I cannot close this communication without reverting to a few statements made in Generals Wool and Palmer's official dispatches, and also Agent Ambrose.
    Gen. Wool and Gen. Palmer say that the Indians attacked by a party under Maj. Lupton were friendly and on their way to the reserve. Such is not the fact. They were on their way to the reserve, I have no doubt, but were they peaceable? They had been trailed from the murders on the Siskiyou Mountain, committed about a week previous, and the scalp of a white man was found in their ranchos. Look at the conflicting statements of Wool and Palmer, and also of Agent Ambrose, who was on the ground. Wool and Palmer were from three hundred to three thousand miles distant. Palmer says "thirty persons--men, women and children." Wool says "twenty-five in all, nineteen being women and children." Agent Ambrose says "thirty-two in all, eight of them men," and further says, "the attack was made so early in the morning that the women were indistinguishable from the men." It seems very singular that such discrepancy should occur in official documents.
    Gen. Wool has set himself up as a commander, a legislator and a judge, and has endeavored to influence Congress about the payment of the war debt. The General has committed a great military blunder himself, and, because the Governor of our Territory acted promptly and with knowledge of the circumstances which reflected some on the General's tardiness, he (the General) would like to
    Gen. Wool knew that war existed in Southern Oregon from the 8th of October, 1855, and in the early part of November he sent the only company, under Major Fitzgerald, that at that time could be of any service, to the Dalles--Capt. Smith's company being hardly sufficient to retain and keep peace with those Indians on the reserve at Fort Lane--thus leaving the country destitute of protection against those hostile savages who, at that time, were murdering, burning and plundering all over the country, and not until the middle of March--some six months after the war broke out--was there any United States troops sent to the assistance of the people in Southern Oregon.
    Had it not been for the volunteers during this time, what would have become of the country? Those who reside there can best answer. Had a body of one hundred and fifty troops been stationed at the Big Bend of Rogue River within a month or six weeks after the war broke out, to stop communication amongst the Upper and Lower Rogue River Indians, all the murders and destruction of property at the mouth of Rogue River could have been prevented. Here were the lives of some forty of our citizens, and $250,000 worth of property, sacrificed to either the incapacity of willful mismanagement, or bad information, of an officer whom we pay $292 per month for superintending the very military movements which he has so wantonly neglected. And when the troops came to that part of Southern Oregon they were under the command of Lt. Col. Buchanan, who forthwith sent orders to Capt. Smith's command to join him at the mouth of Rogue River, leaving Rogue River Valley to be protected by either volunteers or the citizens themselves. This part of the southern country, too, being exposed to the Indians of John, George and Limpy, who were the most warlike Indians on the Pacific Coast.
    How can General Wool account to the country for neglecting to send troops to Southern Oregon and Northern California? Will it be said that nearly six months is too short a time to get troops from San Francisco to Crescent City or Port Orford, when they could have been landed from the steamer the third day from San Francisco? How will he acquit his conscience, having the means, not to use it for the protection of those citizens who were so inhumanly murdered on the night of the 22nd of February, 1856, at the mouth of the Rogue River, and within three days' sail of General Wool's headquarters? But as soon as Col. Buchanan came up, instead of punishing those murderers, he, from his acts, apparently had instructions to coax them into a treaty. But even then, none of them would come to terms but showed fight at the mouth of the river, and when the Colonel was urged to give them battle by Capt. Bledsoe, of the volunteers, he very graciously said "it was not his day for fighting." At that time the Indians were all around his camp, firing into it. While stopping at the mouth of Rogue River with his command, the Colonel killed several beef cattle belonging to some of the citizens, who managed, with the assistance of some volunteers, to save, when the balance of their property was destroyed by the Indians, and when the owners told the Colonel that they would like to have pay for their cattle, or, they would rather he would not kill them, the Colonel told them "he had captured them from the Indians, and they therefore belonged to the United States." Thus what the Indians left, the Colonel took good care not to leave.
