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Battle of Seattle (1856)
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Seattle was a January 26, 1856 attack by native Americans
upon Seattle, Washington. At the time, Seattle was a settlement in the Washington Territory
that had recently named itself after Chief Seattle
(Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish
and Duwamish peoples of central Puget Sound
.
Backed by artillery fire and supported by Marines from the United States Navy
sloop-of-war
Decatur
, anchored in Elliott Bay
(Seattle's harbor, then called Duwam-sh Bay), the settlers suffered only two deaths. It is not known if any of the Native American raiders died, though Phelps writes that they later "would admit" to 28 dead and 80 wounded. The battle, part of the multi-year Puget Sound War
or Yakima War
, lasted a single day.
now sits. T. S. Phelps
's memoir of the time described the settlement as:
Phelps remarks that the tailings from Henry Yesler
's then recently erected mill were steadily filling in the marshy land at the north of the head or peninsula where the settlement was located. Further, he describes the arrangement of the troops arrayed in defense on the nights before the battle:
, a series of skirmishes in the region that had been occurring over the course of several months, beginning October 28, 1855. The natives had been angered by treaties imposed by Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens
. There had been fighting between federal troops and natives in southern King County
(the county in which Seattle is located) and Thurston County, as well as Pierce County
. Just five days before the attack on Seattle, Governor Stevens had declared a "war of extermination" upon the Indians.
The Decatur had been called to Puget Sound both because of the trouble with local natives and to deter frequent raids by an alliance of Haida from the Queen Charlotte Islands
and the Tongass group of the Tlingit from what was then Russian America. Captained by Isaac L. Sterret, during most of this period, it was commanded on the day of the battle by Guert Gansevoort
. The sloop
had undergone significant damage when it struck an uncharted reef
near Bainbridge Island
on December 7, 1855. (According to naval custom, it is then named Decatur Reef.) The vessel limped into Seattle for repairs, which lasted until January 19, a week before the raid, and Sterret was temporarily taken off active duty December 10. After the battle, he was vindicated and returned to active duty.
From January 19, Decatur lay at anchor in deep water, in a position from which it had total command of the settlement with her 16 shipborne 32-pounders firing fuzed shells. To the defense on land, the ship contributed two nine-pounder cannon
and 18 stands of arms.
The first fatality of the engagement is recorded when Jack Drew, a deserter from Decatur, attempted to enter a cabin through a window, and was shot dead by fifteen-year-old Milton Holgate. About this time, the raiders were attacking the White River settlers; those who survived fled to Seattle. There they joined the fifty or so Seattle settlers. Assisted by marines from the Decatur, they had constructed a blockhouse from lumber originally intended for shipment to San Francisco.
Only days before the battle (January 21), Governor Stevens arrived in Seattle aboard U.S.S. Active, discounting rumors of war. Almost immediately upon his departure, reports from friendly natives warned that the governor had been completely mistaken and that an attack was imminent. These reports have been variously credited to Chief Seattle
, his daughter Princess Angeline
, or another chief, Sucquardle (known also as "Curley" or "Curly Jim").
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard
, an Indian agent
reputed to have had far more than the usual concern for the natives' rights and well-being, evacuated 434 friendly natives to the west side of Puget Sound
(at his own expense and with the assistance of his wife).
The settlers had, to some extent, organized themselves for their own defense as volunteers under a Captain Hewett. However, this company of volunteers had disbanded and re-formed several times over the months leading up to the battle. On the evening January 22, with Decatur now in a commanding position, its leaders declared that "they would not serve longer while there was a ship in port to protect them". Phelps writes that "a more reckless, undisciplined set of men has seldom been let loose to prey upon any community than these eighty embryo soldiers upon Seattle… after much rough argument about thirty of their number became partially convinced that their individual safety depended upon unity of action under a competent leader, and they finally consented to form a company, provided Mr. Peixotto would consent to serve as captain. That gentleman accepted the honor…"
Emily Denny mentions the company as being captained by Hewitt and including William Gilliam as 1st Lieutenant, D.T. Denny as Corporal and Robert Olliver as Sergeant. Phelps, perhaps diplomatically, names both Hewitt and Peixotto as Captains.
