Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/149

Rh regiments, but Californians were serving in Oregon and Washington.

Troops were needed at various points on the frontier and posts at Boise and Klamath, the latter for the protection of the immigration by the southern route, on which some bloody massacres had occurred. Accordingly, in the spring of 1863, the government having consented, Major Drew, of the Oregon Cavalry, who had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, sent Captain Kelly with Company C to construct and garrison a fort on the Klamath lands near the head of Upper Klamath Lake. These two expeditions left but two of the cavalry companies to be employed in keeping the peace between white men and Indians, pursuing horse thieves, white and red, and arresting whisky sellers and highwaymen. In this service, often requiring long inarches, the cavalry horses were kept worn down.

The expedition into the Snake country proceeded from Fort Walla Walla to Lapwai to be present at a council of United States commissioners with the chiefs of the Nez Perces, trouble being apprehended; the object of the commission being to secure the relinquishment of a certain part of the reservation in order to open a safe highway to the mineral regions lying east of it. To make a treaty, with a handful of white men on one side and twenty-five hundred Indians on the other, a part of whom were openly hostile to the measure, was an undertaking straining to the nerves of the commissioners. But the policy of Lawyer prevailed,—together with the knowledge that ammunition was issued to the troops and the post put in condition for defense.

To make sure of the intentions of the Nez Perces, Colonel Maury ordered Captain Currey to take twenty men at midnight and proceed to the council ground, two