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490 to go against the Yakimas, and commanded by Major Garnett, consisting of three hundred troops, which was to move, on the fifteenth of August, towards Colville, through the Yakima country, driving the hostile Indians towards one common center where they would be met by Wright's forces.

On the seventh of August, Captain Keyes, with a detachment of dragoons, was ordered to proceed to Snake river crossing, and erect a fortification. The point selected was at the mouth of the Tucannon river, and named Fort Taylor, after Captain Taylor, killed at Steptoe's butte. On the eighteenth Wright arrived at Fort Taylor. His force, when organized, numbered about two hundred dragoons, ninety infantry, organized as a rifle brigade, and four hundred artillerymen drilled in infantry practice. The arms used by the rifle brigade were Sharpe's long range rifles and minie ball, two things with which the Indians were not yet familiar in warfare.

Before leaving Walla Walla, Colonel Wright had called a council of the Nez Percés, with whom he made a "treaty of friendship," binding them to aid the United States in wars with any other tribes, and binding the United States to assist them in the same case, at the cost of the government; and to furnish them arms whenever their services were required. The treaty was signed by Wright on the part of the United States, and by four chiefs of not the greatest importance in the Nez Percé nation, namely, Timothy, Richard, Three Feathers, and Speaking Eagle. It was witnessed by six army officers, and approved by General Clarke. A company of thirty Nez Percé volunteers was accepted, and dressed in United States uniform, which was placed under Lieutenant John Mullan, to act as guides and scouts.

On the thirty-first, Wright had reached a point on his march about seventy-six miles due north of Fort Taylor, and within about twenty of the Spokane river, when the Indians showed themselves in parties along the hills,