Oregon Sierras became a most interesting one. It was
here that the hardest struggle of the war was carried on
not in fighting Indians, but in keeping the men in the
field who had undertaken to do the fighting. In point of
fact, the commissary department was charged with the
principal burden of the war, and the title of "general"
which Palmer acquired through being at the head of this
department, might well have been bestowed upon him for
his services in sustaining the organization of the army
under conditions such as existed in Oregon in 1847-48.
Without arms, without roads, without transportation, other
than small boats and pack horses, without comfortable
winter clothing and with scanty food, the war was to be
carried on at a distance of nearly three hundred miles
from the settlements. And if the volunteer soldiers were
called upon to endure these hardships, which General
Palmer was doing his best to overcome, the commissioned
officers were no less embarrassed by the want of the most
ordinary appliances of their rank or position even to
the want of a proper field glass! Says Governor Aber-
nethy in a letter to Lee, written January fifth, before Col
onel Gilliam had started from the rendezvous: "Mr.
McMillan has the spyglass and papers. He can tell
you we are getting lots of pork, and some wheat. * * *
Perhaps we can get some small cannon ; I hope so." Also,
under the same date: "There is considerable ammuni
tion in one of Mr. Whitcomb s wagons; but it would not
do to overhaul any wagons out at the gate where they are,
as the Indians might overhaul after you. This step is dis
cretionary with you." 5
Lee, meanwhile, was finding out the temper of the Indians above The Dalles. On the eighth of January a
5 Oregon Archives, 859. Letters from various persons concerning affairs at Fort Gil liam, give graphic accounts of their condition. There is among the papers in the Oregon archives a receipt given by Lieutenant-Colonel James Waters, January 22, 1848, for " four pairs pants, two coats, seven pairs shoes, six cotton shirts, two flan nel shirts, one wool hat, three pairs socks, two comforters, four camp kettles, twenty- four tin cups, ten pounds tobacco, fifteen pounds flour. On the same paper is a memorandum : " Distributed for the use of the army at Fort Gilliam, January thir tieth, one pound of powder ; receipted for at Portland."
