The object of the fight was fully accomplished. Two hundred and sixty-seven Indians were killed, several of their leading chiefs among the number. Not fifteen escaped to tell the story of the battle.
This victory removed at once and forever the greatest impediment in the way of emigration to the new Territory and a safe exit from it for those who wished to return to their homes in the States. Previous to it people could not, with safety, pass in either direction except in large and strongly armed companies; and with certain exposure to the Indians on the one hand, and the robbers and brigands on the other, with no other possible outlet for escape except by crossing the Territory to Fort Benton or over the Cœur D’Alene Mountains to Walla Walla, both very uncertain and dangerous routes, the inhabitants of the Territory were completely at the mercy of their assailants. No more fortunate event could have occurred at the time, than this successful extermination of a dangerous foe.
The lesson this battle taught the Bannacks has never been forgotten. The instance of an attack by other bands upon the emigrants has never been known since that day. It so reduced their tribe in number that they have ever since been a broken and dispirited people. They are the vagrants of the mountains, as remarkable for their pusillanimity, as, in the days of Bonneville, they were for their bravery, and the commanding position they held among the mountain tribes.
The following is a list of the killed and wounded in the fight:
Second Cavalry, Company A
Killed.—Privates, James W. Baldwin, George German.
Wounded.—Lieut. D. J. Berry; Privates, John W. Wall, James S. Montgomery, John Welsh, William H. Lake, William Jay.
Frozen.—Corporal Adolph Spraggle; Privates, John D. Marker, J. Kearney, Samuel L’Hommidieu, R. McNulty, G. Swan.
Company H
Killed.—Privates, John K. Briggs, Charles L. Hallowell.