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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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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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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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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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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There are several open-air museums relating to the ghastly events of World War 1 along the Soca-Isonzo River valley. Six are found in the upper reaches from Bovec in the north to Tolmin in the south. Here, we concentrate on those found on three hillocks – one being Mengore – across the river from Tolmin on the west side which made up the Tolmin Bridgehead.
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Over 600,000 Italians lie dead on the battlefields of the Great War with another 170,000 dying of illness or wounds in hospitals further back. Buried in small battlefield cemeteries, like elsewhere across the destroyed landscapes of Europe, remains in the small cemeteries were gathered up into larger cemeteries. Unlike the American example of offering repatriation of remains to families – two thirds of American families opted for that option – here in Italy, only about 50,000 remains returned to the families. By 1927, too many cemeteries remained for the State to maintain upkeep. So, the huge ossuaries – charnel houses, in England – came onto the scene. Here at the Caporetto Ossuary, mythology transposed defeat into victory of sorts. A victory leading to the Blackshirt March on Rome; a renewed and greater Italy.
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With the onset of heavier-than-air flight, it was only a matter of time before warfare incorporated the new adjunct into its far-flung assemblage. World War One saw America late to the scene with forces unprepared for what lay ahead in the battlefields of France and Belgium. One of the men helping bridge the wide gulf to the new industrial levels the Great War brought about was Edward Steichen.
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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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Rising as a bump on the long Krn-Vršič ridge just to the south of the pyramidal climax of Krn, Batognica looks nondescript from afar. Closer up, say from the peak of Krn, that impression changes. Standing not unlike an aircraft carrier as the last mound rising above the 2100-meter mark as the ridge begins its precipitous drop to the south – and the murderous grounds of Myrzli vrh – Batognica takes on a different impression.
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