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Bald Hills War
Part of the American Indian Wars
Date 1858-1864 Location California Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States California	Whilkut Chilula Lassik Hupa Mattole Nongatl Sinkyone Tsnungwe Wailaki
Commanders and leaders
William C. Kibbe Isaac G. Messec Gabriel J. Rains Francis J. Lippitt Stephen G. Whipple Henry M. Black	Lassic-Wailaki Say-Winne Claw-Foot Tsewenaldin John-Hupa Big Jim-Hupa
Strength
1858-59 Trinity Rangers 1859-1861 Company B, U.S. Fourth Infantry Regiment May, 1859- Jan. 1860 Hydesville Volunteer Company 1860 Humboldt Volunteers 1861 U.S. 6th Infantry Regiment 1861 Mounted Volunteers 1862-65 2nd Regiment California Infantry Co. A, 3rd Regiment California Infantry 1863-65 1st Btn. California Mountaineers Co. A, 1st Btn. Native Cavalry 1864 Co's C,G,E; 6th Regiment California Infantry	Whilkut 250-350 (1858 est.) Hupa 200 (1856 est.)

Bald Hills War (1858–1864) was a war fought by the forces of the California Militia, California Volunteers and soldiers of the U. S. Army against the Chilula, Lassik, Hupa, Mattole, Nongatl, Sinkyone, Tsnungwe, Wailaki, Whilkut and Wiyot Native American peoples.

The war was fought within the boundaries of the counties of Mendocino, Trinity, Humboldt, Klamath, and Del Norte in Northern California. During the American Civil War, Army reorganization created the Department of the Pacific on January 15, 1861, and on December 12, 1861, the Humboldt Military District, which was formed to organize the effort to pacify the hostile Indians and protect the peaceful ones from the encroachment of the American settlers. The district was headquartered at Fort Humboldt, (which is now a California State Historic Park located within the City of Eureka, California). The District's efforts were directed at waging the ongoing Bald Hills War against the Indians in those counties.

The war began with conflicts between native people and local settlers and travelers on the pack mule trails between Humboldt County and Trinity County in Klamath County on upper Redwood Creek and the Bald Hills. William C. Kibbe, appointed Isaac G. Messec as Captain of the newly organized California Militia company, the Trinity Rangers. Messec led that unit in the Klamath & Humboldt Expedition against the Whilkut people during the fall and winter of 1858-1859. Following indecisive fighting, severe winter weather forced an end to the so-called Wintoon War, and the starving Whilkut were forced to capitulate and were removed to the Mendocino Indian Reservation.

Despite the end of the Wintoon War, the causes of conflict spread the warfare to the Chilula, southward to the Eel River Athapaskan peoples and the Mattole in the Mattole River Valley and Bear River Valley. Additionally the Whilkut gradually returned from the south to their lands. The U. S. Army established Fort Gaston among the Hupa people on the Trinity River and later posts in the Eel River valley to keep the peace in the area. Federal troops were unable to adequately protect the settlers from attacks by native raiders. Settlers dispersed over the countryside were on the losing side of this irregular warfare.

A local militia was formed in mid 1859, the Hydesville Volunteer Company. However, it was never given State approval as a militia unit or funding and had to disband in January 1860. The localities were financially not up to the task of maintaining the militia, and the State did not support them, seeing it as a Federal responsibility. Trying again the Humboldt Volunteers was formed as a state militia unit, in early Februay 1860. However on February 26, 1860 some of the settlers lashed out at the peaceful coastal Wiyot people in the Indian Island Massacre. Some of the members of the Volunteers were implicated in the Massacre, and the unit was disbanded in late 1860. Gradually many settlers were compelled to abandon their ranches and farms and take shelter at the coastal settlements between 1860 and 1862.

In late 1861 the Federal troops were recalled to the east to fight in the American Civil War. Elements of California Volunteer Regiments raised to replace Federal troops during the Civil War were sent to the newly formed Humboldt Military District under Col. Francis J. Lippitt. They established a number of posts to protect the settlers, but the troops raised outside the rugged Northwest were at first unsuited to conditions there, and failed to defeat the native peoples. However continued aggressive patrolling finally yeilded results. Lassic and his band were driven to surrender on July 31, 1862, at Fort Baker. More of his warriors came in on August 10 and the 212 captured Indians at Fort Baker were sent to join 462 others at Fort Humboldt and held for a time in the makeshift prison created out on the Samoa Peninsula in Humboldt Bay. In September, 834 Indians were then sent on the steamship SS Panama to the Smith River Reservation near Crescent City. Seemingly the war was being won.

However, in early October Lassic and three hundred natives, mostly warriors had escaped the Smith River Reservation, followed by the exodus of more natives from the Reservation through November. Things were now no better than they were before Lippitt's campaign began.

During 1863 and 1864, the so-called Two Years War, the conflict was brought to an end. Col. Lippett was relieved on July 13, 1863 by Lieutenant Colonel Stephen G. Whipple of the 1st Battalion California Volunteer Mountaineers, a former indian agent, local politician and newspaper editor, who advocated a more active execution of the war with men raised from among the local settlers used to the hardships of war in the redwood forests. Under his command of the Humboldt District he began a more active campaign of unrelenting extended patrolling and skirmishing by all the units of California Volunteer soldiers. Henry M. Black filled in while Whipple served in the Assembly for a few months, and maintained the operations that killed or captured many of the native people. Whipple's operations finally compelled most of the tribes to make peace in August, 1864. However, some operations continued into late 1864 before hostilities ceased completely. California Volunteers remained in local garrisons until mustered out following the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Origins of the Conflict

The causes of the Bald Hills War were several. Most important was the disruptive effect of commercial hunting and grazing on food plants by the herds of the settlers cattle and pigs, on the hunting and gathering economy of the Bald Hills tribes, that had previously abundantly satisfied their wants. Following the Klamath and Salmon River War in 1855, ever increasing numbers of settlers and others traveling through their territory, increased this disruption.

At the end of the year 1856 the settlement and development of Humboldt county had twenty thousand acres of land pre-empted for agricultural or grazing purposes, situated chiefly in the valleys of Eel River, Mad River and Bear River, and around Humboldt Bay. Ranches and farms appeared in the wilderness where two years before there had been no sign of a white man's presence. Grazing and stock raising first gained prominence in the new settlements but one thousand acres were in wheat; 950 acres in oats; 500 acres in barley and 500 acres in potatoes. Nine steam saw mills were in operation by the lumber industry, with a combined capacity of 24,000,000 board feet per annum.

December, 1856, to the middle of April, 1857. Severe Winter. Storm after storm swept over the country —cold, pelting, blinding, drenching rain on the coast, snow everywhere on the mountains inland. It was considered the "hardest Winter since the settlement by the whites". This hard winter had brought about a period without serious trouble with the native inhabitants.

Spring of 1857 Marked the inauguration, of a commercial prosperity. The miners in all the districts on the Klamath, Salmon and Trinity had an abundance of water, and nearly all the claims paid well. Prosperity in the mines meant prosperity elsewhere. Humboldt Bay, as the natural supply depot of a vast mining region, enjoyed its share of the general prosperity, hampered, it is true, by primitive methods of travel and communication with the interior. To move a cargo of merchandise from the seaboard to the mines required an almost incredible amount of labor and expense. There were no roads.

The entire internal commerce of the Northern counties of the State was carried on in 1857 by means of pack-trains of hardy mules. Trinity county alone contained one hundred and twenty-eight trading-posts, doing an annual business of over a million dollars, yet every pound of merchandise sold over their counters was transported across the mountains by pack-trains. The trade, of Siskiyou, much larger, was carried on in the same way. And when to those two counties was added Del Norte, Klamath and Humboldt the total represented was well up in the millions of dollars annually.

The trade for the season was fairly commenced during the month of April. Pack trains arrived at Union and Eureka and departed daily, the supplies of merchandise from San Francisco scarcely keeping pace with the demand. The diversion of the whole carrying trade of the upper Trinity from Shasta to Humboldt Bay was no longer a matter of doubtful prophecy. Farmers of Humboldt county found an outlet for their superfluous crops and very remunerative sales by the opening of passable trails to the mines; and those who had struggled along through the years of its early settlement, with no reward for their labor beyond a bare subsistence, now realized a high price for all their produce. The lumber industry also was attracting the attention of capitalists and paying handsomely those who were engaged in it. A wonderful progress had been made in seven years.

The surge in settlement by cattle and hog raising settlers of their lands in the Bald Hills, and the loss of the game, acorns and other root crops they depended on, caused a feeling of hatred against these settlers and an unwillingness that they should permanently settle in the country. The tribes earlier fear that the settlers presence would interfere with their food supply had become a crisis by 1858.

Events, Skirmishes and Battles of the Bald Hills War

Events leading to hostilities

• In August, 1857. A young Spaniard in the employ of Mallet & Gould, packers, was shot at by Indians on the trail three miles from Mad River. Aside from this episode violent acts by the Indians were rarely heard of in the closing months of 1857.
• February, 1858. A negro known by the name of Leroy was living three miles from Angel's Ranch with a Win-toon squaw, who tiring of him, decided to rid herself of his unwelcome presence. Leroy was hunting game to replenish their winter larder, when she informed him that his services would be dispensed with, and if he did not forthwith depart her people would come and kill him. He stood his ground and two Indians assaulted him, one armed with a hatchet, the other with a knife. A brutal fight ensued, in which Leroy was badly wounded in the left breast by a blow with the hatchet. The negro subsequently reached Angel's Ranch, where he gave an account of the fight and reported that he had killed the two Indians with a knife. A party of white men visited the camp. There were no dead bodies on the spot, and the Indians had robbed the camp of everything Leroy possessed, including the squaw. A few days after the affray an Indian went to Woodward & Barney's place, on the Trinity trail, and was recognized as belonging to the rancheria of the two who had attacked Leroy. He was bound and chained to a tree, was kept in that position till he confessed his knowledge of the attack on the negro, and later his tribe brought in the guns and pistols which had been taken from the camp. They also confessed that the negro had killed both of his assailants with a sheath-knife. Being urged to make further confessions of Indian depredations, and threatened with death if they did not tell the truth, they said that two men named Granger and Cook, who had disappeared from that vicinity in 1857, were murdered by the Win-toons.
• May 29, 1858 eight or ten men went to a rancheria on the Eel River, a few miles above its mouth, to take away guns from the Indians there. Without sufficient provocation the men fired into the rancheria, killing one warrior and one squaw and wounding a squaw and a papoose. The citizens were fearfull that this act might start a war in the Southern part of Humboldt County.
• On June 3, 1858 warrants were issued for the arrest of the men who attacked the rancheria. Sheriff A. D. Sevier and a posse of deputies went out to make the arrests. Three of the party, C. A. Sherman, Win. McDonald and a man named Baker, were found, taken into custody by the Sheriff and taken to Eureka. They were given a hearing and held on a charge of murder, bail set for each at $3,000. McDonald procured bail but Baker and Sherman were jailed.
• Also on June 3, 1858 two men at work in the woods, Ira Jordan and John Mackey, were shot and wounded from ambush by Indians four miles from Eureka.
• June 1858, a man named Thornton was murdered in the Mattole Valley and his body mutilated. Local setters retaliated killing twenty indians over the next two weeks. For three months following the murder, settlers in the Mattole region had no sense of security, keeping their guns within reach at all times.
• June 1858, a man named Vandall, traveling from Union to Crescent City, was killed by two Reservation indians hired as guides killing one and injuring the other with his knife first. The wounded guide returned to the Reservation reporting that they had been attacked by hostiles and he was the sole survivor. His story was discredited and the authorities of the Reservation took him into custody. Accused of having murdered Vandall, the guide made a full confession. He was taken back to the place where the murder was committed and was hanged.
• June 23, 1858. On the Trinity trail, near Grouse Creek, two packers, Henry Allen and Wm. E. Ross, accompanied by two Indian boys, were going up to the Trinity with their train. As they were descending Grouse Creek Hill, not expecting danger, Ross was shot from an ambush where a party of Indians were lying. He was shot three times. He fell from his mule, and when Allen reached him he was unable to stand on his feet. Allen carried him away from the trail, made a bed for him, and sent one of the boys for assistance. The Indians came out from their ambush and coolly looked on while Allen unpacked the mules. When the boy started off they hailed him, but he put spurs to his mule and reached Pardee's Ranch in safety. A Mr. Barney, who was a partner in the Pardee property and living on the place, started to Allen's assistance and sent the boy on to Eureka. When Mr. Barney reached the spot where Ross had been shot he found Allen unharmed and ministering to the wants of his wounded companion. He had erected a barricade of packs from the mules and was determined to stay with Ross to the end. The boy who went for assistance arrived at Eureka at 6 o'clock in the evening, having traveled the 37 miles in less than five hours. Dr. Baldwin, accompanied by A. W. Gould, left immediately for the scene of the shooting, arriving there on Thursday morning, after a night's ride through rain and darkness, on a rough mountain trail. Ross was yet living, though in a critical condition. On Thursday night Mr. Barney went to his home, and on Friday morning he went to Eureka for assistance to carry the wounded man back to the settlements. He reported to the citizens of Eureka that the wounds would probably cause the death of Ross, one of the balls having injured the spine. The feeling attending this intelligence was deep and bitter. Ross had been known as a peaceable, industrious man, and had never so far as any one knew molested or injured the Indians. An attempt had once before been made to take his life by three Indians, near the same place on the Trinity trail where he was now lying wounded, and this fact, associated with the recent attacks, was taken as ground for belief that the Win-toons, for some unaccountable reason or for no reason, had deliberately planned to kill him.

