Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

Colonel Gilliam, though having had no military education, had the American pioneer's capacity and fertility of resources, and conducted his midwinter campaign with courage and energy. As already noted, Peter Skeen Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company, had ransomed the captives of Waiilatpu long before even the scantily equipped regiment of Oregon volunteers could take the field. But even though the first necessity, that of rescuing the captives, had been filled, the command felt that the situation compelled a definite campaign and the capture and bringing to justice of the murderers. Hence Colonel Gilliam pressed on his march as rapidly as possible. On the last day of February, 1848, he crossed the Des Chutes River to a point where hostile Indians had already taken a stand. A battle ensued the next day, resulting in the defeat of the Indians and a treaty of peace with the Des Chutes tribe. Pressing on toward Walla Walla, the command was checked at Sand Hollows in the Lower Umatilla River Valley, by a strong force of Indians in command of Five Crows, a Cayuse chief. This chieftain claimed the powers of a wizard and declared that he could swallow all the bullets fired at him by the whites. Another brave called War Eagle, or Swallow Ball, made equal claims to invulnerability. The two chiefs undertook to demonstrate their wizard powers by dashing out in front of the volunteers. Tom McKay, who was the stepson of Doctor McLoughlin and was then the captain of a company composed mainly of French Canadians, could not withstand the challenge and sent a bullet from his trusty rifle through the head of Swallow Ball. At the same time Charles McKay sent a companion ball into the supposedly invulnerable anatomy of Five Crows, wounding him so severely that he was out of the war henceforth. After a desultory series of engagements, the Indians retreated and Colonel Gilliam's command pushed on to Waiilatpu, which point they reached on March 2d. At the desolate spot they discovered that the remains of the martyrs of the Whitman Mission had been hastily interred by the Ogden party, but that in the interval of time coyotes had partially exhumed them. They reverently replaced the sacred remains in one large grave, covering them with a wagon box found on the ground. Them in that abandoned place the bones of the martyred band remained unmarked for many years. As now known to all residents of Walla Walla, a monument was reared upon the hill overlooking the scene of the tragedy, and the remains were reinterred and covered with a marble slab inscribed with the names of the victims of the massacre. A lock of long fair hair was found near the ruined mission which there is every reason to think was from the head of Mrs. Whitman. It is now preserved among the precious relics in the museum of Whitman College.

With the volunteers was Joseph L. Meek, one of the Rocky Mountain trappers who had settled in the Willamette Valley and had become prominent in establishing the Provisional Government of Oregon in 1843. He now with a few companions was on his way across the continent to carry dispatches to Washington announcing the Whitman Massacre and urging the Government to make immediate provision for a proper territorial government. Meek had come thus far with the troops, but now passed beyond them on his difficult and dangerous journey. It may be added that with much hardship from cold and near starvation he reached St. Louis in the extraordinarily short time of seventy-two days.

The dilatory and scheming Congress and administration was roused by the Whitman Massacre to some sense of the needs of far-away Oregon. A great struggle ensued over the slavery question in which Calhoun, Davis, Foote, and other southern senators made determined efforts to defeat the prohibition of slavery in Oregon. They were overpowered by the eloquence of Corwin, the determination of Benton and the statesmanship of Webster, and on August 13, 1848, the bill to establish a territorial government for Oregon with slavery prohibited passed Congress. President Polk appointed Joseph Lane governor, Joseph Meek marshal, and William B. Bryant judge in the new territory. Not till March 3, 1849, did they reach their stations and take up their duties. Of all the history of the great congressional discussion with the momentous national questions involved, there is a graphic account by Judge Thornton, while Benton in his "Thirty Years in Congress" gives a vivid and illuminating view.

Meanwhile the little army of Oregon volunteers were engaged in a long-drawn and harassing series of marches and counter marches in search of the guilty murderers. An adobe fort, called Fort Waters, from Lieut. Col. James Waters, was built at Waiilatpu. The Cayuses had counted upon the help of the other tribes, but the Nez Perces and Spokanes repudiated their murderous kindred, and the Yakimas took an attitude of indifference. Peupeumoxmox of the Walla Wallas, though having more of a real grievance against the whites than any other Indian on account of the brutal murder of his son, as related in the preceding chapter, did not actively aid the hostiles. He played a wily game, and was justly regarded with suspicion by the command.

