Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/599

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accompanied him. It also convinced the military that no terms would be accepted by the Modocs except such as they were able to enforce. All the families in this region were immediately sent to Yreka, and men in isolated places surrounded themselves with stockades.


The courier of Colonel Green found the commander of the district of the lakes confined to his bed with quinsy. He trusted there would be no serious difficulty, but advised Green to use all the force at his command, and sent him Captain Perry's troop F, of the 1st cavalry, and also a small detachment from Fort Bidwell under Lieutenant J. G. Kyle, which he said would give him a force of seventy-five cavalry men in addition to Jackson's company, or a hundred and fifty completely equipped troops.[1] Before Wheaton's order reached Fort Klamath the mischief had been consummated. On news of the disaster being received at Camp Warner, Perry's troops set out by way of Yainax, to join Jackson, and Captain R. F. Bernard was ordered from Bidwell by the southern immigrant road to the same destination. They were directed to make forced marches, the supply-trains to follow. But the condition of the roads made travel ling slow, and a week had elapsed after Jackson's fight before he was reënforced.

In order to protect the roads between the settlements, and to keep open the route to Yreka, Bernard's troops were stationed at Louis Land's place on the east shore of Tule Lake, on the borders of that volcanic region popularly known as the lava-beds, in whose rocky caves and canons Jack had taken refuge with his followers. From Bernard's camp to Jack's stronghold, as reported by the scouts, was a distance of thirteen miles, or two miles from the western

  1. H. Ex. Doc., 122, 40, 43d cong. 1st sess. This remark of Wheaton's shows that he, as well as Odeneal and Applegate, thought there must be at Klamath from 60 to 75 cavalrymen—twice as many were sent to arrest the Modocs.