by Governor Davis, with regard to the safety of the immigration via the Southern Oregon route, unfortunately no such measures were taken for the safety of that upon the northern route, and the consequences, as will be seen, were widely different.

    The murder of some twenty-two persons (August 19 and 20) on the Northern Oregon emigrant route, near Fort Boise, was the direct result of an overweening confidence in the Indians on the part of the military and Indian departments, and participated in, perhaps, to some extent, by the Oregon public. If the military stationed in the northern part of Oregon had gone out upon the road, instead of remaining in quarters during the summer, and warned the immigration against the perfidy and treachery of the Indians, and afforded such protection as the exigencies of the case demanded, or had volunteers been appointed to this service, as upon the southern route, the victims of the Ward massacre, at least (seventeen in number), would doubtless have been saved. But, as the fact that this massacre occurred is generally admitted, I will confine my remarks respecting it to some of its details, just to show some of the gross inconsistencies--to call them by a mild name--of the demagogues and pseudo-philanthropists who seek to disguise the real Oregon Indian by representing him as possessing such ennobling traits of character as are seldom found within the realms of civilization. I quote from a statement made to an Oregon newspaper (The Oregonian) by a gentleman who was one of a party of citizens that went to the scene of the massacre a day or two after it was committed, to rescue, if possible, any persons who might be found alive. On arriving at the place where the attack was made, they found the body of Mr. Ward and five others, and, within a short distance, the body of Mr. Ames. Proceeding along the trail the Indians had taken, about two hundred yards from where the first bodies were found, the body of Miss Ward was discovered. The correspondent says:
    "She had been shot through the head with a musket. Her person was much bruised, her hands showing signs of her having fought most desperately to resist the fiendish attacks of these savages upon her youthful person. The marks of teeth were plainly visible upon her left cheek. A hot iron had been thrust into her private parts, doubtless while she was alive, to punish her for her resistance and their (the Indians) being unable to accomplish their hellish ends upon one so young. * * *
    "The body of Mrs. White was found, stripped of its clothing. She had been scalped, her head beat in with clubs, and a musket ball had passed through it. Her person showed signs of the most brutal violence. * * *
    "Here the body of Mrs. Ward and three children were found. That of Mrs. Ward was lying in the encampment (just deserted), in front of the fire. It was robbed of all its covering and was much scarred by brutish bruises. Her face bore a deep wound, inflicted with a tomahawk, which probably caused her death. They had also violated her person; and what rendered the sight still more shocking, she was soon to have become a mother again. The children were lying on the fire, having been held there by the hair of their heads until burned to death, and the mother doubtless compelled to witness the scene. Several parts of limbs were picked up some distance from the fire, having been dragged away by the wolves or the Indians' dogs."
    This, and other cases cited, I think, is sufficient evidence that it is with the real, and not the imaginative or poetic Indian that the people of Oregon have had to deal. The author of the foregoing statement has for several years held a prominent position in one of the departments of the regular service in Oregon, and is a man of well-known integrity. His statement is corroborated, too, by Agent R. R. Thompson. (See report Com. Indian Affairs, 1854, page 278.)

    The timely discovery, in June, 1854, that the Indians of Southern Oregon and Northern California, in a council convened for the purpose, had formally declared a war of extermination against the whites of that region, and the precaution that followed on the part of the latter caused the tribes of Rogue River Valley and vicinity to delay, for the time, the execution of their part of the programme which the council had adopted. But in the meantime a more extensive combination was effected, including, it is believed, nearly all the tribes of Oregon and Washington, and Northern California. During the progress of these arrangements, comparatively few depredations were committed by the Southern Oregon tribes or their immediate neighbors. But as soon as spring set in, the more impatient among them resumed their depredations upon property, and occasionally upon life. As early as June, however, these depredations, both upon life and property, became more frequent, and were participated in by nearly all the tribes in the vicinity, those upon reservations as well as those who were not. The murder of Dyer, McKew, and Philpot (June 1, 2) was perpetrated by a party or tribe of Indians from Table Rock reserve, and within a very few miles of Fort Lane. Troops from that post went in pursuit of the murderers on this occasion, but being unable to capture them, a company of volunteers, under command of Captain Fry, and neighbors to the murdered men, started upon their trail, and soon compelled them to flee to the regulars as a means of safety. The volunteers then returned home, and the Indians were escorted back to the reserve by the troops, where, after receiving a slight reprimand from the officers in charge, they were allowed to depart again whithersoever they would, with no restraint upon them whatever.
    The murder of eleven men, July 28, on Klamath River, was also participated in by.the Indians of Table Rock reservation, to which they were traced by volunteers, enlisted for the purpose, in the vicinity of where the outrage was committed. Property was found among these Indians which belonged to their victims, and was surrendered to the volunteers through and by the advice of the military and Indian officers at the reserve; but the murderers were not surrendered, even upon an executive requisition. Two only were ever surrendered for trial, and these not until after the war, which soon followed, had commenced. Nor did the depredations of the Indians cease with the murders just cited, but, on the contrary, they became more frequent, and were committed in a more defiant and daring manner. The murder of Keene, Fields, Cunningham, and Warner soon followed, though with regard to these cases the proof is not positive against the reserve Indians--that is, it is not positively evident that they were interested in them as principals, but there can be no doubt that they were accessories after the fact, if not before, as the trail of the murderers was traced to an encampment of reserve Indians, who had gone outside their reserve limits in defiance of the proper authority, and had insolently and positively refused to return. That the reserve Indians were engaged in the massacre of October 9, near Evans' ferry, is generally admitted, even by those who apologize for the act. 
    The massacre near Evans' ferry (Rogue River), October 9, was a premeditated affair, whatever has or may be said to the contrary notwithstanding, and instigated chiefly by the Indians of Table Rock reserve, by whom it was consummated with the aid of Indians from the Umpqua and others that were not in annuity with the United States. All the chiefs (except "Sam"), with their respective tribes, were absent from the Table Rock reserve at this time, and had been off and on, at will, for a long time previous. "Sam'' remained upon the reserve even after the war that followed this massacre had become general--not, however, because he was averse to it; but to play the spy upon the regular troops, into whose confidence he had succeeded in ingratiating himself to the fullest extent, and to direct the movements of those tribes who were openly prosecuting the war accordingly. As I have already indicated, the military and Indian departments had ceased some time previous to have any controlling influence over these reserve Indians, or any others, and so far as either of these departments were concerned, the Indians were the absolute masters of the country--going when and where they pleased, murdering and plundering whom they pleased, and returning to claim and receive the protection of the authorities they had set at defiance, whenever necessitated to do so by the citizens, whom they had outraged beyond further endurance. That this was emphatically the case, is proved beyond all question, I think, by the facts I have adduced respecting the murders and other depredations these reserve Indians had previously committed, for which no punishment was inflicted, and no guarantee taken that such atrocities should not be continued. At different times and places during the four and a half months immediately preceding this massacre, be it observed, these Indians had murdered in cold blood not less than nineteen unsuspecting citizens, wounded many more, and destroyed a no small amount of property. Yet they were represented as perfectly harmless and peaceable by those having them or who should have had them in charge, and no means were taken to prevent the continuance of the atrocities just cited, on whose authors, except in the case of two who participated in the massacre on Klamath River, July 28, no punishment was ever inflicted. But to the massacre under consideration.
    For several weeks prior to the 9th of October, such of the reserve Indians and others as were afterwards found to have been designated to commence the general slaughter of the settlers in and around Rogue River Valley, were in the habit of holding nightly powwows in different parts of the country--off the reserve, of course--and generally in pretty close proximity to the settlements; so near as to be distinctly heard, and to create misgivings as to their meaning. Very frequently, too, parties of them would visit the settlers in the daytime, and very often painted and otherwise decorated in their customary war style. But when interrogated as to the meaning of these warlike demonstrations, they invariably replied that they were merely on a hunting excursion, and that their powwows were simply meetings for the purpose of gambling. These representations seemed not altogether out of character, and for the time served to allay the suspicions of the settlers. But it soon became evident that the number of the Indians was increasing at such a rate as would soon place the destruction of the settlements in their power, if such was their design. Their meetings, too, became more boisterous as they grew larger, and the parties visiting the whites became more insolent and overbearing, and wore a more warlike appearance. Such was the state of things on the morning of the 9th of October, and such had been the state of things for some time previous in the very neighborhood in which the massacre took place.