    Having only one company of volunteers on Rogue River, near its mouth--and that consisted only of about fifty men--it was not enough to attack a large body of the enemy, and Captain Bledsoe, who was commanding, urged the necessity upon Col. B. to allow a company of regulars to cooperate with him up the river, but the Colonel refused to do this, and spurned the idea. Capt. Bledsoe's men were well acquainted with the country and rendered important service, and could have done more, could he have induced the regulars to move in concert with him. But that was beneath the valued Colonel's dignity, and not until old John, through the instrumentality of Chief George, out-generaled Col. B., and got him to divide his command and send Capt. Smith up to the Big Bend to receive some of them as prisoners, when the command had thirty-one men killed and wounded, with but little or no loss on the part of the Indians.
    Some three or four days after this affair, Capt. Bledsoe again urged him to send a company with him to a large camp of the enemy, who were congregated some eight miles below the mouth of Illinois River, on Rogue River. Col. B. this time reluctantly consented, and sent Capt. Augur, who took the north side of the river, and Capt. Bledsoe with his company of volunteers on the south side, and on the 5th of June they attacked them, and completely routed them, killing fourteen on the ground and some twenty-five in the river; eight were killed on the side of the volunteers, and six on the side of the regulars.
    I only revert to these things to show that even Gen. Wool's saying there was no war did not prevent his regulars from getting badly whipped sometimes, and it is now a question of doubt whether if the volunteers had not fallen upon the enemy's rear, Col. Buchanan or any of his men would have got out of the mountains before chiefs John, George and Limpy would have had their scalps. A great ado is made by some of those pseudo-philanthropists, especially Generals Wool and Palmer, when an Indian woman or child is accidentally killed, or when an Indian is scalped, or his ears cut off, and there is none more opposed to that than the citizens of Oregon--but is the whole community to be censured for the indiscretion of one or two wild young men? And in every letter Gens. Wool or Palmer write, something must be said of the killing of an Indian squaw or two accidentally, but when the innocent, smiling infant is plucked from its mother's breast, its brains dashed out, perhaps against the corner of the house in which it was born, and then thrown into the well, head first, and this too in the presence of its mother and father--the mother then taken in the presence of her husband, who has to witness indecencies upon the companion of his bosom too horrible to mention, her bowels then cut open and she thrown into the well on top of her child, the father and husband all the time being overpowered could only look on--but now it comes his turn--he is knocked in the head with an axe, his thighs are split open, his breast is next cut open and his heart taken from thence, his scalp cut from his head, and if he has whiskers most of the skin cut from his face, and the greatest indignity of all, the parts which designate the man are cut from his body and stuck into his mouth. All this has been done, not to one family only, but to several. Yet those philanthropists never say a word about this, nor even move out of the even tenor of their way to prevent such things from occurring. And even now in Southern Oregon and Northern California murders of white citizens are of daily or weekly occurrence, and the United States troops even in the very neighborhood are falling back in "masterly inactivity." This course seems to be forced upon them to sustain the position of Gen. Wool, who, it appears, wishes to coax the Indians into a treaty instead of conquering a peace.
    Since I came in from the war south, I have been on the Grand Ronde Reservation and have talked with many of the chiefs, Old Sam in particular, who says Gen. Palmer has told him lies, that he promised to let him and his people go back to Rogue River Valley as soon as the war ended, and now he will not do it--and most all of the petty chiefs of the Rogue River Indians talk in the same way. I am of the opinion that it will require a sleepless vigilance by those having charge of the Indians on the reservation to prevent a greater outbreak amongst these people than has ever cursed the country. Having made this communication longer than I expected, I am most anxious that truth and justice may dispel the clouds that now darken our horizon, and that praise and censure may be placed to the credit of those to whom they justly belong.

