| Company. | Strength. | Captain. |
| C | 70 | George B. Goudy |
| D | 55 | William H. Wallace |
| G | 22 | W.A.L. McCorkle |
| M | 75 | C.C. Hewett |
| I | 84 | Isaac N. Ebey |
| J | 29 | Alfred A. Plummer |
| Nisqually Ferry Guard | 10 | Sergeant William Packwood |
| 345 |
| Newell’s Company, mounted | Captain Robert Newell |
| McKay’s Company ” | Captain William C. McKay |
Captain Strong’s and Hays’s companies were mustered into the regular service. The mounted men furnished their own horses.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
WAGING THE WAR ON THE SOUND
The force thus speedily raised was organized into three battalions, designated the Northern, Southern, and Central, each of which elected its major, and the two latter were subsequently formed into a single command by the election of Shaw as lieutenant-colonel.
The Northern battalion, under the command of Major J.J.H. Van Bokkelen, consisted of companies C, Captain Daniel Smalley; H, Captain R.V. Peabody; and I, Captain Samuel D. Howe. The Central battalion, under Major Gilmore Hays, comprised companies B, Captain A.B. Rabbeson; C, Captain B.L. Henness; E, Captain C.W. Riley; F, Captain C.W. Swindal; the Pioneer Company, Captain White; and the train guard, Captain Oliver Shead. The Southern battalion included the Washington Mounted Rifles, Major H.J.G. Maxon; Company D, Captain Achilles; J, Captain Bluford Miller; and K, Captain Francis M.P. Goff, all under the command of Major Maxon. The Southern battalion and Captain Henness’s Company C were mounted, most of the volunteers furnishing their own horses. The others served as infantry. Besides these, Company A, of forty-two men, Captain Edward Lander (chief justice of the Territory), was raised at Seattle, and garrisoned that place.
The plan of campaign was to guard the line of the Snohomish River with the whole available force of the Northern battalion, to move with the Central battalion at once into the heart of the enemy’s country with one hundred days’ supplies, to operate with the Southern battalion east of the Cascades, and to combine all the operations by a movement from the Sound to the interior, or from the interior to the Sound, according to circumstances.
The most favorable and commonly used passes across the Cascades were at the head of the Snohomish and its southern branch, the Snoqualmie; about and opposite the mouth of the river were a good part of the Sound Indians; it was here that the council of Mukilteo was held, at which twenty-three hundred Indians were present, and across the Sound, nearly opposite, was collected the greatest number of non-hostiles. The occupation of the line of the Snohomish, therefore, was a move of the first strategic importance as shutting the door against the incursions of the Yakimas, and cutting off the tribes on the Sound from access to the back country and intercourse with them and other hostiles.
It was determined to occupy the country permanently by roads and blockhouses, by which, together with the stockades and blockhouses which the encouraged settlers were building and holding at many points, to circumscribe the hostile resorts and coverts, and open up the trackless back country. Indian auxiliaries were to be used as the best means of preserving their doubtful fidelity, and of using their knowledge of the country to search out and hunt down the hostiles.