Begining of hostilities August and September 1858

• July 1, 1858. Three parties of volunteers were organized for a campaign against the Indians on Redwood Creek and Upper Mad River, in the vicinity of the place where Ross was shot.
  • July 15, 1858. One party, under command of John Bell, numbering 16 men, pursued the Indians closely for several days, and on Thursday morning, July 15th, they attacked a rancheria on Grouse Creek. The party routed the rancheria and killed several warriors. From reports made by Mr. Bell, it appears that the Indians had been collected there, to the number of 100, with the intention of attacking Bell's party. They had divided their forces, desiring to engage Bell before he reached the rancheria. Bell, however, did not go by the route they expected, passing them and raiding the rancheria while a large force of the Indians were absent. The Indians learned of Bell's position from some who escaped from the rancheria, and an ambush was made for his destruction. Retiring from their rancheria on his way to camp, Bell followed the trail into the ambush and was fired on by the Indians, one of his men, Orrin Stevens, being shot dead at the first fire. This demoralized the whites, and they did not attempt to stand the assault of the concealed savages. They knew not how many of the foe were opposed to them; the Indian in his ambush, behind a rock or tree, or hidden in the grass, had a fair target before him of every one of the whites; there was no advantage that was not on the side of the savage. By a miracle Bell escaped with the loss of only one man. When he reached the camp he had left the day before another surprise was awaiting him. The camp was entirely broken up. Provisions, blankets, cooking utensils, all were gone. Ten mules had also been driven off by the Indians.
  • Bell fell back to Pardee's Ranch, which he reached at daylight on Friday morning. The whole party were worn out and exhausted and some of them were barefooted. Bell concluded to remain at Pardee's Ranch until reinforcements could be received from Eureka. He knew that the Indians were collecting in large numbers in the vicinity, and he had had sufficient evidence that they were disposed to contest every inch of their territory with the whites. It would therefore be the height of folly to meet them with only 15 men.
  • July 1-15, 1858. While Bell was falling back before superior numbers a party of twelve citizens were doing what they could to protect lives and property in the vicinity of the Buttes, an extensive grazing country on the headwaters of Mad River. They were actively engaged in scouting for two weeks, and were fatigued and worn out at the end of that time.
• August 2, 1858. When two Indian boys, driving a train of mules from Kneeland's Prairie to Eureka, were within six miles of town one of the boys was shot dead from his horse. The other was fired at several times, escaping uninjured; and riding into Eureka he told the story of the shooting, saying that it was done by white men. The citizens at first refused to credit his statement. Finally a number went to the place indicated and found the body of the murdered boy, shot in several places. The recurrence of such cold-blooded deeds of murder did much to exasperate the hostile tribes and were condemned by all good citizens. They could not be prevented, however, and the consequence was that the good citizens received punishment for the evil deeds of the bad.
• August 2, 1858. Bell's party had remained at Pardee's Ranch, receiving a small reinforcement from Trinity county. On this day, sixteen men, commanded by Mr. J. W. Winslett, of Burnt Ranch, struck the trail of a party of Win-toon warriors near Three Creeks, a point some three miles from Lach's trail leading to the head of Hoopa Valley. The trail was fresh, and Winslet gave orders to follow it. With their usual cunning the Indians had reckoned on that very order, and, secreting themselves, had waited for their pursuers. The whites passed right under the muzzles of the guns pointed at them from the ambush, Winslet himself being shot through the thigh. His men did not observe that he was shot, and he gave orders to charge the ambush, heading the charge in person. The Indians did not stand their ground. They made a running fight, keeping out of sight as much as possible, jumping from behind a clump of bushes, firing, and running to shelter further on. After chasing them two or three hundred yards, Winslet's party halted upon ascertaining that he was wounded. About this time John Skilling and Chauncey Miller separated themselves from the party for a few minutes, and were fired on by three Indians. Miller fell dead at Skilling's feet, his brain pierced by a rifle ball. Several shots were fired at Skilling without effect. Miller was carried to a spot two miles from where he was shot and left there until the party could take care of Winslet. Winslet was taken to Pardee's house, where he stayed until Wednesday evening, when he was able to ride to Angel's Ranch, where Dr. Baldwin treated his wound finding it painful but not dangerously severe.
• The direct result of the two fights by Bell's party was to present to the whites the very discouraging aspect of Indian affairs. It plainly appeared that the Indians had adopted their natural mode of warfare— hiding in ambush, laying in wait in the thick bush through which the trails were cut, skulking behind rocks and trees, shooting, and running, and shooting again. Few white men couid oppose this method of warfare with any kind of advantage to themselves. ... So far, the parties who had been in pursuit of them had been worsted in every engagement. They had been compelled to follow trails into deep canons and ravines known to the Indians alone, death-traps to the whites. Two good men had been killed and two wounded, yet nothing had been accomplished towards subduing the hostiles. The men who were in the field were not organized under the laws of the State, for experience had taught them that the State was most ungrateful. They were spending their own time and money to subdue the hostiles. It was not to be reasonably expected that they would continue in the field any great length of time, poorly provisioned and fitted out at their own expense, to expose themselves to the extremes of danger and hardship. But, if they withdrew, the settlers on the trails, with all their stock, would be at the mercy of the savages. What could be done?
  • It was understood, to be sure, that Major Raines, in command at Fort Humboldt, had expressed his willingness to give protection to the settlers, at the same time informing them of his inability to do so. The forces of the regular Army had never afforded much protection to the settlers, nor was any prospect visible of better service in the future. Fort Humboldt might have been appropriately called a playground for the soldiers.
  • For useful endeavor in suppressing hostilities and protecting homes the settlers had to look to the volunteer forces, and as these were not organized with the sanction of the Government or the expectation of pay, but rather on the sole responsibility of individuals, their periods of service were brief and uncertain.
  • It was universally admitted that Volunteer Companies, organized under the laws of the State, with authority to act and with expectation of pay, would be the best means of preserving and maintaining peace between the two races on the Northwest coast.
• Late August 1858. The citizens of the Bay towns agitated for the regular formation of Volunteer Companies, and raising money to defray their expenses. At public meetings of the citizens of Union and Eureka were held for the purpose of considering and adopting some method of protection to life and property during the continuance of the war with the Wintoons. At Union a large meeting was held, attended by the citizens generally, and the situation was discussed in all its bearings. Mass-meetings of the people, in times of intense excitement are frequently dangerous and difficult to control, having a volcanic energy which needs only a sympathetic spark from a leading mind to burst out in ruin to itself and others. It was so at Union.
  • There were many in the excited throng of townspeople who would have been in favor of any measure which contained an extraordinary amount of cruelty in its composition. The first, or blood-thirsty faction, urged with undisputed justice that the hostile Indians deserved the severest punishment for their repeated and barbarous depredations upon the whites. They cited the case of Ross, who, while peaceably following his business as a packer on the public thoroughfare between Union and the Trinity, was shot and wounded in such a manner as to make his recovery hopeless; of Stevens, who was shot dead while in pursuit of the hostiles; of Chauncey Miller, a trader on the Trinity, who had volunteered to clear the trail of dangerous obstructions, and had given his life as the forfeit; of Winslet, severely wounded while leading his men against the savages; of Boynton, murdered in cold blood within sight of his wife and children. These atrocities, the extremists declared, called aloud for vengeance; not vengeance such as reason would suggest, but vengeance the most complete that human ingenuity could devise. They were in favor of a war of extermination, total extermination, of every man, woman and child in whose veins coursed the blood of the Indian race. It was not enough that the warriors be killed. Every one of the tribe, male and female, must be made a bloody example of. Reasons were not wanting for the theory of total extermination as the only safe plan. When the condition of affairs in the Bald Hills country was such that men were shot down in sight of their own homes, it was time for extraordinary measures of relief.
  • There was another class, far-seeing men, opposed to the extreme doctrines advocated by certain well-meaning but bloodthirsty citizens. The second, or conservative faction, opposed the idea of extermination, on the ground that the killing of women and children was condemned by the spirit of a civilized age and forbidden by the consciences of good men. Besides, communities abroad would look upon the measure as emanating from a wicked, cruel and barbarous people.
  • The extremists replied to this, that communities unacquainted with the hardships of frontier life, and far removed from the danger to which their own lives and property were constantly exposed, might consider such treatment of the Indians fit only for barbarians ; but they believed that a necessity sufficiently imposing to override every consideration demanded total "extermination as indispensable to adequate relief. The Indian race must be exterminated from the mountain prairies lying between Humboldt Bay and the waters of the Trinity and Klamath, or the further development and progress of the country would be utterly impossible. However desirable the country might be for stock-raising and other purposes, white men could not settle there while armed savages were suffered to roam at large, waylaying the trails, killing men, pillaging homes, and driving off cattle. As the Indians were year after year obtaining more and more firearms, and becoming better and better skilled in their use, the longer they were permitted to live the worse it would be for the whites.
  • To this the conservatives answered, that they were in favor of removing the Indians, but not by the total extermination plan. There was another and a better way for which they contended. There were three Indian Reservations accessible to Humboldt, Trinity and Klamath counties, the Mendocino, the Noma Cult, and the Klamath, all established by the Government to meet such requirements as the present situation demanded. They (the conservative element) were in favor of removing all the Indians to the Government Reservations.
  • Again the extremists replied, it would do no good to remove the Indians to the Reservations, which had been in existence several years and had conferred no perceptible benefit upon anybody. The Agents, sub-Agents and clerks on the Reservations at various times had idled away their opportunities for good actions, and incurred the displeasure of the whites and the contempt of the Indians. In no sense had the Reservation system benefitted the Indians or anybody else. Another argument in favor of extermination was the inefficiency of the military power. There was a United States military post at Fort Humboldt, yet the pioneers of the country, whose enterprise was building up and developing its resources, were murdered at their own doors, because they had no protection. It could not be said that the Federal or State officers were ignorant of the situation. Many times had been urged upon the attention of the Indian Department the absolute necessity of something being done in this section to avert an Indian war. The citizens had petitioned the commander of the United States troops, and also the Governor, for aid. The military officer had not men enough at his disposal to protect his own garrison from attack, and the opinions of the Governor on the subject had not been made known to the people. And should the Governor see fit to call for the formation of volunteer companies, the extremists contended, an unreasonable time would elapse before they could be brought into active service, notwithstanding the apparent necessity for immediate action in order to save the settlements. If something was not done immediately all the settlements in the Bald Hills would be broken up, and travel on the trails leading to the interior would be completely cut off.
  • With such arguments, pro and con, the mass-meeting consumed the first portion of its time, and then the judgment of cool heads began to cause conviction. There were cool heads in the mass meeting at Union, whose better judgment prevailed over the hot ideas of those who clamored for extermination. They saw that extermination would be impossible, and by no possible twisting of moral ethics could it be made to appear justifiable.
  • The dissension resulted in the appointment of a committee of five citizens, John O. Craig, A. H. Murdock, David Maston, E. L. Wallace and H. W. Havens, with full authority to devise and carry into execution such measures as they might deem most prudent and most efficient for the protection of the lives and property of the settlers, and with authority to convene the people in mass meeting whenever occasion should dictate.
  • Resolutions were adopted, the preamble to which stated that the unprovoked murder of Paul Boynton, as well as other recent events, had demonstrated in the most unequivocal manner the determined and deadly hostility of the Indian tribes in the vicinity, showing that nothing but prompt and energetic measures on the part of the entire white population, acting unitedly, could prevent the frequent occurrence of similar tragedies; and it was therefore resolved, as the sense of the meeting, that the Trustees of the town of Union be requsted to levy a tax of not less than fifty cents on each one hundred dollars' worth of property, the proceeds to be appropriated to the payment of any necessary expense incurred by the committee of five in the discharge of their duty.
  • The meeting, having adopted the preamble and resolution, quietly adjourned, leaving to the committee of five citizens the task of accomplishing further good results.

