mountains, a distance of 120 miles, in four days and one-half. The route is almost an impracticable one, and great credit is due to the men for their fortitude and forbearance in making the trail without a murmur of complaint, for the hills were so very precipitous-and the animals so very weak for want of grain, not having seen any for two months-and without shoes on them, that they were compelled to walk about twothirds of the way, and that, too, barefooted and naked, for many of them were as destitute of shoes as they were the day they were born, and had no pantaloons, except such as they had themselves made out of barley and flour sacks. The weather was freezing cold, heavy frost every night, and on the 4th a heavy snow-storm; still the men plodded on and stood guard at night, leaving the blood from their feet upon the rocks and snow. In this connection allow me to say that I am gratified to find that clothing is on the way for these troops, not only for their sakes, but for the credit of the Government that I have the honor to serve. Company I, Captain Jones, under command of Major O'Neill, will be here in about one week by way of Keysville. I have the honor to report further that before leaving Camp Independence, Owen's River, I made all necessary orders for the establishment of a one-company military post at that place; that adobes were being made and temporary buildings put up by the troops; that six months' supplies were laid in, and everything done to make the company left to garrison the post (Company G, Capt. T. H. Goodman) comfortable, and that all was quiet and harmonious, notwithstanding fears to the contrary stated in my last communication on the subject. Respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. S. EVANS, Lieutenant-Colonel Second Cavalry California Volunteers, Comdg. Lieut. Col. R. C. DRUM, U. S. Army, Assistant Adjutant-General, San Francisco, Cal. JUNE 16-OCTOBER 30, 1862.-Emigrant road expedition from Omaha, Nebr. Ter., to Portland, Oreg. Report of Capt. Medorem Crawford, U. S. Army, Assistant Quarter master. PORTLAND, OREG., October 30, 1862. SIR: The duty of conducting an escort for the protection of emigrants to Oregon, &c., having been assigned me by the Secretary of War, and having performed that service, I deem it my duty, as it is certainly my pleasure, to comply with your request by reporting to you the principal incidents of my trip. Having organized my company, procured my transportation and provisions, I left Omaha, Nebr. Ter., on the 16th of June. My company consisted of fifty mounted men, armed with rifles and revolvers, who were instructed in the duties of sentinels and drilled in the simpler evolutions of cavalry tactics. Our route lay on the north side of and immediately along the Platte River, up the Sweetwater, over the Lander road to near Fort Hall, and from thence on the south side of Snake River to Walla Walla. The movement westward was very large. Emigrants to Oregon, Washington Territory, California, Salt Lake, and Denver were on this road. Some had started in April, and were consequently several hundred miles in advance of the rear portion of the emigration. Feeling it to be my duty to protect the rear, I did not hasten on the first part of the trip, but urged upon the emigrants whom I fell in with as I proceeded the necessity of husbanding the strength of their teams so as to be able to perform the journey over the barren deserts of Snake River, the necessity for which my last year's experience had taught me. I soon found that a large proportion of the emigrants had started for the Salmon River mines under the very erroneous impression as to the locality of them. A guide of the route had been published and extensively circulated on the frontier, representing those mines as being within 180 miles of Fort Hall, not giving the locality of the road, but saying-good grass and plenty of water all the way. Under this impression many emigrants had overloaded their wagons and taxed their teams beyond their strength, and so positive were they that they could reach the mines without going down Snake River that many of them disregarded my counsel to dispense with comparatively useless articles with which they were encumbered. The result was that as soon as we left the Platte Valley and encountered the heavy sand and hills their teams and wagons began to fail. They then found it necessary to do what I had advised long before, dispense with heavy and useless articles, but unfortunately it was too late to save many of their teams. From this point to Powder River article after article of furniture and wagon after wagon were left along, and scarcely a camp was left without some evidence of property abandoned. The large number of teams which were ahead of us had cut up the road to such an extent that the dust was very deep and its alkaline properties fatal to cattle. There were over forty head of dead cattle between the Owyhee and Malheur Rivers, a distance of sixteen miles, and we found the proportion nearly as great at other points along Snake River. The first evidence of Indian depredations we saw was a grave at the crossing of New Fork of Green River. From the inscription placed over it we learned that Patrick Moran, of Missouri, was killed by Indians on the 18th of July and two men wounded. We passed this place August 11, about three weeks after, at which time no Indians were to be seen. The next grave was on La Barge Creek, in the Bear River Mountains, on the head-board of which was the following: Opened by Kavanaugh's train on the 27th of July, 1862. The body of a man found too badly decayed for removal. One shot in the temple and an arrow shot. Supposed