Category Archives: Pacific Northwestern military history

DEFT OF HAND AND A KEG OF WHISKEY: MAGIC AT CUMBERLAND GAP – JOHN DE COURCY IN AMERICA

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Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture in 1864.
1864 Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture by John De Courcy.

I knew before that a certain Captain George Pickett, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the Mexican War and graduate of West Point – albeit, last in his class – served on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound just before the American Civil War.  What I did not know, was one of his opposites in the whole Pig War ordeal in 1859 was an Anglo-Irish peer by the name of John De Courcy.  Like Pickett, De Courcy would figure in the next war, as well.  Pickett’s role would be bigger and better known, but De Courcy’s role was big enough for someone involved in command. And not even as a citizen of either side.

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JAMES NESMITH, JOSEPH HOOKER – A UNIQUE MIX TOGETHER FOR THE UNION

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James Nesmith from Centennial History of Oregon.
James Nesmith senator and congressman for Oregon friend of General Hooker – Centennial History of Oregon.
Major General Joseph Hooker - photograph by Matthew Brady.
Major General Joseph Hooker – photograph by Matthew Brady.

The union of Oregon Senator James Nesmith and California-Massachusetts rancher-soldier Joseph Hooker worked at high levels within the Federal attempts to quell the rebellion of 1861-1865.  The two men were not necessarily meant for each other.  However, life has twists and turns.  The same turns that brought Hooker into the doghouse with such Federal luminaries as Henry Halleck, William T. Sherman, and Winfield Scott brought Hooker into the light with Nesmith, Edward Baker and most conspicuously, Abraham Lincoln.

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ASTORIA TO SALEM ROAD – MAGIC AHEAD OF ITS TIME?

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Cuillin smiling atop Saddle Mountain. The Astoria to Salem Road ventured around the peak – Green Mountain – in the center – Mouth of the Columbia River and Astoria lie above.

The 1840’s saw emigrants begin to make Oregon – especially the Willamette Valley – a destination of choice.  After a brief struggle, newcomers chose to make Salem the capital of the new Territory instead of Oregon City.  But Salem was definitely an inland choice.  Transportation to the sea was needed to enable easier communication with the rest of the World as opposed to a six-month jaunt across the Rockies.  As the 1850’s rolled on, the best choice of a seaport lay at the mouth of the Columbia River – enter the Astoria to Salem Road, military in purported purpose, but strategic thinking lay at the heart.

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PLAYERS OF THE CAYUSE WAR REVISITED

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Cayuse men on horseback – from Lee Moorhouse photo collection – University of Oregon Special Digital Collections; photo is from about 1900.

Warfare erupted from the killings of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman at their mission along the Walla Walla River at Waiilatpu.  Like most wars, they are easier to extinguish than to begin.  Here are some of those involved with the Cayuse War, a “war” having grievous results for the Natives belonging to the Cayuse peoples and directly transforming the state of government in the Pacific Northwest.

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MCCLELLAN ON A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHWEST

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Sign noting McClellan's passage through the dense forests of the southern Cascades.
Sign noting McClellan’s passage through the dense forests of the southern Cascades.

As future generals for the Federal Army during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan are also remembered for their service in the Pacific Northwest during the 1850’s.  Another, George Brinton McClellan made a cameo appearance. He led a group tasked with identifying a possible rail route through the Cascades.  In addition, they potential were to build a military road across the mountain chain so emigrant wagons could more easily reach the Puget Sound of Washington Territory.  This reconnaissance gave McClellan his first extended period of independent command since graduating from West Point with the Class of 1846.

Before George McClellan became the leading Federal general in the early Civil War, he served in the wilds of Washington, surveying for railroad routes.