• September 1858. The Mattole offered to make a treaty of peace and friendship with the settlers. The treaty agreed to in September gave peace to the two parties for a while.

• September 5, 1858, Governor John B. Weller informed Adjutant-General William C. Kibbe that citizens of Trinity and Humboldt counties had reported to him that a band of Indians of the Whilkut (Redwood Tribe) had recently killed several persons, and committed many outrages upon the road from Weaverville to Humboldt Bay. Communication between these places was almost suspended because traveling on that route had become exceedingly dangerous. They were asking the Governor for a military force to, open the route, and give protection and security to those who desired to travel over it.

The Governor requested Adjutant General Kibbe to proceed to Weaverville and make a detailed report of conditions in that region, to ascertain the number of Indians in the vicinity, and the character of the outrages that were committed by the hostiles. If hostilities still prevented travel on the road, and Whilkut still maintained a hostile attitude toward the people, the General was to organize a company of volunteer militia to suppress them if such acts were continued, as communication between these important towns must remain open, and protection must be given the citizens at all hazards.

• Late August - September 1858. All up and down the stock-raising country of the Bald Hills there was consternation and fear. Bold as the Indians had been in the beginning ... their successes in action against Bell's party had increased their hopes of finally exterminating the whites from their country.
  • September 14, 1858. Murder of Paul Boynton, who lived with his family ten miles from Union, on the Trinity trail. Boynton was killed within two hundred yards of his house, between seven and eight o'clock in the morning. Some packers had camped there during the night, and in the morning, as they were preparing to leave, he started off after his cows. Before he was out of sight the report of a rifle was heard, and a number of Indians were seen running away from the premises. The packers seized their guns and ran to Boynton's assistance. Close to a little wood, in whose impenetrable shadows the Indians had been hidden, they found the dead body of Boynton, yet warm, pierced through and through by a rifle ball. From the position taken by the attacking party it was assumed that they had been in ambush all night, and that they intended, after killing Boynton, to make a raid on the house and its inmates. The presence of the packers had foiled their designs on the house but had not prevented the death of its owner.
  • September 15, 1858. Pardee's Ranch was attacked on the morning after the murder of Boynton. The dogs at Pardee's house kept the attacking party at bay for a few minutes, when Messrs. Pardee and Barney went out in the yard and were instantly fired on. Neither was hit and the Indians did not follow up the attack. When night set in Pardee's family started for Union, arriving safely at three o'clock on Thursday morning, having left their house and effects to be destroyed.

• In the mass meetings at Union and Eureka it was stated by citizens that the Governor had been communicated with, and that he had taken no notice whatever of the petitions for aid which had been forwarded to him. A week later certain facts were developed which placed the matter in a new light. A month before the murder of Boynton a dispatch was received at Weaverville, Trinity county, addressed to J. C. Burch, from John B. Weller, then Governor of the State, to the effect that if the necessity was sufficient the Constitution gave the Executive authority to call out Volunteers to suppress Indian hostilities. Mr. Burch forwarded the dispatch to A. Wiley, publisher of the Weekly Times, at Eureka, who promptly furnished Governor Weller with the necessary proof that sufficient necessity did exist to warrant him in calling for Volunteers. The proof was accompanied by a petition for aid signed by many prominent citizens. Mr. Wiley's letter and the petition from the citizens were delayed in the mails, reaching Sacramento a week later than the schedule time, being received by Governor Weller on the 31st of August. After the murder of Boynton, and while the people were discussing the propriety of organizing Volunteer Companies among themselves, regardless of reimbursement by the Government, the following letter was received at Eureka:

Executive Department, Sacramento, Cal., Sept. 7th, 1858.

Dear Sir: Your letter of the 14th ult., together with the petition signed by the citizens of Humboldt, was delayed on the route and did not reach me until the 31st. I immediately dispatched the Adjutant-General to the headquarters of the Pacific Division, with a requisition for troops to clear the road from Weaverville to Humboldt Bay of the Indians, and give protection and security to the people. This course was necessary in order to give us a clear and indisputable claim against the Federal Government in the event that forces were called into the service. The officer in command, Lieut.-Col. Markall, reported that he had no troops to send in that direction. Gen. Kibbe was immediately dispatched to Weaverville to call out a military force if the difficulties referred to in the memorial still existed.

Since he left I have received a letter from the Adjutant-General of this Division of the U. S. Army, somewhat different in its character from the reply of Lieut.-Col. Markall. I enclose a copy. The communication between the Bay and Weaverville must be kept open at all hazards, and if the Federal forces who are paid to protect us against the Indians do not do it I will not hesitate to call out the militia.

Very Truly,

Your obedient servant,

John B. Weller.

To A. Wiley.

• September 27th, 1858. On Sunday evening, the town of Union was thrown into a tremendous excitement. About 10 o'clock in the evening some Mad River Indians ran through the streets, saying that Indians from Hoopa and Redwood were destroying their rancheria two miles from town, and murdering their women and children. At another time such a report might have been laughed at, in the light of a practical joke by the friendly tribes. Coming at the time it did, in the midst of an Indian war, the excited imagination of the people was in a condition to accept it as the truth. The alarm spread like fire. Men hunted up weapons of every description, and every woman and child in the town was placed in afire-proof building owned by a citizen named Jacoby. The town was searched through and through for firearms, and when every available gun and pistol had been procured a large party of citizens volunteered to accompany the friendly Indians to their rancheria for the purpose of ascertaining how many of their women and children had been murdered. Arriving at the rancheria they were surprised to find it peaceful and quiet, with not a squaw or papoose missing, and not a sign of the presence of hostiles. Inquiring for the origin of the report, the Indians at the rancheria told them that the hostiles had not been seen. Their footsteps were heard in the brush close by. The disgusted whites returned to town with the information that the report made by the Indians was false, and between the hours of twelve o'clock and six the women and children were taken back to their homes. Whether the friendly tribes, stolid and unused to jokes, intended to perpetrate a practical hoax on the whites, or whether they were really frightened by something they saw or heard, was a query which no one seemed competent to answer.

• The effeet of the Union excitement was not such as to create or maintain public confidence. It rather elicited severe criticism on the conduct of Major Raines, in keeping the troops under his command at Fort Humboldt at a time when they should have been in the field. The reinforcements mentioned in the Assistant Adjutant-General's communication to Governor VVeller had arrived at Fort Humboldt on the 19th of September, yet they had not, up to the 30th of the same month, received orders to report for active duty against the hostiles. The delay, so far as the ordinary citizen could understand, was inexcusable. The Trinity trail was completely blockaded and the people were suffering much inconvenience and great loss for want of an adequate military force to open it. The arrival of the troops had delayed the organization of a Volunteer Company at Eureka or Union which would have been in the field weeks before. If the United States soldiers had been sent to protect the trails and subdue hostile Indians, they had no business at Fort Humboldt, idling away time that ought to be spent in pursuit of the Win-toons.
• These criticisms in turn provoked explanations, as such criticisms are apt to do, and the settlers were astonished to learn that the soldiers were waiting at Fort Humboldt for the officer who was to lead them against the Indians.

Wintoon War 1858-1859

Organizing for the Campaign

• October 1, 1858 Adjutant General of California Kibbe, went to Weaverville and organized a Company of Volunteers, called the Kibbe Guards, within three days, procured an armory building, and forwarded a requisition to Sacramento for seventy rifles.
• October 2, 1858 Captain Edmund Underwood, who had been assigned to the command, did arrive at Fort Humboldt, and a few days thereafter was sent out with 36 men, with orders to take a position in the neighborhood of Pardee's Ranch, halfway between Union and the South Fork of Trinity.
• October 14, 1858 A Volunteer Company of eighty men, the Trinity Rangers was organized at Big Bar, on the Trinity River, October 14th, with I. G. Messec elected Captain, J. W. Winslett, of Burnt Ranch, as First Lieutenant, W. F. Prosser, 2nd Lt.; Orion Washington, Orderly Sargeant and James Hyslop, 2nd Sargeant.

Immediately after organizing, the Trinity Rangers started for Captain Underwood's camp at Pardee's Ranch. Underwood had been kept busy with his small force of soldiers in escorting trains across the mountains to the Trinity and Klamath. The Indians avoided the trail and Captain Underwood did not follow them.

• October 18, 1858. General Kibbe arrived at Union and started pack trains to the Volunteers with two weeks' supplies. General Kibbe had not been two weeks at Union, perfecting his arrangements for an effective campaign, before the Military Department deprived the Volunteers of the assistance Captain Underwood could give them by escort duty on the trail near Pardee's Ranch. Captain Underwood received orders to move his command to Hoopa Valley. He and his men had had time to get somewhat familiar with the trail to the Trinity and somewhat acquainted with the packers who frequented it. Their removal necessitated the substitution of Lieutenant Collins with a force of twenty-five men from the Klamath Reservation, who would require time to become familiar with the trail and with the packers.