Phelps lists the hostile natives as including the "Kliktat" (Klickitat and Spokane
, "Palouses" (Palus
, Walla-Walla
, "Yakami" (Yakama
), Kamialk, Nisqually
, Puyallup
, "Lake" (Duwamish-related, living near Lake Washington), "and other tribes, estimated at six thousand warriors, marshaled under the three generals-in-chief Coquilton, Owhi, and Lushi, assisted by many subordinate chiefs. They had failed to recruit several tribes or nations from the Olympic Peninsula
, nor did they succeed in winning the Snoqualmie
over to their cause. Despite the cordial hatred Snoqualmie chief Patkanim
held toward the whites, he decided that it was more expedient to take their side in the war.
Two hostile chiefs—Phelps says Owhi and Lushi (presumably, Leschi
), other sources say Owhi and Coquilton—disguised themselves as friendly Indians and reconnoitered the situation the night before the battle. Phelps describes this in some detail: he, himself was the sentry whom they tricked with a plausible story.
According to Phelps' account, it would appear that at least two native chiefs were playing a double game. Curley Jim had been considered friendly enough by the settlers to remain within their encampment; conversely, his nephew Yark-eke-e-man had been considered one of the hostile force, but, according to Phelps, had every intention of betraying it from within. Curley Jim now left the settlement in the company of his visitors, and they parleyed around midnight at the lodge of a chief named Tecumseh; Yark-eke-e-man and several "chiefs of lesser note" were also present. They set out a plan to slaughter all of the settlers and U.S. military; Curley requested that his friend Henry Yesler
be allowed to live, but accepted being overruled in the matter.
They resolved to attack in only a few hours, planning to attack around 2 a.m.; Phelps believes the plan would have succeeded, since no one was really planning for a pre-dawn attack. However, they were undercut by Yark-eke-e-man who managed to convince them that a mid-morning attack would be a better plan, using a small decoy force to draw the Decatur's men out of the well-defended areas to do battle on First Hill.
There are no reliable estimates of the size of the attacking force. Isaac Stevens (who was not present), wrote to Washington that settlers estimated that 200 to 500 Indians had taken the field against them. Phelps put the number of enemy at 2,000, but (write Crowley and Wilma) "frontier military officers often inflated the number of opposing forces to reinforce their accomplishments (or to minimize their failures)." Historian Murray Morgan writes that early "reports seem to have multiplied by ten the actual numbers. There could not have been more than one hundred and fifty."
Many settlers resided on scattered claims divided by thick forest, because to establish a land claim it was necessary to live on it. Some settlers doubted that the Indians would attack, and had to run for the blockhouse on the morning of the battle.
The non-combatants of the friendly tribes took to their canoes to get out of the way. Curley's sister (and Yark-eke-e-man's mother) Li-cu-mu-low ("Nancy"), whom Phelps describes as "short, stout, and incapable of running," warned as she headed for her canoe that the Kliktat were gathered around Tom Pepper's house, which was in the forest, near the crest of First Hill. Decatur fired off a howitzer
shell in that direction, the first shot of the battle. Phelps and a few others had been trying unsuccessfully to rouse the volunteers from their torpor. At the sound of the howitzer shell, they rushed as one for the blockhouse. There "Sergeant Carbine several times charged them out of one door, to return as often by the other, till, wearying of the trouble, he left them to cower behind the wooden bulwarks, protected from the bullets of the foe."
The third division, contrary to orders, charged up the trail that led towards the lake. This foolhardy charge met with an undeserved success, as they pushed the attackers back without taking any casualties themselves. Klakum held a position behind a tree, and got a rather clean rifle shot at Peixotto standing on the block-house steps, but missed and killed a boy, Milton G. Holgate who was standing a few steps higher. Hans Carl, an invalided sailor on Decatur, died shortly thereafter, but for reasons unrelated to the battle.
Meanwhile, shooting continued where the south end of the peninsula was separated from the mainland by a slough, with settlers on the peninsula faced off against natives on the mainland. Phelps describes "the incessant rattle of small-arms, and an uninterrupted whistling of bullets, mingled with the furious yells of the Indians," but there were few casualties. A settler (Clarence Bagley, quoting William Bell two days after the event, says the casualty was Christian White; Phelps, writing 17 years later, says Robert Wilson) was killed when he ducked out from behind a stump to try to get some drinking water.
Because the natives' only common language was Chinook jargon
, a trade language that many of the white settlers also spoke, the settlers were able to hear and understand the attackers' shouted orders "and revealed many incidents of the battle they were anxious to conceal."
