the west side cried out " They are firing on the council-tent!" The men turned out at the first alarm, Sergeant Wooten, of K company of cavalry, lead'm<y a party without orders. The wildest confusion prevailed; yet in the sole intent if possible to save Canby and the others there was a kind of order. Gillem gave his commands rapidly, and the troops were only too eager to get at the assassins Colonel Miller's battery E, 4th artillery, Major Throckmorton's batteries M and K, 4th artillery, and companies E and G, 12th infantry, under Colonel Wright and Captain Howe, moved forward as rapidly as they could get over the rough ground But before they had proceeded far they met Dyar, with the story of the fatal catastrophe. On reaching the councilground Meacham was found to be alive, and was rescued. The Indians retreated to their stronghold, and the troops followed for half a mile, when they were halted, and at night withdrawn to camp.
Thus ended the peace commission, conceived by place-hunters, and afterward conscientiously insisted upon by well-meaning but uliinformed officers of the government in opposition to the opinions and feelings of the white people most concerned, and of the Indians themselves. Secretary Delano was hanged in effigy at Yreka, and public meetings held to do honor to the memory of General Canby in Portland, where nothing that had happened since the assassination of President Lincoln had so afi:ected the whole community.
In justice to Delano it should be said that he had been subjected to a strong outside pressure from people Avith philanthopic theories and no knowledge of the subject. Letters poured into the department in behalf of the Modocs from individuals and societies of every quality and quarter. On the 19th of March a letter was sent to the president by Bronson Murray of New York, reproaching him for employing the army against the Modocs. "If true, what
