Nez Perce Forlorn Hope: The Battle of White Bird Canyon

1. Letter from O. O. Howard to Asst. Adj. Gen. John C. Kelton, Division of the Pacific, December 13, 1877, Portland, Letters Sent, DC.

2. Trimble Report, p. 19.

3. Ibid., pp. 4, 30.

4. Ibid., pp. 8-9, 28-29.

5. Ibid., pp. 30-31.

6. Letter from Trimble to Wood, January 29, 1878, Fort Walla Walla, letter no. 131, Letters Received, DC.

7. Reports of Captain S. G. Whipple, December 30, 1877, Fort Walla Walla, and Report of Captain W. H. Winters, January 2, 1878, Fort Walla Walla, letter packet 131, Letters Received, DC, 1878.

8. Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry which convened at Lewiston, Idaho Territory, on September 3, 1877, to Investigate certain charges brought against Captain David Perry, 1st Cavalry, by citizens of the Territory of Idaho, packet no. 2521, Letters Received, DC.

9. Letter from Kelton to Howard, April 10, 1878, San Francisco, letter no. 1024; Letter from Grover to Assistant Adjutant General of the Department of the Columbia, July 13, 1878, Letters Received, DC.

10. Perry, Detailed Account of the Affair in White Bird Canyon, June 17th, 1877, October 22, 1878, Fort Walla Walla, letter no. 1024, Letters Received, DC. Except for the paragraph reproduced above, this account is identical to that which appears as Perry's statement in CI, pp. 112-23.

11. Letter from Perry to Lt. Col. James W. Forsyth, c. October 22, 1878, p. 1.

12. Ibid, pp. 4-5.

13. Trimble Report, p. 5; Letter from Perry to Forsyth, pp. 1-2.

14. Trimble Report, pp. 11-12; Letter from Perry to Forsyth, p. 3.

15. Trimble Report, p. 13; Letter from Perry to Forsyth, pp. 3-4.

16. Letter from Perry to Forsyth, p. 4.

17. Ibid., pp. 8-10.

18. Letter from Forsyth to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of the Columbia, November 14, 1878. Fort Walla Walla, letter no. 1024, Letters Received, DC.

19. Telegram from Perry to Maj. Azor Nickerson, November 23, 1878, Letter no. 3675, Letters Received, DC. Special Order No. 142, Department of the Columbia, November 27, 1878.

20. Trimble, CI, pp. 26-37.

21. Ibid, pp. 50-51, 53-55.

22. footnote missing.

23. Ibid., pp. 38, 47, 51-52.

24. Ibid., p. 41.

25. Letters from McCarthy to J. W. Redington, April 26, 1904, and June 14, 1905, Walla Walla, packet 211-B, McWhorter Collection.

26. McCarthy, CI, p. 78.

27. Parnell, pp. 61, 63-65, 67, 73; Shearer, pp. 93-94; Leeman pp. 98-99; Coughlin, p. 103.

28. Parnell, pp. 64, 73; Powers, p. 87; Shearer, pp. 90-92; Leeman, pp. 100-1; Chapman also defended Perry on this count. In the Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman (July 28, 1877, p. 3), Chapman was reported as saying that Col. Perry fought bravely to the last and that he did his best to rally his troops, threatening with pistol in hand to shoot the first man to retire, but that it was impossible to hold the men."

29. Parnell, pp. 71, 74.

30. Shearer, p. 90; Parnell, p. 63.

31. CI, p. 125.

32. Ibid, pp. 127-28.

33. The opinion of the court and Howard's revision of it are reproduced in Brady, Northwestern Fights, p. 122.