Klamath & Humboldt Expedition October 1858 - March 1859

Begining Operations

• October 26, 1858 Skirmish at Pardee's Ranch On a scout in the vicinity of Pardee's Ranch, the Trinity Rangers under Captain Messec had their first engagement with the Wintoons. The Rangers attacked a hostile camp in the afternoon of October 26th. A surprise had been planned but was acheived due to the light which enabled the Indians to see the Rangers before they could surround the camp. Taking to the bush as soon as attacked, the Indians offered a running fight, firing from behind protecting trees and rocks. One of the Volunteers, John Harpst, was shot in the left shoulder and severely injured. Four Win-toon warriors were killed, and two squaws and four children made prisoners.
• November 1, 1858, Encounter at Humbolt County border Trinity Rangers encountered Indians a short distance from the Humboldt County border and killed four of their number, captured seven or eight prisoners. One of the Rangers was killed in the encounter.
• November 8, 1858, Captain Messic again surprised a camp of hostile Indians near the new Trinity trail. The Indians took to the brush as soon as attacked and made a running fight. Four Indian warriors were killed and only one of the members of the Ranger party was injured.
• November 13th and 14th Captain Messic attacked three rancherias which had been recently located near Shower's Pass. In the three fights five warriors were killed and twenty-six prisoners were taken.
• November 14, 1858, Encounter at Head of Yager Creek Captain Messic with about half of his command came upon a band of Indians at the head of Yager Creek, and in the encounter five or six warriors were killed and about eight women and children taken prisoners. A man named Allan, under Captain Messic, was wounded during the engagement by the accidental discharge of a companion's gun. The prisoners were to be sent to the Klamath Reservation.

Mid Winter Campaign

• December 21, Surprise of Seventeen Camps The first operation of the mid-winter campaign was along the banks of the upper Mad River, where the Indians had made seventeen camps at various distances from a quarter of a mile to a mile apart. Acting under instructions from Gen. Kibbe, Captain Messec devised a plan to surprise and capture the camps, which then contained, in the aggregate, to the best of his information, about one hundred Indians. Dividing his command into several small detachments, Captain Messec ordered them to completly encircle the camps and guard every available point of escape. When this was done and when the Indian camps were asleep, the Volunteers charged in upon them and made the waking warriors prisoners. So complete was the surprise planned and so quietly executed that not a gun was fired, not an Indian escaped. Eighty-four prisoners were taken and the camps were destroyed but only two guns were found. It was Gen. Kibbe's impression that the Indians, anticipating their capture, had hid their guns or given them to other Indians. Gen. Kibbe anticipating a delay by the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in placing the prisoners on a reservation, took the prisoners to Union to be quartered there until some permanent disposition could be made of them.
• January 1859 Capt. Messec having cleared the headwaters of Yager Creek of hostiles, drove those not captured further into the mountain gorges, following them up.
  • Mid January 1859 Capt. Messec routed a band of hostiles in the mountains between Redwood and Hoopa Valleys. They fled towards the coast and were trailed to vicinity of Dow's Prairie, north of Union. Messec had them nearly surrounded, and was making his arrangements to capture them, when they made their escape through the connivance of Lower Mad River Indians, who had professed friendship to the whites. Gen. Kibbe having returned from San Francisco, and being present with the command, gave orders that three of the head men of the treacherous friendly tribe be taken prisoners and held as hostages for the good behavior of the remainder. Capt. Messec, leaving the larger part of his command engaged in scouring the hills, took fourteen men and pursued the fleeing Indians to the coast ten or twelve miles north of Union.
  • Jan. 23, 1858, a series of severe winter storms begin to strike the region until Feb. 15, 1859. The hostiles become unable to hunt and because of Messec's patrols, afraid to go down to the streams, and will be starved into submission within four weeks.
  • January 28, 1859 Capt. Messec surmised from certain suspicious movements of some Lower Mad River Indians near Union, who had professed to be friendly, that the Wintoons were in the redwoods somewhere between Dow's Prairie and Liscom's Hill. On January 27, 1859 he started in pursuit with 14 men, fully determined to dislodge them. Striking their trail early in the morning and following it all day, encamping for the night on the trail.
  • January 29, 1859 Fight near Dow's Prairie

Capt. Messec started again at daylight. At 9 o'clock in the morning the barking of dogs warned him that the Indian rancheria was near at hand It was not in sight, being situated, as near as they could determine, at the foot of a slight declivity, at the top of which they had halted. Dividing his little force into two parties of 7 men each, Capt. Messec prepared to attack whatever lay before him. The two parties separated, and descending the declivity simultaneously, they were suddenly confronted by a scene which had been farthest from their expectations. Instead of a few brush lodges, which they had expected to see, there were fourteen log houses before them, containing, as they afterwards estimated, at least one hundred and fifty Indians. It was too late to retreat and the fight commenced. The warriors left the houses and concealed themselves in the brush, which was here very thick and dense. From in front and on the right and left the Indians shot their bullets and arrows. The Volunteers stood their ground, their rifles felling the Indians as they left their houses, fifteen being shot down. Capt. Messec could not ignore the superior numbers of the Indians, nor could he conceal the belief that the foe would have had little trouble in annihilating his force had their aim been as good as that of the Volunteers. It was necessary to take some position less exposed than the one then occupied by his men. Separated into two parties a hundred yards apart, they were exposed to the aim of the enemy, who, secreted in their leafy ambush, fired, and hid, and fired again. The miraculous escape of the whites could not continue much longer in their present condition.

Capt. Messec sent an order ringing out to his men, commanding them to concentrate their forces, take to the brush, and fight the foe after his own fashion. The manoeuvre was a difficult and dangerous one. If the two parties advanced directly toward each other, they would be exposed to the murderous fire of the whole force of the savages; if they deployed to the right or left, the Indians would consider that a retreat had been ordered; if they retreated a few hundred yards for the purpose of forming anew, the foe would have time to take up new positions in unexpected ambushes. The best that could be done was to take to the brush in their immediate vicinity, never losing sight of the log houses, and firing whenever they caught a momentary glimpse of a skulking Indian.

Even this movement, simple as it might appear, was fraught with danger; by leaving one position they exposed themselves to a hotter fire, momentarily, than was experienced before; and it was not accomplished without bloodshed. In this manoeuvre two of the Volunteers were severely wounded, one, John Houk, of Burnt Ranch, being shot through the hand and body by a yager ball, and another, S. Overlander, receiving two large bullets in the thighs. With two men thus wounded and incapable of further fighting, opposed to a foe who outnumbered him twenty to one, Capt. Messec had to do one of two things. He had to sacrifice his wounded men or order a retreat to save them. He chose the latter course. Taking with them the two who were wounded, and driving before them 13 prisoners taken in the fight while they were attempting to escape through the brush, the Volunteers began their retreat.

The Indians fully understood that the whites had sustained a severe loss and that they had been obliged to withdraw; and understanding so much, they sent out scouts to harass them in their retreat. One of these scouts, in particular, exhibited the most daring bravery. He kept on their trail for seven hours, firing at them from time to time as sheltering trees or bushes gave him opportunity. In the afternoon he was far in advance of the party, and secreting himself thirty steps from the trail, awaited their approach. It was near 4 o'clock when the Volunteers passed his hiding place. As they did so, he rose and took deliberate aim at G. W. Werk, of Eureka, who had just been ordered to advance to the front and take a position behind the prisoners. Werk was carrying two guns at the time, otherwise he might have had an equal show with the Indian, for he saw him when he presented his gun to fire. The ball was aimed at Werk's head, but he raised the gun on a level with his head and received the ball in his left arm, close to the elbow joint. It smashed the bone to splinters and severed an artery. Capt. Messec bound up the arm so as to stop the flow of blood, but not before Werk had become weak and exhausted from its loss.

The same Indian who shot Werk crossed their trail half an hour later and fired at a Volunteer named Wilburn, missing him. So expert was he in hiding that it was impossible to get a shot at him, and Messec's party was so small and his wounded men required so much attention that he could not make a deliberate attempt to capture him. At 5 o'clock on Saturday morning the Volunteers reached Dow's Prairie, exhausted and hungry. None of the party had had any sleep for fifty hours preceding, and their food had been scant and poor. The wounded men had suffered intensely on the way, and it was deemed necessary to take them to Union for medical treatment. After a brief rest at Dow's Prairie the party moved on to Union, arriving there late in the afternoon, and on the evening of the same day the injuries of the wounded men were dressed and cared for.

• January 28, 1859 Skirmish on Redwood Creek Fought between Lieut. Winslett's detachment and a band of Indians on Redwood Creek, in which several of the hostiles were killed, and Frank McCafferty, a Volunteer, was wounded.
• Lull in the fighting.
  • January 29, 1859 Capt. Messec joined Lieut. Winslett at Elk Prairie, where the whole command went into camp for a week, when it was moved to Mad River, where preparations were made for another tour of the adjacent country.
  • From January 29 till the March 1, matters remained quiet and uneventful. Gen. Kibbe was at Redwood, where he waited the result of a "pow-wow" between three Hoopa envoys and the hostiles.

Roundup of the Wintoons, End of the War

• February 20th the Hoopa envoys returned to Gen. Kibbe and reported that the hostiles were willing to make or receive propositions for a general surrender and a termination of all difficulties, but they desired to hold a "big council" with the white men, and they named the Big Lagoon, a body of water near the ocean, North of Trinidad, as the , place for holding it. Gen. Kibbe, accompanied by Capt. Messec and 25 of his men, went to the Big Lagoon, accordingly, for the purpose of holding the council. Many of the hostiles agreed to surrender, and many of them did but the council was not a complete success, the majority of the Indians were indifferent, preferring that the Volunteers should go to them than that they should go to the Volunteers. They were not able to fight, and could with difficulty subsist on their limited supply of miserable food. The severity of the weather prevented them from hunting or fishing. It would have averted an incalculable amount of labor and privation from the Volunteers had the Indians surrendered of their own accord. Remaining in their rancherias, nothing could be done except to hunt them out of their retreats and drive them to the bay like sheep.
• Starved and famished, the Win-toons could no longer fight; the Volunteers were energetic; and the end of the war came speedily. Wherever the camps or rancherias were found the Indians offered no resistance and made no attempt to escape. Gen. Kibbe made a contract with Captain Woodly, of the bark Fanny Major, to take a second consignment of prisoners to Mendocino, including 75 captured on Redwood Creek by Capt. Messec and 25 captured by a detachment under Lieut. Winslett.
• March 15, 1859 160 prisoners were taken from Union and placed on board the Fanny Major, and on the 17th the vessel sailed for Mendocino. It was Gen. Kibbe's opinion that nearly all of the hostile Indians on Redwood had been captured, and he accordingly made preparations to disband the Volunteers. The Executive of the State was communicated with, who replied that he was highly pleased with the manner in which the campaign had been conducted, and that he should urge upon the Legislature the propriety and necessity of paying from the State Treasury the expenses which had been incurred.
• March 20, 1859 War against the Wintoons ends, Volunteers disbanded.

Escalating Conflict 1859-1862

1859, New hostilities in the Eel River and Mattole River Valleys

• Yager Creek and vicinity, a section rich in grazing lands, which had attracted numbers of enterprising settlers, principally stock-raisers, was in a most defenseless condition in the Spring of 1859. The disbanding of the Volunteers had left that whole section again exposed to the marauding raids of roving bands of hostile Indians.

The troops of the regular Army stationed at Fort Humboldt were insufficient to prevent the wanton killing of cattle and destruction of homes, nor were the settlers themselves numerous enough to intimidate or guard against the hostiles. Nearly one hundred soldiers were lying idle in the garrison at Bucksport, Major Raines appearing as indifferent to the needs of the settlers as any of the idle men under his command. He was urged to send out a detachment and establish a military post somewhere near the headwaters of Yager Creek, so that it might answer the double purpose of guarding stock and affording protection to the travelers between the Trinity and the Eel River settlements. With characteristic delay, the troops continued to idle away their time at Fort Humboldt. Major Raines was not unlike his predecessors at Fort Humboldt in his inability to distinguish the value of time and human lives. Time could not have been considered valuable, for it was wantonly wasted. Human lives could not have been considered of much importance, unless, indeed, they were the lives of the soldiers of the garrison, who were seldom allowed to risk their own in the preservation of the lives of others. Something was always in the way as an insurmountable obstacle to the activity and usefulness of the troops.

