Isaac Ingalls Stevens

Horse and Cat. There may not be cats in this story, but there are horses — and this horse in front of image is close to the size that some of the smaller of the HBC pack-horses were. 

I knew I would stumble into Isaac Ingalls Stevens eventually, but when I finally did, I was delighted to discover that his story was connected to another story I already told in my book, The HBC Brigades. It’s actually quite a lot of fun to discover these connections.

So this is what happened. In 1853, Isaac Ingalls Stevens received the appointment of governor of the newly created Washington Territory. In April 1853, Peter Skene Ogden, newly arrived for the second time at Fort Vancouver (and replacing John Ballenden), told Governor Simpson of the formation of these two new territories.

By an Act of Congress lately passed, this Territory has been divided into two, the South called Oregon Territory, and the North Washington Territory. We find ourselves included in the latter, and as separate Mail Bags will be made up for each Territory, it will be necessary for you to be particular in addressing your letters to the Board in “Washington Territory,” otherwise it will cause a delay of three days ere we receive our letters. The Officers for the new Territory have in part already been selected. Stevens is the name of the Governor…It is not yet known what place will be selected for the seat of Government.

Isaac Ingalls Stevens was an ambitious man, it seems. As well as being governor, the position included the post that carried the title of Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the new Washington Territory. And, at the same time as he was granted this twinned appointment, he lobbied for an appointment to one of a series of transcontinental surveys from St. Paul, west to the Pacific Ocean. There were several of these surveys being done, and all were created to ascertain the best railway route across the continent, “in the forlorn hope that the political deadlock created by the clash of sectional interests would be broken by the clear topographical superiority of one of the alternatives.” This last, in quotes, is according to Kent D. Richards, author of “The Young Napoleons: Isaac I. Stevens, George B. McClellan and the Cascade Mountains Route,” [Columbia Magazine, Winter 1989-90: vol. 3, No. 4].

So, who was Isaac Ingalls Stevens? He was born in 1818 in Massachusetts, and was descended from a long line of prosperous farmers and mill owners. His father played a prominent role in colonialist society in Andover, Mass. Isaac Stevens attended West Point Academy, which in the 1830s and 40s was only just becoming a training ground for military engineers. He graduated 1st in his class in 1839, studying mathematics, engineering, surveying, military strategy, and politics. He fought in the Mexican War under General Winfield Scott, and was a soldier in Scott’s march from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. After the war, Stevens returned to peace time duties, constructing fortifications on the East Coast, and serving in the Washington DC office of the Coast Survey.   

Somehow it made sense to Isaac Ingalls Stevens, as he was being proclaimed the governor of the new Washington Territory, to also lobby for an appointment to the northernmost surveys, which would survey the territory between the 47th and 49th parallels of latitudes, from St. Paul to Puget Sound. He saw the railway survey as the best way to begin his duties as governor and also as Superintendent of Indian affairs. He thought the northern survey would provide valuable geographic and topographic information and it would also enable preliminary negotiations with the Indigenous people he met on the way. A new railway leading directly to Oregon and Washington Territories would also rapidly fill up those territories with settlers!

The man who was appointed as Stevens’s second-in-command was a friend, or at least, an acquaintance of his: George B. McClellan. McClellan was a military officer and an engineer, and another West Point graduate although he graduated eight years after Isaac Ingalls Stevens had graduated. He was born in 1826 to a well-to-do family; his father was a surgeon and teacher. George fought in the Mexican War (and must have known Ingalls there, as they served on the same campaigns.) After the war he returned to peace time duties, serving as an instructor at West Point and participating in an exploration of the sources of the Red River in the southwest. 

So, the first thing that Isaac Ingalls Stevens did, after he won the surveying contract, was to appoint George B. McClellan to lead the portion of the exploring party that would leave Fort Vancouver and meet Stevens’ party at Fort Colvile. McClellan had to find a path through the Cascade Mountains to Fort Colvile, while Stevens had only to find a pass that would lead him through the Rocky Mountains to Fort Colvile. As we know, there was nothing but mountains and desert between Fort Vancouver and Fort Colvile, while for the most part, the route between St. Paul and the Rockies was plains. I wonder who gave himself the easiest job?

