paid to Canby were almost equal to those paid to Lincoln.[1]
One general expression of rage and desire for revenge was uttered over the whole country, east as well as west; and very few shrank from demanding extermination for the murderers of a major-general of the United States army and a methodist preacher, though little enough had been the sympathy extended by the east to the eighteen hard-working, undistinguished citizens of the Oregon frontier[2] massacred by these same Modocs.
The president authorized Sherman to order Schofield, commanding the division of the Pacific, "to make the attack so strong and persistent that their fate may be commensurate with their crime;" to which Sherman added, "You will be fully justified in their utter extermination." Many expedients were sug-
- ↑ Edward R. S. Canby was born in Kentucky in 1817, and appointed to the military academy at West Point from Indiana. He graduated in 1839, and was made 2d lieut. He served in the Florida war, and removed the Indians to Arkansas in 1842. From 1846 to 1848 he served in Mexico, and was at the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Churubusco, where he was brevetted major for gallant conduct; was at the assault and capture of the City of Mexico, where he was brevetted lieut-col; was commander of the division of the Pacific from 1849 to 1851, after which he was four years in the adj. -gen. office at Washington. From 1855 to the breaking out of the rebellion he was on frontier duty. He served through the civil war as colonel of the 19th inf. in the dep. of New Mexico; was made brig.-gen. of U. S. volunteers in March 1862; was detached to take command of the city and harbor of New York to suppress draft riots; was made maj.-gen. of volunteers in 1864, in command of the military division of west Mississippi; was brevetted brig. -gen. of the U. S. army in 1865 for gallant conduct at the battle of Valverde, New Mexico; and was brevetted maj.-gen. U. S. army for gallant and meritorious services at the capture of Fort Blakely and Mobile. He commanded the military district of North and South Carolina from September 1867 to September 1868, and was afterward placed in command of Texas, and then of Va, where he remained until transferred to Or. in 1870. He was tall and soldierly in appearance, with a benevolent countenance. He had very little money saved at the time of his death, and a few citizens of Portland gave five thousand dollars to his widow. It is stated that a brother was stricken with sudden insanity on hearing of his fate. Santa Barbara Index, July 17, 1873. Rev. E. Thomas was a minister in the methodist denomination. He was in charge of a Niagara-street church in Buffalo, New York, in 1853; came to Cal. in 1865, where he was agent for the Methodist Book Concern; for several years was editor of the Cal. Christian Advocate, and at the time of his death was presiding elder of the Petaluma district of the Cal. M. E. Conference. He left a wife and three children. Oregonian, April 14, 1873.
- ↑ See Washington despatches, in Portland Oregonian, April 15, 1873; N. Y. Herald, April 20, 1873; London Times, April 16, 1873.
