Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/164

154 train a regiment of young Oregonians for military duty.

It was the twelfth of August before Currey 's command reached Camp Alvord, by which time two thirds of his men were suffering from disorders peculiar to armies kept continually on the march in hot climates without proper diet. It was about this time, and from seeing in what direction a party of marauders fled after a slight skirmish, that Currey became convinced of the character of the enemy, and that he held a defensive position among the crags of Stein's Mountain.

Acting upon this conclusion an expedition was undertaken and prosecuted as far as the Pueblo mining district, in the northern border of Nevada. A small party of Piutes was captured, but such was the fear of savage vengeance that Currey was entreated by the miners to spare the Indians, who deserved hanging for past crimes. The return made for this undeserved clemency was the murder a few months later of these same miners.

On returning to Alvord Valley, which was now seen to be the base of all the thieving operations in Eastern Oregon, Currey suggested to the district commander, General Alvord, the utility to the service of maintaining Camp Alvord through the winter, but the suggestion not being approved by the department commander, General McDowell, the camp was abandoned September 26. The following spring and summer many lives and much property were destroyed on the roads leading from the Sacramento Valley to the Idaho mines.

The wagon train was sent to Fort Boise, and the cavalry returned north. On the sixteenth of October, Currey was met by an express from district headquarters, stating that southern sympathizers in Oregon threatened an outbreak on the day of the presidential election, and directing him to be at Fort Dalles on that day with Company E. On the twenty-sixth the command was in camp