152 T. C. ELLIOTT
his campaign against the Indians with some deliberation. This letter is dated December, 1855 an d it was December, 1858, before by proclamation of Gen. Nathan E. Clarke, successor to Gen. Wool, the Inland Empire was thrown open to settle- ment by the whites. The policy of the commanding general must not be disregarded as a factor, but the conclusion is clear that had there been no obstruction at The Dalles and Celilo the steamboats then operating on the middle river could have carried troops and supplies to the heart of the Indian country and the war terminated much earlier. As it was the methods outlined by Gov. Stevens as to transportation were adopted by the quartermaster's department and nearly every pound of munitions and supplies from Fort Vancouver to the upper country was carried across a portage road of about fifteen miles, from the present city of The Dalles over the hills to the mouth of the Deschutes river, and then transferred to boats for river transport to the government warehouse at Wallula, and else- where.
The present city of Walla Walla had its beginning com- mercially and physically with the sutler's store opened for the accommodation of the needs of the soldiers sent to establish the military post, since known as Fort Walla Walla, in the Fall of 1856. The Fort Walla Walla familiar to everyone along the Columbia up to that time was the trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company at the mouth of the Walla Walla River and which was abandoned by the Company and pillaged by the Cayuse Indians in December, 1855. The Quarter- master's Department later established a supply depot or ware- house in the buildings of the old trading post and called it Old Fort Walla Walla in distinction from the military post thirty miles to the eastward. But much confusion resulted and this led to the adoption about 1858 of a new name for the river landing, to-wit WALLULA, the origin and meaning of which is equally as mysterious as that of the name CELILO. Wallula of the present day is one and a half miles distant from the river landing.
