ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, No. 1. By command of Brigadier-General Johnston: W. W. MACKALL, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, Col. G. WRIGHT, Comdg. Dist. of Oregon, Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter.: COLONEL: By direction of Brigadier-General Johnston I transmit the order* by which he assumes command of the Department of the Pacific, and requests you to furnish him with a report of the condition and station of the troops in the District of Oregon and the state of the Indian relations and of all movements in contemplation; also the state of the funds in the hands of disbursing officers. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. W. MACKALL, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, San Francisco, January 17, 1861. Col. S. COOPER, COLONEL: I have the honor to report my arrival at this place on the 14th instant, and that, in accordance with the orders of the General-inChief, I assumed command of the department on the 15th. I beg leave to ask the attention of the General-in-Chief to the fact that the different staff departments of this department are without funds. The quartermaster's department is destitute, and the other departments nearly so, having on hand only very small amounts of money. It is indispensable to the public interest that they should be promptly furnished with funds. If it be true that there is a large amount of public money in the mint at this place, which I have heard, I would respectfully suggest that a sufficient portion of it to meet the wants of the Government for the military service be placed to the credit of the disbursing officers of the department. The requisitions of the chiefs of the staff departments not having been filled-it is to be presumed from a scarcity in the sub-treasuries of the East-it is therefore that I take the liberty to suggest that there probably exists the ability to comply with them at this place. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, A. S. JOHNSTON, * See next, ante. 28 R R-VOL L, PT I Capt. JAMES A. HARDIE, STEAMER PACIFIC, Baker's Bay, Wash. Ter., January 18, 1861. Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Headquarters Department of Oregon: SIR: I would respectfully state that as the field operations of the military road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton will be resumed by the 1st of April that an escort of not less than eighty men and two officers be granted me, under the instructions from the War Department, to protect my work and its operations, and that they may be provided with subsistence and clothing for fifteen months. I desire to leave Walla Walla by the 1st of April. I am, sir, truly and respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN MULLAN, First Lieut., Second Artillery, in Charge of Mil. Road Expedition. Brig. Gen. A. S. JOHNSTON, HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Commanding Department of the Pacific: GENERAL: The General-in-Chief desires that you will order down from Fort Vancouver two companies of artillery to the posts near San Francisco, and that the fort at the entrance of the harbor be occupied by one company with as little delay as practicable. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, L. THOMAS, Assistant Adjutant-General. Col. G. WRIGHT, HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S SHIP TOPAZE, Esquimault, January 24, 1861. Headquarters Department of Oregon, Fort Vancouver: SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt on the 22d instant of your letter of the 20th of December, with inclosures, on the subject of the military reserves on San Juan Island. I perfectly concur with you that an arrangement respecting the extent of each reserve would be advisable, and also that as little land should be closed to settlers as may be compatible with the maintenance of discipline and the other requirements of each camp. I therefore beg to propose that the two officers in command of the detachments of U. S. troops and of Her Majesty's be instructed to meet, and keeping in mind the foregoing considerations, should conjointly settle and arrange the extent of the respective reserves, a plan of which, when agreed upon, should be exchanged. With regard to that paragraph of your letter wherein you propose "that whatever amount of land Captain Pickett shall now or hereafter include within his special military jurisdiction, Captain Bazalgette shall be at liberty to include an equal amount within his camp limits, and no more." I cannot refrain from observing that such an arrangement would seem to be at variance with the terms of the joint occupancy, which provide for perfect equality of rights in all respects, not that the officer commanding the troops of Her Majesty is to be guided in every particular by the actions of the officer in command of the troops of the United States. It is with this view that I propose a mutual agreement between these two officers, and I beg to assure you that whatever they may conjointly agree upon in this matter I shall be prepared to confirm. I must, sir, in conclusion, take this opportunity to express what pleas ure I have derived from the very cordial and friendly feeling which had existed between the troops of the two Governments during the time of the joint occupation, and I have on all occasions received from Captain Bazalgette the assurance of having always experienced the utmost courtesy and friendliness on the part of Captain Pickett. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, JOHN D. S. SPENCER, Captain and Senior Officer. HEADQUARTERS, Fort Steilacoom, Wash. Ter., January 25, 1861. Capt. JAMES A. HARDIE, 3d Arty., Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter.: CAPTAIN: The copies of communications from Acting Governor McGill and others relating to Indian affairs on the Sound have been received. I have the honor to report as follows: Early in December last a man by the name of Ferguson, living near the mouth of the Skokomish, reported to me that a white man had been killed by an Indian. He informed me that the Indian agent, Mr. Simmons, was then at the reservation, near the mouth of that river. I told him that it was the duty of the agent to make an official report to me of an occurrence that would require military aid, but that I would attend to it. The Massachusetts being about to proceed to San Juan Island with Lieutenant Casey, of the engineers, and a surveying party, I directed that she should go by the way of the Skokomish River. I directed Lieutenant Casey to confer with the agent and investigate the matter so far as he was able. It appears that a white man by the name of Carter living near the mouth of the Skokomish was killed by an Indian by the name of Paemps, with the assistance of one of his sons, who was known by the name of Charley. The agent informed Lieutenant Casey that he did not think that any of the other Indians had anything to do with it, and that 100 or more of them were hunting up the murderers, and furthermore that he thought it not best for the troops to interfere, as it would