In the midst of the tangle and uncertainty, and the scattering of the guilty parties in all directions, Colonel Gilliam decided to make an expedition northeasterly to the Tucanon and Snake rivers in the hope of encountering and destroying the main force of the hostiles and bringing the war to a conclusion at one blow. Reaching the mouth of the Tucanon, a few miles below the present Starbuck, the colonel was outgeneraled by the wily Indians who gave him to understand that the Indian camp was that of Peupeumoxmox. Taking advantage of the delay the Cayuses drove their large bands of stock into the Snake River and made them swim to the north bank. The main body of Indians succeeded in getting away with their valuable stock. The Palouses were doubtless aiding and abetting them. Disappointed in his aims Colonel Gilliam gave the order to return to Walla Walla. Upon reaching the Touchet in the near vicinity of the present Bolles Junction, the Indians made a rush for the Touchet River in the evident hope of entangling the troops at the crossing. A desperate encounter took place, the hardest, and in fact the only real battle of the year, in which the whites fought their way through the stream and made their way to the Walla-Walla. Reaching Fort Waters at Waiilatpu on March 16th, it was determined by a council of war that Colonel Gilliam should go to The Dalles with 160 men in order to meet and escort a supply train to the Walla Walla, while Lieutenant-Colonel Waters should take command at the fort. On the way, just having crossed the Umatilla, Colonel Gilliam while in the act of drawing a rope from a wagon accidentally caught it in the trigger of a loaded gun. The weapon was discharged and the commander was instantly killed. This was a most lamentable loss, for Colonel Gilliam was not only an efficient commander, but was one of the best of the Oregon pioneers, with the capacity for a most useful career in the new land. Lieutenant-Colonel Waters became colonel in command upon the announcement of the death of Colonel Gilliam. He undertook at once a march to Lapwai under the belief that the murderers were harbored among the Nez Perces. Nothing definite was accomplished by this expedition. According to the assertions of the Nez Perces Telaukaikt, one of the supposed leaders of the Whitman Massacre, had fled. The Nez Perces delivered a number of cattle and horses which they said belonged to the Cayuses. The attempt to seize the murderers themselves being seemingly futile, Colonel Waters returned again to the fort at Waiilatpu. It had now become evident that the condition did not justify the retention of a regiment in the Cayuse country. Governor Abernethy, still acting as head of the Provisional Government of Oregon, decided to recall the main body of troops. A small force under Major Magone was sent to Chimakain, the mission near Spokane where Eells and Walker were located, in order to bring that missionary band to a place of safety. It was found by Major Magone that the Spokane Indians had been faithful to their teachers and had guarded them from danger. Few things more thrilling have been narrated in the hearing of the author than the accounts given by Mr. Eells and Mr. Walker, and above all by Edwin Eells, oldest son of Father Eells, of the conditions under which that devoted group existed for some days when it was thought that the hostile Indians were on the way to Spokane to destroy them. On one evening hearing an awful powwow and hullaballoo from a crowd of mounted Indians and seeing them rapidly approaching in the dim light, Father Eells went out bravely to meet them, thinking it likely was the dreaded marauders, to discover in a moment that it was their own Spokanes, armed for their defence.

Escorted by the company of volunteers, the missionaries of Chimakain went to the Willamette Valley where the Walker family made their permanent home, while Father Eells with his family remained twelve years and then returned to the Walla Walla country to found Whitman College and to make his home for a number of years at Waiilatpu.

While Major Magone was thus engaged in caring for the last of the missionaries, Capt. William Martin was left at Fort Waters (Waiilatpu) with fifty-five men to look out for the interests of immigrants who might enter the country and to keep a vigilant eye upon the movements of the savages. This Captain Martin, it may be remembered by some readers, took up his residence at Pendleton in 1880 and was long a leading citizen of that city. One of his sons now lives at Touchet in Walla Walla County and one of his grandsons, of the same name as himself, became one of the most noted athletes at Whitman College and now occupies a place as physical director in a large eastern university. Another small force in command of Lieutenant Rogers was stationed at Fort Lee at The Dalles. But as to further operations in the field they seemed to be at an end. The Cayuses scattered in various directions, and other Indians, while making no resistance to the whites, gave them little or no assistance. Finally in 1850 a band of friendly Umatillas pursued a bunch of Cayuses under Tamsaky or Tamsucky to the headwaters of the John Day River and after a severe struggle killed Tamsaky and captured the most of his followers.

The last act in the tragedy was the execution of several Indian chiefs who had voluntarily gone to Oregon City and had been seized and subjected to trial as being the murderers of the Whitman party. There is a very unsatisfactory condition of testimony about the real guilt of this group of Indians. The Cayuse Indians claimed, and many of the whites believed that one only of the five who were hung on June 3, 1850, was guilty. As a concluding glance at this grewsome event, the reader may be interested in the following official declaration of innocence of those Indians.

"Tilokite—I am innocent of the crime of which I am charged. Those who committed it are dead, some killed, some died; there were ten, two were my sons; they were killed by the Cayuses. Tumsucky, before the massacre, came to my lodge; he told me that they were going to hold a council to kill Doctor Whitman. I told him not to do so, that it was bad. One night seven Indians died near the house of Doctor Whitman, to whom he had given medicines. Tumsucky's family were sick; he gave them roots and leaves; they got well. Other Indians died. Tumsucky came often. I talked to him, but his ears were shut; he would not hear; he and others went away. After a while some children came into my lodge and told me what was going on. I had told Tumsucky over and over to let them alone; my talk was nothing; I shut my mouth. When I left my people, the young chief told me to come down and talk with the big white chief, and tell him who it was, that did kill Doctor Whitman and others. My heart was big; 'tis small now. The priest tells me I must die tomorrow. I know not for what. They tell me that I have made a confession to the marshal that I struck Doctor Whitman. 'Tis false! You ask me if the priests did not encourage us to kill Doctor Whitman? I answer no, no."

"Monday, 11:30 o'clock—I am innocent, but my heart is weak since I have been in chains, but since I must die, I forgive them all. Those who brought me here and take care of me, I take them all in my arms, my heart is opened."