At the same time Stevens hired McClellan, he also hired Lieutenant Johnson Kelly Duncan as McClellan’s second in command. Lieutenant Duncan was an artillery officer and another graduate of the Military Academy. Duncan immediately set off for Fort Vancouver to begin gathering men and supplies for the coming summer’s expedition. However, when he arrived at Fort Vancouver, he found another Stevens’ employee already there: Lieutenant Rufus Saxton, who was to outfit a supply train that would travel to the Bitterroot Valley to rendezvous with Stevens’ party and resupply them. (I don’t actually know which man arrived first: I am just presuming that Saxton was there first, and McClellan after.)

There were not enough horses at Fort Vancouver to supply one party — never mind two! Nor were there many mules, nor many pack-saddles. McClellan found he had no one to organized here, which created “annoyance beyond imagination,” he said. He did, however, find a few men to join his expedition. On July 18, his party of 66 men, 73 saddle horses, and 100 pack animals left Fort Vancouver, and with them rode Lieutenant H.C. Hodges, Sylvester Mowry, George Gibbs [lawyer and ethnologist], and Dr. James Cooper, a physician and naturalist.

There were some other interesting persons involved in this expedition, but not necessarily with McClellan. The artist, Gustav Sohon, was a member of Saxton’s supply party: and artist John Mix Stanley was a member of Stevens’ eastern party. He, too, would eventually arrive at Fort Vancouver.

But here is where this story connects with the story I told in The HBC Brigades, when I wrote on page 202: 

“[Angus] McDonald later reported to the Governor and Council from Fort Colvile:

I have gone with our Returns to Vancouver, upwards of 120 Packs of furs with some Castoreum & Casks, and I made a safe arrival here [at Fort Colvile] with all the Outfit that I could bring, but could not bring the whole amount at one hit, as Chief Factor Ogden sold fifty of our horses to the American Government at $100 a head. The Balance of the Outfit was left at the Dalles but we are daily expecting it by a party sent for it a month ago.

So I don’t know which party actually got their hands on the HBC horses that Angus McDonald lost to Peter Skene Ogden’s sale. But these were 50 horses: two thirds of the number of horses that had been sent over the Rocky Mountains from the Saskatchewan district earlier that same year, to serve as brigade horses because there was such a shortage of HBC horses in the territory. Here is that story: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/saskatchewan-horses/

However, Peter Skene Ogden knew what side his bread was buttered on: the US Army was protecting Fort Vancouver and preventing it from being overrun by American settlers. The longer he could keep them as friends, the better protected Fort Vancouver would be. And if staying friends meant selling valuable HBC horses to the US Army, he was willing to do this.

What happened to this westernmost Exploring Expedition? McClellan’s party left Fort Vancouver on July 18, 1853, as I said above. They headed north to the Lewis River and then east, passing south of Mt. St. Helens and viewing Mount Adams. In twelve days, the party covered 78 miles over a route that was at times a rough Indigenous trail, but most of the time was no trail at all. The surveying equipment they had brought with them from the east was, for the most part, old and broken and hardly worked. They were surrounded by forest fires whose smoke obscured the skies and they could not take celestial observations; nor could they ascend a mountain to plan out where they should travel next. I don’t think anyone today knows where they were: certainly they did not. There was no grass for the horses and the animals weakened: they were also plagued by mosquitoes and horse-flies that drove them (men and horses) to distraction. Any Indigenous guide they hired only knew a small part of their country, and so were of little help. The pack saddles began to fall apart, and Duncan returned to Fort Vancouver to locate some old army saddles that someone had seen in the back of a storehouse. And the civilian crew proved unreliable: one forged McClellan’s name to drafts (for money), and stole a revolver: much time was spent in chasing him and recovering the revolver. 

