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ice in the Columbia which had prevented Governor Curry from provisioning the volunteers, had also interfered with the plans of General Wool. It was out of the lower Columbia, however, long before it was broken up above; and on the eleventh of January the mail steamer from San Francisco was able to reach Vancouver, informing the general of fresh troubles in northern California and southern Oregon, which demanded his immediate return to Benicia.

On his passage down the river he met an up-coming steamer, on board of which was Colonel George Wright with eight companies of the ninth infantry regiment; and to him he assigned the command of the district of the Columbia river. At sea he also met Lieutenant-Colonel Silas Casey, with two companies of the same regiment, whom he assigned to the command of the Puget sound district.

Wright was directed to make his headquarters at The Dalles, and to concentrate there all the troops intended to operate in the upper country; to establish a post in Walla