Eighty Artillerymen Bound for the Spokane War
A San Francisco dispatch reports Company K of the 3d Artillery heading north to reinforce Col. Steptoe, with a new commander for the company lost when Lt. Gunn was killed by Spokanes.
From the San Francisco Herald of the 27th we copy the following movement of troops:
Company K, U.S. 3d Artillery, Capt. E. O. C. Ord, arrived here yesterday morning from Fort Miller via Stockton, on route for Oregon, to reinforce Col. Steptoe's command. The company numbers eighty men, and performed the distance from Fort Miller to this city in six days, which is remarkably quick time. Capt. Ord has been in the Indian war in Oregon with distinguished honor, and is well posted on the peculiarities of Indian fighting. Lieut. Davidson and Lieut. Gibson, also of the 3d Artillery, will accompany Capt. Ord. Lieut. Davidson will take charge of the company lately under command of Lieut. Gunn, who was killed by the Spokanes. Lieut. Gibson will be assigned to a command on reaching Fort Walla Walla. The above named gentlemen are well known to our citizens, and are universally esteemed for their polished and amiable deportment.
“Company K, U.S. 3d Artillery... arrived here yesterday morning from Fort Miller via Stockton, on route for Oregon, to reinforce Col. Steptoe's command.”
The item reads like a routine troop movement, but it was part of the U.S. military campaign against the Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and Palouse in 1858. That war opened Indigenous lands to settlement and is still remembered in tribal sovereignty struggles across the Columbia Plateau.
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