Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/533

Rh In addition to the Oregon troops, Captain L. S. Scott, of the 4th California volunteer infantry, was employed guarding the road to Chico, being stationed in Paradise Valley through the summer, but ordered to Silver Creek in September, where he established Camp Curry.

Colonel Curry had succeeded to the command of the district of the Columbia on the death of General Wright, while en route to Vancouver to assume the command, by the foundering of the steamship Brother Jonathan. In order to obviate the inconvenience of long and unwieldly transportation trains, and in order also to carry on a winter campaign, which he believed would be most effectual, as the Indians would then be found in the valleys, Curry distributed the troops in the following camps: Camp Polk on the Des Chutes River, Camp Curry on Silver Creek, Camp Wright on Selvie River, camps Logan and Colfax on the Cañon City and Boisé road, Camp Alvord in Alvord Valley, Camp Lyon on Jordan Creek, Idaho, Camp Reed near Salmon Falls, and Camp Lander at old Fort Hall, Idaho. But with all these posts the country continued to suffer with little abatement the scourge of frequent Indian raids.

Early in October Captain F. B. Sprague, of the 1st Oregon infantry, was ordered to examine the route between Camp Alvord and Fort Klamath, with a view to opening communication with the latter. Escorted by eleven cavalrymen, Sprague set out on the 10th, taking the route by Warner Lake over which Drew had made a reconnoissance in 1865, arriving at Fort Klamath on the 17th without having seen any Indians. But having come from Fort Klamath a month previous, and seen a large trail crossing his route, going south, and not finding that any fresh trail indicated the return of the Indians, he came to the conclusion that they were still south of the Drew road, between it and Surprise Valley, where Camp Bidwell was located.

On making this report to Major Rheinhart, in