took command of the department of the Columbia. There were in the department at that time, besides the volunteer force which amounted numerically to 553 infantry and 319 cavalry, one battalion of the 14th United States infantry, numbering 793 men, and three companies of artillery, occupying fortified works at the mouth of the Columbia and on San Juan Island. These troops, exclusive of the artillery, were scattered in small detachments over a large extent of country, as we already know.
On the 2d of March the post of Fort Boisé, with its dependencies, camps Lyon, Alvord, Reed, and Lander, was erected into a full military district, under the command of Major L. H. Marshall, who arrived at district headquarters about the 20th, and immediately made a requisition upon Steele for three more companies. In April Colonel J. B. Sinclair of the 14th infantry took the command at Camp Curry, which he abandoned and proceeded to Boisé. Fort Boisé received about this time a company of the same regiment, under Captain Hinton, withdrawn from Cape Hancock, at the mouth of the Columbia, and another, under Lieutenant-colonel J. J. Coppinger, withdrawn from The Dalles.
Camp Watson received two companies of cavalry, under the command of Colonel E. M. Baker. Camp C. F. Smith received a cavalry company under Captain David Perry, who marched into Oregon from the south by the Chico route; and Camp Lyon received another under Captain James C. Hunt, who entered Oregon by the Humboldt route. At Camp Lyon also was a company of the 14th infantry under Captain P. Collins, and one of the 1st Oregon infantry under Captain Sprague. From this it will be seen that most of the troops were massed in the Boisé military district, only Baker's two companies being stationed where they could guard the road between The Dalles and Boisé, which was so infested that the express company refused to carry treasure over it, half a dozen
