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Nez Perce Summer, 1877
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Eruption and White Bird Canyon
Looking Glass's Camp and Cottonwood
Kamiah, Weippe, and Fort Fizzle
Cow Island and Cow Creek Canyon
Bear's Paw: Attack and Defense
Bear's Paw: Siege and Surrender
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Nez Perce Summer, 1877
Chapter 2: Eruption and White Bird Canyon |
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Chapter 2:
Eruption and White Bird Canyon (continued)
The Nez Perce village, containing some thirty lodges with approximately sixty warriors, was hidden from the soldiers' view and strung out along the bottomland of White Bird Creek a short distance from its confluence with the Salmon. Nee-Me-Poo accounts of the battle state that scouts from White Bird's camp had reported the soldiers' advance from Grangeville, and that a party of six warriors, intent on protecting the camp, initially approached them under a flag of truce. But one of the volunteers with the advance—later reported to be Arthur Chapman—opened fire on them, thus precipitating the battle. As many as sixty-five warriors participated in the ensuing combat, many of them armed with repeating rifles, muzzleloading rifles and muskets, and pistols, but also with bows and arrows. Principal Nez Perce leaders present were White Bird, Ollokot, and Lepeet Hessemdooks (Two Moon), the latter leading the opening attack on the citizens at the left of Perry's line, but Toohoolhoolzote and Joseph also took part. Many of the Nez Perce men were worn out from having participated in an all-night spree after consuming whiskey captured in the raiding on Camas Prairie. [20]
"Scene of Perry's Battle on Whitebird Creek, June 27th [17] 1877."
Inset drawing in Fletcher, "Department of Columbia Map"
When the first shots were fired, Captain Perry hurried Company F forward, moving it left front into line adjoining Lieutenant Theller's right. On Perry's direction, Captain Trimble moved Company H into line on Perry's right. Continuing forward, the troops passed to a point just below, or south of, the perpendicular ridge overlooking the valley and the Nez Perce camp. The terrain to the right of the line rose steadily for two hundred yards, then climbed sharply to a rocky plateau. To the left of the position occupied by Company F lay a large swale through which ran the wagon road the troops had used. Theller's men and several citizen volunteers now commanded the swale. Farther left, a dominating knoll projected, and there the remaining volunteers stationed themselves, prolonging Perry's line and effectually constituting the left flank. In sum, as the fighting commenced, the whole command with their horses was spread out, precariously exposed along the ridge with no troops in reserve.
Some Nez Perces, moving forward out of the camp at the mouth of White Bird Creek, ascended the sloping canyon bottom to a long, low ridge fronting Perry's command. From behind this ridge, they opened a sporadic fire that knocked some cavalrymen from their saddles and halted Perry's advance. [21] Dismounting, the soldiers sent their horses into the swale on their left and partly behind the volunteers' knoll, then deployed into skirmish formation and returned fire on the warriors. On the left, the volunteers came under sustained fire from warriors hidden behind the bank of White Bird Creek, and within minutes at least one citizen, Herman A. Faxon, had been wounded, causing them all to fall back and leaving the flank vulnerable. Civilian Theodore D. Swarts recalled that "Indians were all around. One Ind[ian] ran out of the brush [near the creek] and called to me 'Stop, stop' (so he could get a shot at me), but I did not stop & he fired two shots, missing me." [22] The warriors now raked the entire length of Perry's line with a blistering enfilade, threatening them from front, left, and rear. Their gunfire took telling effect, and within minutes many of the soldiers unilaterally broke formation to regain their frightened horses, some of which—in their kicking and plunging—were yanking free of their holders and scattering over the field.
Somewhere at the beginning of the growing melee, one of Perry's trumpeters fell dead and the other lost his trumpet, and Perry found it impossible to signal his commands. Further complicating things, many of the Nez Perces' ponies tore over the landscape, kicking up a blinding dust and causing further confusion. More soldiers began falling back in great disorder. "Both companies were by this time mixed in together," wrote Sergeant McCarthy of the withdrawal, "each man occupying any vacant space in the line." [23] As Perry's left collapsed, however, he started the men in his segment to the rear, ultimately gravitating toward the rising plateau on the right. He later wrote, "the men on the left, seeing the citizens in full retreat and the Indians occupying their places and the right falling back in obedience to orders, were seized with a panic that was uncontrollable, and then the whole right of the line, seeing the mad rush for horses on the left, also gave way and the panic became general." [24] "The retreat started from here pell mell," remembered one participant, "soldiers, civilians, and friendly Indians together and all in confusion." [25] Much ammunition was wasted, and more was lost in the saddlebags of the horses stampeded by the warriors.
