Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/484

466, was the order of General Wool; and it was midnight before a courier reached him with the news. At daylight he began his march back to The Dalles with two hundred and fifty men, rank and file, who were all on board the steamers, and their baggage on a flatboat in tow of one of them, by night of the twenty-seventh. On the way down the Mary's flues became out of order through the ignorance of a new fireman, which delayed the voyage until the morning of the twenty-eighth.

Although the Indians had fired a volley at the Mary as she stranded for a few moments on a rock at the mouth of the creek, when they came to be looked for not one was to be seen. Colonel Wright at once proceeded to organize a force made up of two companies of the ninth infantry under Captains Winder and Archer; a detachment of dragoons under Lieutenant Tear, third artillery; with a howitzer under Lieutenant Piper, the whole commanded by Colonel Septoe, who was ordered to advance to the blockhouse and thence to the lower landing.

In order to understand what follows, it is necessary to shift the scene to Vancouver. When the news of the Yakima descent on the cascades reached that post, great consternation prevailed through an apprehension that Vancouver was the objective point aimed at by the hostile Indians. Colonel Morris, in command, removed the women and children of the garrison and the greater part of the ammunition to the Hudson's Bay Company's fort for greater security. At the same time he refused arms to the captain of the volunteer home guard, in obedience to General Wool's orders, leaving the citizens of the town defenseless. As before mentioned, only one company had been left at Vancouver when the forward movement to The Dalles was ordered. Of this company Colonel Morris dispatched forty men, under the command of Lieutenant Philip Sheridan, on board of a small steamer called the Belle, which left Vancouver early on the morning of the twenty-seventh. On his way up Sheridan passed the