Battle of Seattle (1856) - Before The Battle

Before The Battle

The battle was part of the Puget Sound War, 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, Thurston County and Pierce County. Just five days before the attack on Seattle, Governor Stevens had declared a "war of extermination" upon the Indians.

The sloop 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, the vessel struck an uncharted reef near Bainbridge Island on December 7, 1855, and heavily damaged. (According to naval custom, the reef was then named Decatur Reef.) They limped into Seattle for repairs, which lasted until January 19. Sterret was temporarily taken off active duty December 10, although later returned to active duty. However, on the day of the battle, Decatur was commanded by Guert Gansevoort.

Decatur lay at anchor in deep water, in a position from which it had total command of the settlement with 16 shipborne 32-pounders firing fuzed shells. To the defense on land, the ship contributed two nine-pounder cannon and 18 stands of arms.

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, around 2 a.m.; Phelps wrote that that plan would have succeeded, since no defender was planning for a pre-dawn assault. However, Yark-eke-e-man convinced the raiders to try a mid-morning attack, 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 first fatality of the engagement was Jack Drew, a deserter from Decatur, who attempted to enter a cabin through a window, and was shot dead by fifteen-year-old Milton Holgate.