Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/146

136 intention of binding them. On this two of the Indians made demonstrations with rifle and revolver, and their motions being less quick and certain than the white man's, both were shot. At the same time exchanges of shots were going on outside, two Indians being killed and another wounded. At this reverse, the band fled, and the troops were ordered to cease firing, while word was sent to them to return and bury their dead; Captain Currey explaining to them that he had not come with the intention of killing any of them, but that he must obey orders, and their armed resistance had brought on the fight. A report of the affair was sent to General Wright, who approved. This was one form of service. Another was scouting.

The aggregate distance traveled by Currey 's company in 1862 was three thousand miles. Then came a winter in garrison at Walla Walla. "This," says the captain, "of all duty the volunteer soldiers are called upon to perform, is the most harrassing, tedious, and abominable."

On the return of spring, scouting and pursuing predatory raiders kept the troops in motion. A detachment of Company E, under Lieutenant Monroe of the First Washington Infantry Regiment, in a forced march to overtake thieves w^ho had driven off sixty head of government mules traveled two hundred miles; but near the junction of the Okanogan Trail and the Columbia River, and while attempting to cross a high mountain range was compelled to turn back by a snow storm which covered the trail to a depth of two feet. Two citizen employees of the quartermaster's department, with great determination pushed on, coming up with the thieves, three in number, the next day at sunrise surprising and shooting two of them before being discovered. The third being but a lad, and an Indian, was taken into their employ, proving a valuable assistant, as the white men had