    In the execution of their bloody work, the Indians divided their force into several parties and made their attack at different points in the neighborhood almost simultaneous. The chiefs, "George'' and "Limpy," commanded in person along the road; but the leadership of the several parties designated to murder the families were delegated to such warriors as had either been in the employ of, or had been suffered to loiter about the premises of their intended victims until they had learned where and how to deal the surest and most fatal blow. Those who were foremost in the attack at Wagoner's, Jones', Haines', Harris', and so on, were well known to those families, had been in their service from time to time, and had often received favors and kindness from them when out of it. In the attack upon Jones' house, he was killed at the onset, and Mrs. Jones mortally wounded, though not utterly disabled for the moment. Seeing her husband dying, and the Indians cutting him in pieces, she fled towards some brush which was near by, whither she was immediately followed by an Indian who had been in the employ of her husband, and in whom she had placed the greatest confidence. Seeing none but this Indian following her, and thinking that perhaps he might still be her friend she awaited his approach, and then implored his protection. His reply was, "You damned b--h, I'll kill you," and thereupon fired at her with his revolver. The shot took effect only in her arm, but she fell as if dead; and he, supposing his shot had been fatal, left her and returned to his companions. Mrs. Jones escaped to Vannoy's ferry, where she died the next day. At Wagoner's, no one escaped to tell the particulars of the attack there; but the Indians themselves, even now, boast of the affair, and do not hesitate to say who were engaged in it. Their story of the matter does not conflict with what I have stated. They state, also, the manner in which they accomplished their purpose. It seems that the house was first set on fire, and Mrs. Wagoner and her daughter were then compelled to remain in it until burned to death. Their nearly consumed remains were found in the smoldering ruins of the house on the following day. The Indians were equally successful at Haines'. At Harris', however, they were suspected before they could get possession of the house, and consequently their work was less complete. Finding themselves suspicioned, they commenced the attack somewhat prematurely, and consequently succeeded in killing only three of the five they intended. Mr. Harris received a fatal wound at the first fire; but falling partially into the house, his wife and daughter, the latter severely wounded, succeeded in drawing him inside and barring the door so effectually as to keep the Indians without. While dying, Mr. Harris instructed his wife how to load and use the rifle, and bade her defend herself to the last; an order that she most heroically obeyed. For nearly twenty-four hours she defended herself against the besiegers, and was then rescued by some volunteers from Jacksonville. Master Harris and Mr. Reed were in a field close by when the attack was made, and both fell a prey to the enemy. The other victims of this massacre were mostly travelers, some of whom belonged in the Willamette Valley. Mr. Gwin was an employee of the Table Rock agency, and was killed on the reserve.
    There were circumstances preceding this massacre, and intimately connected with it, which I think it highly important that they should be understood. The people of the vicinity, in which this lamentable affair occurred, had been repeatedly warned by their friends, who resided in nearer proximity to Fort Lane and Table Rock agency, of the overt acts and the general insubordination of the reserve Indians, and the utter inability of the Indian and military authorities to restrain or control them; and that, as a consequence, a war must soon ensue. But these wholesome warnings were, in every instance, counteracted by the officials in charge at the reserve, and by politicians who sought to gain an advantage over their opponents in Southern Oregon by charging them with inciting the Indians to acts of hostility "in order to create opportunities to plunder the public treasury." Though, as the list shows, the Indians had recently committed numerous murders and other aggressions union the citizens of Southern Oregon and Northern California, and had been permitted to repeat them at will, so far as any authority of the general government was concerned, yet these politicians, orally, and through the medium of a licentious press, continued to assure the public that the Indians meditated no harm, and, at the same time, alleging that the murders, &c., that the Indians had already committed were instigated by certain white men having "plunder for their object." And officers, of both the Indian and military departments, who had been grossly derelict and had otherwise erred in the performance of their duty in the premises, found the reproduction and repetition of these false accusations very convenient to shield their derelictions and incompetency from public scrutiny.
    Mrs. Wagoner, one of the victims of the massacre, had been warned of the hostile attitude of the reserve Indians by her friends at Jacksonville, where she was visiting on the 7th (two days before her death), and where she was urged to remain until the Indians should return to the reserve, or means be taken to guard the settlements against them. She decided to go home, however, and accordingly on the morning of the 8th set out on her journey, calling at Fort Lane on her way to inquire whether, indeed, any cause existed for the apprehensions her friends had expressed, and receiving the customary assurance from the commanding officer at that post that such apprehensions were utterly groundless. Here, too, she was joined by two of the politicians I have already alluded to, who were journeying her way and accompanied her home, where they remained overnight. On reaching home, Mrs. Wagoner informed her husband of what she had been told, and stated it as her opinion that matters were much worse than the officers at the fort, and the gentlemen who came with her, would acknowledge. He then sought his guests, of whom he made inquiry respecting these matters himself, and received substantially the same answers that had been given to his wife. They represented the Indians at the agency as being perfectly quiet, when they knew that the opposite was the case, and that for weeks the Indians there had set all authority at defiance, and had murdered citizens with perfect impunity. They took this occasion also to repeat certain calumnies which they, in connection with others, had devised and promulgated against a few political offenders residing at Jacksonville, which were to the effect that these individuals were trying to incite Indian hostilities so as to gain an "opportunity to plunder the public treasury." The object of these calumnies was to bring reproach upon the parties accused by creating the public impression that they were the cause of the murders and depredations the Indians had already committed, and should be held accountable if worse results followed. In the morning Mr. Wagoner's guests departed for their homes just in time to escape the fate that on that day befell their hostess and her daughter, and all other persons in that immediate vicinity. Mr. Wagoner, from whom I received these statements, happened to be absent from his house when the Indians made the attack and therefore escaped. His first knowledge of the affair was, when, on his return to within sight of his premises, he found his house in flames and surrounded by the Indians.
    As the list of murders indicates, the treaty of September 10, 1853 with the Rogue River Indians, and the establishment of Fort Lane at that time, afforded no protection to the citizens of that region, no barrier whatever against Indian murders and depredations, which the legitimate authorities permitted to increase unatoned, until forbearance on the part of the whites could no longer be exercised without involving the loss of many lives and the total destruction of all the settlements in the Rogue River country. During the period that intervened between the close of the war with those Indians in 1853, to the open declaration of war by the same Indians in October, 1855, the people of Rogue River Valley did not molest nor interfere with them in any manner whatever, but left their management and all dealings with them wholly and exclusively to the military and Indian Department. Yet, as the list proves, the adoption of this policy served only to increase the difficulty, since Indian murders and depredations became more and more frequent, those departments proving utterly incapable of suppressing them or of bringing their perpetrators to justice. The murder of Dyer and McKew, June 1; Philpot, June 2; Peters, July 27; Hennessey, Parrish, and the nine others, July 28; Keene, September 2; Field and Cunningham, September 24, and Warner the next day; all occurring within four and a half mouths prior to the massacre of October 9, saying nothing of those committed previous to June 1, were left to be atoned for to the military and Indian authorities; but I believe that in no instance were the Indians punished for any of these offenses, or any restraint whatever put upon them. After the killing of the three first named, a detachment of regular troops belonging to Fort Lane went in pursuit of the Indians, and, after having secured them, through the efforts of citizens, however, whom the Indians had marked for their prey, let them go again without holding them to any account, or placing them under any restraint whatever. In the case of Peters, Hennessey, Parrish, &c., volunteers were raised in the neighborhood where the massacre occurred, who traced the Indians directly to Table Rock reserve, where they found property which had belonged to their murdered friends. Such of this property as could be identified was surrendered to the friends of the victims through the instrumentality of the Indian agent and the officer in charge at Fort Jones. But as to the offenders, if they were demanded at this time to be given up, by other than the volunteers, the demand was totally disregarded then, as afterwards. Two only of these Indians, out of, probably, twenty-five or thirty, directly engaged in the massacre, having for their accessories every Indian upon the reservation, were ever surrendered for trial by law; and these, not because of the justness of the demand, but to keep up a show of friendship until the plans for a general war then in contemplation should be more fully matured. Upon the promise of the authorities at the reservation that the Indians should be justly dealt with for this offense, the volunteers returned home. This promise, however, was never fulfilled. But it is due to the officer in command at Fort Lane to state that it was currently reported that he attempted to fulfill his part of the promise by trying, some weeks after the massacre took place, to arrest those who were actually engaged in it, but was forced to desist by the whole body of the reserve Indians appearing in arms against him and forcing him to retire to his post; leaving them masters of the field and exceedingly jubilant over their victory. In the case of Keene, a detachment of troops from Fort Lane reached the scene of the murder, about twenty miles distant, on the third day after it had been committed, but did not pursue the Indians. In the case of Field, Cunningham, and Warner, however, I am glad to say, there was a commendable effort made by Major Fitzgerald, United States army, who had just then arrived at Fort Lane with his troop, to trace up the murderers; and, in so doing, very gladly accepted the service of citizens, who acted as guides. The Indians, however, had too great a start to be overtaken, but were traced to within a short distance of the camp of the Butte Creeks, who, some time before, had left the reserve in defiance of the proper authority, and now, as they had repeatedly done, refused to return, and dared the Indian agent to make the attempt to compel them. He, however, made no effort to enforce his authority, either with regard to this particular tribe, or those others who had left the reserve with the same hostile intentions, and were already menacing the settlements of Illinois Valley and its tributaries, Applegate and Deer creeks, as well as those which came to be the scene of the massacre of October 9.
