Indians against white men, and that for this latter pur
pose the force in Oregon should be increased. His request
to the secretary of war for more troops in his department
accompanying such declarations, was as it should have
been refused, and Oregon remained as it had for so many
years been, undefended, except as the people to the best of
their ability took care of themselves.
In his correspondence with the war department, General Wool expressed the opinion that the immigration to Cali fornia and Oregon would soon render unnecessary those posts already established, and declared that if it were left to his discretion he should abolish them, namely, Forts Jones, Reading, and Miller in northern California, and Dalles and Lane in Oregon. In their place he would have a temporary post on Pit river, another on Puget sound, and possibly one in the Snake-river country.
Of the inability of immigrants to protect themselves proof was furnished in the month of August near old Fort Boise, when a party of Kentuckians, numbering twenty- one men, women, and children, led by Alexander Ward, was attacked and massacred, only two boys being left alive, who were rescued.
The horrors of the Ward massacre called for the imme diate chastisement of the Indians in the Boise country. There was at Fort Dalles, the nearest point where a soldier could be found, only a single company of men, under Major Granville 0. Haller. With about sixty of these, and a few citizens who chose to accompany the expedition, Major Haller took the road to Boise, if only to make a show on the part of the government, for the information of the Indians, of its desire and intention to protect its people and punish their destroyers. On Haller s arrival in the Snake country, the Indians, well advised of his move ments, had retired to the mountains where it was too late to attempt following them, and he could only march back to The Dalles.
