Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/306

288 and the property taken was very considerable in amount. A. A. Skinner, who, after the abolishment of the treaty commission, was retained as Indian agent, held conferences with different bauds in the Rogue-river country and secured professions of friendship by making presents, but that was all.

When General Hitchcock received information in September of the massacre on the Coquille, he ordered a military force transferred to Port Orford. This force consisted of companies E and A, first dragoons, dismounted, and company C with their horses. It was officered by Lieutenant-Colonel Casey of the second infantry, and Lieutenants Stanton, Thomas Wright, and George Stoneman. The dismounted men arrived at Port Orford October twenty-second, and the mounted company on the twenty-seventh. Their errand was to punish the Coquilles. On the thirty-first, they commenced their march to the mouth of the Coquille, finding the greatest difficulty in getting horses, baggage, and even men over the rough and slippery trail along the beach, but arriving at the river on the third of November, guided by Brush, survivor of the massacre. Camp was made, and preparations entered into for a campaign.

The troops had not long to wait before discovering the temper of the natives. Lieutenant Wright having carelessly wandered away from camp was met by a single warrior, who struggled with him for possession of his gun, and was shot for his temerity. On the fifth, the Indians gathered on the north side of the river and challenged the troops to combat. In addition to their bows and arrows, and their rude swords, they carried now the arms taken from T'Vault's party, consisting of fourteen shooting arms, many of them repeating, which in the sudden violence of the attack had been captured on the memorable fourteenth of September.