1st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry Regiment | |
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![]() Flag of the United States, 1865–1867 | |
Active | April 1862 to November 20, 1866. |
Country | United States |
Allegiance | Union |
Branch | Cavalry |
Engagements | Snake War |
The First Regiment Oregon volunteer Cavalry was a volunteer regiment in United States service Union army that was formed in response to the American Civil War. With men recruited in Oregon and some recruited in surrounding states, the regiment primarily served to protect the state of Oregon and surrounding territories during the American Civil War.
In 1861, Colonel George Wright requested permission from Oregon Governor John Whiteaker to form a cavalry company in the state, as Wright was commander of the District of Oregon that included the Washington Territory. [1] [2] Wright was motivated by the fact that there were a total of 700 soldiers and 19 officers in the Pacific Northwest at a time when there were often battles with Native Americans. [2] Some volunteers joined up, asked to provide their own horse, but were later discharged when the organization failed before Wright was transferred to California. [2]
Lieutenant Colonel Albemarle Cady replaced Wright late in 1861 as United States Army regular troops were returned east for the American Civil War. [2] To replace those troops, Wright sent volunteers from California to protect Oregon from attacks by Native Americans. [2] In response, Oregon then commissioned Thomas R. Cornelius in November 1861 as colonel and ordered him to raise ten companies of cavalry troops. Oregonians were unhappy with California volunteers protecting Oregon. [2]
The initial part of the regiment (companies A through F) was organized and mustered into the army in Oregon from December 1861 to April 1862. In May 1862, it was sent into the Washington Territory to the Walla Walla country to protect immigrants and miners along the Salmon River. The 1st Oregon occupied Fort Walla Walla in June 1862 and sent out various expeditions over the next two years to fight the Snake Indians and other threats. Hence, the regiment was rarely intact as a single unit for much of the war. Several companies scattered to other frontier forts, including Fort Vancouver and Fort Dalles (see also The Dalles, Oregon) for detached duty such as constructing roads through the wilderness.
In January 1863, the remaining portion of the regiment (companies G, H, I, K, and M) were authorized and activated for duty. Companies G and H served at Camp Watson on Rock Creek; Company I was at Fort Klamath, Company K at Fort Dalles and Companies L and M at Fort Boise in Idaho Territory. The battalion came together for several skirmishes with local Indians in the Harney Lake Valley and other locations.
Men signed up for a three-year tour of duty with the cavalry. [2] Pay was $13 per month for each soldier, and at the end of service men were given a $100 bounty and 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land. [2] In addition to Col. Cornelius, other officers included R. F. Maury, C. S. Drew, Benjamin F. Harding as quartermaster, and J. S. Rinearson. [2]
In January 1865, Col. Reuben F. Maury, 1st Oregon Cavalry, assumed command of the Federal District of Oregon. The 1st Oregon Cavalry mustered out November 20, 1866.
The 1st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry Regiment did not muster out all at once, but did so in stages beginning in November 1864. Two years later there were only a small number of men remaining to muster out of service.
No other companies were mustered during the regiment's service.
Regiment mustered out November 20, 1866.
The Snake War (1864–1868) was an irregular war fought by the United States of America against the "Snake Indians," the settlers' term for Northern Paiute, Bannock and Western Shoshone bands who lived along the Snake River. Fighting took place in the states of Oregon, Nevada, and California, and in Idaho Territory. Total casualties from both sides of the conflict numbered 1,762 dead, wounded, or captured.
The 4th California Infantry was a volunteer infantry regiment recruited from northern California during the American Civil War. It was organized at Sacramento, Placerville, and Auburn in September and October 1861.
Brackett's Minnesota Cavalry Battalion was a Minnesota USV cavalry battalion that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The history of Idaho in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was far from the battlefields.
The 1st Regiment of Washington Territory Volunteer Infantry was a unit of infantry raised by the Washington Territory for service in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 10th Kansas Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army between April 3, 1862, and September 20, 1865, during the American Civil War.
The 9th Kansas Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The District of Oregon was a Union Army command department formed during the American Civil War.
The 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It spent its entire term of service in the western United States. Organized at San Francisco and Carson City September 2, 1861, to December 30, 1862, and attached to Department of the Pacific. The regiment was first assembled at the Presidio, San Francisco, and after completing its organization, five companies were sent to Oregon and Washington Territory, to relieve the regular troops, and two companies were sent to Santa Barbara. The troops of this regiment sent to Oregon were afterwards returned to California. It was mustered out during the month of October, 1864.