    From early in the previous spring up to the very moment of the outbreak in October, the Indians had been under very little restraint from either the Indian or military departments, and on this account had been active in making preparations again to carry out the programme arranged by the Klamath council in June, 1854. It was to this end that they left the reservation (all except the chief Sam and his tribe), and took up positions at different points in and around Rogue River Valley, that, in a warlike view, possessed the greatest advantages. The chief "John," with his tribe, took to the mountains between Rogue River and Illinois Valleys, where he could have easy access to both, as well as the settlements on Applegate and Deer creeks. "George" and "Limpy" took stations further down Rogue River, and in close proximity to the settlements which became the scene of their bloody operations of October 9. The Butte Creeks, in conjunction with the Modocs, occupied the country along the eastern limits of Rogue River Valley from the reservation southerly to and across the Siskiyou Mountains, thus completing a cordon of outposts around Rogue River Valley and the settlements of Applegate and Deer creeks, and partially around those of Illinois River. Some of these positions the Indians had occupied for weeks, and some, indeed, for months, prior to the 1st of October, though generally not by so large a number as at that date. These things were fully known to the military at Fort Lane, as well as to the Agent Ambrose; but yet they continued to assure the public that no danger need be apprehended.
    From the time that Major Fitzgerald traced the murderers of Field, Cunningham, and Warner, to or very near the camp of the Butte Creeks, when the purpose of the Indians that were in a state of insubordination to the regular constituted authority became too apparent to be misunderstood, a company of volunteers acted as a safeguard for the Butte Creek settlement, and for the settlements of Upper Rogue River Valley, which contained not only many families, but all the flour mills in the Rogue River country, which it was essential to the public welfare should be saved, whatever might be the result of the threatening demonstrations the Indians were making. The greater portion of this company, however, remained in the Butte Creek neighborhood to watch the movements of the hostiles there. In the meantime the Indian agent and the military made several ineffectual attempts to induce the Indians, the Butte Creeks particularly, to return to the reserve. The last effort made by the regular troops was on Saturday, October 6th; but, meeting with no better success than before, they returned to quarters, leaving the volunteers still to guard against the enemy, as he was now proved beyond all doubt to be. The Agent Ambrose, taking with him Mr. Lupton, who was well and favorably known to these Indians, made his last effort to induce them to return to the reserve on Sunday, October 7th. Their reply to him was that they would not return; that they had decided on war, and were now prepared for it; that they could easily kill all the "Boston men" (meaning citizens), because they were all cowards and would not fight, a conclusion they would very naturally come to after being permitted to go scot-free for the numerous murders they had committed during the two previous years. In this state of defiant insubordination the agent left them, and, after visiting the camp of the volunteers, where he left Lupton, returned home.
    With the termination of the last-mentioned interview with the Indians ended all hope that peace could be restored, or the settlements of Rogue River Valley preserved from destruction, unless compulsory measures were at once adopted to disperse the hostiles, and if nothing more, compel them to seek the protection of the authorities at the reservation, as had been their custom in times past when punishment for their enormities was likely to be inflicted by citizens. They were gaining, too, in strength by daily accessions from contiguous tribes who were not in annuity with the United States (the Modocs and others), and in addition to their declarations for war, had just taken possession of the house of one of the settlers of that neighborhood--its inmates, Mr. Ducker and wife, escaping under the cover of night while their would-be-murderers were approaching. Accordingly on the evening of the 7th, when the result of the agent's efforts of that day was made known to the volunteers, it was decided to delay action no longer than was absolutely necessary. The order of attack was then arranged, and the next morning put into execution. The attack was commenced while it was yet too dark to distinguish one Indian from another, and by this reason it so happened that several squaws and children were killed. None were killed after it became light enough to distinguish the sexes. I mention this fact because the action of the volunteers on this occasion has been grossly misrepresented.  They are accused of having attacked a "few squaws and decrepit old men," and murdered them with more than savage cruelty. Such, however, is not the fact. If no other testimony could be obtained to refute the accusation, the loss on the part of the volunteers would be good evidence that there were other than cripples, squaws, and children in the fight on the other side. Two of the whites, Lupton and Sheppard, were wounded, mortally, and some seven others more or less severely. It is true, as has been said, that the bodies of but few warriors were found on the ground after the action was over. But this was owing to the fact that the Indians observed their usual custom in such cases, and carried off their warriors as fast as they became disabled or killed. But few warriors escaped, and such of the tribe as remained when the affair ended, returned to the reserve somewhat wiser for their experience, if less in number, and were there properly cared for. This is the affair in which Lupton has been represented as the leader. But it is due to truth, as well as to the volunteers who served on that occasion, to state that he had no lot or part in it except in the way I have indicated. He was not even a private of the volunteer corps, had nothing whatever to do with its organization, nor had he the control of a single individual belonging to it. He came to the volunteer camp as I have stated, in company with the Indian agent, to whom, as well to the military at Fort Lane, the purpose and every movement of the volunteers from the day of their organization, about a week previous, was fully known. Even the affair itself occurred within hearing of the fort, and the agency, not over a half hour's march for dragoons from the former, and perhaps an hour's ride from the latter, and though the action last some seven hours, yet no protest against the proceedings of the volunteers came from either of those authorities, at that time, or at any time previous, and for very good reasons. The troops and the Indian agent had lost all control, little as they ever had, over the Indians, and the service of the volunteers was absolutely necessary, not only to save the settlements of the Upper Rogue River Valley from certain destruction, but also for the safety of the regular troops themselves. For the Indians, since their repeated and unsuccessful resistance to the regular military authority, held regular troops in not much higher estimation than they did citizens, upon whom they had been permitted to depredate almost unceasingly, and with perfect impunity, during the two previous years.
    The precaution taken by the people of the upper Rogue River Valley with regard to the Butte Creek Indians served to put the people of Illinois River upon their guard against that portion of the Indian force that had obtained a position in that vicinity, and thus frustrated the enemy's designs with regard to that region of country. The Indian agent, too, some time in September, had privately intimated to certain of his friends there that a general war with the Indians was inevitable, and that they had better lose no time in preparing for it. Acting upon this intimation, and in view of the hostile attitude the Indians generally had assumed, a messenger was sent to Crescent City, California, for arms. This was on or about the first of October; at any rate, it was before the affair with the Butte Creeks had taken place. Some twenty rifles, belonging to the State of California, were by this means obtained and brought into Illinois Valley, just as hostilities had become general and arms of this description much needed. By the timely precaution of the people of Illinois Valley, Deer Creek, &c., their settlements were saved, though their loss in stock was considerable.
    Unlike their neighbors just mentioned, the citizens near Evans' ferry took no measures to guard against the Indians, even those stationed in close proximity to them, and therefore were easily overcome, as I have shown in my statement respecting the massacre that occurred there (October 9), to which I need not refer in detail now. As to the report, however, that this massacre was a ''retaliatory act"--the result of the affair with the Butte Creek Indians on the 8th--I have to say, that in truth it has no foundation whatever; that it originated with a clique of politicians, who had for their object the injury of a few men whom they could not control in political matters, and for this reason sought to render them odious to the community in which they lived, by charging them with being the instigators of the various murders which the Indians had from time to time committed. I have referred to a couple of the representatives of this clique in my ''remarks" upon the massacre here mentioned; they who counseled Mr. Wagoner and his family falsely on the morning of October 9th, and had also done the same at other points along the road they traveled the day previous. It was not until this report and these accusations had gained a wide publicity in Oregon, that they were appropriated by officers of the army and of the Indian Department, and ingrafted in their reports. And it will here be observed, that the identical officers who have thus placed these misrepresentations upon record, are those who permitted the Indians to become their masters, and were solely responsible for the difficulties and enormities thereby engendered.
