Can there be any different conclusion than that in that strong passage, Colonel Baker referred among others to the First Oregon Cavalry, which, though largely recruited after his death, was the direct product of his inspiration and suggestion. On the twenty-first of October, 1861, while gallantly leading his regiment at the battle of Ball's Bluff, Colonel Baker was instantly killed, and with his death went the chance of the Oregon regiment to obtain service at the seat of war.
As the months rolled by and no fulfillment came of the promises that had been made for Eastern service, the regiment joined in a round robin to President Lincoln in which they recited the promises that had been made to them and asked for their fulfillment. The President's answer, filled with the lofty patriotism and spirit of unselfishness, that was his daily part, told them that the greatest and highest duty for all, was that which lay nearest at hand and with the regular troops almost all withdrawn from Oregon and Washington, and the tide of immigrants and scattered settlements open to Indian attack and the towns and villages liable to disunion, intrigue, and plot, their nearest as well as their highest duty was to guard the State from foes both savage and traitorous from without and from open treason within.
And to the gallant men of the First Oregon Cavalry the word of the great President was final. They accepted the task he set them to accomplish, and although to them the pomp and circumstance of war were missing, although no patriotic millions stood by to applaud their gallant feats, and the eye of Government was not upon them, yet for three long weary years they did their duty faithfully and well, and by that faithfulness preserved their beautiful State for the Union and the wonderful future that has come to it.
Some there were of Oregon blood and Oregon soil, however, who could not remain away from the greater theater of war, where the more dramatic destiny of the nation was being wrought out in havoc of blood and treasure. Col. Joseph Hooker, "Fighting Joe Hooker," living at Salem when the war broke out, went East, and became a brigadier-general, and Bancroft speaks of others as follows: "Volney Smith, son of Delazon Smith, was for a short time lieutenant in a New York regiment; James W. Lingenfelter, residing at Jacksonville, was made captain of a volunteer company, and killed at Fortress Monroe October 8, 1861; John L. Boon, son of the state treasurer, who had been a student of the Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, was at the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, in an Ohio regiment, in Gen. Lew Wallace's division; Major Snooks, of the Sixty-eighth Ohio, was formerly an Oregonian of the immigration of '44; George Williams, of Salem, was second lieutenant of the Fourth Infantry, and in the second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Frederickburg, and Gettysburg, losing a foot at Gettysburg; Frank W. Thompson, of Linn County, was colonel of the Third Virginia Volunteers in 1863; Henry Butler, of Oakland, was a member of the eighty sixth Illinois Volunteers; Charles Harker was a lieutenant; Roswell C. Lampson, still living in Portland, was the first naval cadet from Oregon, and served with conspicuous gallantry and fidelity throughout the war; Capt. W. L. Dall, of the steamship Columbia, was appointed a lieutenant in the navy; and many of the regular army officers, whose northwestern service is indissolubly connected with its early history, rose to great eminence during the progress of the war.
"Notable among them was Rufus Ingalls, who became lieutenant colonel on McClellan's staff; Captain Hazen and Lieutenant Lorraine, who was wounded at Bull Run. Grant, Sheridan, Augur, Ord, Wright, Smith, Casey, Russell, Reynolds, and Alvord, all became generals, as well as Stevens, who had received a military education, but was not in the regular army."
It is not the purpose of this paper to follow the patriotic service of the First Oregon Cavalry during the long and wearisome months and years during which they labored in heat and cold, in storm and sunshine, under pioneer and frontier hardships, in chastising the hostile Indians, guarding the immigrant caravans, or holding in check the forces of disunion and secession. That there was need of them, for all these high and patriotic duties, there is no doubt.
As early as shortly after Lincoln's election in 1860, Senator Gwin, of California, with the undoubted knowledge and coöperation of Joseph Lane, of Oregon, formulated a plan for a slave-holding republic on the Pacific coast, with an aristocracy similar to the old Republic of Venice, vesting all power in a hereditary nobility, with an executive elected from themselves.
Should the Southern States succeed in withdrawing from the Union and setting up a Southern Confederacy without war, then with a continuous line of slave territory from Texas to the Pacific, the Pacific coast should combine with the South; but if war ensued between the North and South, then the coast should be captured, and the Venetian Republic be inaugurated separately, and slaves imported from the Isles of the Sea.
Bancroft, the historian, asserts that but for the strong restraining advice of Jesse Applegate and the overwhelming sentiment against him on his return, there is no doubt but what General Lane would have embarked in the enterprise, and that the boxes of arms and ammunition which accompanied his return were intended for that purpose. In 1862 it became known all through the Pacific coast that an oath bound secret organization of confederate sympathizers were holding almost nightly meetings at many places; and self-appointed Union detectives, from points of vantage could hear the tread of martial feet and the hoarse notes of command.
High authority has asserted that Gwin of California, Lane of Oregon, and a man named Tilden of Washington, were the instigators and advisors of this second movement to steal the Pacific coast from the Federal Union and hold it for the forces of disunion and secession. They chose for a title the quaint and striking name of "Knights of the Golden Circle."