Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/471

Rh worn down. These matters settled, the Washington governor hastened on to his capital, where he was enthusiastically received, to find affairs in a deplorable state west of the mountains, the people living in blockhouses, and business suspended. He immediately set about in a vigorous manner organizing for the prosecution of the war which had already begun on the sound.

The condition of the volunteers in the Walla Walla valley was not dissimilar to that of the volunteers during the war of 1847–8, food and clothing being scarce, and the weather in midwinter severe. Says one, who was there: "On the night of December twenty-first the snow fell from six to eight inches deep, and the mercury stood about twenty degrees below zero. Next morning it fell to my lot to go on guard. My raiment consisted of an old slouch hat, an old coat, a flannel shirt, a threadbare pair of pants, and an old pair of shoes without socks. I had run through my shoes during the battle, but found an old pair in a cache which answered the purpose. I donned my raiment, tied a string around my pants to keep them from slipping above my knees, and at six o'clock was ready for duty. My beat being one mile from camp, I trudged along through the snow until I reached my station, and then passed off the time as best I could. * * * When I examined my feet, strange to say, they were not very badly frozen, only the tops and sides were raised up in blisters. Several of the boys who had no shoes took rawhide and sewed it up in shape something like a moccasin. This beat bare feet to wade through the snow with. But the boys seemed to be content. Our tents were small and thin; our blankets were smaller and thinner. I had two of those long, narrow, thin blankets, one blue and one green, that were not long enough to reach from my nose down to my feet, and a saddle-blanket; this constituted my bed."

From Fort Bennett, camp was moved during the winter