According to the few Nez Perce sources about the Clearwater battle, most of the men had withdrawn before the soldiers began rushing down the ravine. Wottolen (Hair Combed Over Eyes) explained that dissension among the tribesmen had largely ended their resistance to Howard's army. "They quit for a reason," he said. "There was a quarrel among the Nez Perces. Some kept riding back and forth from the fighting to the camp. That was not good. The leaders then decided to leave the fighting, the cowards [i.e., warriors who disagreed with them] following after." [74] "We were not whipped!" asserted Yellow Wolf. "Not until the last of us leaped away did the soldiers make their charge." [75] Because of the impromptu decision of the warriors and chiefs to leave the action, the women still in the camp had no opportunity to pack properly for moving. In any event, Yellow Wolf looked around the ravine and discovered that he and Wottolen alone remained, and both quickly left, passing down and through the mostly abandoned village, where Yellow Wolf assisted Joseph's wife and infant daughter who had not yet fled the camp. [76] Peopeo Tholekt recollected the movement thusly:

Everybody was running, some leading, some falling behind! All skipping for their lives, for the camp! Every warrior, afoot or who had a horse strong enough to carry him, hurried from the ridge. They followed the families, the moving camp, guarding them from the pursuing soldiers. The cannons boomed and the Gatling gun rattled, sending out shot after shot after the fleeing families. [77]

Another Nez Perce, Eelahweema (About Sleep), who was fourteen years old at the time of the fight and who was one of the boys who brought water up the hill for the warriors, also remembered the withdrawal:

When the cannon-guns belched, rocks were showered and limbs of trees cut down. Smoke from that gun was like grass on fire. . . . I jumped out from there and ran! Soldiers must have fired at me, for bullets sang by but none touched me. Reaching my horse, a gray cayuse, I sprang on him and made for the camp. . . . The foremost reaching camp told the women that they better rush to the brush. In about fifteen minutes I saw soldiers coming in sight down the bluff and hillside. They began firing across the river among our tepees. A few horses were hit but no Indians killed. We hurried packing, getting ready to move, the bullets falling around. [78]

During the running fight from the top of the bluffs, Joseph evidently preceded the warriors, rushing forward to warn the remaining villagers of the impending attack. [79]

At the river, Howard's infantrymen halted, unable to ford the deep stream. On Perry's direction, Trimble and Whipple crossed with their companies and took up skirmish positions along the bank beyond the deserted camp. Jackson's company and later the others ferried the foot soldiers across, and because of the delay in fording, Howard had to call off the pursuit. "An opportunity was lost on that occasion for effective cavalry work that was inexcusable," wrote Lieutenant Parnell. [80] Instead, at about 5:00 p.m., pickets were thrown out and the troops encamped amid the abandoned lodges. On the west side of the village, the soldiers discovered extensive log barricades facing west, suggesting that the tribesmen had anticipated an attack from that quarter, likely from McConville's volunteers only recently gone from the area. Howard's aide, Wilkinson, drafted a missive to McConville, lamenting that the volunteers "did not wait for him" and urging them to "harness the retreating Indians." [81] At least one elderly woman was found, who vigorously fought the sergeant who was detailed to bring her to Howard. [82] Some of the men spent the evening rummaging through possessions discovered in the tipis and in caches made in the soil. [83] They included buffalo robes, blankets, flour, dried meat and salmon, coffee, beadwork, and cooking utensils,in short, "everything but their arms and horses." [84] Others roamed the bivouac sporting buckskin clothing and moccasins rifled from the camp. [85] Most wrapped themselves in their blankets and slept soundly.

Army casualties in the Battle of the Clearwater (Howard "denominated" it the "Battle of the South Fork of the Clearwater") numbered twelve men killed, two officers and twenty-five enlisted men wounded (two men died later), and one missing (counted among the killed). The breakdown of casualties by branch was: infantry, twenty-two; artillery, ten; and cavalry, eight. Virtually all the infantry and artillery losses took place on the first day of fighting. [86] "Their fire was deadly," wrote Lieutenant Wood of the warriors, "the proportion of wounded to killed being but two to one." [87] Furthermore, officers, noncommissioned officers, and trumpeters made up nearly one-half of the casualties, clear evidence that the Nez Perces comprehended army hierarchical structure and sighted their weapons accordingly to cause as much disruption as possible among the command. (This feature of the Clearwater engagement continued a trend that had been apparent at White Bird Canyon, wherein one-fourth of the total army casualties had been leadership personnel.) The soldier dead were buried in a long, single grave, with military honors, on the plateau on which they fought. Sergeant McCarthy noted the preparations as he prepared to leave the bluff top after the fighting: "As we passed headquarters, the burial party were putting dead bodies in a wagon for burial. The bodies were already black. There was a wagon full, about 15 or 16, principally infantry & artillery, who had borne the heaviest of the final desperate charges of the Indians." [88]