. At noon the day after the battle, Active steamed into Elliott Bay, Governor Stevens aboard. Stevens was, in Phelps's words, "at last compelled to acknowledge the presence of hostile Indians in the Territory." Active headed south in the direction of Steilacoom
which seemed the most likely next target of an attack, dropping the governor at Olympia
on the way.
Yark-eke-e-man reported that the hostile chiefs were ill-provisioned, because, confident of victory, they expected to provision themselves from the settlers' supplies. They spent the next several weeks scouring the land for food.
Two days after the battle, Coquilton threatened, through a messenger, "that within one moon he would return with twenty thousand warriors, and, attacking by land and water, destroy the place in spite of all the war-ship could do to prevent." The threat was taken seriously, and it was decided that Seattle's defenses must be improved. Henry Yesler
volunteered ship's cargo of house lumber and on February 1 Decatur's divisions began a two-week's project to erect two fences five feet high, placed eighteen inches apart, and filled in with well-tamped earth, 1200 yards (1,097.3 m) long, and enclosing a large portion of the town. A second block-house was also erected, and an old ship's cannon plus a 6-pounder field-piece borrowed from Active functioned as its artillery.
Trees and undergrowth were removed (variously attacked with levers, axes, and shovels, or burned in place) to provide an esplanade and enable Decatur's howitzer to sweep the shores. Much brush was also cleared from the town's inland edges, to reduce the cover for future attacks. On February 24, USS Massachusetts
arrived and on March 28 USS John Hancock
.
In the event, the well-defended town did not face a second battle. Defeat in the Battle of Seattle had discouraged the hostile natives; they did not again amass a comparable force, and (especially with the naval presence) Seattle was now a much better defended town. Furthermore, Governor Stevens had convinced Patkanim and his men to take on the role of bounty hunter
s, paying them handsomely for the scalps of leaders of the hostile tribes, a task at which he was gruesomely successful. Morgan does not describe the battle as a victory for the Americans. Rather, he writes that "both sides were dismayed, the whites by the realization that the enemy really would attack a town, the Indians by their first experience with exploding shells rather than cannonballs."
Also by Stevens order, a court-martial convened at Seattle on May 15 for the trial of Klakum and twenty other Indians; the military trial acquitted them, deeming their actions as having been legitimate warfare, not criminal acts, and they were released after a declaration of peace. It was certainly not the end of violence between settlers and natives in the region, but it was the end of outright war.
Nine days after the battle Chief Leschi and Chief Kitsap
, along with a group of 17 Indians, appeared at the home of John McLeod near the Nisqually River. McLeod was a former employee of the Hudson's Bay Company
and had a Nisqually wife, and was trusted by the hostile Indians. Leschi said neither he nor his band had taken part in the attack on Seattle and that he thought the attack had been foolish. Leschi also asked that John Swan, another trusted white man, visit Leschi's camp on the Green River for a peace conference. When Swan did visit Leschi's camp a few days later, he counted about 150 men of fighting age. Nearly all were from west of the Cascades, with only 10-20 from the east.
The casualties on the native side are unknown. Phelps claimed personally to have seen ten die from one shell, and that they later "would admit" to 28 dead and 80 wounded, but remarked that the native women "secret[ed] the dead beyond all chance of discovery." No Indian bodies were found.
According to Seattle lore, decades after the battle, Seattle's future fire chief Gardner Kellogg was excavating his house and found a shell from Decatur that had buried itself without exploding. He stuck it under a stump that he was trying to burn out and went off to lunch. Dexter Horton
stopped by to warm the seat of his pants at the fire, and as it exploded, nearly became the last casualty of the battle of Seattle.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
upon Seattle, Washington. At the time, Seattle was a settlement in the Washington Territory
Washington Territory
The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 8, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington....
that had recently named itself after Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle , was a Dkhw’Duw’Absh chief, also known as Sealth, Seathle, Seathl, or See-ahth. A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. Seattle, Washington was named after him...
(Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish
Suquamish
The Suquamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American Tribe, located in present-day Washington in the United States.The Suquamish are a southern Coast Salish people; they spoke a dialect of Lushootseed, which belongs to the Salishan language family. Like many Northwest Coast natives, the...
and Duwamish peoples of central Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
.
Backed by artillery fire and supported by Marines from the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
sloop-of-war
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
Decatur
USS Decatur (1839)
USS Decatur was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the mid-19th century. She was commissioned to protect American interests in the South Atlantic Ocean, including the interception of ships involved in the African slave trade...