    Editors Union: The "Rape of Helen," though it
did not create such widespread excitement as I perceive the Fraser River mines is making in excitable California. Not so in Oregon. Though the existence of gold, in considerable quantities, in that region of country and all along from thence to and beyond Fort Colville, is a fact established beyond a doubt in the minds of most Oregonians, yet they are slow (Pickett might attribute it to their laziness!) to brave the well-known hardships of a trip thither at the present. The truth is, we have had some experience of that country and the condition of the roads thither already, and though we thirst for "filthy lucre" as much as do our neighbors of the Eureka State, we do not wish to peril life or limb to procure it, especially since we have the comfortable assurance that if we only have patience to wait a little longer, the dangers will be lessened a hundred percent. In this I think we display a commendable prudence, which ought to, and I trust, as their friend, will, recommend itself to the numerous readers of the Union, who may feel approaching symptoms of the Fraser River fever. Wait until the end of July or middle of August. By that time the river will be navigable for a great way up, and the road will be cut through a sufficient distance to enable you to reach the mines without having to crawl through jungle "inaccessible"--as an old voyageur, familiar with the country, said to me a few days ago--"except to varmints." Added to this, provisions will then be there in abundance, and of course be cheaper than now, and the richness of the placers will be little if anything diminished from what they are now. This advice is the result of the accumulated experience of a thorough acquaintance with the Fraser River country. I do not pretend to a personal knowledge of the geographical position of that country, but I have conversed with many of the superannuated servants of the Hudson's Bay Company--who are scattered over this and the Willamette Valley--and are as familiar with every inch of the Colville and Fraser River country as a miner is with the few square feet in which he has delved for months. Besides, many of our young men, in the late wars against the Indians, though not penetrating quite as far north as the new gold fields, have brought home such a stock of experience of the neighboring country and its aboriginal inhabitants as is useful to conserve our public tranquility, and to repress our tendency to excitement consequent upon the recent discovery. All things considered, there are few Oregonians leaving for the mines. The few who are leaving are from the counties bordering on California. The bulk of these, I imagine, are Californians. I have encountered several companies bound landwise from Jacksonville and Yreka, and even as far south as Shasta County, to the new El Dorado. They are mostly on horseback and in large companies, led generally by one or more persons who know the route, having been north in the Indian wars, or to the Colville mines some two years ago. They go to the Dalles, lay in a stock of provisions, and proceed in organized companies to Fraser River. For persons starting from Southern Oregon or Northern California, and having their own animals, this is decidedly the best route. There is little danger from Indians, if they travel in bands of fifty to one hundred, from the Dalles northward. The Siwashes (Indians), no matter how numerous, will not venture to attack any respectable number of "Bostons," as they call all white men who are not regulars. The Indians have little or no fear of the regulars, and would sooner attack five hundred of them than a score of ragged "Bostons." The reason is obvious. The "Bostons" fight them upon their own plan--that is, with all the advantages of ambuscade, etc., taking "har" wherever they can find it, and showing no quarter. Not so the regulars, or the "pooh pooh men," as the Indians call them. They must march or halt to the beat of drum, load, aim and fire to the sound of trumpet, all of which are so many signals to the Indians as well as the regulars, and which the former are sure to take advantage of by squatting down in their hiding places (from which they always fight) when the charge is sounded, or the word to fire given. Even should they find themselves worsted in any engagement with the regulars, they have only to call for a "peace wawa"  (peace talk) and immediately they are treated with according to the usages of civilized warfare. This is altogether wrong, and so long as it continues in our dealings with the treacherous aborigines on this coast, just so long shall we have repetitions of the late attack upon Col. Steptoe's command. The Indians east of the Cascade Mountains and north of the Dalles are a semi-civilized and semi-Christianized race--the French Jesuit fathers, under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, having had missions established among them for nearly half a century. They are consequently acquainted with all the usages of civilized warfare, and the policy of the United States government towards them. Many of them--as the Klickitats--have been driven from this side of the mountains by the encroachments of the whites, and are aware of our growing power on this coast. They are also acquainted with the condition of the Indian races east of the Rocky Mountains, and are aware that the rising tides of civilization from the East and the West threaten, at no distant day, to engulf them, with the remnant of their race, in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains. All these considerations make them doubly sensitive to any occupancy of their narrowed and narrowing limits by the whites. Hence the cause of the recent attack upon Col. Steptoe. There is no losing sight of this fact--Uncle Sam will either have to guarantee them all the country east of the Cascade Mountains and west of the Rocky Mountains from the encroachments of the white race, or else fight them. Which will he do?