On the thirteenth, Surgeon Sternberg conducted the twenty-seven wounded to Grangeville, twenty-five miles away. He wrote:

The means of transportation furnished by the Q.M.D., three wagons and thirty pack mules. . . . I immediately constructed 15 litters, each to be drawn by a single mule. They were made of lodge poles [from the village] and canvas lashed with rope yarn. The larger ends of the poles were lashed to the sides of the pack saddles. The other extremities dragged upon the ground. A cross piece was lashed fast about the middle of the poles. . . . The litters answered their purpose admirably and the wounded arrived in as good condition as possible. [89]

On July 19, Sternberg conducted the wounded, transported in eighteen straw-filled wagons, to the post hospital at Fort Lapwai, en route spending nights or resting at Cottonwood, Mason's ranch, and White's ranch (where Sternberg performed a leg amputation) and reaching the fort on the morning of July 21. [90]

Nez Perce losses in the battle, according to Howard's report, stood at twenty-three warriors killed and "at least twice as many wounded," although this figure is clearly exaggerated. [91] Most reliable sources show that their casualties were surprisingly low, with as few as four killed and six wounded. The dead were Going Across, Grizzly Bear Blanket, Heinmot Ilppilp (Red Thunder), and Whittling, while the wounded included Mean Man, Kipkip Owyeen (Wounded Breast)who received his name from his injury—Pahkatos Owyeen (Five Wounds), Old Yellow Wolf, Animal Entering a Hole, and Yellow Wolf. None of these stopped fighting after being hit, although Wounded Breast's injury was severe. Other Nez Perce accounts, including that of Joseph, agree that four of their people were killed. [92]

Despite the minimal Nez Perce losses and despite Howard's greater casualty count, the Battle of the Clearwater was a clear victory for the army in a campaign heretofore plagued by questionable strategy and repeated defeats. For one thing, military authorities—and especially General Howard interpreted the result in the most positive terms as a clear sign that fortunes were turning in their favor. In what officers believed had at last been a rout of the tribesmen, the Nez Perces lost prestige not only among their protreaty brethren, but also with neighboring tribes, some of whom reportedly had vowed their support in the struggle against the white men's oppression. For another, the outcome boosted the morale of the officers and enlisted men charged with quelling the outbreak and restored a belief in their capabilities, a belief that was not altogether justified. It also restored a sense of confidence in the settlers in their physical and economic survivability in the Salmon River and Camas Prairie country of Idaho Territory. Unknown to the settlers at present, it would free them from the threat of further conflict; the Nez Perces, now faced with the consequences of their actions, were forced to leave the region to pursue an existence elsewhere. Some observers believed, however, that the Clearwater encounter taught the Nez Perces that United States troops were their superiors, a hollow presumption that was to be repeatedly disproved on other fields in the weeks ahead. Yet future successes for the Nez Perces would be due in large measure to individual leadership, for the Clearwater fighting revealed transcendent difficulties in Nez Perce leadership and followership based upon culturally ingrained processes that threatened to paralyze group unity and undermine common objectives. [93]

Despite the obvious barrenness of his victory, General Howard used it as a subterfuge, milking the event to every advantage as if his job depended upon it. In fact, it did. Frustrated by perceived inaction and consecutive reverses that seemed to border on incompetence in command, President Rutherford B. Hayeson the advice of his cabinet—appeared ready to sack Howard in favor of Hayes's close friend Crook, and the news of a signal defeat of the Nez Perces could not have come at a more critical juncture. Probably at Howard's urging, his adjutant in Portland, Major Henry C. Wood, breached the chain of command in telegraphing the news directly to the president (for which Wood was afterwards sternly rebuked by General McDowell). Wood forwarded an announcement from the field that stated, "Nothing can surpass the vigor of General Howard's movements and action," while Oregon politicians Henry W. Corbett and Joseph N. Dolph, noting that Howard "appears to be master of [the] situation," asked Hayes and Secretary of War George W. McCrary to "suspend judgment" on replacing him. [94] In the end, because of Clearwater—and only because of that encounter of questionable result—the president relented and retained Howard in command. And on the local front, Howard's stock soared, too. Rumors that he had been burned in effigy on the streets of Lewiston proved baseless, and in the wake of Clearwater, local officials endorsed his "judicious guidance & management" of the campaign. [95]

Four days after the engagement, Howard offered his congratulations to his troops. Predicting that the Battle of Clearwater "will surely bring permanent peace to the Northwest," the general expressed gratitude that "not one officer or soldier . . . failed to do his duty, and more gallant conduct he never witnessed in battle." [96] Eventually, performance honors were bestowed all around. Besides Lieutenant Humphrey, who received a Medal of Honor for his action at Clearwater, twenty-eight officers won citations for gallantry and meritorious conduct in the battle, one was cited for "gallant service," and another was recognized "for energy and pluck displayed." Three enlisted men received certificates of merit, entitling them to two dollars extra pay per month, and one was cited for "conspicuously brave conduct." [97]