Meanwhile, Perry’s column slowly moved south toward Grangeville. Periodically, the troops had to stop and let the pack train catch up, but still, they were making relatively good time. On the afternoon of June 16, Perry encountered Ad Chapman and a group of volunteers several miles northwest of Grangeville, and the civilians escorted the soldiers to Mount Idaho.

Once there, Perry realized the mood among the residents called for action. This put him in a politically precarious situation. His orders were to stop and contain the Nez Perce troublemakers until two companies of cavalry from the Wallowa Valley and one infantry company from Fort Walla Walla arrived. He was also to protect the town folk and send Christian Nez Perce scouts to talk to Chiefs Joseph and White Bird. Perry hoped the scouts would persuade the chiefs to surrender those warriors who had committed the crimes.

Chapman believed the Nez Perces would try to leave the region before the soldiers had time to round them up. Other citizens agreed, and they urged Perry to attack. The captain quickly weighed his options and decided that, if he didn’t strike the hostiles and they escaped, he would be subject to local criticism.

Perry’s command left town shortly after 10 p.m. and marched toward the summit above White Bird Canyon, where Perry could size up the situation. Upon reaching the crest of White Bird Hill around midnight, the soldiers dismounted and tried to relax. One trooper, too keyed up to sleep, was lighting his pipe when he heard a howl. Although few noticed it at the time, the howl finished on an unusually high note, very unlike a coyote.

Back at Fort Lapwai, Howard was catching a bit of sleep, but at about the moment Perry was reaching White Bird Hill, Howard was jarred awake. He hurried to the front porch and saw a large Indian woman hysterically yelling about the fate of Perry’s command. ‘The Indians had fixed a trap,’ she cried. ‘All our troops had run straight into it. They had come up on every side, and killed all the soldiers and all the scouts, including the friendly Indians.’ Howard dismissed the incident as the ravings of a scared woman whose Indian scout husband was among Perry’s troopers.

The Nez Perce encampment was four miles away from where Perry camped, and as soon as the soldiers dismounted, a warrior reported to his people that the bluecoats had arrived. The Indians had actually been following the soldiers’ movements since Perry’s force left Fort Lapwai. Scouts had observed the troops and signaled their progress by torching dried haystacks on deserted ranches. The Dreamers believed there was still a chance for peace, but Joseph, his warrior-brother Ollokot and the other leaders realized that war would likely be thrust upon them. They planned for either event as dawn approached.

The six braves chosen to carry a white flag of truce waited behind a knoll while 50 braves under Ollokot hid behind a loaf-shaped butte on the west side of the canyon. Sixteen others positioned themselves behind some knolls, ready to hit Perry’s flank if the peace parley failed. All were stripped for combat, but a good many Nez Perce warriors were left in the camp, too drunk or hung over to do battle.

Perry, too, had plans for peace and war. He ordered his troops to remove their overcoats and load their carbines. Perry distributed his troops and volunteers over a line stretching almost 200 yards. The advance guards were told to report any sign of the Indians and to hold their fire unless attacked.

The march had no sooner begun when the soldiers discovered a young woman and her daughter hiding in the brush. It was Isabella Benedict. She told Perry about the attack on her ranch and the killings of her husband and his friend. The soldiers dug into their packs and gave her food. Trumpeter Johnny Jones was first to donate his lunch to the grateful woman. Jones was a popular young trooper, but he could, on occasion, drink too much and cause minor mischief. He had recently been released from the stockade, where he shared a cell with the uncooperative warrior Toohoolhoolzote. The imprisoned pair had become so chummy during their confinement that Jones bragged he never would have to worry about his safety during an Indian war. He believed he would never be shot. Mrs. Benedict and her daughter accompanied the troops back into the canyon.

At the head of this procession were eight troopers under Lieutenant Edward Theller, on loan to Fort Lapwai from the 21st Infantry. Theller was a bit of an enigma. A native of Vermont, the 44-year-old lieutenant had once served as a captain in the California Volunteers, seeing duty at several small outposts. He fought Apaches after the Civil War and joined the Regular Army in 1867, serving in the Modoc campaign. He and his wife, Delia, were known for their fine social gatherings, but if there were any criticisms of the officer, they centered on his stability and judgment. Rumors had circulated at Fort Lapwai about Theller’s betting, and losing, on horse races in Lewiston. Some of the gossip went so far as to say Theller was so deeply in debt that his collectors wanted his hide if they could not get their money. This, people at the fort agreed, was why Theller volunteered to accompany Perry’s troops.

