The governor called the people together in the evening, and, after the statements of the object of the meeting, some forcible and earnest remarks from Judge Nesmith and Messrs. Lee, Barlow, and others, the enrollment of the first company of Oregon riflemen commenced.
The following true and noble-hearted men sprang to arms, and, in fifteen hours from the time they had enrolled their names as defenders of Oregon, were on their way to protect their own and their countrymen’s lives from Hudson’s Bay Company, Jesuitical, and Indian savagism.
We will give the names of this noble little band a place in the history of the country they were so prompt and ready to defend. They are as follows:—
| Joseph B. Proctor, | George Moore, | W. M. Carpenter, |
| J. S. Rinearson, | Henry W. Coe, | Lucius Marsh, |
| H. A. G. Lee, | William Buckman, | Joel McKee, |
| Thomas Purvis, | S. A. Jackson, | H. Levalley, |
| J. Magone, | Jacob Witchey, | J. W. Morgan, |
| C. Richardson, | John Fleming, | O. Tupper, |
| J. E. Ross, | A. C. Little, | R. S. Tupper, |
| Isaac Walgamoutts, | A. J. Thomas, | C. H. Devendorf, |
| John G. Gibson, | George Westby, | John Hiner, |
| B. B. Rogers, | Edward Robson, | C. W. Savage, |
| Benjamin Bratton, | Andrew Wise, | G. H. Bosworth, |
| Samuel K. Barlow, | D. Averson, | Jacob Johnson, |
| Wm. Berry, | J. H. McMellen, | Stephen Cummings, |
| John Bolton, | John C. Danford, | George Weston. |
Forty-two as noble and true men as ever breathed. They were soon organized under a set of energetic and brave young officers, who feared no danger, and were ready to meet in open fight the combined enemies of their country’s rights upon the shores of the Pacific or in the mountains or valleys of Oregon. Their officers were:—
| Captain, H. A. G. Lee. | First Sergeant, J. S. Rinearson. | |
| First Lieutenant, J. Magone. | Second Sergeant, W. Savage. | |
| Second Lieutenant, J. E. Ross. | Third Sergeant, Wm. Berry. | |
| Commissary, C. H. Devendorf. | First Corporal, Stephen Cummings. | |
| Surgeon, W. M. Carpenter, M. D. | Second Corporal, J. H. McMellen. |
“At twelve o’clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, the company assembled at the City Hotel, where they were presented with an appropriate flag, by Judge Nesmith, in behalf of the ladies of Oregon City, with an appropriate address. (No record of that address or of the names of the donors can be found.) Captain Lee, on the part of the company, made an exceedingly happy reply upon receiving the beautiful token of the patriotism of the lovely donors.”
In two hours after, the company started, amid the firing of cannon and the cheers of the assembled citizens. It speaks well for our city, that in less than twenty-four hours this detachment was raised and had started for the scene of action.
It is to be regretted that the editor of the Oregon Spectator, at the time these deeply-interesting events were occurring, should fill the only public journal on the coast with accounts of personal piques, and allow the remarks of Judge Nesmith and the reply of Captain Lee to pass with the meager notice we have quoted; that the deeply-stirring events respecting the murder of his countrymen should find so small a place in his editorial. He tells us in this same paper that he means to keep us posted in the war news, but the next paper is filled with a personal war between himself and the directors of the Printing Association, about some political resolutions that did no good or harm to anybody, except to show the party spirit then existing in the country, in which he is foolish enough to engage, and degrade his noble position as a journalist and editor, which compels us to look to other sources for facts relative to the history of those times.