, anchored in Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle, Washington, is located. A line drawn from Alki Point in the south to West Point in the north serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound...
(Seattle's harbor, then called Duwam-sh Bay), the settlers suffered only two deaths. It is not known if any of the Native American raiders died, though Phelps writes that they later "would admit" to 28 dead and 80 wounded. The battle, part of the multi-year Puget Sound War
Puget Sound War
The Puget Sound War was an armed conflict that took place in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington in 1855–56, between the United States Military, local militias and members of the Native American tribes of the Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Klickitat...
or Yakima War
Yakima War
The Yakima War was a conflict between the United States and the Yakama, a Sahaptian-speaking people on the Northwest Plateau, then Washington Territory and now the southern interior of Eastern Washington, from 1855 to 1858.- Naming :...
, lasted a single day.
Terrain
The Seattle settlement of the time was located roughly where Seattle's Pioneer SquarePioneer Square, Seattle, Washington
Pioneer Square is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It was once the heart of the city: Seattle's founders settled there in 1852, following a brief six-month settlement at Alki Point on the far side of Elliott Bay. The early structures in the neighborhood...
now sits. T. S. Phelps
Thomas Phelps
Thomas Stowell Phelps was an officer in the United States Navy. He served in the United States Navy from 1840 to 1884, attaining the rank of Captain in 1871 and Rear Admiral in 1884...
's memoir of the time described the settlement as:
…on a point, or rather a small peninsula, projecting from the eastern shore, and about two miles (3 km) from the mouth of Duwam-sh RiverDuwamish RiverThe Duwamish River is the name of the lower of Washington state's Green River. Its industrialized estuary is known as the Duwamish Waterway.- History :...
, debouching at the head of the bay. The northern part of this peninsula is connected with the mainland by a low neck of marshy ground, and about one-sixteenth of a mile from its southeastern extremity a firm, hard sand-pit nearly joined it to the adjacent shore, severed only by a narrow channel through which the surplus waters of an inclosed swamp escaped into the bay. The south and west sides rose abruptly from the beach, forming an embankment from three to fifteen feet high; and proceeding thence northerly, the ground undulated for an eighth of a mile, when it gradually sloped towards the swamp and neck.
At the intersection of the latter with the main, and overlooking the water, rose a mound about thirty feet above the level of the bay; and to the eastward through a depression in the hills, and passing the head of the swamp, was a broad Indian trail leading to Lake Duwam-sh [now Lake WashingtonLake WashingtonLake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...] , distant two and a half miles.
Phelps remarks that the tailings from Henry Yesler
Henry Yesler
Henry L. Yesler was an entrepreneur considered to be Seattle, Washington's first economic father and first millionaire. He arrived in Seattle in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill, which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members...
's then recently erected mill were steadily filling in the marshy land at the north of the head or peninsula where the settlement was located. Further, he describes the arrangement of the troops arrayed in defense on the nights before the battle:
The divisions… nightly occupied the shore, vigilantly guarding the people as they slept, and resting only when the morning light released them from the apprehended attack. … [They] were distributed along the line of defense in the following order: The fourth, under Lieutenant Dallas, commencing at Southeast Point, extended along the bay shore to the sand-bar, where, meeting with the right of the first division, Lieutenant Drake, the latter continued the line facing the swamp to a point half-way from the bar to a hotel situated midway between the bar and Yesler's place, and there joined the second, under Lieutenant Hughes, whose left, resting on the hotel (see Mother DamnableMother DamnableMary Ann Conklin, also known as Mother Damnable and Madame Damnable , was a prominent and colorful figure in the early history of Seattle. She ran Seattle's first hotel, the Felker House, whose relatively high-class brothel was a major means of accumulating money from sailors and lumbermen into...
), completed an unbroken line between the latter and Southeast Point, while the howitzer's crew, Lieutenant Morris, was stationed near Plummer's house, to sweep the bar and to operate wherever circumstances demanded. The third division, Lieutenant Phelps, occupied that portion of the neck lying between the swamp and mound east of Yesler's place, to secure the approaches leading from the lake, and the marines, under Sergeant Carbine, garrisoned the block-house.
The divisions, thus stationed, left a gap between the second and third, which the width and impassable nature of the swamp at this place rendered unnecessary to close, thereby enabling a portion of the town to be encompassed which otherwise would have been exposed.