    On the 12th of October Colonel John E. Ross, of the ninth regimental district of Oregon, by virtue of his commission, and pursuant to a resolution of the citizens of Jacksonville and that vicinity, assumed command in his district, and commenced the organization of a regiment of mounted volunteers for the defense of the settlements in the Rogue River country against the hordes of hostile Indians by which they were menaced on every hand. On the 14th he had nine companies, consisting of about 500 men, under his command, and on duty in the most exposed portions of his district, including the settlements of Rogue River and Illinois Valleys, and those of Applegate Creek, Deer Creek, Butte Creek, Galice Creek, Grave Creek, Cow Creek (in the adjoining county, Douglas), and Sterling. Several of these companies, however, had been organized and on duty at some of the points mentioned since the day of the massacre at Evans'. The regiment, between the 14th of October and 1st of November, was increased to fifteen companies, consisting, rank and file, of about 750 men. The almost instantaneous appearance of so large a force in the field disconcerted the plans of the Indians, and those under the chief ''John" sought their mountain retreats to await a more favorable opportunity to carry out their cherished designs, but, in the meantime, continued to destroy such property, stock, &c., as they could get at without incurring too much risk. Those under "George" and "Limpy," however, who commanded at the massacre on the 9th, attacked the settlement at the mouth of Galice Creek on the morning of the 17th, but were repulsed by Captain Lewis, who had just been stationed there with a company of about forty men. The Indians kept up the attack during the day, and retired under the cover of night. The loss on the part of the volunteers was four killed and seven wounded. Among the latter was Captain Lewis himself. No whites were killed except such as belonged to the company. What the loss of the Indians was is not known; undoubtedly, it was considerable.
    On the 22nd of October the Indians attacked the settlements in Cow Creek Valley, but, as Captain Rinearson, with about sixty men, was on duty in that quarter, they were unable to effect a very great slaughter of the settlers, but they destroyed a very large amount of property. In this affair. Captain Rinearson had one man killed and one wounded. Some of the settlers were wounded, and, if I remember correctly, several were killed.
    Finding their plans for the destruction of the settlements anticipated at every point by the volunteers, the Indians concentrated the greater part of their force in the Grave Creek Hills, securing a position almost impregnable, and affording them easy access to several of the settlements. Here they were attacked on the 31st of October by a considerable force of regulars and volunteers--the former under the command of Captain Smith, United States army, commanding at Fort Lane, and the latter under Colonel Ross. In addition to these, however, there were two other companies of volunteers under the command of Major Martin, which were a part of a new organization that had been ordered by the Governor to supersede Ross in the command in his district. The Indians, however, had secured a position so well fortified by nature that, without field-pieces, which the troops did not have, it was impossible to dislodge them. The siege was kept up for nearly two days, when the troops withdrew, having in the meantime become destitute of rations and short of ammunition. The loss in this affair on the part of the volunteers was seven killed and twenty-two wounded. Of the regulars several were killed and a number wounded, among the latter Lieutenant Gibson. What the loss of the Indians was is not known. They claim to have lost in killed not more than ten. Probably their loss was much greater. When the troops withdrew it was with the intention to return and renew the siege as soon as the requisite artillery and about ten days' rations could be procured. This, however, was prevented by the promulgation of the Governor's celebrated "General Orders No. 10," which directed Colonel Ross to leave the field, so as to leave the way clear for the new volunteer organization to which I have already alluded. Some pretext for this action on the part of the Governor being considered necessary by his political advisers, it was alleged in the same document ''that armed parties (meaning Ross' regiment, cooperating with the regular troops) had taken the field in Southern Oregon with the avowed purpose of waging a war of extermination against the Indians in that section of the Territory, and had slaughtered, without respect to age or sex, a band of friendly Indians, on their reservation, in despite of the authority of the Indian agent and the commanding officer of the United States troops stationed there." Not one of these allegations, however, was true in any particular--a fact that was as well known to those who devised them as to those against whom they were directed. Never, in any instance, from the time it was set apart for the exclusive occupation of the Indians, did the whites, in any capacity, invade the reservation, or interfere with the Indians thereon, nor did they ever commence or contemplate a war of extermination.
    I have already demonstrated that the Indians, even those who were known to have been at different times active participants in highway robberies, murders, and all sorts of enormities, when upon the reservation, were perfectly secure, so far as citizens were concerned; and that they never had cause to apprehend danger when there, from any source whatever. And, so far as any contempt "of the authority of the Indian agent and the commanding officer of the United States troops'' is concerned, no such contempt was ever manifested. In confirmation of this, I will state that on the occasion referred to, arms and ammunition were supplied to these "armed parties" by the said "commanding officer of the United States troops," and the bond of indemnity given for the same by Colonel Ross was witnessed by the said "Indian agent." These arms were musketoons, about thirty in number, and such as were not returned at the close of Ross' service were paid for at the government price. On the 9th of November, Colonel Ross assembled at Vannoy's ferry such companies of his command as could be temporarily spared from their posts, and there mustered them out of the service, to wit, four companies: Alcorn's, Bruce's, Wilkinson's, and R. L. Williams', in order that they might be organized into a battalion, according to the proclamation of the Governor. The other companies he discharged, as their places could be occupied by the new corps. Things being now fixed more to the Governor's mind, and more in accordance with the aims of his advisers who conceived that by supplanting Ross in the command in his district, they had gained a political advantage, an account of the war, somewhat in detail, was now commenced and continued until the close of the service. This account, being of record, though in many particulars exceedingly erroneous, as I have instanced by citing the Governor's General Orders No. 10, is already in the possession of Congress, where, I trust, the errors I have pointed out, if no more, may be totally refuted, and that justice, simple justice, may be meted out to all concerned.
    As regards the accusation which is so often repeated, to wit: That the war was originated solely "for the purpose of speculation," it would seem as though the facts I have already adduced, ought to be sufficient to prove that charge utterly unfounded. But in further corroboration of testimony on this head, I will here remark, that the first supplies that were furnished to Colonel Ross' command were raised in the form of a contribution. That is, at the convention which passed the resolution calling upon the colonel to take the field, farmers, merchants, and others came forward and obligated themselves each to advance or furnish a stated amount; some, such a number of beeves; others, such a quantity of flour, and so on, until full rations were thus guaranteed. The people of that region had too much experience in such matters to regard this as a good opportunity for a profitable investment, and accordingly, every member of the community contributed, as he thought his means would warrant, and the necessities of the case demanded. The very great number of the bills of purchase are illustrative of this fact. Money was worth from three to five percent, a month on three and four months' paper, and, as a consequence, all articles of supply had a corresponding value. Hence, it was no object, in a pecuniary point of view, to furnish supplies at the prices specified, nor would it have been had those prices been doubled. The prices agreed upon, however, approximate very nearly to those paid in cash by the officers of the regular service at Fort Lane and Fort Jones, in the neighborhood of which, except in a few instances, supplies for the volunteers were procured. Some of the supplies for Ross' command, as well as for the subsequent service, were procured at Crescent City, California, which fact is additional proof that the charge of ''speculation," preferred with such a flourish, has no foundation in truth whatever, as, indeed, it has none.

    In affair at Galice Creek, October 17:
    Killed--Privates J. W. Pickett, Samuel Sanders.
    Wounded--Captain W. B. Lewis; Privates W. A. J. Moore, Milton Blacklige, Donald Lewis, Allen Evans, John Erixson, "Umpqua Joe" (Indian), Israel Adams, mortally, died November 17; Benj. Tufts, mortally, died November 26.
    In affair at Cow Creek, October 22:
    Killed--Private Charles Johnson.
    Wounded--Private Daniel Boon.
   
    In affair at "Bloody Springs," October 31-November 1:
    Killed--Privates J. W. Miller, James Pearcy, Henry Pearl.
    Wounded--W. H. Crouch, Ephraim Yager, Enoch Miller.
    In affair at "Bloody Springs," October 31:
    Wounded--Private John Kennedy, mortally; died November 7.
    In affair at "Bloody Springs," October 31--November 1:
    Killed--Private John Winters.
    Wounded--Thomas Ryan, William Stannus.
    In affair at "Bloody Springs" October 31--November 1:
    Killed--Private J. A. Pedigo.
    Wounded--Privates L. F. Allen, John Goldsby, Thomas Gill, C. B. Hinton, Wm. Ira Mayfield, Wm. M. Hand, Wm. Purnell, Wm. White.
    In affair at "Bloody Springs," October 31:
    Wounded--Private C. C. Goodwin.
    Total killed and mortally wounded during the service, eleven. Wounded more or less severely, twenty-two.

    In affair at "Bloody Springs," October 31--November 1:
    Killed--Private John Gillespie.
    Wounded--Privates John Paukey, John Walden, John C. Richardson, J. Laphar, T. J. Aubrey.
    In affair January 23, 1856:
    Killed--Privates J. L. Gardner, Thomas Gage.
    Wounded--Private Jeremiah Taylor.
