Up to this time no restraint had been put upon the chief or his associates in captivity; but one of them attempting to escape during the night of the sixth they were ordered to be bound with cords, but were unbound in the morning, when Colonel Kelly told Peu-peu-mox-mox that he had acted in bad faith, and that should he, or any of the other prisoners, attempt to run away, he or they would be shot.
At an early hour on the seventh, the Indians commenced to appear, armed and mounted, on the hills half a mile from camp; but it was not even then expected that they would attack, and the command prepared leisurely to march to Waiilatpu, where it was intended to establish headquarters. When one or two companies had moved out on the plain, after the advance guard, the Indians fired upon some men driving up beef cattle, and the fire was returned. A running fight then ensued, the Indians being driven before the volunteers for ten miles to the farmhouse of La Roche, a French–Canadian, two miles below Waiilatpu.
The forces of the enemy had increased all day, and by the time La Roche's cabin was reached had become stubborn and hard to move, being driven at the point of the bayonet only a short distance above. Their number was variously estimated at from six hundred to two thousand, but a more probable estimate would place it at one thousand warriors, and an indefinite number of onlookers; their yells, and the noise of the firing, having drawn all the Indians from a considerable distance to the edges of the battle.
The volunteers were confined between the Walla Walla river on their right and the hills on their left; and the Indians having become strong enough late in the afternoon, formed a line across the plain to prevent the advance of the troops, extending from the foothills to the river, and being partly covered by a growth of shrubby trees, which served as a shelter. It was here that the battle raged hottest.
