Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
under it. When they stopped to rest before going' into the fight, Sam
took off all his clothes but his shirt. Two men rode back to Sam,
rolled the dead horse off his leg. 'l'here was a little knoll close by.
Sam got on that, lifted his shirt and patted his belly at the Indians.
My uncle told me that he thought more than forty shots were fired at
Sam on that klJOll, and none touched him.
My uncle was lieutenant in the company of volunteers that drove
the Indians out of Grande Ronde Valley in 1856. He was our lieutenant
crossing the plains. 'While we were camped in Grande Ronde Valley,
my uncle took a lot of us and showed us over the battle field and
where the Indians were camped and where they drove them out of the
valley. 'Ve could stand at the Indian camp and see where the volunteers
came into the valley and see all over the battle field and where
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the Indians went out. The volunteers came in from the north, and the
Indians went out east from their last camp on the north of Grande
Ronde River. The battle began early in the morning and lasted until
after one 0 'clock, the same day. Five whites were killed and seven
wounded. Over thirty dead Indians were left on the field and their
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skeletons were still there when we rode over the ground in 1859.
From our camp we would go out and work over the road, opening
it up so we could get over it with our wagons. It took about a week to
open the road. Our supply of provisions gave out, so three men went
on to Walla Walla to have someone bring out a load of provisions and
meet us; but they got to Walla Walla and they went to work. M1'. Joe
Lane of the Umpqua Valley came and met us as we came down the
Blue Mountains with a wagon load of flour and bacon. Oh, weren't
we a happy bunch! Some of us had not tasted bread for three days.
Our principal diet while crossing the Blue Mountains was huckleberries
and milk. 'We milked our cows all the way across the plains.
Some of onr milk cows we worked all the way across.
At WalIa Walla our train broke up. It stopped at Walla Walla.
At The Dalles we shipped our wagons on a scow from The Dalles to
the Cascades and drove our stock down the river bank. Ben Benson,
John Reynolds, Tom Spooner, and myself drove the stock down the
Cascades. A. J. Roundtree went on down to Portland to get a steamer
to come to the Cascades after us to take us to the mouth of the Cowlitz.
When he got to Portland, they told him his brother, Perry, had
passed through Portland that day going to meet us by the Barlow
route. So A. J. Roundtree got a horse and started after him. Late ill
the evening, at one 0 'clock at night, he came up to his brother's camp
fire. They returned to Portland, chartered a steamer and large scow
that took us to the Cowlitz River. It then took us four davs to drive
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to Bawfaw.
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