Thus, the retirement began. "No sooner would one squad halt and face about, than the other, just placed in position, would be gone." [26] To check the warriors, Captain Trimble directed two detachments to the ridge directly behind, or north of, the perpendicular ridge, while his main force pulled back several hundred yards. Other troops took to the right to counter tribesmen in the ravines at the rear of the line. Sergeant McCarthy commanded the right advance squad consisting of six or seven men. Both detachments mounted the ridge, several men serving as sharpshooters as the others held their horses. McCarthy described the action:
Looking towards the Indian camp nearly half a mile below on the left front, we could see them swarming out of the brush and occupying the round knolls in our front or riding under the cover of them in the direction already pursued by the others by our right flank. We commenced firing but the distance was so great that we could not do much execution and they slipped past our right. . . . Word was passed to us to mount and join the line for a charge, but before we all got back, the order was countermanded and we again advanced to the bluffs, dismounted and opened fire wherever we could see Indians. . . . Looking back towards the line I could see the men firing from their horses' backs, and they appeared half the time enveloped in the smoke of their own guns. [27]
Soon the warriors passed the right and left flanks of the two squads, momentarily exposing the soldiers to an assault from the rear. Orders now came for them to fall back and rejoin the retreating command, and McCarthy's men did so, finally reaching Lieutenant Parnell, who was trying to rally some mounted soldiers to help with the wounded and dismounted. Together, the men made a stand, then Parnell dashed to the rear after telling McCarthy he would bring help. But none came, and the sergeant recalled that the wounded soldiers, "paralyzed with fear or exhausted with fatigue . . . were killed unresistingly before our eyes." [28] When McCarthy at last pulled back and rejoined Parnell, the officer told him, "I could not bring you help, sergeant. You see how everything is going." Parnell and about ten troopers—all that remained alive on the field—withdrew up the narrow defile toward the head of the canyon, all the time firing at the warriors still pressing their front.
While all of this occurred, the citizens started back up the road, apparently for part of the time following Parnell. Volunteer Swarts remembered getting wounded in the retreat:
I ran onto an Ind[ian] hidden behind a rock directly in my front. I wheeled my horse to the right & he & I fired both at the same instant at a distance apart of about 8 or 10 ft. He shot me in the hip and I shot him through the body. . . . We went back by way of the old "grade," which comes off the mountain a little to the south of the present [1915] stage road. [29]
All the while, Perry, Trimble, and Parnell tried desperately to maintain order in the retreating command. When Perry appealed to Lieutenant Theller to control the men, the lieutenant assembled a body of men and tried to effect an orderly withdrawal. But Theller apparently lost control of himself and at last retreated wildly back up the trail, where he was cut off and killed with seven other men. [30] Trimble, meantime, retired diagonally up the rocky plateau with the several men who had been defending the bluffs on the right. Perry, following, was unable to halt him on reaching the summit. Seeing the command disintegrating about him, Parnell continued his own withdrawal directly over the back road. "I saw it would be suicidal to attempt to reach the bluffs . . . [where Perry had gone], so we slowly retreated up the ravine, holding the Indians in check from knoll to knoll." [31] The climb proved excruciating, the soldiers without horses facing warriors closing on front and flanks. One senior sergeant fought a long-range duel with a warrior before the latter's round finally dropped the soldier. [32] As Parnell's troops passed to the head of the canyon, the troops again encountered Mrs. Benedict and her children. Wrote citizen William Coram: "Having caught a riderless soldier's horse, I now put her on it and two of us took the two children. The little 4 ° yr-old girl got on behind a civilian & put her hands in his coat pockets & in that way hung on. The little baby about a year old I lashed onto my back with its mother's shawl, like a pappoose, & fetched her to Mount Idaho." While surmounting the divide, Mrs. Benedict's horse stumbled, throwing her to the ground. She fled into the brush, where the Nez Perces found her. Later released unharmed, she walked most of the way into Mount Idaho. [33]
Perry's company continued to retire up the rocky plateau without discipline. En route, Perry became dismounted, adding to his difficulty in controlling his men. Nevertheless, Parnell completed his withdrawal and soon joined Perry's company, now but twenty men strong. Together they faced the Nez Perce marksmen still in pursuit. While surmounting a ravine, Perry's men again stampeded. Two miles to the rear, at Henry C. Johnson's abandoned ranch, Parnell found them sheltered in position behind a rocky knoll. The warriors followed, attacking in front and on the right flank. Perry and Parnell organized their men into a thin skirmish line and began retreating slowly, periodically halting to fire at the Nez Perces. Once, the warriors tried to drive the troops into a deep canyon, but Perry directed volleys of gunfire against them, ruining the attempt. Finally, as they approached Mount Idaho, the Nez Perces pulled back, ending the fight after approximately two and one-half hours. A party of armed citizens reached the troops and accompanied them into the town. It was shortly before 9:00 a.m., and the troops had been gone less than ten hours. "Men and horses were completely exhausted," recalled Parnell. "We had been on the move ever since Friday, and without sleep for two nights." [34]
Moving on to Grangeville, Perry and Parnell found the volunteers, who had retreated rapidly from the canyon and reached the settlement several hours earlier. They also found Captain Trimble and some of the men who had made their way back. [35] Together, the officers took roll call and assessed their losses, which were severe. A tally made several days later noted that, besides Lieutenant Theller, twenty men of Company F and thirteen of Company H had been killed, while but a single man from each company was wounded. [36] (Two of the Mount Idaho volunteers had also been wounded.) Sergeant McCarthy, who had been cut off and left behind during the retreat with Parnell, miraculously escaped detection by the Nez Perces and hiked back into Grangeville two days later. [37] In addition to personnel losses, the troops reported many Springfield carbines and revolvers, with ammunition, lost and abandoned to the tribesmen. Although unknown to the soldiers at the time, Nez Perce casualties at White Bird Canyon amounted to only two or three wounded. None had been killed. [38]
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Last Modified: Thurs, May 17 2001 10:08 pm PDT
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