The Takelma and Tututni Indians of southern Oregon near the California border were called Rogue Indians by whites, because of their repeated attacks on travelers along the Siskiyou Trail. The river in their mountainous domain also was given the name Rogue, as was the war that broke out in 1855–56.
With rumors of war and tensions mounting in the region because of the fighting that had broken out involving the Yakama east of the Cascade Mountains in September 1855, the commander of Fort Lane, Captain Andrew Jackson Smith, made a move to defuse the situation. He opened up the fort to the Native population. The men arrived first; the women and children planned to follow shortly with possessions. Before they left their village, however, tribal members were viciously attacked by Oregon volunteers not under Smith's command. Twenty-three women, children, and old men died in the massacre. The behavior of non-Indians had made the rumors of war a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In retaliation for the murder of their families, warriors raided a settlement on the Rogue River, killing 27. Throughout the winter of 1855–56, Indians and settlers of the valley raided and counterraided one another. Hostilities carried on until the resolution of the war the following spring, when regular troops, fresh from the Yakama War, arrived on the Rogue.
Rogue chiefs, Old John, Limpy, and George, sent word to Captain Smith at Fort Lane that they were willing to surrender at Big Meadows. Smith set off into the field with a force of 50 dragoons and 30 infantrymen to take the insurgents into custody.
Yet the Indians, fed up with their treatment at the hands of whites, made plans for an ambush. Two Indian women warned Smith of the intended trap, however. He instructed his troops to dig in on a hilltop overlooking the Rogue. The attack came early on May 27, warriors advancing up the slopes while others fired from flanking hills. The soldiers held out against overwhelming numbers for a day, but suffered heavy casualties. Before the Indians could dislodge them on the second day, a company of regulars arrived under Captain Christopher Augur. In a spontaneous pincers operation, regulars attacked from the Indians' rear while militiamen charged from the hilltop, putting the Indians to flight.
Over the next several weeks, surviving Indians surrendered. Most were sent to Siletz Reservation to the north. Old John, however, was imprisoned at Fort Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.
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