THEATRE OF INDIAN WAR OF 1855–56 ON PUGET SOUND AND WEST OF CASCADE MOUNTAINS
This plan the governor early communicated to Lieutenant-Colonel Silas Casey (major-general in the Civil War), then commanding at Steilacoom, and invited and secured his coöperation therewith. So desirous was he to insure coöperation between the regular and volunteer forces that, waiving etiquette, he twice visited Casey in person; and early in February he again made the arduous journey to Vancouver, and by personal conference with Colonel George Wright, who commanded the regular troops both on the river and the Sound, sought to arrange harmonious and combined action between their respective forces, returning to Olympia by the 17th. During the war the governor spared no pains to consult with the regular officers and secure their concert of action with him, and this end he brought about quite fully with Casey, and partially with Wright, notwithstanding both officers were under the strictest injunctions from Wool not to recognize the volunteer forces in any way. The letter which Governor Stevens wrote to General Wool on reaching Walla Walla gave very fully the results of his knowledge of the country and the Indians, and his views and suggestions in regard to prosecuting the war, which, if adopted or heeded by the prejudiced commander, would have brought the contest to an end in a few months. After announcing his safe arrival, and giving a brief account of the numbers and dispositions of the Indian tribes, he describes the features of the Walla Walla, Palouse, Spokane, and Yakima countries which a military mail should know for planning the movement of troops, namely, roads, river crossings, grass, wood, depth of snow, etc., sending also a map.
The governor recommended Wool to occupy the Walla Walla valley with all his available force in January, establishing a depot camp there, and a line of barges on the Columbia between the mouth of the Des Chutes and old Fort Walla Walla, to bring up supplies; in February to cross Snake River with 500 men and strike the Indians on the Palouse, where the hostiles driven out of the valley were congregated; to follow up this blow by sending a column of 300 men up the left bank of the Columbia towards the Okinakane River (Okanogan), while 200 remained to guard the line of the Snake, and keep the Indians from doubling back. The effect of these movements would be to drive these hostiles across the Columbia into the Yakima country, when the troops north of the Snake were to follow them, and all the troops south of that stream, who had been holding the river crossings and depot camps, were to unite, cross the Columbia at the mouth of the Snake, and move up the Yakima valley, and with the other column put the Indians to their last battle, for the effect of these movements would be to drive the enemy into a corner from which he could not easily escape. Moreover, and this was of the first importance, this plan would interpose the troops between the hostile and friendly tribes. Simultaneous movements against the Yakimas and north of Snake River would throw the hostiles upon the Spokanes, and might cause them to take up arms. About 800 effective troops would be required. There were already 500 mounted Oregon volunteers in the Walla Walla valley, and Wool had, or would soon have, 500 to 600 regulars available.
In the last paragraph of this letter the governor stated:—
“In conclusion, it is due to frankness that I should state that I have determined to submit to the department the course taken by the military authorities in disbanding the troops raised in the Territory of Washington for my relief. No effort was made, although the facts were presented both to Major-General Wool and Major Rains, to send me assistance. The regular troops were all withdrawn into garrison, and I was left to make my way the best I could, through tribes known to be hostile. It remains to be seen whether the commissioner selected by the President to make treaties with the Indians in the interior of the continent is to be ignored, and his safety left to chance.”
On finding that General Wool had left so hastily for San Francisco the governor sent a copy of this memoir to Colonel Wright, with a letter, dated February 6, urging him to send at least two companies of the troops at Vancouver to the Sound, and to push his troops against the Indians east of the mountains.
But instead of profiting by the valuable information and sound views given him by Governor Stevens, Wool sarcastically replied that he had neither the resources of a Territory nor the treasury of the United States at his command. Instead of making use of, or coöperating with, the Oregon volunteers already in the Walla Walla valley, he denounced them as making war upon friendly Indians, and declared that, with the additional force recently arrived at the Dalles and Vancouver, he could bring the war to a close in a few months, provided the extermination of the Indians was not determined upon, and the volunteers were withdrawn from the Walla Walla valley. He filled the greater part of a long letter with denunciations of outrages by whites upon Indians in southern Oregon, and of the Oregon volunteers and of Governor Curry. He declared that two companies he had just sent to the Sound, with three already there, making five in all, under Lieutenant-Colonel Casey, would be a sufficient force to suppress the outbreak in that region. He concluded by saying:—
“In your frankness and determination to represent me to the department, I trust you will be governed by truth, and by truth only. I disbanded no troops raised for your relief; and your communication gave me the first intelligence that any were raised for such a purpose.”