Traveling about 100 yards ahead of Perry and the main body, Theller’s advance guard was to report immediately the first sign of Indians. Watching the army’s slow descent into the canyon were the Nez Perce warriors, who only lost sight of the bluecoats when the soldiers periodically disappeared into the numerous ravines that intersected the canyon. It was not a cat-and-mouse confrontation. Each side knew that the other was there. It was a collision waiting to happen.

As Theller’s troops neared the Indian camp, he sent word back to Perry. ‘The Indians are in sight,’ was the simple, unexcited message, but it was enticing enough for Chapman to gallop forward and take a look for himself. As Chapman neared Theller’s position, the six flag-carrying Indians rode out from behind a knoll. It startled Chapman. He immediately fired two shots at them and retreated.

To the Nez Perces, it was a disappointing reaction. Chapman was a friend of Looking Glass. If he did not understand their desire for peace, no white man among the invaders would. The chiefs had hoped to talk peace with one of the Christian Nez Perce scouts so that war could have been avoided. Now it was too late.

The troops, riding in columns of fours, went into action. Perry could see that the Indians were’stretched out in an irregular line,’ although they appeared mostly as heads popping up and down from behind rocks and weeds. Perry’s Company F galloped forward, but the captain’s attention was quickly turned to his left flank, where warriors were crossing White Bird Creek. Perry directed the civilians toward a knoll, so that they could hold off the flanking movement while his company charged ahead to help Theller.

Captain J.G. Trimble, seeing Perry’s movement, led his Company H to Perry’s right, a move some historians have criticized, since it left Perry with no reserves to protect a retreat if one was needed. If Trimble’s maneuver was an error, it was an unnatural mistake. Born in 1832, Trimble had left Kenyon College in Ohio for the California Gold Rush. He fought in the Rogue River War and the Yakima War before joining the Pony Express. During the Civil War, he saw action in the Seven Days’ campaign and at Gettysburg. He also fought against Captain Jack’s Modoc renegades in 1873. His combat experience and fine horsemanship made Trimble a good man to have in battle.

The first casualty of the fight was trumpeter Jones, the young man who believed he was totally safe from Nez Perce rifles. He had no sooner placed his instrument to his lips than a bullet tore into him. The mortally wounded Jones fell from his saddle, and Theller was without his prime means of communicating with his troops.

Perry still had his trumpeter, but the man had apparently lost his trumpet somewhere on the trail. Without bugles, the officers had a difficult job of transmitting orders to their men. The Nez Perces did not need such means of dispatching battle commands. ‘Unlike the trained white soldier who is guided by the bugle call,’ one warrior later noted, ‘the Indian goes into battle on his mind’s own guidance.’

Trimble’s men attempted to fight from their saddles, but the sounds of battle were new to their horses, and the animals became unnerved. Many of the men dismounted and formed a defensive line, but because of their skittish mounts, more horse holders than usual were needed.

Skirmish lines on both sides quickly developed. Theller’s men from Company F doggedly held on to their piece of turf, keeping the Nez Perce warriors from charging into the center of the Army line. Trimble’s company fought off Ollokot’s flanking movement on the right, but Perry’s left flank was not so lucky. Although the civilians held the high ground, two of them were wounded, and their line fell apart. The volunteers mounted, and a stampede began. Indians quickly took advantage of the situation and captured the evacuated knoll.

From that moment, Perry was in serious trouble. His Company F was now in a deadly cross-fire, and the troubled captain realized there was no way his men could retake the knoll that the civilians had lost. With no trumpet available to sound recall, Perry screamed at the men holding the center of his line to retreat to the next ridge behind them. Word was passed to each trooper, and while this movement began, Perry rode to see Trimble, whose men held high ground on the right.

Trimble had also lost his trumpeter, but since he had many experienced troops, he was having success in holding off the warriors. Perry told Trimble to hold the line as long as possible and then move back to higher and more easily protected terrain. Suddenly, Perry saw the left of his line collapse. Troopers, many new to combat, ran for their horses, and Perry rode to head them off. Theller’s men and the right side of Perry’s line saw the hysteria to their left and they, too, panicked and ran. Finally, Trimble’s seasoned Company H joined in the confusion. Chief Joseph saw the situation developing in front of him and hoped to capitalize on it. He led his warriors after Trimble’s troops, trying to cut them off.

Perry finally slowed the troops down so they could at least cover one another while they slowly retreated northward. He noticed one squad holding a bluff, and he decided to head the troops in that direction so that they might make a better stand. Perry ordered Sergeant McCarthy and six men to hold a rocky point while the rest of the soldiers made for the bluff.

