The Last Survivor of the 1856 Siege
Admiral Thomas Stowell Phelps, who helped defend a fragile Seattle from the woods near Yesler's Mill, recounts the terror and strategic maneuvers of the Battle of Seattle.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At the Rainier hotel is a man to whom more than usual honor is due—Admiral Thomas Stowell Phelps. In January 1856, when Indigenous forces attempted to destroy the settlement on Elliott Bay, the guns of the USS Decatur—then lying in the harbor—helped to protect the town. Admiral Phelps, then a lieutenant, commanded one of the four squads stationed in the sawdust near Yesler's Mill. He is now nearly seventy, with a white beard and a distinguished naval record. During a conversation at the hotel, he recalled the chaotic state of the city before the battle. He described how the town was saved by a small group of fourteen men who refused to flinch when Indigenous fighters rushed their position, causing them to wheel and flee back into the woods. Admiral Phelps, who is visiting from Washington City, noted that his experiences were later published in his 1882 book, 'Reminiscences of Washington Territory.'
“Had the Indians rushed to a hand-to-hand fight all would have been up with us, for they could have overwhelmed us by sheer force of numbers. But at the very muzzles of our guns they wheeled and fled.”
The 'sawdust' of Yesler's Mill refers to the industrial heart of pioneer Seattle, a site now located near Pioneer Square. The Admiral's account offers a stark look at the violent dispossession that defined early Seattle, a history that continues to shape contemporary conversations about the city's origins.
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