Nez Perce Forlorn Hope: The Battle of White Bird Canyon

1. Unless otherwise indicated, the material used in this chapter comes from O. O. Howard, Nez Perce, pp. 118-46.

2. McCarthy, CI, p. 84. A native of Massachusetts, Fuller had enlisted on October 25, 1873. He was about 26 years old. White had been born in Brooklyn, New York, in about 1850. He was one of the few soldiers in the company that had served more than one enlistment. Registry of Enlistments, 1873, 1875.

3. Assistant Surgeon John Fitzgerald, Report for June, 1877, Medical History of Fort Lapwai, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General, Record Group 94, National Archives; McCarthy, "Diary," June 21, 1877.

4. Letter from Perry to Howard, June 17, 1877, camp near Mount Idaho, Letters Received, DC.

5. Letter from Robert Pollock to his wife, June 27, 1877, Johnson's Ranch, in Robert W. Pollock, Grandfather, Chief Joseph and Psychodynamics (Caldwell, 1964), p. 55.

6. "Blackeagle, Chief Joseph's Nephew, Has Passed Away." The Nez Perce Indian (Lapwai Agency) 14 (1918), p. l.

7. Brown, Flight of the Nez Perce, pp. 144-46; Josephy, Nez Perce, p. 530.

8. Perry, CI, p. 123.

9. Muster Roll of Company H; McCarthy, "Diary," June 24 and 25, 1877; Brown, p. 157.

10. George Popham, "From the Scene of Hostilities," Lewiston Teller, June 30, 1877, p. 1; Kirkwood, Nez Perce Indian War, p. 52-53; Statement of George Woodward, August 16, 1890, Morris 2718.

11. O. O. Howard, p. 139.

12. John Baker Morris was born in Knoxville, Missouri, on October 1, 1850. A graduate of St. Louis Medical College, he began practicing medicine in Mount Idaho in 1875. Accounts conflict concerning the date of his return to Mount Idaho following the outbreak, but according to his official biography he reached the settlement on June 22. "John Baker Morris, M. D.," History of Idaho, ed. by James H. Hawley (Chicago, 1920), 4, p. 9; Tenth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, 1925-1926, (Boise, 1926), p. 65.

13. Elsensohn, Pioneer Days, 2, p. 523; "From the Scene of Hostilities," Lewiston Teller, April 13, 1878, p. 2; C. A. Sears, "Letter from Mount Idaho," Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, July 3, 1877, p. 2.

14. McCarthy, "Diary," June 25, 1877.

15. Ibid., June 26 and 27, 1877.

16. A native of Massachusetts, Miller graduated from West Point In 1858. He attained the rank of captain in the Fourth Artillery on May 11, 1864. Winters served in the Ohio infantry in 1861-1862 and rose to the rank of captain. In 1864 he enlisted in the First Cavalry and rose through the ranks to become an officer on March 12, 1865. He was promoted to captain on June 25, 1876. Heitman, Historical Register, 1, pp. 711, 1051.

17. Letter from Lt. Harry Lee Bailey to his parents, June 27, 1877, Camp at Johnson's Ranch, packet 180, item 108, McWhorter Collection; George Francis Bromlow, ed., "Nez Perce War Diary - 1877 of Private Frederick Mayer of Troop L, 1st United States Cavalry," in Seventeenth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the Idaho Historical Society, 1939-1940, p. 28; E. J. Bunker in Kirkwood, p. 5; George Hunter, Reiminiscences of an Old Timer (San Francisco, 1887), p. 306.

18. Account of Lieutenant Bailey in Hear Me, p. 259; See also Memorandum of Indian's Statement, Letters Received, DC; Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, July 3, 1877, Account of John Schorr in Hear Me, p. 257.

19. Letter from Bailey to McWhorter, December 7, 1930, Fort Davis, Canal Zone, packet 180, item 4, McWhorter Collection; Coughlin, CI, p. 104; H. W. Cone in Bailey, River of No Return, p. 187.

20. Letter from Bailey to McWhorter December 7, 1930.

21. Letter from Bailey to parents, June 27, 1877; "Nez Perce War Diary," p. 28; Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, July 3, 1877, p. 1; Brown, p. 160.

22. Statement of Manuel, February 6, 1878, Morris 2718; Account of Maggie Manuel in Defenbach, Idaho, p. 419; Letter from Bailey to parents, June 27; C.A. Sears, "Letter from Mount Idaho," Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, August 4, 1877, p. 2.

23. Sears, "Letter from Mount Idaho," Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, July 3, 1877, p. 3.

After Howard returned to camp, he wrote a letter to E. C. Watkins at the agency. In it he gave his analysis of the White Bird Battle:

24. Letter from Howard to Watkins, June 27, 1877, Camp at Johnson's Ranch, Letter Sent, DC.

25. Born in Michigan, Sevier McClellan Rains graduated from West Point on June 15, 1876. Heitman, 1, p. 813.

26. "Indian Status Since Our Last Issue," Lewiston Teller, July 7, 1877, p. 4; C. A. Sears, "Letter from Mount Idaho," Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, July 7, 1877, p. 3; Brown, p. 161.

27. Born in Vermont, Stephen Girard Whipple served with the California infantry during the Civil War. He received a commission as a captain in the Thirty-second Infantry on January 22, 1867. He transferred to the First Cavalry on December 15, 1870. Heitman, 1, p. 1025.

28. For good detailed accounts of the rest of the Nez Perce campaign see Beale "I Will Eight No More Forever," chapters 6-23; Brown, Flight of the Nez Perce, chapters 11-25; Haines, The Nez Perce, chapters 27-31; Helen Howard, Saga of Chief Joseph chapters 13-23; Josephy, The Nez Perce Indians, chapters 13-14; and McWhorter, Hear Me, chapters 15-28.

29. Beale, p. 266.

30. Brown, Flight of the Nez Perce, p. 161.

31. Lewiston Teller, September 1, 1877, p. 2.

32. Letter from Howard to Assistant Adjutant General, Division of the Pacific, December 14, 1877, Portland, Letters Sent, DC, RG 98.

33. Letter from Lt. Melville Wilkinson to Commander of the District of the Clearwater, December 14, 1877, Portland, Letters Sent, DC; Theller's Remains," Lewiston Teller, December 15, 1877, p. 2; Charlotte Kirkwood, Nez Perce Indian War, p. 7.

34. Telegram from Adjutant General, DC, to Commanding Officer, Fort Walla Walla, December 20, 1877, and letter from Howard to Wilkinson, December 24, 1877, Portland, Letters Sent, DC; San Francisco Chronicle, January 3, p. 4, and January 4, p. 1; "Idaho County Marks Site of Nez Perce Battleground," The Idaho Statesman, September 4, 1927, section 3, p. 2. Theller was buried in lot 2110 and grave 1318.

35. J. W. Poe, "Letter from Mount Idaho," Lewiston Teller, July 28, 1877, p. l.

36. Grangeville Free Press, July 22, 1887, p. 1; Letter from Acting Assistant Inspector General to Assistant Adjutant General of the Department of the Columbia, December 5, 1879, Vancouver Barracks, letter no. 4546, Letters Received, DC.