Camp Lapwai was a United States Army encampment in Washington Territory, present-day Idaho. It was established by Company E, 1st Regiment Washington Territory Volunteer Infantry. After being mustered in at Alcatraz at San Francisco, California, they were ordered on October 19, 1862, to Camp Lapwai near the Nez Perce Agency. Joined there at the beginning of November by Company "F", 1st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, they built the encampment. Camp Lapwai was renamed Fort Lapwai in 1863; the new Idaho Territory was also established in 1863.
Fort Lapwai (1862–1884), was a federal fort in present-day Lapwai in north central Idaho, United States. On the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Nez Perce County, it was originally called Camp Lapwai until 1863. East of Lewiston, it was located on the west bank of Lapwai Creek, three miles (5 km) above where it joins the Clearwater River at the state's first settlement, Lapwai Mission Station, built in 1836 by Henry Spalding. It is part of the multi-site Nez Perce National Historical Park. The word "Lapwai" means place of the butterflies, as the area had thousands in early summer in earlier years.
The 6th Regiment California Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It spent its entire term of service in the western United States attached to the Department of the Pacific. The Regiment was organized at Benicia Barracks, San Francisco on February 1, 1863. 6th Regiment mustered out from October 25 to December 20, 1865. The only recorded engagements of the Regiment occurred with the detachment sent to the Humboldt Military District in 1864, near the end of the Bald Hills War. It had engagements with the Indians in the Skirmish at Booth's Run, May 1 and Kneeland's Prairie May 2, near Boynton's Prairie May 6 and at Grouse Creek May 23.
1st Battalion California Volunteer Mountaineers was an infantry battalion in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It spent its entire term of service in the western United States, attached to the Department of the Pacific. It was organized from men from the counties of Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity, Klamath, Siskiyou, and Del Norte, and other parts of California, between May 30, 1863, and March 16, 1864, for special service in the redwood forests and mountains that was being fought over in the Bald Hills War in Humboldt County within the Humboldt Military District. The Battalion mustered out June 14, 1865.
The Department of Oregon was one of two Army Departments created September 13, 1858, replacing the original Department of the Pacific and was composed of the Territories of Washington and Oregon, except the Rogue River and Umpqua Districts, which were assigned to the Department of California. Its creation was authorized by General Orders, No. 10, of the United States Department of War, Adjutant-General's Office, September 13, 1858. Its headquarters was at Fort Vancouver, in the Washington Territory.
John Miller Drake was a Union Army officer in the 1st Oregon Cavalry and the 1st Oregon Infantry regiments during the American Civil War. He eventually reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. He led one of the first campaigns to respond to the threat Chief Paulina posed to settlers and rival Indians in central Oregon. Later he was a purchasing agent for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
The Department of the Columbia was a major command (Department) of the United States Army during the 19th century.
The role of Washington Territory in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was the most remote from the main battlefields of the conflict. The territory raised a small number of volunteers for the Union Army, who did not fight against the Confederate States Army but instead maintained defensive positions against possible foreign naval or land attacks. Although the Indian Wars in Washington were recent, there were no Indian hostilities within the area of modern Washington, unlike the rest of the western states and territories, during the Civil War. At the start of the American Civil War, modern-day Washington was part of the Washington Territory. On March 3, 1863, the Idaho Territory was formed from that territory, consisting of the entirety of modern-day Idaho, Montana, and all but southwest Wyoming, leaving the modern-day Washington as Washington Territory.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Oregon also raised the 1st Oregon Cavalry that was activated in 1862 and served until June 1865. During the Civil War, emigrants to the newfound gold fields in Idaho and Oregon continued to clash with the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock tribes of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada until relations degenerated into the bloody 1864 - 1868 Snake War. The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed in 1864 and its last company was mustered out of service in July 1867. Both units were used to guard travel routes and Indian reservations, escort emigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers from Indian raiders. Several infantry detachments also accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon.
Louis Henry Marshall (1827–1891) was a native of Virginia, a U. S. Army officer on the frontier in the Antebellum Period, in the American Civil War and in the Snake War.
Henry Erastus Noyes was a United States Army Officer who served during the American Civil War, American Indian Wars and Spanish American War.