The bad blood and duplicity of this communication was the more inexcusable from the facts that it was on the requisition of his own officers that the Washington volunteers had been raised and mustered into the United States service, that he made no complaint whatever against them or the people of that Territory, and that his last assertion was a downright falsehood. Even after receiving the full and valuable memoir which Governor Stevens sent him, he declared in official communications: “I have been kept wholly ignorant of the state of the country, except through the regular officers of the army.”
On March 15 Wool made another flying visit to Vancouver, thence by steamer to Steilacoom, where he tarried but a single day, conferred with and instructed Colonel Casey, rebuked him for coöperating with the volunteers, and hurried away without deigning to notify the governor of his presence. The latter, on hearing that he had left Vancouver for the Sound, immediately dispatched Adjutant-General Tilton to Steilacoom with a letter to Wool, stating:—
“He is instructed to advise you of the plan of operations which I have adopted, the force in the field, and the condition of the country. I have to acquaint you of my desire to coöperate with you in any plans you may think proper to adopt, and I shall be pleased to hear from you in reference to the prosecution of the campaign.”
But Wool had left before Tilton could reach him.
The first and only result of Wool’s flying visit was manifested next day in a formal demand by Colonel Casey on Governor Stevens for two companies of volunteers to be mustered into the United States service, and placed under his orders. He stated in conclusion:—
“I received yesterday an accession of two companies of the 9th infantry. With this accession of force and the two companies of volunteers called for, I am of the opinion that I shall have a sufficient number of troops to protect this frontier without the aid of those now in the service of the Territory.”
This demand was made just after the volunteers had defeated the hostiles, as will soon be narrated.
Thus, instead of the coöperation which he so earnestly sought with the regular service, he was coolly required by the commanding general to disband thirteen companies of white troops and four bodies of Indian auxiliaries, abandon his posts and blockhouses defending the settlements and in the enemy’s country, leave the door of the Snohomish open for the Yakima emissaries to strike the reservations and the settlements,—in a word, give up his whole campaign at the moment when he had inflicted a severe defeat upon the enemy, and, fully prepared, was on the eve of following it up with his whole force, all posted in the very positions, and furnished with the needed supplies, which he had secured by so much labor and foresight, and to leave the defense of this extended and exposed frontier to an officer whose force would consist of only five companies of regulars and two of volunteers,—seven in all,—and whose most extended operations thus far had never gone beyond fifteen miles from his headquarters at Fort Steilacoom. This artful and impudent request of Wool—for Colonel Casey made it by his instructions—was instantly rejected by the governor with the scorn it deserved; and in a letter to Wool, dated March 20, he administered a well-deserved castigation to that ill-disposed officer:—
Executive Office, Washington Territory,
Olympia, March 20, 1856.
Major-General John E. Wool,
Commanding Pacific Division.