California State Military
Department
- The California
State Military Museum
- Preserving California's
Military Heritage
- Historic California
Posts:
- Camp in the Lava
Beds
- (General Gillem's
Camp)
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- The National Park Service main tains the
Lava Beds National Monument, a California Historical landmark,
the site from which the Army fought the protracted Modoc War.
General E. R S. Canby, commanding officer of the Department
of the Columbia, was bitterly disappointed to learn that his
army had been decisively repulsed although they outnumbered
the hostile Modocs seven to one. Canby replaced the commanding
officer on the scene with Colonel Alvin C. Gillem (Brevet Major
General during the Civil War), who, after being delayed en route,
had to reorganize the forces under his new command. He moved
the original camp to a new site closer to the Modocs' stronghold.
The boundary line between Modoc and Siskiyou coun ties runs through
the Lava Beds National Monument locating Gillem's camp in Siskiyou
County and the Modoc stronghold in Modoc County. Near the Army
camp is the site where two members of Indian agent Alfred B.
Meacham's government sponsored peace commission were treacherously
shot dead on April 11, 1873, by Modoc leader Captain Jack and
several of his men during a prearranged parley (Meacham, also
shot, survived after being left for dead). Captain Jack and
his Indian forces successfully resisted capture by U.S. Army
troops from December 1, 1972 to April 18, 1873. The hostiles
had taken refuge near the California Oregon border in the region's
desolate lava beds. Four of the involved Indians were ultimately
found guilty of murder and hanged, as was Captain Jack, their
leader, who went for the scaffold later, an unrepentant man.
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