    In an affair at Little Meadows, November 27:
    Killed--Private William Lewis,
    Wounded--Private J. N. Rice,
            "           Private D. Sexton,             ]
            "           Private Robert Gammill,  ]  Williams' company.
            "           Private J. Long, Rice's company.
    In an affair at "Bloody Springs," November 1:
    Wounded--Privates J. M. Fordyce, William Wilson, and Hawkins Shelton.
    Total, four killed and thirteen wounded.

    In an affair in Yakima Valley, November 8:
    Wounded--Privates Stephen Waymire and G. Holmes.
    In affair of Colonel Kelley, in Walla Walla Valley, December 7, 8, 9, and 10:
    Killed--Captain Bennett and Lieutenant Barrows. Privates Henry Crow, John Kelso, S. S. VanHagerman, Jesse Fleming, and J. Sturtevant.
    Wounded--Captains Wilson, Layton, Munson, and Lieutenant Shephard. Privates F. Duval, Casper Snook, T. J. Payne, F. Crabtree, Nathan Frye, Isaac Miller, A. M. Addington, J. B. Lewis, G. W. Smith, Ira Allen, and John Smith.
    Total, seven killed and seventeen wounded.
    Total loss of the three regiments, as herein specified, twenty-two killed and fifty-two wounded. The lists of the first and second regiments, however, are quite imperfect, especially that of the second. Their loss was considerable more than is here represented, probably enough to increase the number of killed to thirty-five, and the wounded in a corresponding proportion. None of the losses, on the part of the volunteers of Washington Territory, are herein enumerated.
    The number of persons not connected with the service, who were murdered during the war by Indians openly at war, and consequently not included in any list, is not known. I estimate it at forty. It is probably more; I think it cannot be less. This increases the number of citizens killed during the war, allowing my estimate with regard to the first and second regiments to be correct, to seventy-five. A recapitulation gives the following result:
    Murdered in times of peace, and by Indians supposed to be friendly--361
    Murdered by Indians avowedly hostile--40
    Killed while in service, war 1853, 1855, and 1856--50
    Total--451
    Of this number, three hundred and eighty-seven were killed during the nine years preceding 1857.
    Having now alluded to some of the many difficulties which the Indians of Oregon have precipitated upon the settlers there, I will briefly allude to the official reports of Superintendent Palmer, wherein he claims, specifically, that the Indians of Southern Oregon have been ill-used by the whites. In his report, under date of September 11, 1854 (Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the same year, page 257), he alleges that "seven squaws and two children were killed and several men and children wounded" by the miners of Althouse and Sailor Diggings; that, on the 15th of February, and prior to the 8th of May, "twenty-three Indians and several squaws were killed (page 25 same report), under the direction of a Mr. Miller, at the mouth of Chetco River; that, on the 28th of January, sixteen Indians were killed, at the mouth of Coquille River (page 269), by volunteers under the command of Captain G. H. Abbott."
    Now with regard to the killing of the "seven squaws" &c., it is probable that Mr. Palmer derived his information from the Indians themselves, who hoped by such a story to elicit his sympathy and thus obtain a larger amount of presents, or that he derived it from other sources equally as unreliable; for, though it was sufficient to incorporate in his report, he did not consider it of sufficient account to cause the arrest of the alleged offenders.
    With regard to the affair at Miller's, Mr. Palmer assumes (upon Indian testimony no doubt) that the whites were wholly in the wrong. But his report in this respect is inconsistent with itself, inasmuch as he states that "Miller was subsequently arrested and placed in the custody of the military at Port Orford; but on his examination before a justice of the peace, was set at large on the ground of justification, and want of sufficient evidence to commit." (Page 259.)
    Respecting the affair of Captain Abbott, some of the most prominent and law-abiding citizens of Oregon were engaged in it, and there is no doubt but what it was absolutely necessary as a measure of self-defense. It was conducted in a deliberative open manner, and all the proceedings promptly reported to the Indian agent in that district, with the request that they should be forwarded to the Indian superintendent. (Page 274.) It is understood, too, that the agent, F. M. Smith, upon whose report of this matter Mr. Palmer relied when he reported to the Commissioner, afterwards made a counter report exonerating the citizens from all blame. That it so appeared to the government is evident from the fact that Captain Abbott has since been appointed to an Indian agency within the Oregon Superintendency.
    In the report of the Indian Commissioner of 1855, there seems to be no charges preferred by Mr. Palmer of the character just mentioned. In the Commissioner's report for 1856, Mr. Palmer has published charges against the people of Oregon similar in every respect to those preferred by General Wool, none of which can be sustained by testimony. But as the charges promulgated by each of these officers are contained in substance, in the memoir and report of Captain T. J. Cram, relative to the Territories of Oregon and Washington, and to which I shall hereafter allude, I need not refer to them here. Suffice it to say, that if Oregon's friends would but display half the effort to render a true history of these Indian matters, that her enemies make to establish a false one, neither Congress or the country could long be deceived respecting them 
"The Topographical Memoir and Report of Captain T, J. Cram relative to the Territories of Oregon and Washington" (House Doc. No. 114, Thirty-fifth Congress,  second session.)
    No one who has ever sought to bring reproach upon the people of Oregon, in connection with the Indian wars and difficulties--which, in their own defense, they have been compelled to suppress--has done so more unscrupulously than the author of the above-mentioned document. The following extracts, and the remarks relative thereto, will exhibit the end he had in view:
    "The discovery of gold in the Rogue River Valley attracted, with some well-disposed persons, many of the most unprincipled and ungovernable white men from all countries, * * * acknowledging no law but that of force, and in their hearts and acts far deeper down in the scale of human degradation * * * than any Rogue River Indian was known to be, before or since the discovery of gold in his valley." (Page 40.)
    Captain Cram has overdone the thing so far here, that he has evidently defeated himself. The discoverers of gold in Rogue River Valley were formerly of Ohio, and those who were "attracted" by this discovery were, as a general thing, natives of Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Kentucky, as were those also who settled upon the agricultural lands, and none of them bore the least resemblance to the "unprincipled and ungovernable wretches" our captain has described. Indeed, there was nothing in that country to call such a community of "wretches" together. The discovery of the mines led to no excitement, and was hardly known beyond the limits of Oregon and the northern tier of counties in California for months afterwards. There was no wealth in the country, except what was in the ground, where everyone had to dig for it if he got it. The Indians did not own a hoof of stock, or possess any kind of property, except a few guns, which they had obtained by murder, robbery, and theft, that could be of the least utility to the whites, even had they have been the "wretches" they are represented.
    "In the autumn of 1852, a party of citizens, under conduct of one Captain Ben Wright massacred over thirty Indians out of forty-eight, who had come into his camp by invitation, to make a peace. * * *
    " * * * As a natural result of this treachery, the tribe (Modocs) combined with the Rogue River Indians in the following summer (1853), and attacked a settlement near Jacksonville.
    "We thus have what are believed to be the provocation and beginning of the Rogue River war of 1853." (Pages 40, 41.)
    As regards the "treachery" here spoken of, it happened to be all on the other side, as I have shown in my statements respecting Indian difficulties in 1852; and as to its "result," I have to say, that the Indians referred to had no hand in the attack upon "a settlement near Jacksonville," at the time mentioned. That they were hostile, is true. So they ever had been from the time they first set eyes on a white man, and so they are even now. But in 1853 their field of operations was along the Southern Oregon emigrant road, where they had murdered not less than thirty-nine unoffending citizens the year before, and in the settlements of Cottonwood and Shasta Valley, near Yreka, California. For this reason a detachment of United States dragoons, from Fort Jones, and a company of volunteers from Jacksonville, were sent to give armed protection to the immigration passing through their country. What the "provocation and beginning of the Rogue River war of 1853" was, I have already shown by citing the facts. What the Indians themselves said was the cause of it, after it was concluded, was that a Mexican, who was temporarily residing at Jacksonville, had purchased a squaw of them, for which he had not paid the full price agreed upon.
    "The gallant general who figured as the hero of the closing scene of this three days' war was elected and took his seat in Congress as delegate from Oregon soon after. * * * The notorious Ben Wright not long after was appointed sub-Indian agent at Port Orford, and came to his death in the spring of 1855 (February 23, 1856) by treachery at the hands of Indians on Rogue River--in their view, a just retribution for his own treachery." (Page 43.)
