Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/514

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MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS.

on Salmon Falls Creek, Curry with twenty men made an expedition across the barren region between Snake River and the Goose Creek Mountains,[1] toward the Owyhee, through a country never before explored. At the same time the main command proceeded along to Bruneau River, on which stream, after a separation of eleven days, it was rejoined by Curry, who had travelled four hundred miles over a rough volcanic region.[2] After an expedition by Lieutenant Waymire[3] up Bruneau River, the troops returned to Fort Walla Walla, where they arrived on the 26th of October.

In March Maury was promoted to the colonelcy of the regiment, C. S. Drew to be lieutenant-colonel, and S. Truax to be major. Rhinehart was made regimental adjutant, with the rank of captain, and took command of company A, Harris having resigned at the close of the Snake River expedition. Rinearson was stationed at Fort Boisé to complete its construction. Lieutenants Caldwell, Drake, and Small were promoted to the rank of captain; second lieutenants Hopkins, Hobart, McCall, Steele, Hand, and Underwood to the rank of first lieutenants. Those who had been promoted from the ranks were Waymire, Pepoon, Bowen, and James L. Curry.

The first expedition in the field in 1864 was one under Lieutenant Waymire consisting of twenty-six men, which left The Dalles on the 1st of March, en-

    Dr Keil in Marion county several years before, upon the community system. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 78.

  1. The reports of the expedition and the published maps do not agree. The latter place the Goose Creek Mountains to the south-east. Captain Curry, however, travelled south-west toward a chain of mountains nearly parallel with the range mentioned, which on the map is not distinguished by a name, in which the Bruneau and Owyhee rivers take their rise.
  2. Curry says: 'With the exception of two camps made near the summit of Goose Creek Mountains, the remainder were made in fissures in the earth so deep that neither the pole star nor the 7-pointers could be seen.' The whole of Curry's report of this expedition is interesting and well written. See Rept of Adjutant Gen. of Or., 1866, 28.
  3. Waymire, in Historical Correspondence, MS.; S. F. Evening Post, Oct. 28, 1882.