• March 11, 1859 While Gen. Kibbe was at Union he corresponded with Major Raines commanding Fort Humboldt, concerning the condition and disposition of the troops of its garrison. He inquired if Army forces were ready to take the feild to protect civilians.
• March 16, 1859 Major Raines replied "...in answer I have to inform you that a needful supply of clothing for the troops, the shipment of which we have been notified, is hourly expected. When it arrives, they will be put in readiness for the field without delay. We supposed the steamer would have brought it, but were disappointed."
• May 1859 a detachment of soldiers from Fort Humboldt under Captain Charles Swain Lovell took the field in the Yager Creek country. The detachment of United States troops under Capt. Lovell encamped at Indian Gulch. They were too late to be of any valuable service. During the months they had been on garrison duty the Indians had never ceased their mischief, and for six weeks preceding the first of May there had been a most exasperating slaughter of cattle on all the Yager Creek ranges.
  • May 10th Ellison's Fight While hunting cattle on Yager Creek James C. Ellison saw a number of Indians packing off the meat of the cattle they had killed. He returned to his camp, where he had left several other settlers, and informed them of what he had seen. Preparations were made to attack the thieving Indians that night. When they had perfected their plans they started, five in number, and had gone about two miles when two Indians belonging to a party secreted in the brush either by accident or design showed themselves to the whites. The whites fired and killed one of the two. The other, being wounded, jumped behind a log where his companions lay concealed. The whites ran up to where they supposed the wounded Indian had fallen, and going around the log, were within twenty feet of thirty or forty Indians before they saw them. Ellison was struck by an arrow in the groin. When the arrow struck him he drew the shaft and continued fighting until the Indians were routed. Two or three days later Ellison died, and was buried at Hydesville.
  • The death of Ellison and the slaughter of stock preceding it discouraged the settlers in the Yager Creek section. All cattle that could be collected were speedily driven to Mattole, and a splendid grazing country was once more deserted by the settlers.
• May 15, 1859 Hydesville Volunteers Formed. Two days after Ellison's death the Hydesville Volunteer Company was organized with Abram Lyle elected Captain, with 3 other officers and 25 men in the Company, which was provisioned and equipped for a scout of six weeks. The provisions were stored at a settler's house on South Yager, where the company was divided into two squads, one going over to Mad River, the other to North Yager.
  • The Hydesville Volunteer detachment operating on North Yager succeeded in trailing some Indians to their quarters in the redwoods. Before reaching the rancheria they came abruptly on three who were gathering clover, killing two of them and wounding the other. The firing was heard by those who were in the rancheria, who fled, carrying away with them everything that was of value in the shape of firearms. Men who had been hunting cattle brought in the information that several bands of Indians had been seen on the Van Duzen, and it was supposed that as the cattle were all moved from North Yager, and there was nothing left for them to prey on there, they would carry their depredations further south, into the Van Duzen and Mattole districts.
  • The Volunteers were energetic in their movements, and before the first of June they had driven many roving bands of savages from the headwaters of Yager Creek and Mad River.
  • When the six weeks for which the Hydesville Volunteers had been equipped had elapsed the Commissary, J. H. Morrison, went to Eel River and procured more supplies, the Company having decided to remain in the field several months longer.
• Summer 1859 A portion of Capt. Underwood's Company was ordered removed from Hoopa and placed on the Trinity trail, and the detachment went into camp at Pardee's house on Redwood Creek, in command of Lt. Collins, within one day's march of Capt. Lovell's camp on Yager Creek.
• Fall 1859, when the acorns, roots and other food began to fail in the woods and on the hills, the roving tribes of depredating mountain savages renewed their raids on the cattle herds of the whites.
• December 1859, Cattle were lost in every drove between the Van Duzen and Mad Rivers.
  • In the vicinity of Kneeland's Prairie and the Buttes twenty-five head of cattle were killed in two weeks. In one instance a band of cattle was driven into the redwoods, where several were killed, and the fires over which the meat was dried were found still burning by a party of settlers.
  • The firm of Dix Brothers started from Hydesville for Weaverville with a drove of cattle, and on the first night in the Bald Hills one of their drove was killed. Upon hearing the news, the Hydesville Volunteers, started in pursuit, trailing the Indians around Yager Creek to where the trail struck across to the head of Elk River, where they were compelled to give up the chase.
• December 4, 1859, Fort Gaston was founded in the redwood forests of the Hoopa Valley by Captain Underwood, U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment.

1860

• January 1, 1860 Murder of two hunters from Sacramento, in the Mattole Valley.

Low on provisions, two of the party were sent to Mattole for a fresh supply. Two weeks passed and they did not return to the camp. Suspecting the hunters had been murdered by some of the Mattole Indians, a small party of Mattole settlers attacked several rancherias capturing prisoners who told of the murders and the identity of the murderers. A rifle, a powder flask, and blankets that had belonged to the murdered men were recovered from one of the rancherias. The prisoners confessed that the two whites had been encamped for the night, when they were killed and their bodies cut to pieces and thrown into the surf.

"A growing excitement in the community was intensified by the relation of various versions and some exaggerations of the Mattole murders. A feeling of insecurity spread through all classes—and the Indians themselves no longer confined their cattle-stealing and their murderous attacks to the Yager Creek country. Reports and rumors were rife of many barbarous deeds in nearly all sections of Humboldt county. Not quite a year had elapsed since Capt. Messec had closed his campaign against the Win-toons. Many of the prisoners sent to the Mendocino Reservation were back in their old homes, more subdued than formerly and smarting under chastisement and defeat; liable, nevertheless, to take the war-path again at any moment."

"On Yager Creek the hostiles were killing stock in the corrals and sometimes in the presence of the owners. The Hydesville Volunteers, unable to continue in the field at their own expense, were disbanded and dispersed to their homes, leaving no check to the advance of the Indians. On North Yager a number of settlers banded together for mutual protection, but were powerless to assist their neighbors.

• Latter part of January, 1860. "On the Bald Hills the situation was even worse. ...Indians collected a hundred head of cattle, belonging to different persons, and drove them by the houses of white men in open sight. The neighborhood was quickly aroused and a party gave chase, regaining all but 20 or 30 head of the stock. The settlers then drove their stock together, for better security. In doing so they were compelled to desert their houses and other property."

• February 4th, 1860 a Volunteer Company, the Humboldt Dragoons was organized according to law, officers being elected, Seaman Wright, Captain; 3 officers, 7 NCO's and 55 privates on the roll. Capt. Wright forwarded notice of the organization, together with a requisition for arms, to Senator Ryan, that the proper attention of the Executive might be directed to the emergency in which the people were placed, an emergency which demanded that the Volunteers be called into the regular service of the State and provision made for their support. Pending action of the Executive, it was absolutely necessary for the Volunteers to go into active service of their own accord, equipped at their own expense, and supplied with provisions by the merchant traders of the county. Before the 15th of February the Company had been provisioned and were in the field, scouting on the Van Duzen, with headquarters at Campton's Ranch.

• February 1860, No reply to the requisition for arms was received from Sacramento, nor was there any intimation that the Company would be called into service by the Governor. Settlers on the Van Duzen, despairing of aid from the State, and knowing that the Volunteers would soon be compelled to disorganize if aid was not received, made their preparations to abandon that section should their worst fears be realized. A petition setting forth the true condition of the country, and praying for adequate relief, was forwarded to the Governor himself, in the hope that he would properly consider the matter and take such official action as might be legitimate and just.

• Deferment of Indian War Claims: To the other troubles of the settlers was added the sickening experience of hope deferred concerning the old Indian war claims and their payment by the State. The claims were not paid, though bonds had been issued three years before on the faith of the State. The bonds had the provision that claimants should be paid only "out of any moneys which might be appropriated by Congress to this state to defray the expenses incurred in the suppression of Indian hostilities"; consequently the value of the bonds amounted to nothing in the absence of any prospect of an appropriation from the National Treasury. If claims accruing in times long past, some of them dating back to 1852, were not paid, what hope could the settlers have that claims of 1860 would be paid?
  • Three successive sessions of Congress had been expected to make appropriations to pay the old claims, and three times was disappointment the lot of the settler.
  • Citizens had rendered valuable services and furnished supplies in perfect good faith, and every consideration of honor and of public policy should have prompted Congress to make necessary appropriations to cover the losses sustained.
  • As a general thing the State bonds were held by those to whom they were issued. They were worthless for exchange, or as collateral security of any kind.
  • The Pacific Coast representatives in Congress were familiar with the history of the claims and knew that there was no fraud or speculation connected with them, but no efforts of theirs appeared to be sufficient to secure an appropriation for the redemption of the bonds.
  • Nor was there any immediate prospect of the State assuming the responsibility of paying the bonds with the funds of the Commonwealth. There was considerable discussion on the subject in the Legislature, and a bill was introduced directing the Treasurer to call in and pay the bonds; but certain sentimental members from San Francisco and Los Angeles, who considered that the Indians bad been much abused, did all they could to defeat this measure of redress for the settlers.
• February 26, 1860, 1860 Wiyot Massacre or Indian Island Massacre. Hemmed round by innumerable difficulties, exasperated and maddened beyond control, the stockraisers and farmers were prepared to sanction the most desperate enterprises which contained the slightest promise of relief.
• An excitement so intense as that caused by the massacre at Indian Island could not soon die out. It absorbed public discussion to the exclusion of every other subject. It filled the public mind completely during the three succeeding months after the massacre occurred. The action of the Governor in refusing to call into the service of the State the Company of Volunteers under Captain Wright was the occasion of much dissatisfaction and disappointment in Eel River Valley and on the Bald Hills, where the killing of cattle was still a common occurrence. The citizens of Hydesville and vicinity furnished the Company with provisions enough to last through the month of March,' intending, at the end of that time, if no aid or encouragement was received from the State, to assist the settlers in removing their families and property from all the stock-raising regions of the Bald Hills, thus leaving that fertile country uninhabited by the whites. Among the Indians the commotion was greater than among the whites. The tribes living in the vicinity of Eureka and Union were afraid to live at their rancherias and were quartered at Fort Humboldt by Major Raines.
• March, April and May, 1860 The fights with the Indians and their cattle-stealing exploits did not grow less frequent or annoying.
  • Near Angel's Ranch the residence of B. Crogan was plundered and robbed during his absence, and John Stewart, living in the same locality, had blankets and other articles stolen from him.
  • John Warren, of Willow Creek, was chased by four Indians, escaping with difficulty.
  • A. L. Pardee, living on the Trinity trail, near Mad River, was shot at three times by savages in the bush.
  • A ranch only three miles from Hydesville was raided and cattle killed and driven off.
  • April 10, 1860 two men were attacked while cutting wood near Shelter Cove. The Indians sprang from the bushes and seized one of the white men, Moses Stafford, round the waist, while several arrows were shot at him by others, severely wounding him. Stafford's companion ran to his assistance and struck the Indian holding him on the head, thus freeing him. Stafford shot one Indian dead and wounded another, and the two men escaped with their lives.
  • An Indian obtained by theft a rifle belonging to a miner on Clear Creek in the Klamath River country, and shot at him, supposing that he killed him, as he fell when the gun was discharged. The Indian took the gun to his home and told his tribe that he obtained it by killing the owner, a white man. His tribe, upon this confession, made him prisoner, delivering him to the whites, and recommended hanging. The recommendation was complied with, and while the Indian was suspended the supposed murdered man walked home. The bullet from the gun had struck him on the head, knocking him senseless, but not seriously injuring him.
  • Capt. D. H. Snyder and a party of whites made an attack on an Indian rancheria a short distance above Big Bend, Mad River. Ten warriors were killed and the rancheria broken up. And during all this time there was no intermission of hostile demonstrations in the Bald Hills country, on the headwaters of the Van Duzen, or on Yager Creek.
• June 5, 1860, Major Gabriel J. Rains, was promoted to lieutenant colonel of regulars.
• Summer 1860,
  • Valley Indians were returning from their confinement on the Klamath Reservation
  • A drunken citizen and a soldier, in Hoopa Valley murdered a young Indian, the son of a leader among his tribe, because he had attempted to protect a squaw. The two men were arrested and taken before a Justice of the Peace, who refused to accept the evidence of Indians who saw the deed committed, and for want of competent evidence ordered the prisoners discharged. An excitement intense and general was manifested by the tribes in the Valley, many of whom left their rancherias, presumably with the intention of taking the war-path and wreaking vengeance on some innocent white man, as was their custom.
  • A settler James Casebeer, who lived alone at the mouth of Eel River, on a place called "the Island," missing for three or four weeks. His neighbors supposed that he was absent on business, and consequently no suspicion of foul play was immediately aroused, nor was any search instituted for him. Three or four weeks after he was observed to leave home for the last time a dog that he had left behind acted in a strange and unusual manner; and when the neighbor who saw him went to the premises he found the dead body of Casebeer, half-hidden in the bushes of a ravine, watched and guarded by the faithful dog. There was a deep cut on the back of the skull, made with an ax or hatchet. The house, close by, had been robbed of every valuable thing it contained, the furniture, bedding, etc., having been carried away. The Justice of the Peace for the Township, Wm. Jameson, presided at an investigation of the mysterious affair, which resulted in the arrest of an Indian named "Jack," who was living with a settler named Tewkesbury. The fact that Casebeer had been murdered by Indians was first intimated to Tewkesbury by a squaw, after which "Jack" himself told of it. Some of the Eel River settlers took "Jack" to the Island, and he conducted them to the spot where the murder was committed, and there he told them how it was done. He told them that on the day when Casebeer disappeared he ("Jack") was in company with an Indian named "Big Jack" and his two squaws; that they were passing by the house of Casebeer, on the Island, when they saw him close by chopping down trees; that "Big Jack" looked through the window and saw a gun in the house, and immediately proposed that the two Indians murder Casebeer; "Jack" refused, and "Big Jack" said he would kill the white man; that "Big Jack " crawled through the window, got the gun in the house, slipped noiselessly up on Casebeer, and shooting him through the breast, cut brush with his ax and covered the body from sight. Basing the necessity for their action on his confession, the settlers put "Jack" in the hands of the Sheriff Van Nest, and in a consultation with Eel River Indians it was agreed that "Big Jack" should be delivered to the whites.