    General Lane was elected delegate to Congress in June, two months before the Indian outbreak in Rogue River Valley occurred. He was appointed to the command of the volunteers in the war by Acting Governor George L. Curry. He superseded Captain B. R. Alden, fourth United States infantry, who had been elected colonel by the volunteers at the captain's own request. The appointment of Wright, at the instance, and during the administration of Indian Superintendent Palmer, whose sympathy for, and confidence in, the Indians was unlimited, is the most positive proof that the charge so often reiterated against him is entirely destitute of any foundation whatever. Instances are known where Superintendent Palmer took the word of a lying, thieving Indian in preference to that of one of his agents, whose statement could have been corroborated by the oaths of numerous respectable witnesses. Is it a supposable case, then, that he would have been instrumental in getting the appointment to an agency of a man who treacherously murdered Indians by the wholesale? Certainly not.
    "It was the design to gather all the bands along the coast of Oregon and place them upon it (the coast reservation), there to teach them agriculture and the arts, and to forever prevent whites from acquiring the rights of soil upon it; it is certainly not to be denied that some of the Indians, especially in the upper part of the Rogue River Valley, may have objected to the treaty, and evinced some reluctance to comply, but they had two years' time allowed in which they were to make preparations and go, and it is believed (by whom?) that had the whites shown patience, and forborne to interfere, the Superintendent would have had them all removed within the time specified, and Oregon would have been saved the shame reflected upon her by the commission of those most outrageous deeds that followed, such, for example, as that perpetrated by one Lupton and his party, 'who killed twenty-five friendly Indians, eighteen of whom were women and children,' and that perpetrated by one Hank Brown and party, at Lookingglass Prairie, in killing from eight to ten friendly Indians, invited there by the settlers for protection and safety. From such acts of cruelty can it be at all surprising that a retaliatory spirit was manifested on the part of the Indians?" (Pages 43, 44.)
    These are the grounds upon which General Wool, Captain Cram, and their associates base their charge that the war in Southern Oregon in 1855-56 originated exclusively with the people there. The utter falsity of the accusation concerning "one Lupton and his party," I have previously shown. The story about ''Hank Brown and his party" was trumped up by political demagogues who wished to oust Colonel Ross from the command in his regimental district, and first appeared in the Oregon Statesman, a paper devoted exclusively to the interests of the party in which these demagogues held prominent positions. It was nothing more than a sensation article, written for a specific purpose, and without the least regard to truth.
    "The design to gather all the bands along the coast of Oregon" upon a reservation did not include any of the tribes of Rogue River Valley, as intimated; consequently they had no occasion to "evince reluctance to comply. " These were parties to the treaty of the 10th of September, 1853, and, though failing in every particular to comply with their treaty stipulations, were still receiving their annuities. The Indians who were included in this design, however, were the same who so "treacherously murdered" the agent, Wright, and some twenty-three others, February 23, 1856, while "the whites" were exercising that same ''patience and forbearance" that Captain Cram thinks would have been so very beneficial.
    "Now, can any conscientious man believe that the intelligent, industrious officer Captain Smith (United States army), who was then (at the beginning of open hostilities in 1855), and who had been, in command at Fort Lane, in the very center of these Indians (of Rogue River Valley), during the period of more than two years previous, would not have known and reported to headquarters a. necessity, if there was one, of more military force than that of the United States already there to meet the exigency in the district of which he was the responsible commandant? No report was made by him or either of the commandants of Fort Jones or Fort Orford expressive of any such necessity." (Pages 44, 45.)
    That no such report was made by either of the officers mentioned is but too true. But if Captain Smith, "the responsible commandant" in the Rogue River district, did not think additional military force necessary, why did he furnish guns and ammunition to Colonel Ross, who was at the time in command of a volunteer regiment, and was operating against the identical Indians referred to? The fact that he did so is, I think, a. sufficient answer to the interrogatory quoted. But may there not be some hidden motive for coining and persisting in the false declaration that no additional force was necessary at this time? Major Fitzgerald, United States army, with his troop of dragoons, was at Fort Lane when the Indians threw off their disguise of friendship and commenced the open and indiscriminate slaughter of the whites, and, so far as he was permitted (he was not in command at that post), entered into the campaign that followed with a zeal never before or since manifested in that region by any officers of the regular service in command of troops. But for some reason (?) yet unknown, he was ordered from the field at the very moment when his services were of the greatest value, and directed to proceed forthwith with his company to Fort Vancouver, distant a march of 21 days (see p. 56), where, upon his arrival, he was sent into winter quarters, and his valuable services thus lost to the people of Oregon during the war. This was certainly a very great blunder, or something infinitely worse, on the part of "the commanding general" (Wool), and to own the additional "military force" necessary would be equal to an acknowledgment of his error. But there are circumstances connected with this matter that very naturally give rise to the apprehension that this act of General Wool was not wholly a blunder, but that it was in part the result of that deep-rooted prejudice which he has so often manifested in his official reports against the people of Oregon. Major Fitzgerald's policy, too, with regard to the control of the Indians, as shown by his acts, was widely different from that of the general and the commandants at the several posts mentioned. He was for enforcing treaty stipulations, and holding the Indians strictly amenable to white men's laws, as far as was necessary to the public security. They practiced the reverse of this, seeking to secure these ends by coaxing and flattery, and accomplishing absolutely nothing except in the way of ministering to the Indians' vanity and to their inherent hatred of the whites, by teaching them that the citizens were their inferiors and aggressors upon their rights. In his sympathies, too, the major was with the whites, upon whom he must have regarded this war as having been precipitated in consequence of the derelictions and the unsound policy of his brother officers commanding at the several posts in the Rogue River country, and that vicinity. He took an active part in tracing the Indians who murdered Field, Cunningham, and Warner (September 24, 25), and, along with volunteers, went promptly to the relief of the settlements that were attacked by the Indians (October 9.) After the organization of Colonel Ross' regiment he cooperated with that officer in securing and removing to Fort Lane and turning over to Captain Smith several Indians who were supposed to be spies, but against whom positive proof of this was wanting. This was the last service that he was permitted to render on behalf of the people of Southern Oregon. Having presented the material facts connected with the recall of the major from the field at the critical period mentioned, I leave it for others to form their own conclusions as to the motives that induced it.
    "The governor says he was moved to call out this force (two battalions to succeed Ross) 'by a petition,' * * * which (according to Captain Cram), if granted, would bring occupation for eight hundred men and as many horses for the ensuing winter, and they would only have to ride about and kill Indians until planting time next spring." (Page 45.)
    Evidently [he was] a little too anxious to make out a case. Planting time in Rogue River Valley is from September to about the first of April.
    "These battalions, with the title of 'southern army,' were under the command of Brigadier General John K. Lamerick, and it is not surprising that, with such an array, and the well-known hostility of many of the citizens, some of the Indians flew to their arms and others to the United States military posts for protection." (Same page.)
    ''These battalions" superseded Colonel Ross' regiment (volunteers) November 10, 1855; ''Brigadier General John K. Lamerick" was not appointed to the "command" until about the 1st of February, 1856, and did not arrive in Southern Oregon for several weeks afterwards. The Indians had "flew to their arms" certainly prior to October 31, else why was Captain Smith, with three commissioned officers and eighty-five regulars, in the Grave Creek Hills fighting them on that and the following day? So, with "the well-known hostility of many of the citizens," some of the regulars, and among them "the responsible commandant" of the Rogue River district, were a little hostile too, even at that early period! As to the Indians who "flew to" Fort Lane "for protection," it might with propriety be asked why they were away from it, and why they did not return some months sooner, at the prayerful solicitation of the commanding officer there, and of their agent? They belonged upon Table Rock reservation, and had no right off from it.
    "It has already been said that an immediate effect of the organization of the Governor's southern army was to cause some of the Indians to stand to their arms. One of their first acts afterwards was to attack the little party of ten, under Lieutenant Kautz, fourth infantry (United States), * * * on the 25th of October, 1855." (Page 46.)
    The governor's "southern army" was not fully organized until November 10, fifteen days after this affair of Lieutenant Kautz. Only two companies of this force were raised prior to October 31, and they were present at the affair of that date, in the Grave Creek Hills. This was their first appearance in Southern Oregon, and here they cooperated with the regular troops. It is true that Colonel Ross' regiment was in the field at the time mentioned, but it had been furnished with arms by the commandant at Fort Lane, with the express approbation of the Indian agent at Table Rock reservation, and had not been, and never was, recognized by the Governor. So this cannot be the force included under the title of "southern army."
    "No effort of Captain Smith could persuade the volunteers to go round and take the Indians in the rear, while the regulars would charge in front, and it seems only fifty out of two hundred and fifty of the volunteers of the Governor's southern army could be induced to take any part in the action, after coming to the point where, with resolution, they could have been instrumental in capturing the whole body of Indians in arms." (Page 47.)
