Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/163

Rh that we received from the Oregon press did more to make my command lag than a thousand miles of hard marching over the most inhospitable desert that can be found in North America."

And here the historian may make a digression to explain that both the Oregon press and the Oregon cavalry were at that time unaware of the fact that it was not the Snake Indians whose raids gave so much trouble, but incursions of Nevada and Utah tribes, with some Shoshones from the upper Snake River, who were responsible for the robberies, murders, and other atrocities committed for years in Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho, a record of which would fill a large volume. It was only after the close of the civil war, when the regular army was released from service against rebellion, that troops could be sent to the relief of the frontier settlements, and by that time border warfare had assumed such proportions that many regiments, much money, and much time were required to subdue the savage foe. The southern invaders knew every movement of the volunteer companies, which they could observe from their hiding places in the rocks, from which they did not emerge when danger seemed to threaten. They knew where to find water and grass, and could sleep in peace while the cavalry wore out men and horses in night rides to hunt trails which they were too cunning to leave. Camp Alvord, at the foot of Stein's Mountain, was almost at the entrance to a rocky defile, up which they fled to a place of safety when alarmed by the approach of an enemy. In a country so immense and so rough as the deserts of Southeastern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho looking for Indians, was like searching for the legendary "needle in the haymow."

I have not room to go much further into detail. The object in view has been to show the spirit of the services rendered, and why it accomplished little more than to