Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/487

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THE YAKIMA WAR.
469

Rains' campaign, but his first responsible command was this of the cascades, and in this he was balked by the traditions of the service to which he belonged. Afterwards he learned how to fight Indians. One Indian only was killed by Steptoe's command, and the life of a soldier paid for that one.

The companies of Captains Powell and A. P. Dennison, Oregon volunteers, returned home on the twenty-ninth. They had done what they could, or as Governor Curry expressed it in a dispaich to Brigadier-General Barnum, had "tendered important assistance in rescuing the people there, and reëstablishing communication from here," the latter a most important object with the first regiment still in the upper country. The peculiar situation of the cascades, with several miles of unnavigable rapids between the upper and lower landings, preventing the approach by boats from below to the upper town, with only a narrow strip of land between hemmed in by high mountains, and that, in the possession of a numerous and concealed foe, had rendered progress impossible until the advance of troops from the opposite direction had caused the foe to take to voluntary flight, and then their services were no longer required.

The killed in the attack on the cascades were: James Sinclair, B. W. Brown, Mrs. Brown, George Griswold, James Watkins, Henry Hager, Jacob Kyle, Jacob White, Richard Turpin, Norman Palmer, —. Calderwood, Bourbon (half-breed), and three soldiers. Those who died from their wounds were: George Watkins, lived four days; Jacob Rousch, lived six days. The wounded who recovered were: Fletcher Murphy, H. Kyle, P. Snooks, J. Lindsay, John Chance, Jesse Kempton, W. Bailey, J. Elgin, Thomas Price, —. Moffat, and two soldiers.

Colonel Wright ordered a blockhouse erected on the bluff back of Bradford's store, with another at the lower landing, and troops were stationed at both places. He