    I perceive by late advices from Washington that Congress has passed a bill opening their country up to survey and settlement! Shouldn't Congress first take measures for the extinguishment of the Indian title, and the removal of the Indians? Take my word for it, either of these jobs are hard to accomplish. The Indians will not sell. They have no place to go to. They have their permanent homes where they are. They have houses, and cultivation and stock, and they do not mean to give up their country without a desperate struggle. Col. Steptoe is preparing to regain his lost position, and to chastise the rebellious semi-savages. Meanwhile, should Congress persist in its intention to send surveyors into their country to commence the work of white settlement, you may look out for an Indian war upon a scale more magnificent than any in which our Uncle has been engaged since the days of Black Hawk. All the Indians north to the British line, and many tribes beyond, will engage in it. Such are the threats of the Chief Kamiakin and his allies.
    In our political atmosphere there is little worthy to be chronicled transpiring since the recent election. The result of that has not (as you are aware) disappointed my expectations. The faction which has ruled Oregon for the last seven years with a petty personal malignity akin to despotism has taken a new lease of its existence. The "Statesman clique" party has triumphed in the recent election for state officers, but by a decreased majority, which augurs well for the coming era of independent thought and action. For once, even in party-ridden Oregon, many voters have disregarded the orders of the drill sergeant, and made an effort for their own liberation. This, I say, is significant, and is just cause for hope when we take into consideration the amount of political intelligence pervading our atmosphere, the force of habit and of party drill--and above all the almost superstitious reverence with which the masses regard that mythical piece of India-rubber composition yclept "the Democratic Party." You know "confidence" is said to be "a plant of slow growth." Well, I don't see why a want of it, especially in the infallibility of "the party," should not be. At least, such is my experience. But once awaken doubt, and faith in "the party," as well as in "the Westminster Confession of Faith," is at an end. Such is the condition (in my opinion) of the great bulk of the voters of Oregon today, as evinced by the result of the late election. The trickery, treachery and selfishness of the handful of unprincipled pap-eaters (renegades, for the most part, from their old party associations for the sake of office), have shaken the confidence of even the honest, patient props of party despotism in this Territory. They are in a transition state--out of the Egypt of old party tyranny, but not yet in the Canaan of individual independence. But we are on the high road to it. Now, mark that! And had the unwise leaders of the late opposition been anything else but time-serving old grannies, the goal might even now have been obtained. But the "Nationals" or "Standard" portion of "the Democratic Party," though professing to hate the ruling faction or "Statesman clique"--as they undoubtedly did, because they stood between them and the public fodder--failed to make any issue involving principle. The Eugene convention not only endorsed President Buchanan, but swallowed Lecompton whole, without making a wry face. They did this in the hope of securing a few pro-slavery votes of men in Lane and Benton counties, principally, who yet hope that the Supreme Court can make a slave state of Oregon! Having done so, it was impossible that the Republican Party--however ardently they desired to overthrow the Salem Dynasty--could heartily support their nominees. Had the Nationals come out and endorsed Douglas and his popular sovereignty doctrine--as the convention that framed our constitution and the people in their action upon it did--and had they canvassed the Territory upon that platform with zeal and ability--neither of which they exhibited in the late canvass, the result might have been different. Oregon, which had the most ample fair play in the formation and adoption of her own constitution, would, I am convinced, have endorsed the apostles of popular sovereignty, and condemned the effete Administration, which sought to deny similar opportunities to a sister Territory. But the "Nationals" didn't put faith in the honesty of the people of Oregon, and, as a consequence, the people put little confidence in them. They went down, as I am glad they did, and nobody laments their fall. Let them go back and eat dirt for another decade under the lash of the Salem dynasty.