The distance between the block-house and Southeast Point, following the sinuosities of the bay and swamp shores, was three-quarters of a mile, to be defended by ninety-six men, eighteen marines, and five officers, leaving Gunner Stocking, Carpenter Miller, Clerks Francis and Ferguson, and fifteen men with Lieutenant Middleton, to guard the ship.
Before the battle
The battle was part of the Puget Sound WarPuget Sound War
The Puget Sound War was an armed conflict that took place in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington in 1855–56, between the United States Military, local militias and members of the Native American tribes of the Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Klickitat...
, a series of skirmishes in the region that had been occurring over the course of several months, beginning October 28, 1855. The natives had been angered by treaties imposed by Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens
Isaac Stevens
Isaac Ingalls Stevens was the first governor of Washington Territory, a United States Congressman, and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War until his death at the Battle of Chantilly...
. There had been fighting between federal troops and natives in southern King County
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
(the county in which Seattle is located) and Thurston County, as well as Pierce County
Pierce County, Washington
right|thumb|[[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]] - Seat of Pierce CountyPierce County is the second most populous county in the U.S. state of Washington. Formed out of Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the legislature of Oregon Territory...
. Just five days before the attack on Seattle, Governor Stevens had declared a "war of extermination" upon the Indians.
The Decatur had been called to Puget Sound both because of the trouble with local natives and to deter frequent raids by an alliance of Haida from the Queen Charlotte Islands
Queen Charlotte Islands
Haida Gwaii , formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Haida Gwaii consists of two main islands: Graham Island in the north, and Moresby Island in the south, along with approximately 150 smaller islands with a total landmass of...
and the Tongass group of the Tlingit from what was then Russian America. Captained by Isaac L. Sterret, during most of this period, it was commanded on the day of the battle by Guert Gansevoort
Guert Gansevoort
Commodore Guert Gansevoort was an officer in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.-Biography:...
. The sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
had undergone significant damage when it struck an uncharted reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
near Bainbridge Island
Bainbridge Island, Washington
Bainbridge Island is a city in Kitsap County, Washington, United States, and the name of the island in Puget Sound on which the city is situated...
on December 7, 1855. (According to naval custom, it is then named Decatur Reef.) The vessel limped into Seattle for repairs, which lasted until January 19, a week before the raid, and Sterret was temporarily taken off active duty December 10. After the battle, he was vindicated and returned to active duty.
From January 19, Decatur lay at anchor in deep water, in a position from which it had total command of the settlement with her 16 shipborne 32-pounders firing fuzed shells. To the defense on land, the ship contributed two nine-pounder cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
and 18 stands of arms.
The first fatality of the engagement is recorded when Jack Drew, a deserter from Decatur, attempted to enter a cabin through a window, and was shot dead by fifteen-year-old Milton Holgate. About this time, the raiders were attacking the White River settlers; those who survived fled to Seattle. There they joined the fifty or so Seattle settlers. Assisted by marines from the Decatur, they had constructed a blockhouse from lumber originally intended for shipment to San Francisco.
Only days before the battle (January 21), Governor Stevens arrived in Seattle aboard U.S.S. Active, discounting rumors of war. Almost immediately upon his departure, reports from friendly natives warned that the governor had been completely mistaken and that an attack was imminent. These reports have been variously credited to Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle , was a Dkhw’Duw’Absh chief, also known as Sealth, Seathle, Seathl, or See-ahth. A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. Seattle, Washington was named after him...
, his daughter Princess Angeline
Princess Angeline
Princess Angeline , also known in Lushootseed as Kikisoblu, Kick-is-om-lo, or Wewick, was the eldest daughter of Chief Seattle. Born in what is now Rainier Beach in Seattle, Washington, she was named Angeline by Catherine Broshears Maynard, second wife of Seattle pioneer Doc Maynard...
, or another chief, Sucquardle (known also as "Curley" or "Curly Jim").
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard
David Swinson Maynard
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard was an American pioneer and doctor, and one of Seattle's primary founders. He was an effective civic booster and, compared to other white settlers, a relative advocate of Native American rights...
, an Indian agent
Indian agent
In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.-Indian agents:*Leander Clark was agent for the Sac and Fox in Iowa beginning in 1866....
reputed to have had far more than the usual concern for the natives' rights and well-being, evacuated 434 friendly natives to the west side of Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
(at his own expense and with the assistance of his wife).