McCarthy and his squad engaged the Indians in hand-to-hand combat before they mounted and fled. Two of the soldiers were shot, and a bullet cut down McCarthy’s horse. McCarthy grabbed another mount, but it, too, was shot. Finding himself alone, the sergeant scrambled into the brush, managing to hide everything except for his boots. Realizing his boots were sticking out of the thicket and it was too late to tuck them in, he crawled out of them and wriggled deeper into the underbrush. McCarthy was not discovered by the Indians, and he later received the Medal of Honor.

Although the bulk of the troops were heading out of the canyon, some were left in isolated pockets. Yellow Wolf, a nephew of Chief Joseph, led some warriors to a rocky spot where five troopers had dismounted. The Indians swarmed over the position. Yellow Wolf jumped one of the soldiers and grabbed his gun while another warrior shot and killed the man from behind.

Yellow Wolf then slid down a bank and found himself in front of another trooper, who was on one knee, aiming his gun at the young warrior. The bullet missed, and Yellow Wolf lunged at the trooper. As Yellow Wolf took the gun away, another Nez Perce shot the soldier. A third trooper was bashed in the head with a rock, and the remaining two were also killed.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant William Parnell gathered about 14 men and found a path out of the canyon. Parnell was an Irish-born immigrant, 41 years old, and a veteran of the British army. He had ridden with the Light Brigade at Balaclava during the Crimean War and had fought in several major battles as a member of the Army of the Potomac. His poise gave Perry’s withdrawal a semblance of order.

Theller and 18 men tried to find a route out of the canyon that would enable them to rendezvous with Perry’s force. As fate would have it, they took a path into a cul-de-sac and were trapped. There they made a determined stand, but each man was picked off, and soon all were dead.

Perry, Trimble and Parnell continued their retreat, with their forces too far apart to assist each other. The officers led their men to the plain above the canyon and again united their commands, along with the civilians, into one force. They started for Mount Idaho, 18 miles away, and the soldiers engaged in a running battle with the Nez Perces until they reached an abandoned ranch about three miles from White Bird Canyon. The troopers dismounted and took cover around the house and barn.

The Nez Perces were upon them almost immediately, firing from rocky positions above the ranch. Parnell saw Indians trying to drive off the soldiers’ horses and he reported the situation to Perry. The captain was in a state of confusion, however. At first he thought the troops could hold out until night, when the Indians would likely break off the attack, but Parnell quickly brought him back to reality: ‘Do you know that it is 7 o’clock in the morning–that we have been fighting nearly four hours and have but a few rounds per man left?’

Perry now realized that his men must continue to Mount Idaho. When the troops moved out, the Nez Perces gave chase. Parnell organized enough men to cover the retreat, firing volleys at the Indians at regular intervals. Chief White Bird bypassed Parnell’s moving skirmish line and attempted to force Perry’s men into a rugged canyon along their route, but the soldiers drove the Nez Perces off. The troops finally reached safety four miles from Mount Idaho when civilians came out to help. The Indians broke off their attack and rode back to White Bird Canyon to strip the dead soldiers of their belongings.

Word of Perry’s disaster reached Howard several hours later. The stunned one-armed general realized that there was no turning back for the Nez Perces. This was war. He requested additional troops, fearing the Nez Perce Dreamers would likely be joined by other Indians in a general uprising. Panic set in among the citizens of Idaho and Montana territories. Within four days, troops arrived from nearby outposts, and more would show up in the days to come from as far away as Atlanta, Ga. The uprising never materialized, of course, but the Battle of White Bird Canyon was the beginning of the Nez Perce War, one of the U.S. Army’s most frustrating Indian wars. Chasing Chief Joseph and the other non-Christian Nez Perce clans proved to be no routine task. In the end, which didn’t come until October 5 at Montana Territory’s Bear Paw (or Bear’s Paw) battle site, Chief Joseph surrendered to Colonel Nelson A. Miles, but Chief White Bird and other Dreamers disappeared during the night and traveled the 40 miles to reach Canada.

The Battle of White Bird Canyon was a U.S. military fiasco that Perry said was’scarcely exceeded by the magnitude of the Custer Massacre in proportion to the numbers engaged.’ On the Army side, 34 men had died; on the Indian side, nobody was killed and only three warriors were wounded. Perry, to his credit, had kept his troops from being annihilated, but unlike Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Perry had to live with his defeat and an Indian war that could have been prevented.

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This article was written by Dave Ballard and originally appeared in the February 2001 issue of Wild West.

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