gratulating the people, and asking the general to extend his protection to the immigration, and establish a garrison at or near Fort Boisé.[1] A considerable military force having been massed in the Oregon department for the conquest of the rebellious tribes,[2] Harney had, when he took command, found employment for them in explorations of the country. The military department in 1858 built a steamboat to run between The Dalles and Fort Walla Walla,[3] and about two thousand settlers took claims in the Walla Walla and Umatilla valleys during this summer. The hostilities which had heretofore prevented this progress being now at an end, there remained only the Snake,[4] Klamath, and Modoc tribes to be either conquered or conciliated. Little discipline had been administered in this quarter, except by the three expeditions previously mentioned of Wright, Walker, and Haller.
Harney, though more in sympathy with the people than his predecessors, was yet like them inclined to discredit the power or the will of the wild tribes
- ↑ Clarke and Wright's Campaign, 85; Or. Laws, 1858–9, app. iii.; Or. Statesman, Feb. 8, 1859.
- ↑ Besides the companies stationed to guard the Indian reservations in Oregon in 1857, there were 3 companies of the 9th inf. at The Dalles, one of the 4th inf. at Vancouver, one of the 3d art. at the Cascades, 3 of the 9th inf. at Fort Simcoe in the Yakima country, and at Fort Walla Walla 2 companies of inf., one of dragoons, and one of art. U. S. H. Ex. Doc. 2, vol. ii. pt ii. 78, 35th cong. 1st sess. In the autumn of 1858 three companies of art. from S. F., one from Fort Umpqua, now attached to the department of Cal., and an inf. co. from Fort Jones were sent into the Indian country east of the Cascade Mountains. Kip's Army Life, 16–18; Sac. Union, Aug. 23, 1858.
- ↑ This steamer was owned by R. R. Thompson and L. Coe, and was named the Colonel Wright. Harney mentions in a letter to the adjutant-general dated April 25, 1859, that a steamboat line had been established between The Dalles and Walla Walla, and that in June when the water of the Columbia and Snake rivers should be high, the steamer should run to the mouth of the Tucannon, on the latter river. U. S. Mess. and Docs., 1859–60, 96, 36th cong. 1st sess.; S. F. Bulletin, April 28, May 13 and 30, and Sept. 13, 1859. It is worthy of remark that the first steamer to ascend the Missouri to Fort Benton made her initial trip this year. This was the Chippewa. Id., Sept. 17, 1859; Or. Argus, Sept. 3, 1859.
- ↑ I use the term Snake in its popular sense and for convenience. The several bands of this tribe, the Bannacks, and the wandering Pah Utes were all classed as Snakes by the people who reported their acts, and as it is impossible for me to separate them, the reader will understand that by Snakes is meant in general the predatory bands from the region of the Snake and Owyhee rivers.
