Today in History:

268 Series I Volume L-I Serial 105 - Pacific Part I

Page 268 OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. Chapter LXII.

Ferry about 9. 30 a. m. ; crossed the river at the ferry and took the trail for Fort Gaston about 10 a. m., where we arrived about 5 p. m. ; distance, twenty miles. In all the country traveled over water is so abundant as to render it unnecessary for the men to carry canteens. Saw but very little arable or table land, the country generally being of the most mountainous and rugged description. For a distance of nearly seventy-six miles from the mouth of the Klamath River there are only about twenty-two white men, and their interests are not permanent, being engaged in mining along the river shores. Even the mines do not yield an equivalent for the labor and danger of working them. Aggregate number of miles traveled during the above scouts, 278.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. M. GREENE,

Captain, Sixth Infantry California Volunteers.

Lieutenant JAMES ULIO,

Adjutant Sixth Infantry California Volunteers,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, Camp near Fort Gaston, Cal.

CAMP IAQUA, CAL., May 1, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to report to the colonel commanding the district the following scouts, made by detachments under my command, during the month of April, 1864:

Friday, April 8, 1864, by direction of the major-general commanding the battalion Sixth Infantry California Volunteers, I left camp near Fort Gaston at 4 a. m. with twenty-five men of Company E, Sixth Infantry California Volunteers, and one commissioned officer (First Lieutenant J. P. Hackett, Sixth Infantry California Volunteers), and proceeded by the river trail to a point eleven miles and a quarter from Fort Gaston, and three-quarters of a mile south of Weitchpec, at the junction of the Trinity and Klamath Rivers, where I arrived at 9 a. m. ; raining hard and trail very slippery. It had been reported that Seranaltin John and some of his warriors were at the ranch of the friendly Indian known as Old Man Jim, chief of the Weitchpecs, on the north side of the Klamath, near the junction, and to avoid discovery I left the trail and secreted the men in the dense woods on my left, placing some of them in positions from which they could watch the trail. Old Man Jim having been employed as a guide on many occasions, and it being understood that he was co-operating with the troops (having given the information of John's presence at his ranch), I sent my guide, who was also a Weitchpec Indian, to tell him I was in the woods near by and wanted to see him. About an hour afterward Old Man Jim came and told me that Seranaltin John and part of his band were at his ranch. I then made arrangements with him to send me two canoes to cross the river with, and to colect his own Indians together and attack John and keep him engaged until I could come to his assistance, all of which he agreed to do. I then advanced under cover of the woods to within 100 yards of the river, where I waited for the signal to cross, which was to be the firing of Jim's rifles. In the course of half an hour after I reached this point a shot was fired, and according to previous arrangement my men suddenly emerged from the woods and rushed for the canoes, but on arriving at the river found only one had been left for us, and instead of the shot being a signal for me it was for John, it having been fired by one of his party, whose suspicious had been aroused by the myserious actions of Old Man Jim, and John and his warriors fled to the mountains


Page 268 OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. Chapter LXII.