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U.S. GRANT – OREGON STRINGS TIED TO THE CIVIL WAR

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1854 view of Columbia Barracks looking south across the Columbia River to Oregon. James Madison Alden – Yale Collection of American Literature, Yale University, CT

Oregon, California and the western territories of the United States played little roles in the devastation seen in the East known as the American Civil War.  In the era before transcontinental rail, the two Pacific states were simply too far away to matter much in the conflagration.  To reach the far west, six months needed to come into play, whether the journey was overland or by sea – choice there of around Cape Horn or across the disease-ridden Isthmus of Panama.  A surprisingly number of men with Oregon ties did play roles in the titanic struggles.  Most of those men had military ties to the Northwest, spending time on duty in the 1850’s helping bring order and stability to the newly settling lands of Oregon, California and Washington Territory.  The most famous soldiers who spent time in Oregon, one Ulysses S. Grant.

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JAMES NESMITH – PIONEER TO THE SENATE – FORGOTTEN OREGON GIANT

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Final resting place of James W. Nesmith
Final resting place of James W. Nesmith

Oregon in its early days featured many folks who by today’s standards would score very low with Political Correctness points.  James Willis Nesmith falls into that category, but with some redeeming qualities.  One of Oregon’s first politicians, his time began with the Provisional Government, extending through the Territorial period well into Oregon’s early Statehood years.  A member of the so-called Salem Clique, a group of Democratically inclined politicians who were prominent in that era, Nesmith outlasted the Clique’s breakup with the Civil War, serving as one of Oregon’s senators through the war years. 

He was one of only eight Democratic senators – four Border State Democrats and four Union Democrats – to vote in favor of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery.  He abstained from the senate vote on the 14th allowing equal rights to all citizens under the law.  Here, he was following the lead of President Andrew Johnson, a fellow Unionist.  His allegiance to his fellow Democrat would cost him in the years to come.

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REVISITING THE “CAYUSE WAR” – MURDER, REVENGE AND A NEW TERRITORY

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Print from a wood-engraving by N. Orr & Co., originally published in Frances Fuller Victor’s, The River of the West, circa 1870.

Early relationships between European newcomers and Native Americans living in the Pacific Northwest certainly went no better than in most other regions of the Americas.  European supremacy became much easier through early introduction of disease, an actual prelude in many cases to actual ethnic introductions.  Bad as the era directly before the two peoples came together face to face was, disease continued to inflict the Native populations, a factor leading directly to ill will and what became known as the “Cayuse War” in 1847.

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BEAVERS AT WAR – OAC RENOWNED FROM THE GREAT WAR

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Memorial Union building at Oregon State University. McAlexander helped with fundraising for the memorial to students killed in World War I.
Memorial Union building at Oregon State University, built as a memorial to students killed in World War I.

Oregon Agricultural College, OAC, is a land grant university.  As such, military science and tactics became part of the curriculum.  This in order for the school to receive land grants to help fund the establishment and development of the college.

All male students studied military classes for their first two years at school, taking part in military drills and parades in all the years of the school before 1917 – military classes would remain mandatory until 1961.  Many remained in the classes for their entire sojourn at the school.  With so many indoctrinated in the mysteries of military life, it should not surprise anyone that many students and graduates of OAC served in one branch or another during the first world conflagration the United States found itself involved with in 1917.

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FROM THE NORTHWEST TO THE FIELDS OF FRANCE – 361st INFANTRY REGIMENT IN THE GREAT WAR

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Private Ora Roscoe
Grave of Ora and his wife on the right.
Grave of Ora and his wife on the right.

On a recent visit to a cemetery, I visited several family ancestors buried in the very small community of Bellfountain, Oregon. Bellfountain lies in the southern part of the Willamette Valley. Amongst the graves, I found one particular headstone near the family ancestors mentioning the man’s service in World War 1 as part of the 361st Infantry Regiment.

The American Army mushroomed almost overnight with the country’s entrance into World War 1 in April 1917. Selective Service – conscription – was brought back for the first time since the American Civil War. One of the units raised, mostly from draftees from Washington and Oregon was the 361st Infantry Regiment, 181st Infantry Brigade, 91st Division.

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