    This refers to the affair in the Grave Creek Hills, October 31 and November 1, at which but two companies, Gordon's and Bailey's, of the Governor's southern army was present, and these were all that were organized of that force at that time, and the list shows that Gordon had three men wounded, and Bailey five wounded and one killed. On the part of Ross' regiment, Rinearson had three men killed and three wounded; Welton, one killed; Williams, one killed and two wounded; Harris one killed and eight wounded; Bruce, one wounded. These were all the volunteer companies that were present, and their list of killed and wounded shows that if they "could not be induced to take any part in the action," they were exceedingly reckless of danger, at least. The truth about this matter is, the Indians had selected a place so well fortified by nature that it was impossible to rout them from it without artillery, which the volunteers did not possess, and the regulars had not brought with them. In proof of this, I quote Captain Cram's own words (pages 46 and 47): "Several charges were made by the regulars, but the men were picked off so effectually by the Indian rifles that but little advance was made into the thicket. * * * The greater portion of the regulars were dragoons, and their musketoons proved utterly inadequate to cope with the rifles in the hands of the Indians." Some of Ross' regiment were armed with the musketoon also. Why was this fact omitted?
    "On the 9th of the same November (1855), while Major General Wool, United States army, in command of the department of the Pacific, was at Crescent City (about 110 miles from the scene of difficulty in Rogue River Valley), on his way to the field of Indian hostilities (which he did not reach by 250 miles) which had broken out in the preceding month in the Yakima country, to the north of the Columbia, he received the first intelligence of the fight just described, and it was then that he also first received authentic information of the Governor's declaration of war, and of the southern army of his volunteers being in existence." (Pages 47, 48.)
    This, so far as regards "intelligence of the fight" (affair in the Grave Creek Hills), and "the Governor's declaration of war," is doubtless correct. The governor's proclamation, calling for volunteers for the service in Southern Oregon, did not reach Colonel Ross' headquarters, only two miles from Fort Lane, until November 7; and it could not have reached Crescent City earlier than the 9th; and by due course of mail the report "of the fight" could not have reached General Wool's quarters, at Benicia, until some time after he had left for "the field of Indian hostilities in the Yakima country!"
    "General Wool's presence in Southern Oregon at this juncture (November 9, 1855) was exceedingly opportune.. He was personally in a position to enable himself to judge of the necessary measures to be taken for the future duties that would properly devolve on the troops under his own command in this district." (Page 48.)
    Unless he had some of it in his shoes, General Wool, I believe, never set foot on an inch of Southern Oregon soil. His presence, which was so ''exceedingly opportune," and the "position that enabled him to judge of the necessary measures to be taken" was aboard one of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's fine steamers, which touched at Crescent City, California, and Port Orford, Southern Oregon, on her trips to the Columbia River. The scene of the war then raging in Southern Oregon where troops were required, was about seventeen days' march, including time occupied in preparations after landing, from either of the towns named. In what respect, then, did the deck of a steamer off the coast of Oregon afford a better "position to judge of the necessary measures to be" adopted, than the general's own quarters at Benicia?
    But did not General Wool know long previous to the 9th of November, 1855, that the Indians of Rogue River Valley were in a state of insubordination to the military and all other authority? Did he not know of the unprovoked murder by these Indians during that part of the year 1855 which had already passed--saying nothing of previous murders--of Hill, May 8; Dyer and McKew, June 1; Philpot, June 2; Peters, July 27; Hennessey, Parrish, Gay, and eight others, July 28; Keene, September 2; Field and Cunningham, September 24; Warner, September 25; Mrs. Wagoner and seventeen others, October 9? Did he not know, too, that the people of Rogue River Valley and vicinity had been defending themselves against these Indians and their allies for nearly or quite a month previous to the 9th of November? If he did not know these things, where were those commandants of Fort Lane, Fort Jones, and Fort Orford, who should have reported them; and why did he order Major Fitzgerald with his troop to strengthen Fort Lane? If he did know them, why did he order Major Fitzgerald and his troop out of the Rogue River district, and into winter quarters, when in the very height of his usefulness? These are some of the many things connected with General Wool's administration of military affairs in the Department of the Pacific that his adulators do not care to discuss, but which they strive to screen from public observation by appropriating and hurling against the people of Oregon anathemas and calumnies coined by political demagogues, and originally promulgated against a few individuals through the columns of a malignant party newspaper.
    "On the 8th of March (1856), Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan landed at Crescent City, and in one week after had his command in motion. The force from Crescent City left on the 15th, and encamped at the mouth of Rogue River (Ord's company skirmishing there with the Indians) on the 20th of March." (Page 49.)
    This landing at Crescent City, be it observed, was not until five months after the massacre near Evans' ferry (October 9, 1855), which led to the organization of Ross' regiment of volunteers, and precisely four months after General Wool had been "personally in position to enable himself to judge of the necessary measures to be taken for the future duties that would properly devolve on the troops under his own command in that district." From this it would seem that, at the time he secured this "position," November 9, there were no present duties to perform.
    * * * "By the last of June (1856) the Rogue River war was at an end, and all the Indians that had defied the southern army' of Oregon so successfully were either at or on their way to the coast reservation in western Oregon." (Page 53.)
    No allusion is made to the service of the volunteers who remained in the field during the winter, while the regular troops were in their comfortable quarters, waiting, according to the instructions of their commanding general (p. 48), "to receive and protect from violence (!) all friendly Indians who would come in and express a willingness to go, in the following spring, to the reservation set apart for them." Nor is the fact mentioned that the Governor's "southern army" participated with the regular troops, even in the closing scenes of this war, Superintendent Palmer says (Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1856, pages 216 and 217): ''On the 9th (June), General Lamerick, in command of the volunteers, arrived at Big Bend (Rogue River), bringing the women and children (Indians) previously taken by Major Latshaw (volunteer), accompanied by sub-agent Metcalfe.  * * * On the 2nd of June, Major Reynolds and Captain Augur (United States army) were directed, with their companies, to follow down the (Rogue) river as far as the mouth of the Illinois, and retain possession of that post, and collect any scattering Indians who might be found in that vicinity. These companies were accompanied by Captain Bledsoe and his company of volunteers, who had been operating along the coast between Port Orford and Chetco. Major Reynolds was to remain at the mouth of Illinois River, Captain Augur to pass down the north, and Captain Bledsoe down the south banks of Rogue River to the Indian village below. * * * Upon arriving at the village (of the Cistocootes--not the one above mentioned) the advance of these detachments discovered a few Indians on an island in the river, who, upon being called to, attempted to flee, when they were fired upon, and three Indians and one woman killed. * * * The village was then burned. * * * On the 3rd, Captains Augur and Bledsoe proceeded as before indicated, and upon reaching the Indian encampment a few were seen in canoes, who were hailed, but sought to make their escape. A fire was opened upon them by Captain Augur' s company; and in a few minutes a general attack was made upon the encampment, the Indians fleeing into the river and attempting to cross, but were met by Captain Bledsoe's company of volunteers. Fourteen Indians were killed in this attack, and a number, men, women, and children, were supposed to be drowned. * * *  Very little resistance was made by the Indians--no one of the companies receiving the least wound from them."
    I quote with regard to the killing of these Indians merely to show how circumstances sometimes alter cases. Here is an instance where regular troops and their auxiliaries hunted and slaughtered indiscriminately unresisting and retreating Indians (according to Mr. Palmer), for which they have been highly commended by Mr. Palmer himself, as well as by General Wool and the officers in charge in that vicinity, when the service was performed. But what of the affair near Table Rock on the 8th of October previous [the Lupton massacre]. The Indians then and there brought to an account were not in their villages, as were those just mentioned, nor were they upon their reservation as has been reported. They were by no means disposed to retreat, for they openly and boldly proclaimed their defiance of the authority of the military and Indian departments, as well as of all other authority, and were almost daily committing depredations upon the lives and property of the whites, and avowed their readiness and determination for a war of extermination. They did resist, for they killed two and wounded seven of those who chastised them. And yet the citizens who were compelled to participate in the affair at Table Rock are accused by General Wool, Mr. Palmer, and others, of having made war on that occasion upon a few squaws and children, and a like number of decrepit old men, while the party who hunted and killed the Indians indiscriminately, burned their villages, and met with so "very little resistance" as not to "receive the least wound," are highly commended for the act, that is that portion of the party who were of the regular service. The action of the regulars, &c., in this instance, was perfectly justifiable under the circumstances, and it had a beneficial result. I have alluded to it only for the purposes indicated.
