missed Loring's command, he having already left Fort Hall when Hawkins arrived. As the supplies were needed by the companies at the new post they were left there, in consequence of which those destined to Oregon were in want of certain articles, and many of the men were barefoot and unable to walk, as their horses were too weak to carry them when they arrived at The Dalles.
On reaching their destination, and finding no accommodations at Fort Vancouver, the regiment was quartered in Oregon City, at a great expense, and to the disturbance of the peace and order of that moral and temperate community; the material from which companies had been recruited being below the usual standard of enlisted men.[1]
The history of the establishment of the Oregon military posts is not without interest. Under orders to take command of the Pacific division, General Persifer F. Smith left Baltimore the 24th of November, and New Orleans on the 18th of December 1848, proceeding by the isthmus of Panamá, and arriving on the 23d of February following at Monterey, where was Colonel Mason's head-quarters. Smith remained in California arranging the distribution of posts, and the affairs of the division generally.
In May Captain Rufus Ingalls, assistant quartermaster, was directed by Major H. D. Vinton, chief
- ↑ This is what Steele says, and also that one of them who deserted, named Riley, was hanged in San Francisco. Rifle Regiment, MS., 7.
Palmer was engaged to conduct this company by the new route from Pit River, opened the previous autumn by the Oregon gold-seekers. At the crossing of a stream flowing from the Sierra, one of the party named Brown shot himself through the arm by accident, and the limb was amputated by two surgeons of an emigrant company. This incident detained Palmer in the mountains several weeks at a cabin supposed to have been built by some of Lassen's party the year before. A son of Gen. Wilson and three men remained with him until the snow and ice made it dangerous getting down to the Sacramento Valley, when Brown was left with his attendants and Palmer went home to Oregon by sea. The unlucky invalid, long familiarly known as 'one-armed Brown,' has for many years resided in Oregon, and has been connected with the Indian department and other branches of the public service. Palmer's Wagon Train, MS., 43–8.