• September 27th, 1860, Thursday evening, a constable arrived at Eureka from Eel River, having with him the notorious "Big Jack." "Jack" and "Big Jack " were then placed under the care of Deputy Sheriff R. Wiley, Sheriff Van Nest being absent. At that time there was no jail in the county, the authorities confining prisoners wherever they could get available accommodations. For the two prisoners on this occasion Deputy Sheriff Wiley selected an old tumble-down wooden building that had once been a warehouse or store. In this building, as unfit for the purpose as any place imaginable, the guilty Indians were confined: and that same night a mob gathered around the place, the rotten doors were battered in, and "Jack" and " Big Jack" were swung from a convenient tree, one Lynch acting as judge and jury.

• The situation was seriously alarming in Southern Humboldt during the closing months of 1860. There was a renewal of depredations everywhere in the Southern portion of the county. Cattle were run off and butchered, houses were robbed, the lives of settlers were constantly threatened.
  • October 1860, a dwelling-house on the stock ranch of Southmayd & Osgood, south of Bear River, was burned during the absence of the owners.
  • December 1860, On the Upper Mattole a settler named A. A. Hadley, who, was occupied, together with several other men, in getting out oak timber from the forests bordering Eel River near the mouth of the South Fork. The men, on the 6th of December, were taking timber from the place where they had cut it to the river. A gun loaded with buckshot was left under a tree near the scene of their labor. An Indian secured the gun unobserved, and secreting himself among the trees at a distance of a few paces, took deliberate aim at Mr. Hadley and fired. Five severe flesh wounds were inflicted by the shot.

• Capt. Lovell displayed a commendable desire to distribute the troops stationed at Fort Humboldt to the best advantage throughout the Southern districts, though it must be confessed that the people had little confidence in them.
  • The garrison was reinforced in November by a detachment of 45 men of the Sixth Infantry.
  • Capt. Lovell ordered a detachment of 30 men, under Lieut. Lynn, to scout for 30 days in the vicinity of the mail route between Hydesville and Long Valley. The detachment was supplied with 30 days' rations and 40 rounds of ammunition to each man. Capt. Lovell's special orders to Lieut. Lynn directed him to proceed via Yager Creek to the South Fork of Eel River, giving such protection to settlers and their stock as circumstances might require, and also to ascertain whether any danger was apprehended at stations on the mail route between Healdsburg and Eureka.

1861

• January, 16 - May 18, 1861. Operations in the vicinity of Fort Humboldt, California.
  • April 14-15, 1861, Skirmishes on Van Dusen's Creek, near Dinsmore, California.
• May 23 - June 17, 1861. Operations on the Mad and Eel Rivers:
  • May 23. Skirmish near Larrabee's Ranch.
  • May 26. Skirmish on Eel River.
  • May 28. Skirmish on the South Fork of Eel River.
  • May 30. Skirmish on Keatuck Creek
  • June 4. Skirmish opposite Bell Spring on the Eel River
  • June 2 and 8. Skirmish near Larrabee's house
  • June 14 and 16. Skirmish on the South Fork of Eel River
  • June 17. Skirmish near Kettenshaw.
• July 21, 1861. Skirmish on the South Fork of Eel River, Cal.
• July 23, 1861. George Cooper killed at Cooper's Mills.
• July 31, 1861, Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel J. Rains, resigned his commission and returned to the South where he joined the Confederate States Army, as a brigadier general.
• August 24, 1861 Humboldt Times reports Captain Lovell has been told to build a fort on Larrabee Creek and as soon as it is habitable, close to Fort Humboldt. Captain Collins ordered to Fort Gaston to replace Captain Underwood who is ordered east.
• September 25, 1861, Fort Seward was established on the Eel River by Captain Charles S. Lovell, U.S. 6th Infantry Regiment.
• December 12, 1861. Humboldt Military District created, consisting of the Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Trinity, Humboldt, Klamath, and Del Norte County, in Northern California.

1862

• January 9, 1862. Col. Francis J. Lippitt, Second California Infantry, assumes command of the Humboldt Military District.
• January, 1862, Camp Lyon established by Company K, 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry, 20 miles southeast of Arcata, California near Kneeland, California at a temporary California Volunteer post at Brehmer's Ranch on the Mad River.
• January 10, 1862, Camp Lippitt established at Bucksport, California.
• Colonel Lippitt and escort returned to Fort Humboldt on the 21st from a reconnoissance of the district between Forts Seward and Gaston. "Arrival of the Columbia." - Alta California, 27 February 1862.
• March 22 - August 31, 1862. Operations in the Humboldt Military District.
  • March 23, 1862, Fort Baker established on the west bank of the Van Dusen Fork of the Eel River, at Neal's Ranch, 28 miles east of Hydesville.
  • April 5, 1862, Humboldt Times reports Cooper's Mill was discovered on fire set by Indians. Fire was put out without injury, saving all the wheat it contained, which was removed by the settlers, as it is still under threat by the Indians. Captain Akey, with what troops can be spared from Fort Humboldt, were to remain constantly in the field, 20 miles inland between the Eel and Mad Rivers.
  • April 8, 1862, Skirmish near Arcata.
  • Two companies of volunteer troops arrived for Fort Gaston. Capt. Johns Company now at the post relieved of the long winters job and guard of the pack trains.
  • May 1862, Post at Elk Camp established at Elk Camp, California. Camp Redwood established at a midway point between the communities of Trinidad and Elk Camp. Fort Anderson established on the right bank of Redwood Creek about 27 miles northeast of Union, between Fort Humboldt and Fort Gaston.
  • May 8, 1862 Indian prisoners at Fort Humboldt put to work cutting a military road from Elk Creek to Larabee Creek, cutting off several miles between Fort Baker and Fort Humboldt.
  • May 14, 1862 Skirmish of Angel's Branch on Mad River
  • June 1862, Daby's Ferry Post established on a crossing on the Mad River about three miles from the town Arcata.
  • June 6-7, 1862, Skirmishes with Indians at Daley's Ferry and on the Mad River, near Arcata.
  • June 13, 1862, Camp Lincoln established in Crescent City, California to replace Fort Ter-waw. The camp was moved six miles north of the city in September.
  • June 14, 1862, Col. Lippitt ordered Lieutenant Davis to return at once with his troops. Captain Akey to take all Fort Humboldt troops back to Arcata, keeping guards out at that place. Col. Lippitt ordered his troops split up to garrison various posts. All Indian prisoners were to be held hostage for the child kidnapped at Daby's Ferry. Every white man found in arms among the Indians were to be hanged on the spot.
  • July 29, 1862 Skirmish of Albeer's Ranch.
  • July 31, 1862 Lassic and his band were driven to surrender on at Fort Baker.
  • August 10 More of Lassic's warriors came in and the 212 captured Indians at Fort Baker were sent to join 462 others at Fort Humboldt and held for a time in the makeshift prison created out on the Samoa Peninsula in Humboldt Bay.
• September 8, 1862. Skirmish on Redwood Creek, California.
• September 1862, Camp Curtis near Daby's Ferry, was established as the headquarters of the 1st Battalion California Volunteer Mountaineers from 1862 until 1865. It was formerly a militia post called Camp on Janes Farm. 834 Indians were the sent on the steamship SS Panama to the Smith River Indian Reservation near Crescent City. Seemingly the war was being won.
• Oct. 21, 1862. Skirmish near Simmons' Ranch, near Hydesville, California.

1863

• Mar. 10 - July 10, 1863. Operations in the Humboldt Military District.
  • March 21 and 24, 1863, Skirmishes at Eel River. Company A, 2nd California Infantry
  • April 1, 1863, Skirmish at Cedar Fort (Cedar Flat)
  • April 11, 1863. Stone Lagoon Massacre, Hupa and Redwood warriors kill most of the peaceful Chilula natives of the Stone Lagoon rancheria for refusing to join in the war against the whites.
  • May 9, 1863, Skirmish at Shelter Cove.
  • June 6, 1863, Skirmish at Oak Camp, about 15 miles from Fort Gaston, as Indians ambush a pack train; the survivors flee back to Fawn Prairie.

