twelfth on the east side of Mount Reuben. Some Indian signs dis
covered during the day. The company moved over Whisky creek
and camped that night on Mount Wilkinson. More Indian signs
discovered during the day. Captain Barnes, with a portion of his
spies, together with one man of Captain Robertson s detachment,
set out after supper over the mountain for the purpose of examining
the meadows and the bar on Rogue river for the Indians. Soon
after dark it commenced raining and snowing, and by the morning
of the fourteenth the snow was four inches deep on the mountain
where the spies were, and a dense fog hung on the meadows and
the bar. The snow continued to fall on the mountain ; so much so
that Captain Barnes considered it at that time not practicable to
attempt to reconnoiter the meadows and bar, and returned to camp
about nine o clock A. M. Captain Barnes and myself were still
anxious that the meadows and bar should be examined, and with
eight of his spies and two of Captain Robertson s company, I set
out down Rogue river to the meadows. At the same time I ordered
the remainder of the company back across Whisky creek, and we
proceeded down the river across the base of Mount Wilkinson,
about six miles to a high point that ran down to the river bank and
overlooked the whole country down to near the meadows, the
meadows being obscured from view by another point of the moun
tain also running down to near the meadows. The party now being
very much fatigued from the hard travel over a rough country,
Captain Barnes suggested the propriety of his taking four men and
going forward, and examining the bar and meadows. I remained
behind with the six men, and watched his movements, so that in
the event of the enemy discovering his movements and attempting
to cut him off, I could bring the men left with me to their assist
ance. As soon as Captain Barnes came out on the high ground a
signal gun was fired on the other side of the river near the bar. It
was now late in the morning, and frequently a storm of snow swept
by them ; and finding that they were discovered, he, with his men,
returned to me, when, being out of provisions, we abandoned the
examination in that quarter and returned to camp. We made the
hardest marches in this expedition of any I have been in since I
joined the army.
As late as the fifteenth of April the weather was still cold, with rain and snowfalls of considerable depth on the mountains. But Lainerick and Kelsey had determined upon concentrating the regiment at or near the main camp of the Indians at Big Meadows, apd attacking them in force. The murder and mutilation of McDonald Hark- ness, about the twenty-fifth, two miles from the meadows,