The settlers had, to some extent, organized themselves for their own defense as volunteers under a Captain Hewett. However, this company of volunteers had disbanded and re-formed several times over the months leading up to the battle. On the evening January 22, with Decatur now in a commanding position, its leaders declared that "they would not serve longer while there was a ship in port to protect them". Phelps writes that "a more reckless, undisciplined set of men has seldom been let loose to prey upon any community than these eighty embryo soldiers upon Seattle… after much rough argument about thirty of their number became partially convinced that their individual safety depended upon unity of action under a competent leader, and they finally consented to form a company, provided Mr. Peixotto would consent to serve as captain. That gentleman accepted the honor…"
Emily Denny mentions the company as being captained by Hewitt and including William Gilliam as 1st Lieutenant, D.T. Denny as Corporal and Robert Olliver as Sergeant. Phelps, perhaps diplomatically, names both Hewitt and Peixotto as Captains.
Phelps lists the hostile natives as including the "Kliktat" (Klickitat and Spokane
Spokane (tribe)
The Spokane are a Native American people in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Washington. The Spokane Indian Reservation, at , is located in eastern Washington, almost entirely in Stevens County, but includes two very small parcels of land and part of the Spokane River in...
, "Palouses" (Palus
Palus (tribe)
The Palus are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas . A variant spelling is Palouse, which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.- Ethnography :...
, Walla-Walla
Walla Walla (tribe)
Walla Walla |Native American]] tribe of the northwestern United States. The reduplication of the word expresses the diminutive form. The name "Walla Walla" is translated several ways but most often as "many waters."...
, "Yakami" (Yakama
Yakama
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, or simply Yakama Nation , is a Native American group with nearly 10,000 enrolled members, living in Washington. Their reservation, along the Yakima River, covers an area of approximately 1.2 million acres...
), Kamialk, Nisqually
Nisqually (tribe)
Nisqually is a Lushootseed Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. The tribe lives on a reservation in the Nisqually River valley near the river delta. The Nisqually Indian Reservation, at , comprises 20.602 km² of land area on both sides of the river, in...
, Puyallup
Puyallup (tribe)
The Puyallup are a Coast Salish Native American tribe from western Washington state, U.S.A. They were forcibly relocated onto reservation lands in what is today Tacoma, Washington, in late 1854, after signing the Treaty of Medicine Creek. The Puyallup Indian Reservation today is one of the most...
, "Lake" (Duwamish-related, living near Lake Washington), "and other tribes, estimated at six thousand warriors, marshaled under the three generals-in-chief Coquilton, Owhi, and Lushi, assisted by many subordinate chiefs. They had failed to recruit several tribes or nations from the Olympic Peninsula
Olympic Peninsula
The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...
, nor did they succeed in winning the Snoqualmie
Snoqualmie (tribe)
The Snoqualmie Tribe is a tribal government of Coast Salish Native American peoples from the Snoqualmie Valley in east King and Snohomish Counties in Washington state. The Snoqualmie settled onto the Tulalip Reservation after signing the Point Elliott Treaty with the Washington Territory in 1855...
over to their cause. Despite the cordial hatred Snoqualmie chief Patkanim
Patkanim
Patkanim was chief of the Snoqualmoo and Snohomish tribe in what is now modern Washington State....
held toward the whites, he decided that it was more expedient to take their side in the war.
Chief Leschi
Chief Leschi was chief of the Nisqually Native American tribe. He was hanged for murder in 1858, but exonerated in 2004.-Life:...
), other sources say Owhi and Coquilton—disguised themselves as friendly Indians and reconnoitered the situation the night before the battle. Phelps describes this in some detail: he, himself was the sentry whom they tricked with a plausible story.
According to Phelps' account, it would appear that at least two native chiefs were playing a double game. Curley Jim had been considered friendly enough by the settlers to remain within their encampment; conversely, his nephew Yark-eke-e-man had been considered one of the hostile force, but, according to Phelps, had every intention of betraying it from within. Curley Jim now left the settlement in the company of his visitors, and they parleyed around midnight at the lodge of a chief named Tecumseh; Yark-eke-e-man and several "chiefs of lesser note" were also present. They set out a plan to slaughter all of the settlers and U.S. military; Curley requested that his friend Henry Yesler
Henry Yesler
Henry L. Yesler was an entrepreneur considered to be Seattle, Washington's first economic father and first millionaire. He arrived in Seattle in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill, which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members...
be allowed to live, but accepted being overruled in the matter.