to have been killed by Indians. On the 25th day of August we passed the graves of the following persons: One unknown man found by Captain Glenn's party August 13. He had been shot in the back of the head with buckshot. Three miles farther there were five graves, side by side, of persons supposed to have been killed by Indians. Rufus C. Mitchell, N. Howie, James Steel, David Whitmer, and Frank Sessions were the names inscribed over them. This was in the vicinity of Fort Hall, and happened on the 9th of August, we passing on the 25th. We learned from the ferryman that while these five men were slain by the Indians twenty armed men from the same train stood upon a hill near by and made no attempt to rescue their comrades. There are strong reasons for believing that white men bore a part in this massacre. Between Fort Hall and Raft River we found four graves of men supposed to have been killed by Indians on the 9th of August. After crossing Raft River we found the grave of a Miss Adams, who was shot on the 9th and died on the 12th. We passed here August 31, twenty-two days after the fight. About the same time a Mr. Phillips left his train to go fishing, alone and unarmed, and was taken by Indians, and is supposed to have been killed. This happened near Goose Creek. It will be seen that the number killed, of which we have positive information, is about fifteen. No emigrants have at any time been troubled by Indians while in the vicinity of my company, but from the disposition shown toward the advance parties it is easy to see that the later and weaker parties would have been easily cut off had it not been for the protection afforded them by the Government. Near old Fort Hall a ferry had been established, and many emigrants had crossed in pursuit of the mines. Some went to Fort Lemhi, others to the Deer Lodge Prairie, while others kept down the north side of Snake River and recrossed the stream at Boisé. From what was told me I am satisfied that many were induced to cross at Fort Hall by the representations of these ferrymen, which turned out unreliable. About twenty wagons which had crossed and met a returning party, were induced to recross and join those who were already under my escort. At this point I had 125 wagons of emigrants under my charge, and I found many of their teams so weak that they could not travel over ten miles per day, others being able to proceed faster; and in order to give protection to all, I divided my company, placing the advance party in charge of my principal assistant, Mr. Le Roy Crawford, while I remained with the rear and weaker party. From this point my journey was extremely slow. Many of the emigrants were short of provisions, which deficiency I had to supply. Others had difficulties among themselves which I was obliged to settle. The grass was very scarce, and their stock would scatter during the night, so that frequently my men would spend hours in looking after them in the morning. We cured their sick, fed their destitute, hunted, and in some instances drove their teams, mended their wagons, hauled their goods, settled their disputes, and kept them moving. Two men died and one was drowned in Snake River. With these exceptions every man, woman, and child that had traveled in my vicinity reached the settlements in safety. From the best information in my possession I estimate the emigration to Oregon and Washington this year at 10,000 souls, about two-fifths of whom I think crossed Snake River at the Fort Hall Ferry. From my own observation I am satisfied that a better road for emigrants may be found on the north side of Snake River than the one on the south side, but the precise point at which that river should be crossed I am not prepared to decide. I know there is a good road from near Salmon Falls to Boisé, having traveled down on that route in the year 1842, but as to the character of the country above that point on the north side, I have no reliable information. The recent discoveries of gold on Boisé River will doubtless attract large parties from the States next season, and a road on the north side will be very necessary. Should such be the case, and large numbers of emigrants with families flock to that country, I fear that unless some protection is furnished by the Government the Indians will make an indiscriminate slaughter. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Brigadier-General ALVORD, JULY 7, 1862-OCTOBER 6, 1863.-Operations in the District of Oregon. Report of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Alvord, U. S. Army, commanding the HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, Asst. Adjt. Gen., Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington, D. C.: COLONEL: Inclosed herewith you will receive a communication from Brig. Gen. B. Alvord, commanding the District of Oregon, detailing the operations of troops in that district and the general condition of affairs in that quarter since July, 1862, which is most respectfully submitted for the information of the General-in-Chief and Secretary of War. Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, G. WRIGHT, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., October 6, 1863. GENERAL: I have the honor to report for the information of the War Department the operations of the troops in the District of Oregon since I assumed command on the 7th of July, 1862. The boundaries of the district are the same known on military maps as those of the old Department of Oregon, including all of the former Territory of Oregon as organized in 1848, excepting the valleys of the Umpqua and Rogue Rivers. It now includes part of the State of Oregon, all of Washing. ton Territory, and the portion of Idaho Territory west of the Rocky Mountains. Three companies of First Oregon Cavalry, under command of Lieut. Col. R. F. Maury, were ordered to leave Fort Walla Walla on the 25th of July, 1862, to proceed upon the emigrant road as far as Salmon Falls, on Snake River, for the protection of the expected emigration, the command not to return to Fort Walla Walla until the 1st of November. The duty was faithfully and efficiently discharged by Colonel Maury. The movement in connection with Captain Crawford's emigrant escort party from Omaha, Nebr., afforded effectual protection to the emigration, which amounted to 2,000 wagons, or about 10,000 souls that autumn. I also ordered in July, 1862, a company of cavalry to encamp in the Nez Percé country, near the agency, for the protection of that tribe so far as practicable from the intrusion of the whites, who in search of gold had (previously to my being placed in command) invaded the Nez Percé Indian Reservation without authority to the number of some 10,000 or 15,000 people in violation of the provisions of the treaty, and in contempt of the rights of the Indians. Hearing of threatened collision in that region between the Indians and the whites, I left on the 16th of October for the Nez Percé country. Before I reached there two murders of white men by the Indians occurred, almost the very first ever attributed to that tribe, who have been proverbial for their persistent friendship for the whites. Finding among the chiefs (who surrendered the murderers) a great desire for the continuance of the soldiers among them, I ordered another company there and established a post at Fort Lapwai. The reasons which impelled me to do so were fully reported in a dispatch to headquarters Department of the Pacific dated 4th of November, 1862, which I have been informed was forwarded to the War Department. The effect of the establishment of the post was very salutary, and paved the way for the successful negotiations of a treaty with that tribe on the 9th of June last, by which they have surrendered the greater portion of their reservation, including all of the gold-mining regions. On the 9th of May last I assembled six companies of troops, under command of Col. J. Steinberger, First Washington Territory Infantry, at Fort Lapwai, preliminary to said negotiations. I have no doubt that the concentration of those troops had a salutary effect on all the surrounding tribes, as well as furthering the success of the council. All those Indian tribes have remained at peace with whom the Indian wars of 1855, 1856, and 1858 were carried on, and the only Indians who have committed assaults upon the frontier have been the Snakes. The Snakes speak the Comanche language, have the same habits, and are in fact a branch of the Comanche tribes of the region east of the Rocky Mountains. On the 14th of October, 1862, I sent to department headquarters a letter (forwarded afterward to the Adjutant-General of the Army) recommending the establishment of a military post at or near Fort Boisé for the protection of emigrants and settlers in that country. On the 29th of January I received instructions from department headquarters, pursuant to the authority of the Secretary of War, to make the necessary arrangements for the establishment of a post at Fort Boisé. Said arrangements were made with the assistance of Bvt. Maj. P. Lugenbeel, Ninth Infantry, to whom the command of the troops destined for that post was given. After a careful reconnaissance he established it on the 4th of July at a point about forty-three miles east of old Fort Boisé and 275 miles from Wallula (the depot on the Columbia River better known as old Fort Walla Walla). He has found a good site for a saw-mill on a creek ten miles from the post. He has commenced, agreeably to instructions, the erection of temporary quarters for a five-company post, three of infantry and two of cavalry. I have no doubt he has located the post judiciously and that he has practiced the utmost economy, which was strictly enjoined upon him. During this winter for want of forage the cavalry, with the exception of twenty-five men, will withdraw to Fort Walla Walla. A population of 10,000 or 15,000 people have gone into those mines and that whole region is fast increasing in importance. Colonel Maury, with three companies of First Oregon Cavalry and two of infantry, was ordered to proceed in July last from Fort Boisé to a point on Snake River above Fort Hall for the protection of the emigration. He has at last dates successfully carried out the plan, and on the 17th of August, 1863, met Capt. M. Crawford, assistant quartermaster, in charge of the emigrant escort, at the ferry on Snake River, as had been arranged by me early in the spring when Captain Crawford left here for Washington City. Owing to the pacification effected by General Connor and Governor Doty, of Utah, the Snake Indians upon that route have been very quiet this summer. Colonel Maury is now on his return to Fort Walla Walla, and has crossed Snake River at Salmon Falls and intended thence to proceed to the headwaters of the Owyhee and Malheur Rivers, southwest of Fort Boisé, in which quarters it was reported that the Snake Indians had fired upon some of the miners prospecting for gold. Colonel Maury was directed this year, as also a year ago, not to return to Fort Walla Walla until the 1st of November, thereby insuring the most efficient protection which could be rendered before the commencement of winter. The experience of former expeditions, as in the unfortunate massacre of September, 1860, had admonished me that the troops should not return to the military posts until the approach of |