a wretched night. So much did the Indians annoy them by firing into camp, that the captured stock was turned out in the hope that with that they would be content to depart. This, however, did not suffice, for when the volunteers were ready to move in the morning, the Indians swarmed about their heels and hung upon their flanks.
It soon became evident that the battle was to be at the crossing of the Touchet. When within two miles of the ford the Indians made a dash to pass the volunteers and take up their position, the river-bottom affording a thick cover of shrubby trees. White men and reds contended bravely for precedence, and the smoke of their guns mingled as they approached the crossing.[1] In this engagement the Cayuses did not show that apparent ignorance of tactics displayed at the battle of Umatilla, and warming to their work kept the army of Oregon for an hour at the ford before it all gained the southern side. Unequal as the numbers were, the volunteers achieved a decided victory. Though sustaining a loss of ten wounded, none were killed. The Indians, on the other hand, had four killed and fourteen wounded.[2] No attempt was made to follow the Americans across the Touchet. The whoop and yell, and rattle of musketry which had been continuous for thirty hours, ceased, and from the farther side of the stream came the wild and melancholy death-song which attested their loss. On the 16th the army arrived jaded and famishing at Fort Waters, having eaten nothing except a small colt for three days.[3]
- ↑ Captain Maxon in his report says that the courage and determination of a few young men saved the army from a heavy loss and perhaps from being cut to pieces; and mentions in a subsequent letter the names of captains Hall? Owens, and Thompson, sergeants Burch and Cooke, Quartermaster Goodhue, Judge Advocate Rinearson, and Paymaster Magone. English being at Waiilatpu did not participate in this battle, nor Thomas McKay, who had returned sick to Walla Walla when the commissioners left. See Or. Spectator, April 6, 1848; Gray's Hist. Or., 568.
- ↑ This is the number of killed and wounded given by Craig in a letter found in the Or. Archives, MS., 138. A writer in the Catholic Magazine, vii. 491, states that there were 50 Indians killed; but this number is entirely too great.
- ↑ Crawford's Nar., MS., 121.
