lasted four hours, in which seven of the savages were killed and a greater number wounded; but the Indians being in secure possession of the rocks could not be dislodged, and Marshall was forced to retreat across the river, losing his raft, a howitzer, some provisions, and some ammunition which was thrown in the river. His loss in killed was one non-commissioned officer.[1] His rout, notwithstanding, was complete, and to account for the defeat he reported the number of Indians engaged at 500, an extraordinary force to be in any one camp.
And thus the war went on, from bad to worse.[2] On the 19th of May a large company of Chinamen, to whom the Idaho mines had recently been opened, were attacked at Battle Creek, where Jordan and others were killed, and fifty or sixty slaughtered, the frightened and helpless celestials offering no resistance, but trying to make the savages understand that they were non-combatants and begging for mercy.[3] Pepoon hastened to the spot, but found only dead bodies strewn
- ↑ A detachment of the Oregon cavalry accompanied Marshall on this expedition, and blamed him severely for inhumanity. A man named Phillips, an Oregonian, was lassoed and drawn up the cliff in which the Indians were lodged, to be tortured and mutilated. Lieut Silas Pepoon of the Oregon cavalry wished to go to his rescue, but was forbidden. He also left 4 men on the opposite bank of the river, who were cut off by the swamping of the raft. The volunteer commanders would never have abandoned their men without an effort for their rescue. See U. S. Mess. and Docs, 1866–7, 501, 39th cong. 2d sess.
- ↑ During the night of the 4th of May sixty animals were stolen from packers on Reynolds Creek, eight miles from Ruby City. None of the trains were recovered. The loss and damage was estimated at $10,000. Dalles Mountaineer, May 18, 1866. About the 25th of May, Beard and Miller, teamsters from Chico, on their way to the Idaho mines, lost 421 cattle out of a herd of 460, driven off by the Indians. About the 20th of June, twenty horses were stolen from War Eagle Mountain, above Ruby City. On the 12th of June, C. C. Gassett was murdered on his farm near Ruby City, and 100 head of stock driven off. Early in July, James Perry, of Michigan, was murdered by the Indians, his arms and legs chopped off, and his body pinned to the ground, along with a man named Green, treated in the same manner.
- ↑ Travellers over the road reported over 100 unburied bodies of Chinamen. The number killed has been variously reported at from 50 to 150. One boy escaped of the whole train. He represented his countrymen as protesting, 'Me bellee good Chinaman! Me no fightee!' But the scalps of the Chinamen seemed specially inviting to the savages. Butler's Life and Times, MS., 11–12. Their remains were afterward gathered and buried in one grave. Starr's Idaho, MS., 2; U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, 1867–8, 97, 40th cong. 2d sess.; Owyhee Index, May 26, 1866; Owyhee News, June 1866.