    But let us see what, at the least, must have been the result to the people of Southern Oregon if they had awaited the action of "the commanding general of the Department of the Pacific," if they had not taken up arms in their own defense. As the list of murders shows, the Indians of Table Rock reservation, in connection with surrounding tribes, had been in the prosecution of a guerrilla warfare against the citizens of Rogue River Valley and vicinity from the 1st of June, 1855 (I might with propriety name an earlier date), down to the general outbreak in the month of October following; the massacre near Evans' (October 9), and the hostile manifestations of the Indians in all other parts of the Rogue River country, being the occasion of the call for volunteers by Colonel Ross (October 12). General Wool must have known long previous to the 1st of October what the disposition was of the Indians in Rogue River Valley; that they were in a state of insubordination to the legitimate authorities, else why did he dispatch Major Fitzgerald and his company to strengthen Fort Lane; and he must have been advised of the general outbreak of these Indians as early as the 13th of October, and of Colonel Ross' action, by the 17th or the 18th. But the first we hear of him after this is his ordering Major Fitzgerald and his company out of the Rogue River country, away from Indian hostilities altogether. The next we hear of him is at Crescent City, November 9, where his "presence" was so "exceedingly opportune," and the deck of one of the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company's steamers afforded a "position to enable himself to judge of the necessary measures to be taken" respecting affairs in the Rogue River country. Four months after this, or nearly that, we find (p. 49, Captain Cram's memoirs) that "Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan, Jr., major Fourth Infantry, was selected by the General as commanding officer to execute the plan of field operations.
    "On the 5th of March, the General himself embarked with Ord's company, Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan, and a few officers of his staff * * * for the field of operations. * * * On the 8th of March, Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan landed at Crescent City, * * * and encamped at the mouth of Rogue River * * * on the 20th of March," where he was probably thirty days' march from the region of country which was the scene of difficulty when General Wool was at Crescent City on the 9th of the previous November. But if Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan had proceeded directly from Crescent City to the point where troops were required, and where the volunteers first took the field, he would not have reached it and been ready for action before April 1. This would have been five months and nineteen days after the date of the organization of Colonel Ross' regiment! And how many of the people of Southern Oregon might have been sacrificed during this period of one hundred and seventy days, if they had waited for this movement to have been made? Of course, this cannot be told precisely, but there are circumstances connected with the origin of the war upon which we can base an estimate. On the 9th of October, about one-third of the Indians then in arms, and having the day pretty much to themselves, murdered eighteen persons. On the 28th of July previous, during only a portion of the day, however, about the same number of Indians, and some of them of the same tribe too, murdered twelve persons. This would give an average of fifteen per day killed, saying nothing of the wounded, by about one-third of the number of Indians that were in the field on the 1st of October, or forty-five per day by the whole body of Indians who were then in arms in the Rogue River district. At this rate, which gives all the margin there is in favor of General Wool and his supporters, 6,615 persons would have been killed between the date of the organization of Ross' regiment (October 12) and the day on which Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan landed at Crescent City (March 8); and this number would have been increased to 7,650 before he could have reached the scene of hostilities, if the attempt had been made. Even the few regular troops who were at the several posts in the Rogue River district at the time of the general outbreak, or such of them at least as were not ordered away at that time to where the hostilities did not exist, do not appear to have been required by their commanding general to perform any other duty during the four months preceding the landing of Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan at Crescent City, than (p. 48) "to receive at their posts, and protect from violence, all friendly Indians who would come in and express a willingness to go in the following spring on the reservation set apart for them." Thus the people of that whole region of country, so far as any United States authority was concerned, were wholly at the mercy of the Indians, who, as by their own declarations and acts, were bent on a war of extermination.
    It will be observed that long before Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan arrived in the field (March 20) the hostile Indians had been driven entirely out of Rogue River Valley, down that river, at the mouth of which that officer commenced his operations. Colonel Ross, with what assistance he received from the regular troops at Fort Lane, had driven them down the river, beyond the settlements in the early part of the war; and the volunteers who succeeded him, without any aid from the regulars, had continued during the winter to press them still further on in that direction until, meeting Colonel Buchanan's command coming up the river, with a detachment of which they had one engagement (at Big Meadows, May 27-28), they were compelled to surrender.
    ''The in-moving whites sell their rifles, revolvers, and ammunition to the Indians.* * * At the battle of Big Meadows, on Rogue River, the Indians were armed with the best of Sharps rifles and Colt's revolvers, sold to them by the whites; and it was on account of the inferiority of the arms, which his men had to use by an absurd regulation, that Captain Smith came so near losing that battle."
    I believe that I am uttering the truth when I say that no Rogue River Indian was ever worth enough to purchase a Sharps rifle. And if he had have been, he could not have done so, for the simple reason that no such rifles were ever for sale in that region. The whites themselves, "incoming" or otherwise, very seldom possessed one, and those who did valued them too highly to sell them to the Indians or anybody else. To show how destitute of these rifles the people of that country were, when, if the allegation were true, the Indians must have obtained theirs, I will state, as I happen to know, that in the Rogue River Indian war of 1853, two men only were armed with these guns. One of these men was killed by the Indians, who secured his arms. When the treaty of the 10th of September (same year) was signed, the Indians gave up what worthless guns they had (they were to give up nearly all, but did not), and among them was this Sharps rifle, which they said they did not not understand or know how to use. In Colonel Ross' regiment, consisting of nearly nine hundred men, in the war of 1855-56, and in Williams', which was subsequently organized, if I remember correctly, there was not one. So far as the people of Rogue River Valley are concerned (and I believe it to have been true with regard to the people of the whole Territory, except, perhaps, in some instances near Hudson's Bay posts), I know of my own personal knowledge that from November 1852 up to the time the Indians were removed from there in 1856, they were decidedly averse to selling the Indians arms of any kind, and did not at all relish the idea that they should have them (except bows and arrows) in their possession at all. In the summer of 1854, at Jacksonville, a white man was punished with thirty lashes on the bare back and banished from the country for trafficking powder to the Indians to the value of one buckskin. Others have been treated in the like manner for the same offense, and what little clandestine trade there might have been in such articles was entirely suppressed. In other parts of Southern Oregon the sentiments of the people upon this subject were the same. In corroboration of this, I cite a resolution adopted January 28, 1854, by a meeting of the citizens of the town of Randolph and vicinity, in the Port Orford district (see p. 275, Report Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1854), which was then without any legally established courts:
    "Resolved, That if any person or persons shall sell, give, barter, or in any manner dispose of any gun, rifle, pistol, carbine, or other firearm, or any powder, lead, caps, or other ammunition to any Indian or Indians, such person or persons so offending shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall receive for the first offense thirty-nine lashes upon the bare back, and for the second offense shall suffer death."
    That the Indians were unable to procure guns and ammunition is evidenced by the fact that their inability to do so was made a ground of complaint by Superintendent Palmer, who petitioned the Oregon legislature at its session of 1854-55, to repeal a law enacted by a former session (I think of 1853-54), making it a penal offense to furnish arms, &c., to the Indians, in any manner, or under any circumstances. So much for the accusation that the whites of Oregon sell their guns to the Indians. That the Indians of Rogue River Valley, many of whom were engaged in the affair of Captain Smith at Big Meadows, were armed with guns, though not "Sharps rifles," is very true. But how did they get them? The list of murders committed by them tells part of the story, and the history of their robberies and thefts, apart from these, if ever written, will tell the rest.
    Having considered a few of the allegations--a fair sample of the whole--embodied in Captain Cram's memoir and report concerning the conduct of the people of Southern Oregon towards the Indians, in peace and war, with a few words more and an extract from the proceedings of the Oregon Methodist Episcopal conference, held in 1856, and having in attendance many of the early missionaries to the Indians, I draw my remarks to a close.
    However plausible the statements set forth in Captain Cram's memoir may appear respecting these matters, there are none that cannot be met and fully refuted. In a word, they are pretentious, one-sided, and wholly unreliable assertions, though it is true some of them are quoted, taking the place of proof and supposition of fact. The resolution referred to is as follows:
    "Whereas, our Territories have been the theater of a disastrous Indian war during the past year; and whereas an impression has, by some means, been made abroad that the people of Oregon and Washington have acted an unworthy part in bringing it on: Therefore, Resolved, That though there may have be occasional individual instances of ill-treatment of the Indians by irresponsible whites, it is the conviction of this body of ministers whose fields of labor have been in all parts of the Territories, at the beginning and during the continuance of the war, that the war has not been wantonly and wickedly provoked by our fellow-citizens, but that it has been emphatically a war of defense, and that that defense was deferred as long as Christian forbearance would warrant."
    Respectfully submitted,
        C. S. DREW,
            Late Adjt. Second Reg't., Oregon Mounted Volunteers
Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate, Thirty-Sixth Congress, Document No. 59, 1860