First Battle of the Stronghold

On January 17, 1873, forces clashed at what became known as the First Battle of the Stronghold, the second engagement of the Modoc War that spanned 1872 to 1873. Lieutenant Colonel Frank Wheaton commanded the United States Army side, facing a group of Modoc fighters under Captain Jack, known in his own tongue as Kintpuash, whose people hailed from Oregon and California.

The Army's objective was to root the Modoc out of a formidable natural fortification within the lava beds along Tule Lake's southern shore in northeastern California, a place that would come to be called Captain Jack's Stronghold. This band had unlawfully departed the Klamath Reservation in Oregon, land to which they had been moved after being pushed off their homeland so European Americans could settle it. When the fighting ended, the Modoc had decisively beaten back the Army, dealing heavy losses and compelling a retreat. Their triumph owed much to a strong defensive position, unwavering patience, and a dense fog that concealed large stretches of the battlefield.

Background

The clash at Lost River on November 27, 1872 settled nothing, and in its wake the Modoc fled into the lava beds of what is today California's Lava Beds National Monument. Women and children traveled with them. Once there, they were joined by another Modoc group, this one under Shacknasty Jim of Hot Creek, whose people had taken no part in the earlier fighting along Lost River. The refuge they occupied was a formidable stretch of caves and trenches stretching 300 yards (270 m) across and 2 miles (3.2 km) in length, a stronghold the Modoc had further reinforced to resist attack. Roughly a hundred head of cattle had fallen into their hands, giving them a source of food to draw on.

Meanwhile, the Army drew together units from throughout the Department of the Columbia and directed them toward the southern edge of Tule Lake. Two camps went up as a result: a larger one at Van Brimmer's Ranch, some ten miles west of the Modoc position, and a smaller one twelve miles (19 km) to the east at Louis Land's Ranch.

Preparation for attack

Wheaton's strategy called for a pincer movement, striking from two directions at once. The bulk of his troops, positioned to the west, would carry out the main assault, while a smaller contingent approaching from the east would cut off any Modoc attempt to flee. Converging in the heart of the lava fields south of the Stronghold, the two columns aimed to corner the Modoc against the shore of Tule Lake. Howitzers were assigned to back up the western column, and every soldier was required to advance without horses.

On January 16 the troops broke camp and began moving toward their assigned positions. By one in the afternoon, Major Green's command had reached the southwestern edge of Tule Lake. The artillery, taking a flatter but lengthier path, did not arrive until after nightfall. They set up camp atop a bluff roughly three miles west of the Stronghold, with a clear view down into the lava beds below.

That same day, Captain Bernard's detachment pushed forward as well, aiming for Hospital Rock, situated two miles east of the Stronghold. Heavy fog rolled in and cut visibility drastically, and the men ended up drawing within a mile of the Stronghold itself before realizing it. Bernard chose to pull his troops back at that point, but Modoc scouts had already spotted them and set off in pursuit. Gunfire erupted against Bernard's left flank and his pack train, forcing his men to fight until the attackers were driven away. Three soldiers suffered wounds during the skirmish. Bernard then led his force back to Hospital Rock, where they settled in to ready themselves for the fighting to come the next day.

Battle

Dawn on January 17 brought heavy fog and dampness to the field of action. To the west, Major Green arranged his men into a skirmish line, placing the 21st Infantry battalion together with California volunteers along the left, nearest the lake, while Oregon militia held the right. A portion of the 21st Infantry and F Troop of the 1st Cavalry stayed back in reserve, guarding the howitzers. Meanwhile, on the eastern side, Bernard positioned his men with Klamath Scouts and B Troop to the left and G Troop to the right, closest to the water.

The plan called for the howitzers to fire three rounds, signaling Bernard to launch his assault, followed by a fifteen-minute lull so the Modoc could evacuate women and children from the Stronghold before fighting resumed. But the thick mist made it impossible for the gun crews to see where their shells were striking, and worried about hitting their own men, they never fired again after those initial signal shots.

Pushing toward the Stronghold, Green's men covered a mile and a half before reorganizing, with F Troop shifted to the far right in hopes of linking with Bernard's column. It was around this point that the western troops first felt Modoc gunfire, as warriors had left their fortified position to strike the soldiers directly in the lava beds. The jagged terrain combined with steady enemy fire brought Green's progress nearly to a halt. Hidden within rock formations and shielded by fog, the Modoc fired on any exposed soldier while gradually retreating, inflicting heavy losses on the troops. By roughly two in the afternoon, Green's column ran into what was described as a very deep chasm, bringing further movement to a stop.

Over on the eastern side, Bernard's men closed to within about five hundred yards of the Stronghold before also drawing Modoc fire. Since the ground there was less punishing than in the west, they pressed forward in a charge. Yet after only a hundred yards, they ran into a gully too deep to cross, forcing a retreat of a hundred and fifty yards. There, using whatever stone lay nearby, Bernard's soldiers threw together makeshift defenses.

Faced with this, Colonel Wheaton gave up on his original scheme of uniting the two columns south of the Stronghold. Instead, Major Green proposed linking the forces farther north, along the lakeshore. Shouted orders carried the new plan to Bernard, who agreed to it, though his men, sheltering behind their hastily built barriers, had no appetite for pressing the attack again. Still, the eastern force held its ground and kept drawing Modoc fire.

Apart from the Oregon militia, who insisted a ravine blocked their path, Green's troops began shifting northward along the shoreline. The California volunteers, the 21st Infantry, and F Troop pushed past the rear of the Stronghold, coming within fifty yards of it on the north side before being pinned down by intense Modoc fire along the water's edge. Major Green himself was wounded after rising to encourage his soldiers onward, an action that later earned him the Medal of Honor. F Troop, along with half of the 21st Infantry, managed to reach Bernard's position, but the remaining infantry and the California volunteers stayed trapped along the shore, ordered to hold until nightfall. By five that evening, Wheaton recognized the assault on the Stronghold had failed and called Green and Bernard back. The retreat to camp continued into the night, not finishing until after dark on January 18. The bodies of the soldiers killed by the Modoc remained on the field, giving the Modoc additional weapons and ammunition to gather afterward.

Union casualties totaled thirty seven killed or wounded, while the Modoc suffered none. Because of the dense fog and natural rock cover, not a single surviving soldier claimed to have actually spotted a Modoc fighter during the engagement. The Modoc's spiritual leader, Curley Headed Doctor, later claimed his rituals had summoned the fog that shielded his people.

Aftermath

The setback the Army suffered at the First Battle of the Stronghold left the Modoc in a stronger position and pushed the United States into peace talks from a stance of weakness rather than strength. This outcome also gave the Modoc greater faith that they could hold their ground against a larger force.

Command changed hands as Lt. Col. Wheaton was pulled from his post and Col. Alvan Gillem, who had served in the Seminole War, took his place. San Francisco, Nevada, and Oregon all sent additional troops to bolster the Army presence at Tule Lake, and more scouts were signed on from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Meanwhile, both the Oregon militia and the California volunteers withdrew from the conflict.

As negotiations for peace continued in the aftermath of the fighting, Major General Edward Canby, who led the Department of the Columbia, traveled to the lava beds himself to oversee the effort. Captain Jack and several of his men, operating under the false belief that eliminating Army leadership would persuade the military to abandon its campaign against the Modoc, staged an ambush on Good Friday, April 11, 1873. In the attack they killed both Canby and Reverend Eleazer Thomas, leaving two others wounded. The talks collapsed in the wake of this violence, and the Army responded by launching the Second Battle of the Stronghold on April 15.