Category Archives: Pacific Northwestern military history

THE BAR IS CLOSED – FORT CANBY ON THE COLUMBIA

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Having written last of Fort Stevens on the south side of the mouth of the Columbia River, the lynchpin of the triad of forts arranged to guard the entrance from the sea from 1865 until 1947, it is time to turn our attention to the north side of the river. First, Fort Canby set up on the headland on the north side of the entrance to the mouth. Even today, a visit by car to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center – literally erected upon the aprons of one of Fort Canby’s former battery aprons – takes you winding along a narrow densely forested lane giving you just a taste of the primeval nature of the site.

Mouth of the Columbia River with the former defensive forts arrayed.

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FORT STEVENS – FRONT DOOR CLOSED ON THE COLUMBIA

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Replica of a 6-inch disappearing gun at Battery Pratt.

A visit to semi-restored Fort Stevens on the Point Adams along the southern mouth of the Columbia River transports one part way back in time. Here you see three or four distinct flavors of the month in terms of ideas on how to properly defend the nation.

Fort Stevens became the lynchpin of three forts developed in the latter half of the 19th century to defend the mouth of the Columbia River from would-be invaders, whether they be British, Confederate, German or Japanese. The other two forts forming the Columbiad triad forming on the north side of the river in Washington – Forts Canby and Columbia.

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FORT WALLA WALLA CEMETERY – END OF THE FRONTIER

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Fort Walla Walla Cemetery holds the dead of some of the last Indian Wars, the close of the Frontier.

FORT WALLA WALLA CEMETERY

The cemetery was established soon after Lieutenant Edward Steptoe organized the first Fort Walla Walla, a few miles east of downtown, in 1856.  The fort moved two times in the immediate years following and the cemetery ended up presently just to the west of the last fort, the present-day Veterans Administration Medical Center.  The cemetery holds graves from the different eras of the fort’s existence, 1856-1910.  Civilian graves are separated from the soldiers by about thirty yards.  Three monuments reflect some of the major battles during the 1877-1878 Nez Perce War in which soldiers who spent some time in Fort Walla Walla lost their lives.

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FORT UMPQUA – LONELY POST SWALLOWED BY THE SANDS

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1857 sketch of Fort Umpqua from the river.

Of the three Army posts erected around the periphery of the Oregon Coast Indian Reservation, Fort Umpqua is the most forgotten. The State has made Fort Yamhill into a Park. Benton County has done the same with Fort Hoskins. Fort Umpqua lies hidden on the wrong side of the mouth of the Umpqua River, hidden by sand, vegetation and time.

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FORT WALLA WALLA – CURTAIN CALL ON THE FRONTIER

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Parade Ground and Administration Building at Ft Walla Walla VA Complex

Today’s fort is the fourth to go by this name.  The first fort was a fur-trading post opened by the North West Company. The post was built at the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia Rivers.  Established in 1818, the post ran until abandoned and burnt down during the 1855 Yakima War.  A steamboat landing settlement sprang up a few years later. The remains now all under the waters backed up from the McNary Dam some miles further down the Columbia.

Original Fort Walla Walla trading post at the confluence of Snake and Columbia Rivers.
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FORT SIMCOE – SHORT STORY PAUSE TO THE STORM

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two pound cannon
Looks like a two-pound cannon, one of two on the east side of the Parade Ground with Officer’s Row on the opposite side. Artillery would have consisted more probably of M1841 mountain howitzers.

Of the many military posts erected by the US Army during the 19th century, few remain as well preserved as the collection of buildings found here in the middle of the Yakama Nation at Fort Simcoe.  The post was only manned for three years before the fort was abandoned; the men sent north to Fort Colville.

Brevet Captain George McClellan’s party, in 1853, found traces of gold along the upper reaches of the Naches or Yakima Rivers.  They searched for a railroad route over the Cascades, something McClellan continually stressed when meeting with Natives from the local Yakama tribes.

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RE-FOCUSING THE ARMY EASTWARD ON THE COLUMBIA – FORT DALLES

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James Madison Alden’s painting of Fort Dalles from 1857.

Beiniecke Library Yale University.

Fort Dalles was one of the original forts set up by the Army as it came west after the 1846 treaty with Great Britain solidifying borders on the 49th parallel.  Before 1855, the fort was a small fort with room for one or two companies of troops.  The Yakama War changed that.  From the middle of 1856 until the beginning of 1859, the fort became one of the Army’s main centers in the Northwest.  Home for the Ninth Regiment, Fort Dalles became the jump-off point for campaigns, interior explorations, road, and fort building and a supply depot for all these activities.

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BLOCKHOUSE GUARDIAN ON THE COLUMBIA – FORT CASCADES

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Steamboats making for the Cascade Locks near the Upper Cascades later in the 19th century. Fort Lugenbeel was just around the corner to the left.

Fort Cascades served as the main post comprising several blockhouses set up to defend the vitally important transportation corridor along the Columbia River through one of the treacherous points along the river.

The Oregon Trail was a long and perilous route.  Perhaps the most difficult section lay almost at the trail’s end as it made its way through the Cascade Mountains to the promised lands of the Willamette Valley.  Once the Trail dropped down out of the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, it followed along the Columbia River.  It was possible to float your wagons down much of the river, but most kept to the road leading up and down along the south side of the Columbia.  Crossing the John Day and Deschutes rivers were minor difficulties compared to the last difficulty lying ahead in the mountains.

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FORT HOSKINS AND YAMHILL – WHITE EYES TURNED TO THE COAST

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Fort Hoskins and Yamhill were two of the earliest uses of the U.S. Army in the newly acquired Northwest lands gained in the middle 1840’s. The sites, long abandoned, have undergone extensive archaeological excavations. Protected as public parks today, a visit gives a fascinating insight into the antebellum Regular Army and the interactions between Native Americans and newly-arrived white settlers intent on occupying new grounds.

fort hoskins
Looking down on the former site of Fort Hoskins, literally at the edge of valley and mountain.
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MONUMENTS FROM THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, FORGOTTEN PRELUDE TO EMPIRE

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USS Oregon
USS Oregon mainmast in Riverfront Park Portland

The Spanish-American war, forgotten mostly today, was a very popularly received event among the American public.  The ongoing rebellion in Cuba was recurrent front-page news. Newspapers ever eager to entice readers with lurid tales of Spanish atrocities.  Forgotten by most now, the Spanish-American War is remembered by numerous monuments spread around the country.  Like the war they memorialize, those monuments tend to be overlooked and passed by today without much notice.

Spanish-American Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery – Google Maps.
Memorial to the USS Maine in Arlington National Cemetery – Google Maps.
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