Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/652

 After wearisome argument and a decision by Attorney-general Williams, a military commission was ordered for the trial of "Captain Jack and such other Indian captives as may be properly brought before it." Those who might be properly tried were named by the war department as the assassins of Canby, Thomas, and Sherwood, and "no other cases whatever," notwithstanding Grover had telegraphed to the department to turn over to the state of Oregon the slayers of her citizens, whom the government refused to try, or allow to be tried, thus saying in effect that the victims had deserved their fate. At the same time a petition was addressed to Secretary Delano, by E. Steele, William H. Morgan, John A. Fairchild, and H. W. Atwell, asking that Scarface Charley, Hooker Jim, Bogus Charley, Steamboat Frank, Shacknasty Jim, and Miller's Charley should be permitted to remain in Siskiyou county, where it was proposed to employ them on a farm near Yreka. Delano was constantly in receipt of letters in behalf of the Modocs.

On the 14th of June the Modocs, 150 in number, were removed to Fort Klamath, and imprisoned in a stockade, after which a large force of cavalry, under Green, and of infantry, under Mason, made a march of 600 miles through eastern Oregon and Washington to overawe those tribes rendered restless and threatening by the unparalleled successes of the Modocs. On the 30th of June, in obedience to instructions from Washington, Davis appointed a military com-