Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/190

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men half starved, wholly out of humor, and the camp in a state of confusion, if not absolute revolt.

The regiment was now almost two hundred miles from home, ill-fed, ill-clad, with the enemy retiring before them, and peace commissioners going after them to turn the war into a farce ! If the long march was only to escort peace commissioners, they were inclined to turn back ; and, in fact, Captain Maxon s company took a vote on the pro priety of returning should not all the flour remaining be issued at once. 14

On the following day, Colonel Gilliam thought it wise to remain in camp and cultivate a better spirit in the troops. He paraded the regiment, after which he mounted a wagon and addressed them in the language of a soldier loving his country, and feeling that no honorable or brave man could desert his duty; declaring, too, that the movers in the mutiny would be remembered by the people. This address, though provoking the criticism of some, had the effect to secure somewhat better discipline for the time, although the men still wasted their small store of ammu nition in a useless discharge of their guns.

On the morning of the twenty-third a party of thirteen Des Chutes Indians came into camp, bearing the flag sent to them from The Dalles, and saying they had come in obedience to that summons. The army moved on, but the commissioners remained for a "talk." The chief, Beardy, alleged that his reason for not coming on the receipt of the message was that the soldiers had fired upon his people, compelling them to run away. He declared his willingness to go to war against the Cayuses, and his desire always to retain the friendship of the Americans;

14 " Most shocking was this to witness," says Newell in his Memoranda. "Some few had bought a little tea and sugar in the settlements to use on the road, and many were displeased that they did not share these luxuries with the rest, and objected to their being carried in the public wagons ; but the officers set their faces against all such unreasonable objections." Previous to this, on the seventeenth, this mutinous spirit had shown itself in camp, the men breaking open bread, flour, and pork bar rels, until the colonel was forced to ask the commissary-general to take charge of the provisions. Perhaps the men also resented this ; at all events they gave their officers much trouble during the first few days on the march.