tend to frighten the Indians. Paemps and his son have frequently been at this post, and I know them; he is half Klickitat and half Skokomish, the latter one of the tribes on the Sound. He has been a priest and preacher among the Indians for some time, but of late has taken to drink and lost much of his influence among them. It is the general opinion that his desire not to be considered a kultus fellow has induced him to commit this murder. I endeavor to impress upon the Indians with whom I come in contact the necessity of taking the murderers, and I am confident they will do so if possible. I inclose the copy of a communication which I received from Mr. Simmons, late agent. I received not long ago a petition signed by twenty-four citizens of White River, setting forth that they feared an outbreak of the Indians. I dispatched Lieutenant Alexander, of the engineers, with two men to visit the settlements on the Puyallup and White River, and to inquire into the foundation of the report. Lieutenant Alexander reported that so far as he could learn there was no good cause for the alarm, and that the settlers appeared to be satisfied; also that most of their fears were not well founded. A report taken by the mail rider from Steilacoom to Seattle was the principal cause of the alarm. I have information from the Indian agents at Nisqually, Bellingham Bay, and Puyallup, and the agent for Muckleshoot, which is a short distance above the White River settlement, called upon me in person. Their united testimony is that there is no cause to fear an outbreak among the Indians. I concur in that opinion. These Indian rumors on the Sound have not escaped my attention, and had I considered them of sufficient importance to trouble the headquarters of the department it would have been reported before. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, SILAS CASEY, Lieutenant-Colonel Ninth Infantry, Commanding Post. P. S.-The interest of the service, in my opinion, requires that the two companies at this post should be filled up. I have no troops to spare for any detached service, should they be required, as for several months past there have been hardly sufficient men here to perform properly the duties of the post. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, Maj. W. W. MACKALL, S. C. Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., January 26, 1861. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Hdqrs. Dept. of the Pacific, San Francisco: SIR: Your letter of the 15th instant, inclosing Orders, No. 1, from the headquarters Department of the Pacific, reached me on the 23d instant. The order has been distributed within the district. For a view of the condition of the troops, the state of the Indian relations, and of the movements in contemplation in the late Department of Oregon, I request that reference may be had to my letters and reports to Army headquarters, copied in the department letter book from page 132 forward. The letter and order books are sent by express by the steamer which conveys this. The condition of the pay, quartermaster, and subsistence departments is exhibited by the accompanying reports of Majors Alvord and Babbitt. The papers likewise for the quartermaster and subsistence departments for the last quarter of 1860, required by paragraph 950, Regulations 1857, are forwarded to the chiefs of those bureaus at Washington through the headquarters of the department, in order to afford the department commander an opportunity to obtain from them such information as they may afford. A copy of the department return for November and an unfinished return for December, on which are consolidated all the posts heard from for December, are inclosed. The department return due from the Department of Oregon for December it is proposed to complete here when Fort Colville and Camp Pickett shall have been heard from. Paymaster Winston's abstracts for November and December, 1860, are likewise transmitted. Two packages of papers for action of department commander are sent herewith, with explanatory memoranda indorsed. A letter from Lieutenant Casey and map* (the latter put in the letter book for safe carriage) accompany this. Captain Pickett was promised a copy of the map. ought to state that a letter to Captain Spencer, Royal Navy, of December 20 (see letter book, page 222), remains unanswered. It is believed * On file in office of the Chief of Engineers. I that the arrangement will be satisfactory. I have to mention before closing that I had applied to the Secretary of War for a leave of absence of twelve months before the receipt of Orders, No. 1, from the headquarters Department of the Pacific. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. WRIGHT, Colonel Ninth Infantry, Commanding. VICINITY OF FORT TEJON, CAL., February General A. S. JOHNSTON, U. S. Army: 1861. We, the subscribers, having heard the removal of Fort Tejon is in contemplation, desire to enter our earnest protest against this intention, representing for your consideration the following facts: The position of Fort Tejon is such as entirely to command three populous and rapidly increasing districts, which by its abandonment would suffer the most disastrous consequences from the incursions and inroads of the Indians from which it now protects us. These people are as yet without the means of self-defense, and relying upon the permanence of the fort and the protection of the Government, have passed thus far into the interior, settling and developing the resources of a new country, with the implied assurance, from the location of Fort Tejon, of protection for their lives and property. If this protection is to be withdrawn, those who have under its promises made their homes in the wilderness will be left to the mercy of ruthless savages, and a beautiful district about to be reclaimed by civilization again abandoned to its original condition. These resources are agricultural and grazing, and it would be useless to remind you of the vast mining interest stretching from Mono Lake to the Colorado, over an immense extent of country rich in every mineral, and now being examined by thousands of our citizens, which the aban donment of Fort Tejon would leave entirely without protection, and in consequence of which all the anticipated wealth of that region be utterly lost to the country. Under these circumstances we feel justified in remonstrating in the strongest manner against the removal of Fort Tejon. The value of our property and our personal security all render imperative the protection it affords. We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servants, SAMUEL A. BISHOP, E. F. BEALE, F. E. KERLIN, [AND 85 OTHERS]. OFFICE SECRETARY OF TERRITORY, COMMANDER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, San Francisco, Cal.: SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a certified copy of a memorial of the legislative assembly of this Territory passed at its session just closed, and respectfully to call your attention to the same. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, HENRY M. MCGILL, Secretary of Washington Territory. |