    O'Meara (late of California and now of the Portland Standard) made the best run of any on the National, or opposition, ticket. This, however, was owing to the unpopularity of his rival candidate (Bush of the Statesman) for the state printership. Bush is elected by three or four hundred majority. O'Meara being a Californian, it was used against him with great effect. Bush ransacked the columns of the Sacramento Union--orthodox authority with him on this occasion, though at others he would not touch it with tongs--to prove the enormity of the California state printing swindle, and O'Meara's connection therewith. Bush, of course, knew that there was no analogy between the cases of California and Oregon in this respect, but no matter for that, he hung on to Dean Swift's old adage that a lie stuck to was as good as the truth. He did stick to it, and as our honest old farmers, hating taxes as they do next to California politicians, were fearful that by some unknown hocus pocus O'Meara might "come California" over their state treasury in the shape of printing bills, they kicked the balance slightly in favor of Bush. However, all things considered, the result is very complimentary to O'Meara, and had he been known better, I have no doubt he would have been elected.
    The Legislature (for the election of two U.S. Senators) convenes on the first Monday of next month--July. Your humble servant means to be present to chronicle and send you the result in advance of all others. The contest will be rather of a personal than a political nature. My own opinion is that "old Jo Lane" and the Hon. Delazon Smith, of Linn County, will be the successful candidates. If Lane has got sufficient strength, he would prefer to have Governor Curry for a colleague. Lane may elect Curry, à la Broderick with Gwin. He both fears and hates Delazon for his abilities as an orator, and would greatly prefer a silent partner. Should Lane succeed according to his expectations, you may look out for radical changes in the federal offices in this Territory. A letter has been received by one of his friends here (this county is his home), in which he breathes no friendly spirit towards the federal officers appointed at the solicitation of his quondam friends the "Salem clique." But I am treading on private premises, and will forbear.
    It is reported that Gov. Jas. Douglas, of Vancouver Island, has imposed a duty of $5 upon each boat navigating Fraser River, and actually forbids any goods being sent up the river except such as are bought from the Hudson's Bay Company. I believe this report is all or nearly "all bosh." He may impose license on gold digging, but cannot, in my opinion, do the other. The report was obtained from the Sound papers, and should be received, like most of their other statements, with caution.
    Yours, &c.,        P.J.M.
Sacramento Daily Union, July 21, 1858, page 1


    "We wintered in Salt Lake City in 1854-55," said Michael Kinny of Walla Walla. "In the spring of 1855 we started for Fort Lane in Southern Oregon. At Carson Sinks, near the head of the Humboldt River, Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe took two companies of the Third Artillery to California while the rest of us belonging to the First Dragoons under Lieutenant Oleson went on to Fort Lane. We reached Fort Lane in July and almost at once we were into the thick of the Rogue River Indian War. We were detailed to act as escort for pack trains to Yreka, Crescent City and Jacksonville.
    "I have fought for Uncle Sam for many a long year. I have been among Indians for more than 50 years, and in all that time I have yet to see the Indian war that was started by the Indians. Every time the trouble has been stirred up by bad whites and the rest of the country has been dragged into it. I mind how Lieutenant John L. Gratton, of the Sixth Infantry, one of the most popular young fellows in the service, was killed with 29 troopers over a lame cow belonging to an emigrant. The cow didn't keep up with the rest of the stock. The Indians, finding it without an owner, took it and ate it. The owner made complaint to the commanding officer at Fort Laramie, who sent Lieutenant Gratton out to round up the nearby Sioux Indians and arrest the thief. The upshot of the matter was the Indians refused to specify the thief or turn him over. They came to words over the matter and then to blows and Gratton and 29 out of his 30 men were killed. Next spring a force of 1300 cavalry and infantry were sent out from Fort Leavenworth to make further investigations about the lost cow. Little Thunder, the chief of the Sioux Indians, asked for a parley, but the officer said, 'No, we have come to fight, not to parley.' When the matter was adjusted there were a lot more dead soldiers, and they picked up and buried 83 dead Indians. They called this fight the battle of Ash Hollow.