But the party passed by Red Mountain and viewed Mt. Rainier and the Indian race track at a long-time  Indigenous camp where First Nations men raced their horses. They moved out of the mountains into the Yakima River Valley, where McClellan mused, “To what useful purpose this country can be put is difficult to imagine.” They visited Father Charles Pandosy and other Oblate priests at their Ahtanum Mission, and met with Yakima chiefs Kamiakin and Skloom, who were wary of the white man but willingly sold them cattle at high prices, and provided a guide up the Naches River to examine whether it could be used as pass for the railway over the Cascade Mountains. At this point, McClellan sent men over Naches pass to Fort Steilacoom, to obtain mules and provisions.

McClellan examined the east side of the Pass and noted the many bridges that would be required for its use for a railway. He sent men back to Fort Vancouver, and with the remaining men explored up the Yakima River and viewed Snoqualmie Pass, thinking it might work as a railway pass. Near the end of August some of his men discovered gold and the entire party was delayed until the gold-miners realized there was not enough gold to warrant any further time spent at panning for the mineral. They continued their journey, heading east to meet another Yakima band who sold them 29 horses, and guided them over the Wenatchie Range of mountains. McClellan moved up the Columbia River to set up camp in the old Fort Okanogan, which appeared to be abandoned. Then they rode north, apparently to Okanagan Lake, before returning to the Columbia River again. They met Stevens at Fort Colvile, arriving there one day before Stevens’ party arrived at the post. Stevens had come through the Rocky Mountains via a pass they called Hell Gate Defile, near present day Missoula, Montana. 

So, Angus McDonald, who was in charge of Fort Colvile, knew these men were coming, and stocked up with an extra ration of 50 imperial gallons of wine and brandy for his American guests. Over the next several days, they all drank freely of this liquor, although McDonald held his liquor better and drank them under the table! He finally sent the expedition men off to Fort Vancouver on October 21, with a keg of cognac. By this time no one was interested in exploring any further, and they returned to Fort Vancouver via the Walla Walla Valley and the Columbia River. 

Angus McDonald wrote about Governor Stevens’ arrival at Fort Colvile in his manuscript, “A Few Items of the West,” ca. 1881. Here it is: 

Fifteen miles and I stand in old Fort Colvile, the prettiest spot General McClellan said he saw on the Columbia River. I was in charge here in 1853 when Governor Stevens met [him?] here. I had full instructions as to the hospitality and the discretion of it entirely trusted to myself. The Governor had ample credentials from the east crossing the Rocky Mountains by the Hell Gate defile. McClellan met him here with an escorting party from Puget Sound. I had fifty imperial gallons of extra rations to entertain the gentlemen. McClellan drank but little, the Governor was rather fond of it and laid back about ten on the first night to sleep the darkness out. His last words that night were “My, this is powerful wine.” All hands had been steeped during the day and found the grass and their blankets the best way they could. As all the party had disappeared McClellan began to sip the juice of the vine more freely and we sat on the old sofa together, as closely as space allowed. Having to undergo the hospitalities of the day to all hands, I felt my grog inviting me to go to my blankets. But I was well trained to that splendid brandy, and in prime of life too, and hard to make me give in at it. Suddenly the General put his arm around my neck and whispered in my ear “Mac, my proud father too, was at Culloden,” and he quietly slipped down off the sofa to the floor. I soon made the sofa an easy place for him and he and the Governor snored the night ’til daylight. This spree has been spoken of, God knows where not; McClellan spoke of it in the Crimean when sent as one of the Commissioners to observe military arrays and genius of the France-British and Russian armies.

To complete the exploring expedition’s story: it seems that Isaac Ingalls Stevens wanted George B. McClellan to do some additional exploring on his way back to Fort Vancouver. McClellan refused to lead his party through the Yakima Valley and Naches Pass in winter conditions, and he also refused to turn over his expedition journals, most likely because of the unflattering personal comments that he had made throughout his adventures. He was done with this expedition. He returned to the east and continued his military career. Isaac Ingalls Stevens took up his position as governor of the new Washington Territory, and I will have to discover for myself what damage he did over the years. 

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved. 

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