They resolved to attack in only a few hours, planning to attack around 2 a.m.; Phelps believes the plan would have succeeded, since no one was really planning for a pre-dawn attack. However, they were undercut by Yark-eke-e-man who managed to convince them that a mid-morning attack would be a better plan, using a small decoy force to draw the Decatur's men out of the well-defended areas to do battle on First Hill.
There are no reliable estimates of the size of the attacking force. Isaac Stevens (who was not present), wrote to Washington that settlers estimated that 200 to 500 Indians had taken the field against them. Phelps put the number of enemy at 2,000, but (write Crowley and Wilma) "frontier military officers often inflated the number of opposing forces to reinforce their accomplishments (or to minimize their failures)." Historian Murray Morgan writes that early "reports seem to have multiplied by ten the actual numbers. There could not have been more than one hundred and fifty."
Many settlers resided on scattered claims divided by thick forest, because to establish a land claim it was necessary to live on it. Some settlers doubted that the Indians would attack, and had to run for the blockhouse on the morning of the battle.
The battle begins
An Indian known as "Jim", a relative of Curley's who died a few months later in a hunting accident, evaded Curley's vigilance and warned Dr. Williamson of the impending attack. Williamson sent a messenger to Yesler, who informed Gansevoort, and Decatur's troops abandoned their breakfast and returned to the positions they had held by night. 52 women and children found refuge on board Decatur, and others on board the barque Brontes.The non-combatants of the friendly tribes took to their canoes to get out of the way. Curley's sister (and Yark-eke-e-man's mother) Li-cu-mu-low ("Nancy"), whom Phelps describes as "short, stout, and incapable of running," warned as she headed for her canoe that the Kliktat were gathered around Tom Pepper's house, which was in the forest, near the crest of First Hill. Decatur fired off a howitzer
Howitzer
A howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...
shell in that direction, the first shot of the battle. Phelps and a few others had been trying unsuccessfully to rouse the volunteers from their torpor. At the sound of the howitzer shell, they rushed as one for the blockhouse. There "Sergeant Carbine several times charged them out of one door, to return as often by the other, till, wearying of the trouble, he left them to cower behind the wooden bulwarks, protected from the bullets of the foe."
The third division, contrary to orders, charged up the trail that led towards the lake. This foolhardy charge met with an undeserved success, as they pushed the attackers back without taking any casualties themselves. Klakum held a position behind a tree, and got a rather clean rifle shot at Peixotto standing on the block-house steps, but missed and killed a boy, Milton G. Holgate who was standing a few steps higher. Hans Carl, an invalided sailor on Decatur, died shortly thereafter, but for reasons unrelated to the battle.
Meanwhile, shooting continued where the south end of the peninsula was separated from the mainland by a slough, with settlers on the peninsula faced off against natives on the mainland. Phelps describes "the incessant rattle of small-arms, and an uninterrupted whistling of bullets, mingled with the furious yells of the Indians," but there were few casualties. A settler (Clarence Bagley, quoting William Bell two days after the event, says the casualty was Christian White; Phelps, writing 17 years later, says Robert Wilson) was killed when he ducked out from behind a stump to try to get some drinking water.
Because the natives' only common language was Chinook jargon
Chinook Jargon
Chinook Jargon originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to other areas in modern Oregon and Washington, then British Columbia and as far as Alaska, sometimes taking on characteristics of a creole language...
, a trade language that many of the white settlers also spoke, the settlers were able to hear and understand the attackers' shouted orders "and revealed many incidents of the battle they were anxious to conceal."
After the battle
News of the attack spread rapidly. By 4 p.m. it was known in BellinghamBellingham, Washington
Bellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the twelfth-largest city in the state. Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia...
. At noon the day after the battle, Active steamed into Elliott Bay, Governor Stevens aboard. Stevens was, in Phelps's words, "at last compelled to acknowledge the presence of hostile Indians in the Territory." Active headed south in the direction of Steilacoom
Steilacoom, Washington
Steilacoom is a town in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 5,985 at the 2010 census. Steilacoom is on the coast of Puget Sound, on a branch not visible on the map to the right...
which seemed the most likely next target of an attack, dropping the governor at Olympia
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
on the way.
Yark-eke-e-man reported that the hostile chiefs were ill-provisioned, because, confident of victory, they expected to provision themselves from the settlers' supplies. They spent the next several weeks scouring the land for food.
