The First Battle for the Stronghold - (Sources) - History - http://maxpages.com/modocwar/1st_Battle_for_the

YREKA, January 20.--H. C. Tickner arrived here this morning, bringing dispatches from General Wheaton to General Canby. He left the headquarters near Van Bremer's on Tule Lake, leaving there at three o'clock yesterday afternoon. From him we learn that a hard battle was fought with the Modocs on Friday last. The troops were under command of General Wheaton and consisted of 250 regulars, two companies of Oregon volunteers, twenty-five California riflemen volunteers under the Captain J. A. Fairchild, and a few Klamath Indians, numbering in all about 400. On Thursday Captain Bernard, with 100 regulars and a few Klamath Indians, moved around the north end of the lake to the east of Captain Jack's position. At eight o'clock Friday morning he was to advance from the east while General Wheaton, with the remainder of the forces, was to attack Captain Jack from the west under cover of fire from the howitzers. Thursday night a dense fog arose, completely enveloping everything, so that it was impossible to see forty yards in any direction. The two forces were about twelve miles apart, though to communicate with each other it was necessary to go a much greater distance.

Captain Bernard commenced the attack and was resisted by Jack's men, numbering about 200, concealed in the rocks along a line two miles long. General Wheaton, hearing Captain Bernard's guns, had no alternative but to advance to his assistance without the aid of the howitzers, as Captain Bernard's position was so indefinite as to endanger his command from shells. They fought the unseen enemy from eight in the morning until dark through a terrific fire, during which time scarcely an Indian was seen. The loss to the troops is forty killed and wounded. The Indian loss is unknown. Among the killed are Frank Trimble and J. R. Brown of the Oregon Volunteers. The wounded of Fairchild's company are: Jerry Crooks, slightly; G. W. Roberts, mortally; N. Beswick, slightly; Robert Small, slightly. Among the regulars wounded are Captain Perry and Lieutenant Kyle--the former seriously, the latter slightly--and about twenty-five of the regulars wounded, some slightly and others seriously. The troops were compelled to retire to their camps, the movement resulting in nothing more than a forced reconnaisance of Captain Jack's position. Captain Bernard's forces stood the brunt of the fight and suffered terribly. The cavalry all went into the fight dismounted.

The troops now will only try to keep the Modocs from raiding upon the settlements until reinforced. It is certain that Captain Jack has been reinforced by the Pitt Rivers, and it is feared other bands will now join him. General Wheaton praises the gallantry of all, but particularly the Oregon volunteers under General Ross, and California rifles under Fairchild. Mr. Tickner was guide for the troops into the lava bed, and thinks one thousand men will be required to dislodge the Modocs. It is thought here that troops from Fort Gaston might easily cross the Salmon Mountains, as there is not over a foot and a half of snow at present where usually it is ten feet. Pack trains have been running all winter. There is no difficulty whatever in reaching General Wheaton's headquarters from here. A dense fog has prevailed all over this section for the past five days, and there is no prospect of its rising.

Editorial--San Francisco Chronicle (21 January 1873)

The Modoc Battle

The first decided blow in the Modoc war has been struck and has resulted in the serious and bloody discomfiture of the United States troops and others engaged in the fight. Ten soldiers have been killed and twenty-nine wounded--rather a large price to pay for the honor of being whipped by a baker's dozen of naked savages.

This result shows that CAPTAIN JACK, and his Lieutenants, SCAR-FACED CHARLEY and SHACK-NASTY JIM, not only mean to fight, but have the power to do it with effect. And yet it seems strange that, after all these weeks of preparation, involving, as it has, thousands of dollars of expense, our troops should have been so shamefully beaten. The howitzers, upon which so much reliance was placed, were of no service, on account of a heavy fog, and the reinforcements which have almost daily swelled Colonel WHEATON'S force seem to have only gone there to be shot down like sheep by the unerring rifles in the practiced hands of the savages.

From the CHRONICLE'S special dispatches from the scene we are led to infer that the attack and all its preliminaries were arranged with true military precision--that everything was planned in a ship-shape manner, but yet the disagreeable fact appears that CAPTAIN JACK and SHACK-NASTY JIM were too much for the large force of 100 men that were sent against them. And this is something we shall take pleasure in having Colonel WHEATON explain.

[Editorial from the New York Herald]

Defeat of the Troops by the Modoc Indians

The Modoc war is again teaching us that when the Indian expects to die he will die game. The telegraphic accounts from the Pacific coast give us the outlines of a battle fought on Friday last between the troops and the Indians on the shore of Tule Lake, in Oregon, which ended certainly in the defeat of the civilized combatants. Captain Jack, the Modoc Chief, appears to have simply posted his two hundred men behind rocks along a line two miles in length and awaited attack. The position must have been singularly well chosen, for, altough the troops outnumbered the ambuscaded Indians two to one, they were repulsed with severe loss. Whatever plan the leaders of the troops had agreed on, it seems to have been very imperfectly carried out, as we learn that in consequence of Captain Bernard, who commanded one detachment, having prematurely given battle, General Wheaton "had no alternative but to move to the aid of Captain Bernard without the fire of the howitzers." The troops fought an invisible foe from eight o'clock in the morning until dark under a terrific fire. It is evident that, from the broken nature of the ground among the lava beds, the troops could not advance with any rapidity, and the folly of exposing and wasting valuable life throughout an entire day, without any prospect of success, seems at present a most reprehensible blunder. If the movement was reconnoissance in force it was very clumisly executed. It is now announced that it will require a force of one thousand men to dislodge the Modocs from their strong position, and that the operations until reinforcements arrive will be confined to beleaguering Captain Jack.

There should be no delay in sending forward sufficient troops to make the reduction of this band certain. A loss of forty in killed and wounded, including two officers of the regular army, is a high price to pay for such a barren result, and we hope to hear of no more such experimenting. In the present state of Indian affairs we cannot afford to allow the bad Indians to score a victory against the government. The peace policy humanitarians may be expected to emit a series of howls at the advisability of this course. They generally do on such occasions, and this one is too good to be passed by. The extermination of Captain Jack and his band is a disagreeable necessity. It will stand as a warning to other tribes who wish to follow in the footsteps of the Modocs. It is cheaper to feed than to fight them, say the peace policy men. Granted. But when the Indian gets it into his egotistical head that he can command regular rations, as well as full opportunity for bloodshed, it will require a larger expenditure still to keep him quiet. What the peace policy people forget is that a red man should be punished for murder just as much as a white man, and that in the strong arm continuously keeping him in subjection lies the only chance of the good nurses to spoon-feed him with their philanthropic pap. The defeat of last Friday makes it imperative on the government to teach all the savages a lesson through their Modoc brethren.

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