Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/165

Rh near Fort Walla Walla, and dissolved the same evening, Company A going into garrison, Company F to Lapwai, Company E beginning its march to The Dalles on the twenty-eighth of October, and arriving November sixth, when it went into garrison. Currey was ordered to Vancouver and assigned to recruiting service. This ended his connection with the First Oregon Cavalry, being appointed in the spring of 1865 to the command of the First Oregon Infantry Regiment.

It is not pretended that this article is a history of the First Oregon Cavalry—"only a photograph," in the slang language. From the reports of the various officers an interesting volume might be written. One of the earliest encounters with the enemy in the field, in 1863, was by the youthful second lieutenant, James A. Waymire, assigned to duty with Company D. Waymire was with Colonel Maury on his march to Fort Hall and back. While Maury was encamped near the mouth of the Bruneau River the lieutenant was sent with twenty men to punish any Indians he might find in that region. Moving up the stream and scouting, on the first of October the scouts reported a large body of Indians encamped in a canyon a mile ahead. Fearing that they would escape if alarmed, Waymire pushed forward with eleven men, finding the Indians in a rocky defile three hundred feet deep, through which ran the river and seemingly inaccessible. A volley brought about thirty armed men out of the wickeups, who posted themselves behind rocks, and, when Waymire dismounted his men on the brink of the canyon, opened a brisk fire on them. This was returned with effect, and the Indians attempted to escape. This so excited the cavalrymen that they scrambled down the rocks, waded the stream, and followed in hot pursuit for some distance. Five Indians were killed, several