Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/156

146 'Polar Star' or the 'Seven Pointers' could be seen." The return to Fort Walla Walla was by the dusty emigrant road, and over the Blue Mountains covered with snow, arriving October 26, 1863—the expedition having been on the march five months. With all their hardships the troops preferred such service to garrison life, than which, declared Currey, no better system could be devised to alienate men from their officers, chill the enthusiasm of troops, sap the foundation of patriotism, and destroy the efficiency of the army, leaving them exposed to temptations, to vice, and the enervating influence of aimless formality and self-abnegation.

Holding such views it was with pleasure that, after a brush with the renegade band on the Palouse in March, 1864, Currey received notice from Brigadier General Alvord that he would be sent into the Snake country again. Accordingly on the twenty-eighth of April, an expedition was organized, consisting of Companies E, A, and a part of F, Currey commanding; Lieut. John Bowen, Company F, adjutant; Lieut. Silas Pepoon, acting assistant quartermaster and A. C. S.; Sergt. Peter P. Gates, sergeant major; Capt. W. V. Rinehart, commanding Company A, and Lieut. James L. Currey, commanding Company E. The train consisted of one hundred and three pack mules and eight army wagons drawn by six mules each, with a traveling forge. The troops, says their commander, were "a noble set of Oregon men, well drilled and in an excellent state of discipline, eager for service and anxious to accomplish something."

In crossing the Umatilla Indian Reservation, camp was made at the foot of the Blue Mountains, to which the Cayuses were invited, with the object of securing volunteers among them to go against their old enemies, the Snakes. A war dance was held, the result of which was ten volunteers, under Chief Umahontilla. These war-