In the meantime that portion of the volunteers, some 100 or more, representing Bitter-root valley, hearing that the Nez-Perces promised to pass peaceably through it, determined that no act of hostility on their part should provoke the Indians to a contrary measure, and with leave, left in squads of from one to a dozen. On the 28th the Indians moved from the cañon to the hills, ascending the sides one half mile in my front, passed my flank and went into the Bitter Root valley As soon as I found that they were passing around me, and hearing that they had attacked a rear guard I had established to prevent desertions, I abandoned this breastworks, formed a skirmish line across the caiñon with my regulars and such of the volunteers as I could control and advanced in the direction the Indians had gone. They did not accept a fight but retreated up the Bitter-root. At the mouth of the Lo-Lo and before reaching it, all the volunteers had left me, but a dozen to twenty Missoula men, and I was obliged to return to this post [at Missoula].

Capt. C.C. Rawn
September 30, 1877

Today's Bitteroot Valley


Timeline

Credits

The Nez Perce Flight to Canada - An Introduction

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