Two days after the battle, Coquilton threatened, through a messenger, "that within one moon he would return with twenty thousand warriors, and, attacking by land and water, destroy the place in spite of all the war-ship could do to prevent." The threat was taken seriously, and it was decided that Seattle's defenses must be improved. Henry Yesler
Henry Yesler
Henry L. Yesler was an entrepreneur considered to be Seattle, Washington's first economic father and first millionaire. He arrived in Seattle in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill, which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members...
volunteered ship's cargo of house lumber and on February 1 Decatur's divisions began a two-week's project to erect two fences five feet high, placed eighteen inches apart, and filled in with well-tamped earth, 1200 yards (1,097.3 m) long, and enclosing a large portion of the town. A second block-house was also erected, and an old ship's cannon plus a 6-pounder field-piece borrowed from Active functioned as its artillery.
Trees and undergrowth were removed (variously attacked with levers, axes, and shovels, or burned in place) to provide an esplanade and enable Decatur's howitzer to sweep the shores. Much brush was also cleared from the town's inland edges, to reduce the cover for future attacks. On February 24, USS Massachusetts
USS Massachusetts (1845)
USS Massachusetts was a steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy prior to the American Civil War. She was used by the U.S. War Department as a transport during the Mexican-American War and traveled widely, including transiting Cape Horn several times as part of her official duties on both sides of the...
arrived and on March 28 USS John Hancock
USS John Hancock (1850)
USS John Hancock was a steam tug in the United States Navy during the 1850s. She was named for the early patriot, John Hancock.-1850–1853:...
.
In the event, the well-defended town did not face a second battle. Defeat in the Battle of Seattle had discouraged the hostile natives; they did not again amass a comparable force, and (especially with the naval presence) Seattle was now a much better defended town. Furthermore, Governor Stevens had convinced Patkanim and his men to take on the role of bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
s, paying them handsomely for the scalps of leaders of the hostile tribes, a task at which he was gruesomely successful. Morgan does not describe the battle as a victory for the Americans. Rather, he writes that "both sides were dismayed, the whites by the realization that the enemy really would attack a town, the Indians by their first experience with exploding shells rather than cannonballs."
Also by Stevens order, a court-martial convened at Seattle on May 15 for the trial of Klakum and twenty other Indians; the military trial acquitted them, deeming their actions as having been legitimate warfare, not criminal acts, and they were released after a declaration of peace. It was certainly not the end of violence between settlers and natives in the region, but it was the end of outright war.
Nine days after the battle Chief Leschi and Chief Kitsap
Chief Kitsap
Kitsap or Ktsap was a war chief of the Suquamish Tribe. Born 1770/80-Died April 18, 1860. One source says that he was the most powerful chief on Puget Sound from 1790 to 1845...
, along with a group of 17 Indians, appeared at the home of John McLeod near the Nisqually River. McLeod was a former employee of the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
and had a Nisqually wife, and was trusted by the hostile Indians. Leschi said neither he nor his band had taken part in the attack on Seattle and that he thought the attack had been foolish. Leschi also asked that John Swan, another trusted white man, visit Leschi's camp on the Green River for a peace conference. When Swan did visit Leschi's camp a few days later, he counted about 150 men of fighting age. Nearly all were from west of the Cascades, with only 10-20 from the east.
Casualties
Two settlers died in the battle: a man named Wilson, and the same Milton Holgate who had previously defended his family. One sailor, Hans Carl, died of causes unrelated to the battle. Phelps characterizes the low casualties as "incredible" and "miraculous", given that "one hundred and sixty men were for seven hours exposed to an almost uninterrupted storm of bullets".The casualties on the native side are unknown. Phelps claimed personally to have seen ten die from one shell, and that they later "would admit" to 28 dead and 80 wounded, but remarked that the native women "secret[ed] the dead beyond all chance of discovery." No Indian bodies were found.
According to Seattle lore, decades after the battle, Seattle's future fire chief Gardner Kellogg was excavating his house and found a shell from Decatur that had buried itself without exploding. He stuck it under a stump that he was trying to burn out and went off to lunch. Dexter Horton
Dexter Horton
Dexter Horton was the founder of the first bank in the City of Seattle. Before his founding of the Bank of Dexter Horton in 1870 financial transactions were conducted by merchants....
stopped by to warm the seat of his pants at the fire, and as it exploded, nearly became the last casualty of the battle of Seattle.