Two Years War 1863-1864

1863

• July 13, 1863. Lieut. Col. Stephen G. Whipple, First Battalion of Mountaineers California Volunteers, relieves Col. Francis J. Lippitt, Second California Infantry, in command of the Humboldt Military District.
• July 1863, Trinidad Camp establshed in the town of Trinidad, California, to house a protective garrison.
• August 5, 1863, Camp Iaqua, was established on Yeager Creek about 18 miles east of the mouth of the Eel River, is located on Iaqua Creek 4 miles south-southeast of Iaqua, California.
• September 3 - Dec. 31, 1863. Operations in tho Humboldt Military District.
  • September 3, 1863 Skirmish at Hoopa Valley.
  • October 1863, Camp Grant established on the south bank of the Eel River 2 miles northeast of Weott, California. Camp Gilmore relocated the garrison of Trinidad Camp four miles north of the town.
  • November 13-14, 1863 Scout up the Trinity River.
    • November 11, 1863 Skirmish at Thomas Ranch.
    • November 13, 1863 Skirmish near Big Bar, Trinity River
  • November 17, 1863 Skirmish at Willow Creek
  • December 25, 26, 1863 Christian Prairie / Bald Mountain engangement near Fort Gaston

1864

• January 1 - 28, 1864. Operations in the Humboldt Military District.
  • January 9, 1864. Trinity Journal reports Capt. Baird's volunteers at Fort Jones awaiting orders to go to Fort Gaston where they say troops and citizens were driven into the Fort by Indains. The article places little faith in the story, says Gaston has mountain howitzers and plenty of troops to oust the Indians. It says the story came from the "Humboldt Times" and "Big Jim" the noted Indian is leading an armed band around of 40 warriors attacking peaceful Indians.- "Alarming Rumor From Hoopa Valley." Trinity Journal, 9 January 1864.</ref>
• Feb. l - June 30, 1864. Operations in the Humboldt Military District.
  • Feb. 6, 1864. Col. Henry M. Black, Sixth California Infantry, assigned to command the District of Humboldt. Black was to replace Lt. Col. Whipple until he returned in June from serving in the Assembly to which he had been elected.
  • February 13, 1864, Hostile Hupa reported at the South Fork of Salmon.
  • February 13, 1864, The Semi-Weekly Union reports two companies of Klamath County militia with freindly Indians as scouts left to hunt the hostiles "who have committed the late depredations and murders" in the mountains for the next two months.
  • February 17-27, 1864, scout after Indians, returning to Arcata.
  • February 29, 1864, Skirmish on Redwood Creek
  • March 1, 1864 Skirmish in the Redwood Mountains
  • March 17, 1864 Skirmish at Red Mountain, near Blue Rock Station
  • March 19, 1864, Skirmish at Eel River
  • March 22, 1864, Skirmish at Bald Spring Canyon, Eel River
  • March 27, 1864, Skirmish at Eel River
  • March 28, 1864, Skirmish at Eel River
  • April 28, 1864, Skirmish at Big Bend of the Eel River.
  • May 1, 1864 Skirmish at Booth's Run
  • May 2, 1864 Skirmish at Kneeland Prairie
  • May 6, 1864 Skirmish at Boynton's Prairie
  • May 18, 1864 Pack train ambushed, 1 soldier killed another wounded, pursuit by Lt. Geer and Taylor with 17 men kills six men and three women.
  • May 23, 1864, Fight at Grouse Creek
  • May 27, 1864 Skirmish at Thomas Ranch or Thomas House
  • May 28, 1864 Skirmish at Big Flat
• June 1864 Lieutenant Colonel Stephen G. Whipple, resumes command of the Humboldt District.
• June 24, 1864, Alta California reports, Lt. Geer, Co. A, 1st Bat. Mountaineers, stationed at Burnt Ranch, came upon a band of Indians while on a scout and killed three of them.
• August 8-12, 1864. Scout from Camp Anderson to Bald Mountain.
• August 1864, Peace negociations begin with the Hoopa.
• August 12, 1864 Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed between the Hupa and the U.S. government. Amnesty was secured for all those who had fought in the war. The Hoopa were guaranteed a reservation that comprised about ninety percent of their original homeland, white settlers to be compensated and removed from within its boundries.
• September 1-29, 1864. Scout from Camp Grant to tho North Fork of the Eel River.
• September 1 - December 3, 1864. Operations in the Trinity River Valley, California by Company C, Mountaineers from Fort Gaston.
• October 1864 Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation begins operations.

U. S. Army and State Volunteer forces involved in the Bald Hills War

U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment

• ? - August 31, 1861. Fort Ter Waw, Company C, Fourth Infantry
• December 4, 1859, Fort Gaston was founded in the redwood forests of the Hoopa Valley by Captain Underwood, U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment. Garrison: Company B, Fourth Infantry under Captain Edmund Underwood.
  • April 20, 1861 Great excitement amongst Indians consequent upon the surrender of their arms.
  • April 28, 1861 Detachment of two NCO's and 27 privates of Company B, Fourth Infantry, and one corporal and seven privates of volunteer guides, to Pardee's old Ranch via the South Fork of the Trinity River.
    • Detachment had instructions to march in any direction his guides may suggest in case depredations are committed in the section of country through which he marches with his command to take prompt measures to pursue and capture the depredators and if the fact of their guilt can be clearly ascertained to punish the whole tribe, without the guilty ones are surrendered.

U.S. 6th Infantry Regiment

• Fort Humboldt - Captain Charles Swain Lovell, Sixth Infantry, commanding Company B, Sixth U. S. Infanty
• Detachment of Company B, Sixth U. S. Infanty and local California volunteers, under Lieutenant Joseph B. Collins, 4th Infantry Regiment
  • April 14-15, 1861 at CAMP AT NEIL'S RANCH, Van Dusen's Creek,
    • April 14-15, engagement with the Indians near Mad River fights with the Indians killing stock n the area. Killed between 15 and 20 Indians on the 14th. 5 were killed and 3 wounded on the 15th. One soldier was wounded in the shoulder.
  • April 19th - June 18, 1861. At Camp near the head of Larrabee Creek
    • April 19th - May 9, 1861 Operations against the Indians, attacked two ranches and killed fifteen Indians.
    • May 9 - June 18, 1861, Operations against hostile Indians on Mad and Eel Rivers and their tributaries:
      • May 23, attaked an Indian rancheria between the head of Larrabee's Creek and Main Eel River, and killed 10 of their number.
      • May 26, attacked rancheria about twelves miles from and farther up the river than the one attacked on the 23rd, and killed 4 Indians.
      • May 30, attacked a very large rancheria near Keatuck Creek; killed 25 Indians and wounded 10. "At this place the Indians fought with more determination than upon any former occasion. Packer John Steward was shot through the middle finger with an arrow, which fortunately struck the stock of his rifle, preventing a serious if not fatal wound. Twelve bows and quivers with a large number of arrows were taken from this rancheria."
    • June 2, attacked a rancheria about five miles from Larrabee's house; killed 20 Indians.
    • June 8, attacked a rancheria about three miles south of Larrabee's house; killed 4 and wounded 1.
    • June 16, attacked a rancheria near Kettenshaw Valley; killed 4 Indians. Corporal Larrabee, of the volunteers, wounded in the left arm by an arrow. This rancheria was occupied by Lassic's band, probably the most desperate and troublesome Indians in the mountains. They have frequently been engaged in murdering whites, burning houses, and killing horses and cattle. I regret so few of them were killed, but they were constantly on the alert and could only be caught by following them day and night, the troops carrying their provisions and blankets on their backs. The attack was made near noon, and as the Indians were prepared for it, many of them escaped through the almost impassable bushes.
    • June 17, attacked a rancheria on the trail leading from from Kettenshaw to Round Valley; killed 6 Indians, only 1 escaped. "In this rancheria there was found over 200 pounds of pork; hogs recently killed by the Indians."

2nd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry

• Company A May 4, 1862. Moved to the Humboldt District and stationed at Fort Baker May 30, 1862, Fort Humboldt, Camp Lyon and Camp Wright June 30, 1862 until June, 1863.
  • Skirmishes at Eel River, March 21 and 24, 1863.
• Company B Left Alcatraz Island August 3, 1862 for Fort Humboldt, arrived on August 7, and moved on to Camp Curtis on the 9th.
  • August 15-22, 1862. Company B was engaged in a Scout after hostile Indians through Klamath County and Humboldt County
  • A detachment of Company B, under Lieutenant Campbell, was engaged August 22-25, 1862. A detachment under Lieutenant Watson joined from Fort Umpqua, Oregon, on August 24, 1862.

On September 17, 1862, the company left Camp Curtis, and via Fort Humboldt, arrived at Benicia Barracks June 15, 1863.

• Company "C" - Embarked on board steamer "Panama" for Fort Humboldt, August 5, 1862, where company arrived August 8, 1862; Marched from Fort Humboldt, August 10, 1862, and arrived at Camp Baker, Humboldt County, August 13, 1862; distance, seventy-six miles. From Camp Baker, September 6, arrived at Camp Lincoln, via Fort Humboldt., a distance of one hundred and forty miles, September 15, 1862. Stationed at Camp Lincoln until October 17, 1864 when it embarked for San Francisco on steamer "Panama" .
• Company "D" - June, 1862. Ordered to Humboldt District, California., and duty at Fort Bragg until December, 1863. Expedition to Keytesville April 12-24, 1863. Ordered to Camp Babbitt December, 1863.
  • Operations in Humboldt District February 1 to June 30, 1864.
    • March 17. Skirmish at Red Mountain, near Blue Rock Station.
    • March 19. Skirmish at Eel River
    • March 22. Skirmish at Bald Spring Canon
    • .March 27. Skirmish On Eel River
    • April 28. Skirmish at Big Bend, Eel River,
    • May 9. Skirmish at Shelter Cove
• Company "E" - At Fort Humboldt May, 1862 until December, 1862.
  • May 14, 1862. Skirmish at Mad River
  • June 6-7, 1862. Daly's Farm, Mad River, near Arcata.
  • June 7, 1862. Skirmish at Mattole Valley
  • June 8, 1862. Skirmish at Fawn Prairie, near Liscombe Hill,
  • At Camp Curtis, December, 1862 to June, 1863.
  • Ordered to Benicia Barracks and duty there until December 1863.
  • Ordered to Humboldt District December, 1863, and duty there until December, 1864.
• Company "F" - At San Francisco until December, 1861. Ordered to Fort Humboldt. Duty there and at Camps Anderson and Wright until June, 1865.
  • Attack on Alber's Ranch January 29, 1862.
  • Attack on Whitney's Ranch July 28, 1862.
  • Attack on Crogan's Ranch May 7, 1862.
  • Skirmish at Redwood September 8, 1862.
  • Operations in Humboldt District March 10-July 10, 1863,
    • Expedition from Camp Wright to Williams Valley April 7-11, 1863.
      • Skirmish, Williams Valley, April 9, 1863.
  • Operations in Humboldt District February 1-June 30, 1864.

• Company "G" - At Camp Lincoln, Humboldt District, until May, 1863. Ordered to Benicia Barracks May 30, 1863. Duty there and in San Francisco until muster out.

• Company "H" - April, 1862. Moved to San Francisco, thence to Forts Humboldt and Gaston April 20.
  • To Fort Humboldt July, 1862, and duty there until June, 1863.
  • Ordered to Benicia Barracks June 11, and duty there until December 1863.
  • Duty in Humboldt District until December, 1864.

• Company "I" - April, 1862. Moved to San Francisco, thence to Fort Humboldt and to Fort Gaston April 20, 1862. Duty there until June, 1863.
  • Skirmish at Fort Gaston August 6, 1862.
  • Affair at Little River August 23, 1862.
  • At Fort Humboldt and in Humboldt District until December, 1864.

• Company "K" - Ordered to Fort Humboldt December, 1861, thence to Fort Lyon and Fort Gaston, and duty there until June, 1863.
  • July 2, 1862. Action at Weaversville Crossing, Mad River.
  • April 30, 1863. Action near Oak Camp.
  • Moved to Benicia Barracks June, 1863.

6th Regiment California Volunteer Infantry

• Company C, 6th California Regimentarrived at Fort Humboldt, Cal., February 17, 1864.

February 17, 1864, ordered to scout after Indians, returning to Arcata, February 27, 1864.

March 1, 1864, ordered to camp at Boynton's Prairie. Company on scout from this camp until July 8, 1864.

Skirmish near Boynton's Prairie May 6.

It was ordered to Camp Iaqua arriving July 8, 1864.

On scout from this camp from July 10 to October 30, 1864, killing and capturing forty Indians.