    "In August, 1855, a white man in Southern Oregon sold some Indians whiskey, and the result was a fight in which a number of the Indians and several white men were killed. A company of volunteers was organized, its members came to our captain, A. J. Smith, and demanded the Indians. Captain Smith would not turn the Indians over to be killed without trial. This made hard feelings toward the regulars. The settlers couldn't see what need there was of trying Indians. They thought hanging was too good for them. The settlers said they were tired of fighting the Indians and soldiers, too, but whenever there was any real fighting to be done I notice they always said we were paid for fighting and told us to wade in.
    "The miners and settlers kept having brushes with the Indians, and finally Colonel John E. Ross of the Oregon militia organized a number of companies and took the field against the Indians. The Indians and volunteers had a fight on Skull Bar on Rogue River in October, 1855, in which some of the volunteers and some Indians were killed. Late that same month in the hills of Grave Creek to the southward of Cow Creek, 250 volunteers and about 100 United States dragoons had a fight with the Indians. Our captain, A. J. Smith, had grown gray in the service and yet he was outranked by the commander of the volunteers, so he had no voice in the matter. The volunteers had an idea they knew how to fight better than the regulars. Well, we had the fight and the Indians licked us. Captain Smith was told to charge up the hill and dislodge the Indians. We did so and had three men killed and seven badly wounded. During the next two days we killed some Indians, and they killed and wounded a good many whites, both volunteers and regulars. We were more afraid of the volunteers than of the Indians, for in the volunteers every man was his own boss and some of them were so inexperienced they would shoot if they saw a bush move, and as often as not the bush was moved by one of our dragoons working his way forward toward the Indians. If a regular was told to go he went, whether he knew he would be killed or not, but in the volunteers, the officers had but little authority and the men stopped to argue the question. The amateur officers of the volunteers were brave enough, but they had no experience. They were lawyers, clerks and politicians, and none of these jobs had trained them in military science.
    "Toward the last of the year we were ordered to go to Applegate Creek, where the volunteers had surrounded Chief Jo and a band of Indians. We had been in the saddle for 24 hours and were dead for sleep, but we started out and rode through rain and sleet for 12 hours. There were 40 of us under Lieutenant Underwood. We had a howitzer along. The Indians were fortified in three log cabins. We dropped a howitzer shell through the roof of one of the cabins and scattered the Indians in that cabin to the other cabins. It was dusk, so we decided to wait till next morning and do the job by daylight. During the night the Indians escaped.
    "Later we caught up with them and dispersed them with some loss on both sides. During the early part of 1856 Lieutenant Colonel R. C. Buchanan of the Fourth Infantry was in command and kept us in the field constantly. He had two batteries of the Third Artillery, four companies of the Fourth Infantry and our troop--Troop C of the First Dragoons. Our hardest fight was in May at the Big Bend of the Rogue River. We were 90 strong, and we stood off a vastly superior force of Indians for a day and a half until we were relieved by Captain C. C. Augur of the Fourth Infantry. More than a third of our force of 90 men were killed or wounded in the 36 hours' fighting. Captain John's band finally surrendered.
    "We took about 700 Indians by boat to Portland and from there to the reservation at Grand Ronde in Polk County. We escorted Chief John's band and the Pistol River and Chetco bands from near Roseburg overland to the Grand Ronde Reservation. That settled the Rogue River War."
Oregon Daily Journal, Portland, May 12, 1915, page 6