Nez Perce Forlorn Hope: The Battle of White Bird Canyon

1. Howard was born on November 8, 1830, at Leeds, Maine. He graduated fourth in his class at West Point in 1854. Rising to the rank of Major General of the Volunteers during the Civil War, he took over command of the Army of Tennessee in the summer of 1864 and led General Sherman's right wing on the March to the Sea. After the war he became head of the Freedmen's Bureau and served until its demise in 1872. President Grant used him as a special emissary to the Apaches, and he succeeded in persuading Cochise to come to terms. He became the commander of the Department of the Columbia in 1874. Known as a man of strong religious conviction, he had been called "the Havelock of the Army." Howard lost his right arm in the Battle of Fair Oaks in 1862, and the Indians commonly referred to him as "Cut Arm." J.G. deR. Hamilton, "Oliver Otis Howard," in Dictionary of American Biography, ed. by Dumas Malone (New York, 1943), 9, pp. 279-81; John A. Carpenter, "General Howard and the Nez Perce War of 1877," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 49 (1958), p. 129.

2. A native of New York, Wilkinson made captain during the Civil War before being mustered out on June 30, 1866. Later in the year, he received a commission in the peacetime army and in 1871, achieved the rank of first lieutenant in the Third Infantry. Also a native of New York, Watkins had a military background. He had served as a captain in the Volunteers before resigning his commission on April 5, 1865. Howard described the Indian inspector as "a large, full-built, wholesome man, backed up with genuine courage in any dangerous position." Francis B. Heitman Historical Register of the United States Army (2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1903), 1, pp. 1008, 1037; O. O. Howard, Nez Perce, p. 76.

3. O. O. Howard, p. 87.

4. Peter Sporr Bomus graduated from the Military Academy on June 15, 1870, and became a second lieutenant in the First Cavalry. He made first lieutenant on June 5, 1876. Heitman, 1, p. 229.

5. O. O. Howard, p. 88.

6. Letter from Trimble to Maj. H. Clay Wood, January 29, 1878, Fort Walla Walla, letter no. 301, Letters Received, Department of the Columbia, Records of United States Army Commands, Record Group 98, National Archives. Hereafter cited as Letters Received, DC.

7. O. O. Howard, pp. 90-91.

8. Testimony of Captain David Perry, Transcript of a Court of Inquiry Concerning the Conduct of Captain David Perry During the Nez Perce Campaign of 1877, file no. QQ1738, Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General, Record Group 153, national Archives, pp. 113-14. Hereafter cited as Perry, CI.

9. Joseph F. Lytte was born in Buffalo, New York. About 33 years of age, he was five feet seven inches tall. One of the more experienced soldiers in Company F, he had previously completed an enlistment in the Fifth Artillery. John Schorr was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 26, 1853. When he enlisted in the Army on April 13, 1875, he gave his previous occupation as carrier. He was five feet six inches tall, blue-eyed, and brown-haired. Registry of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914 Vol. 1875, Microcopy No. 223, National Archives. Hereafter cited as Registry of Enlistments followed by year. See also John Schorr, "Participant in Whitebird Massacre Recalls Fatal March into Ambush," The Idaho Statesman, September 13, 1931, section 2, p. 2; Schorr obituary, clipping from unidentified Dayton, Ohio, newspaper, c. June, 1935, packet 179, item 9, McWhorter Collection.

10. Account of John Schorr in Hear Me, p. 223; Schorr, "The White Bird Fight," Winners of the West 6 (February 28, 1929), p. 7. Statement of Joe Rabusco, December 19, 1899, Claims of the Nez Perce Indians, Senate Executive Document 257, 56th Congress, 1st Session, p. 100; Account of Nat Webb in Hear Me, p. 231.

11. Letter from Trimble to Wood, January 29, 1878.

12. John B. Monteith was the son of a Presbyterian minister and had been appointed agent of the Lapwai Agency in February, 1871. Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest (New Haven, Connecticut, 1965), p. 441.

13. Perin Whitman was the nephew of Marcus Whitman. He went west in 1843 with his uncle and remained in the Northwest. He was about 47 years old and had a reputation as an able interpreter. Clifford M. Drury, Marcus Whitman, M.D. (Caldwell, 1937), pp. 93, 324-25.

14. Letter from Perry to Lt. Col. James W. Forsyth, c. October 22, 1878, Fort Walla Walla, letter no. 1024, Letters Received, DC.

15. O. O. Howard, pp. 92-96; Letter from Howard to Assistant Adjutant General, Military Division of the Pacific, August 27, 1877, Camp Ebstein, Letters Sent, DC.

16. Telegram from Howard to H. Clay Wood, June 17, 1877, Fort Lapwai, Letters Sent, DC.

17. Perry, "The Battle of White Bird Canõn," in Northwestern Fights and Fighters, by Cyrus Townsend Brady (Garden City, 1913), p. 112.

18. Muster Rolls of Company F and Company H of the First Cavalry, April 30 to June 30, 1877, Regular Army Muster Rolls, Record Group 98, National Archives.

19. Abraham Brooks testified that there were only 10 scouts, including Rabusco, who left Fort Lapwai with Perry, but Amos Wapsheli added the name of Matthew Sottoks, and Lucullus McWhorter presented strong evidence in favor of Robinson Minthon. At Cottonwood yet another Nez Perce, Abraham Watsinma, joined the party. Nez Perce Claims, Sen. Ex. Doc. 257, pp. 81, 84, 96. Yellow Wolf, p. 65.

20. O. O. Howard, p. 99.

21. Ibid., 98-100.