Unable to answer this letter, which so clearly exposed and justly rebuked his reprehensible course and conduct, Wool returned it, with a note from his aide stating that it was done by his order. In response the governor, in a final letter to Wool, remarks of this act:—
“It can only be construed as evincing a determination on your part to have no further official communication with the executive of the Territory of Washington, at the very time when, from the circumstances of the case and the nature of their respective duties, there should, and must often be, such communications.
“It is a matter which is not to be decided by personal feeling, but by consideration of public duty, which alone should govern public acts. I shall therefore continue in my official capacity to communicate with the major-general commanding the Department of the Pacific whenever, in my judgment, duty and the paramount interests of the Territory shall demand such communication to be made, casting upon that officer whatever responsibility before the country and his superiors may attach to his refusal to receive such communications. My duty shall be done. Let others do their duty.”
The governor was always of the opinion, the result undoubtedly of what he was told by other officers, that, in disbanding the troops raised for his relief, Wool was actuated by resentment at his, the governor’s, manly declaration in San Francisco, when, disgusted at Wool’s self-laudation and disparagement of a greater commander, he said that “every officer knew, and history would record, that General Taylor won the battle of Buena Vista.” However that may be, after the caustic letter given above, Wool’s malice knew no bounds. He redoubled his accusations of making war upon friendly Indians, gathered up and sent on to the War Department in his official reports newspaper slanders against the governor, and even declared that he was crazy. He reiterated his orders to his subordinates to have nothing to do with the territorial volunteers or authorities, and finally went to the length of directing his officers to disarm the volunteers, if practicable. No attempt was ever made in that direction.
Early in February Pat-ka-nim, with eighty Snohomish braves, accompanied by Colonel Simmons, pushed up the Snohomish and against the hostiles on Green River under Leschi, the Nisqually chief, and defeated them in a sharp fight, inflicting a loss of five killed and six wounded, besides two taken and executed.
As fast as organized, the Northern battalion was advanced on the line of the Snohomish, where it built blockhouses and a camp known as Fort Tilton below the Snoqualmie Falls, and Fort Alden above them, and scouted the surrounding country. This battalion also established a blockhouse, with a garrison of fifteen men, at Bellingham Bay, and with blockhouses on Whitby Island and at Point Wilson, near Port Townsend, and a service of small vessels and canoes, kept watch over the lower Sound.
The Central battalion, having been assembled on Yelm prairie, twenty miles east of Olympia, and constructed there Fort Stevens, moved to and built Camp Montgomery, twelve miles back of Steilacoom, February 19 to 23; the post and ferry at the emigrant crossing of the Puyallup, 25th to 29th; and the post and blockhouses, named Fort Hays, on Connell’s prairie, on White River, by March 2; and later two blockhouses at the crossing of that river, named Forts Pike and Posey. Small garrisons held this line of blockhouses; roads were cut and opened through the forest; and a train of thirty ox-teams, three yoke each, bought, hired, or impressed from the settlers, hauled out a hundred days’ supplies. Captain Henness’s mounted rangers cheerfully dismounted, and, leaving their horses at Yelm prairie, advanced on foot. The governor visited Camp Montgomery on the 28th, pressing forward the movement.
Captain Sidney S. Ford, with a force of friendly Chehalis Indians, scouted the lower Puyallup. Lieutenant-Colonel Casey advanced a detachment of regulars to the Muckleshoot prairie, eight miles below Connell’s prairie, where they built a blockhouse named Fort Slaughter.
The government vessels on the Sound were the war steamer Massachusetts, Captain Samuel Swartwout, which remained mostly in Seattle harbor, where she relieved the Decatur; the Coast Survey steamer Active, Captain James Alden; and the revenue cutter Jefferson Davis, a sailing vessel, Captain William C. Pease. These officers were ever ready to aid in the defense of the settlements by every means in their power. They furnished ammunition, transported volunteers and supplies, and cruised the Sound to overawe the northern Indians.
On March 2 two white men were killed by Indians within a few miles of Olympia; Indians were seen and stock was driven off at other points; a band of savages under Qui-e-muth were discovered in the Nisqually bottom; and it appeared that, while the troops were pushing out, the Indians were coming in behind them to raid the settlements. Unwilling to arrest the forward movement, the governor immediately ordered Maxon’s company, of the Southern battalion, over to the Sound from Vancouver, and soon after brought over the rest of the battalion. By a special war notice he also called a hundred more men from the already denuded settlements, and, with the few that were able to respond, strengthened the exposed points.