October 10, 1864, the company left Camp Iaqua for Fort Humboldt arriving October 11, 1864.

Left Fort Humboldt May 8, 1865, for Camp Lincoln, and arrived May 10, 1865. The company was on duty at Camp Lincoln, Humboldt County, until it was ordered to the Presidio, San Francisco, for finally muster out December 15, 1865.

• Company E, 6th California Regiment, on February 15, 1864, it was ordered to Fort Humboldt, where it arrived by steamer February 17, 1864. From that time until October 10, 1864, it was constantly in the field operating against hostile Indians in the District of Humboldt. Skirmished with indians at Booth's Run, May 1, Kneeland's Prairie May 2, and (with Company "G") at Grouse Creek May 23. Left Fort Humboldt for Benicia, October 16,1864 and arrived October 20,1864. Muster out October 31, 1865 at Benicia Barracks.

• Company G, 6th California Regiment, on February 15, 1864, left by steamer, arriving at Fort Humboldt on the 17th, it left and arrived February 28th at camp near Arcata.

March 2nd left camp near Arcata, and arrived at camp near Fort Gaston on the 5th.

Left for Stephens' Camp on the 9th, scouted the South Fork of Trinity River, and returned to camp near Fort Gaston on the 17th.

Left camp for Martin's Ferry, on the Klamath River, on the 22nd, and arrived there the same day.

Left on the 24th for a scout down the Klamath River, and returned to Martins Ferry on the 28th, and on the 30th returned to camp near Fort Gaston. Estimated distance marched, two hundred and ninety miles in rain and snow most of the time.

April 13, 1864, the company left camp near Fort Gaston, and arrived at Camp Iaqua, on the 18th.

Left Camp Iaqua for Fort Baker on the 22nd on a one hundred and fifty mile scout returning on the 26th.

May 1, 1864 a detachment of the company left camp for the vicinity of Brown's Ranch, on a scout, and returned on the 3rd.

Left May 4 for the same place; returned on the 8th.

Second detachment left on the 6th to scout on Mad River; returned on the 9th.

First detachment left on the 10th for Redwoods, and returned on the 20th.

Second detachment left again on the 12th for Pilot Creek; returned on the 20th.

A small detachment left on the 16th for Fort Baker; returned on the 18th.

Company G left for Rabbit Creek on the 21st, and (with Company "G") had a fight with the Indians, at Grouse Creek May 23, killing twelve and taking four prisoners, returned on the 25th. Estimated distance marched, including company and detachments, four hundred and eighty miles.

A detachment left Camp Iaqua on the June 5th for the Mad River, and returned on the 15th.

Left again on the 25th for Redwoods and Fresh Water Slough; returned on the 29th.

Captain Cook, with Company G, left Camp Iaqua on July 11, 1864, for Fort Humboldt, arriving on the 12th.

Company G left Fort Humboldt October 18, 1864, marched, two hundred and forty-five miles to Benicia Barracks October 20, 1864.

1st Battalion California Volunteer Mountaineers

• Headquarters Staff Enrolled and mustered in June 22, 1863. The headquarters of the battalion was stationed at Fort Humboldt, Cal., until September, 1863. It then moved to Fort Gaston, until September, 1864; then back to Fort Humboldt until the June 15, 1865, when the field and staff officers were mustered out.

• Company A This company was raised in Humboldt County by Captain C. W. Long, enrolled from April 18 and mustered in June 22, 1863 at Fort Humboldt June, 1863. Stationed at Fort Baker until October, 1863. On the July 7, 1863, "Sergeant Sevier took the field against the Indians on Mad River, northeast of Camp Baker. On the eleventh attacked a small band, killing two and wounding one. Returned to post on the twelfth."

A detachement of A Company joined detachments of B and C Company under Captain Ousley (A Co.), in the Christian Prairie engangement on December 26, 1863.

The company was next stationed at Camp Curtis and Camp Iaqua until April, 1864 having a Skirmish at Redwood Creek, February 29, 1864. Company A, moved to Fort Gaston until November, 1864; engaging in the Skirmish at Redwood Mountains March 1 and the Skirmish at Kneeland's Prairie May 1, 1864. It then returned to Camp Iaqua conducting operations in Humboldt District during the balance of its term of service, until mustered out at Fort Humboldt, April 25, 1865.

• Company B This company was raised by Captain George W. Ousley at Arcata, Humboldt County, enrolled from April 15 and mustered in June 2, 1863. Ordered to Fort Gaston until January, 1864; fighting at the Skirmish at Oak Camp June 6, 1863; Skirmish at Thomas' Ranch November 12; Skirmish at Trinity River November 13 and the Skirmish at Willow Creek November 17:

"Captain Ousley, with a detachment of fifteen men, had an engagement with the Indians on Willow Creek, about eight miles from Fort Gaston, Cal., in which Captain Ousley and two privates were wounded."

It fought a Skirmish at Christian Prairie near Fort Gaston:

"On December 26, 1863, Captain Ousley, with a detachment of thirty men, with mountain howitzer, attacked Indian fortifications on Christian Prairie, about twenty-three miles from Fort Gaston. Private C. Smith was wounded in the arm. The amount of damage done the enemy was two killed and several wounded. Two horses, two inules, four guns, several saddles, and some other articles of property were recovered, and the houses destroyed, together with a large quantity of Indian provisions. This engagement was participated in by detachments of Companies A, B, and C of the battalion."

Next was duty at Camp Anderson until October, 1864; where if fought the Skirmish near Boynton's Prairie May 6, 1864. It then had duty at Camp Curtis until June, 1865, conducting a scout from Camp Anderson to Bald Mountain August 8-12, 1864. Mustered out May 13, 1865.

• Company C This company was raised by Captain Abraham Miller in Humboldt and Trinity Counties, enrolled from May 8 and mustered in August 29, 1863. It was stationed at Camp Curtis until October, 1863; engaging in Skirmishes at Redwood Creek July 9 and 11, 1863.

Ordered to Fort Gaston until May, 1864. Engaged in skirmishes at Thomas' Ranch November 11, 1863 and Trinity River November 13, 1863. A detachement of C Company joined detachments of A and B Company under Captain Ousley (B Co.), in the Christian Prairie engangement on December 25-26, 1863 near Fort Gaston.

It was then at Burnt Ranch, Trinity County, until November, 1864; engaging in a Skirmish at the Thomas House, on the Trinity River, May 27, 1864.

It was then at Fort Gaston until April, 1865, engaging in Operations in Trinity Valley from September 1 to December 3, 1864. It was then at Camp Iaqua during the balance of its term of service and was mustered out at Fort Humboldt, May 23, 1865.

• Company D Raised by Captain William C. Martin, enrolled from September 30, 1863 and mustered at Fort Gaston, Humboldt County, March 16, 1864. The company was stationed at that post during its whole term of service. It was mustered out at Fort Humboldt, Cal., May 20, 1865.

• Company E This company was raised by Captain John P. Simpson in Mendocino County, enrolled from May 1 and mustered in August 31, 1863, at Fort Humboldt. It was stationed at Fort Humboldt until October, 1863; then duty at Camp Grant, except for the time spent in the field against the hostile Indians until mustered out May 23, 1865. Company E was involved in the Skirmish at Grouse Creek May 23, 1864; a Skirmish at Matole May 26, 1864; Skirmish at Big Flat May 28, 1864; Expedition to North Fork Eel River September 1-29, 1864. It was mustered out at Fort Humboldt, June 14, 1865.

• Company F Raised by Captain Robert Baird at Fort Jones and other places in Siskiyou County, enrolled from August 25, 1863 and mustered in San Francisco, February 19, 1864. It served at the Forks of Salmon River, (then in Klamath County, but now in Siskiyou County), until July, 1864; then at Fort Gaston until October, 1864; then at the mouth of the Klamath River and en route to Camp Lincoln during the month of October, 1864; then at Camp Lincoln during balance of its term of service. It was mustered out at Camp Lincoln, June 9,1865. There are no remarks on the muster rolls or monthly returns showing the service performed by this company.

Upon their musterning out, the California Battalion of Mountaineers were complimented in the Alta California:

"In mustering out, Lieutenant Colonel S. G. Whipple, Comdg, for valubale services rendered in suppression of Indian hostilities in District of Humboldt. This battalion has undergone great privatation and toil and has performed arduous duty imposed upon them readily, earnestly and successfully and merits the thanks of the department." - "Army Orders." Alta California, 11 July 1865.

2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry

• Company E: Originally organized as the "Tuolumne Rangers", after leaving Camp Alert, Company E, went first to Fort Humboldt, remaining there until the spring of 1862. No record of the stations of this company can be found from February, 1862, until April 4, 1863, at which time it was involved in the Owens Valley Indian War. Company E, 2nd Cavalry arrived, as reinforcements under the command of Captain Herman Noble at Camp Independence, Owens River Valley.

1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers

• Company A was largely recruited in San José and commanded by Captain José Ramón Pico. Initially posted to the Presidio of San Francisco, in December, 1863, their lances were replaced with Sharps Carbines and they were sent north to support an ongoing campaign against the Hupa Indians, serving at various posts in the Humboldt Military District through February, 1865.

California State Militia Units during the Bald Hills War

Del Norte County

• Crescent Rifles, Unattached Company, 2nd Brigade, 6th Division. Crescent City, 1856-1861
• Crescent City Guard, Unattached Company, 2nd Brigade, 6th Division. Crescent City, 1861-1864

Humboldt County

• Trinity Rangers, 2nd Brigade, 6th Division, California Militia, Pardee's Ranch, Redwood Creek, Humboldt County, 1858-1859
• Humboldt Volunteers, Attached to 2nd Brigade. Hydesville, 1860
• Mounted Volunteers, Attached to 2nd Brigade. Humboldt County, 1861
• Arcata Guard, Company B, 6th Brigade. Arcata, 1862-1867
• Eureka Rifles, Attached to 6th Brigade. Eureka, 1862-1864

Klamath County

• Salmon Guard, Unattached Company, 2nd Brigade, 6th Division. Sawyers Bar, (now Siskiyou County), 1855-1861

Trinity County

• Douglas City Rifles, Unattached Company, 5th Brigade. Douglas City, 1861-1866
• Union Guard, Unattached Company, 2nd Brigade. Weaverville, 1861-1862
• Halleck Rifles, Unattached Company, 5th Brigade. Weaverville, 1862-1866

Humboldt County Volunteer Militia Units during the Bald Hills War

• Hydesville Volunteer Company, Hydesville, 1859 - Jan. 1860
• Union Volunteers. Union, 1862
• Eel River Minute Men. Eel River Valley, 1862

References

• The California State Military Museum, Historic California Posts: Fort Humboldt
• The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies, Volume 27, Part 1, CHAPTER LXII. Operations on the Pacific Coast, January 1,1861 — June 30, 1862, United States. War Dept.
• The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies, Volume 35, Part 1, CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST FROM JULY 1, 1862, TO JUNE 30, 1865. By United States. War Dept, Robert Nicholson Scott, Henry Martyn WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 1897.
• Records of California men in the war of the rebellion 1861 to 1867, By California. Adjutant General's Office, SACRAMENTO: State Office, J. D. Young, Supt. State Printing. 1890.
• Anthony Jennings Bledsoe, Indian wars of the Northwest: A California sketch, Bacon & Company, San Francisco, 1885.
• Theodore Henry Hittell, History of California, Volume 3, J. N. Stone, San Francisco, 1898.

See Also

• Klamath
• California in the American Civil War

External links

• Map of tribes around the Hoopa Reservation Created by C.Hart Merriam, United States B.A.E., Original in United States National Archives, Washington DC
• The California State Military Museum: California and The Indian Wars