The Battle of Walla Walla - 50 Years Later

September 2, 2018

On Dec 9th 1905, G. W. Miller, a former private of Co. H, 1st Regt. Oregon Mounted Volunteers, and friend of Supplina Hamilton, published an extensive account of the longest single battle between native peoples and settlers in the Pacific Northwest (attached). It was the pivotal four day battle in a four year war, from Dec 7 to Dec 10, 1855. They were not summer soldiers -- in fact, they were not soldiers at all. They were Willamette Valley settlers called and raised by the Governor in an 'emergency' to put down what was feared to be a general uprising to kill and end all settlements in Washington and Oregon. The volunteers were not supported by the relatively weak US Army Pacific Corp (which remained in Winter quarters in Ft. Vancouver). The volunteers were almost annihilated in their last stand (some 20 years before the more infamous 'Little Big Horn'): out of ammunition, surrounded, exhausted in the bitter cold and snow, forced into a defensive position in open country, with dead and wounded piling up at an alarming rate -- they were literally saved by the arrival on the ridgeline of two small companies of mounted volunteers whose perfect timing encouraged the enraged Walla Walla, Yakima, Palouse and Cayuse warriors to break off the fight. It was the 50th anniversary of the battle; George Washington Miller was a private in Co. H, as was Supplina Hamilton -- they were friends and kept in touch over their lifetimes, lifetimes of immensely rapid change in the history of Oregon and Washington Territories. It was G. W. Miller who wrote of Supplina Hamilton in an affidavit in support of Supplina's pension application: 'I served in the Company with him. I have known him for 47 years. I was intimately acquainted with him while in the service and whenever the boys wanted a comical speech they always called on Supplina Hamilton to make it and he was always ready to respond. I positively know that he did perform the duties of a private in Company "H" First regt of Ore. Mtd Vol under Capt. Davis Layton, and we fought side by side in the battle of Walla Walla.'

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