Forlorn Hope: The Nez Perce Victory at White Bird Canyon

by McDermott, John D.

• ISBN13: 9780870044359
• ISBN10: 0870044354
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1978-01-01
• Publisher: Caxton Press

Summary

On June 17, 1877, 109 soldiers and civilian volunteers rode into a deep canyon in the Idaho Territory. Their mission was to attack a small band of Nez Perce Indians camped on the banks of White Bird Creek. In the battle that followed, the numerically inferior Nez Perce fighters inflicted one of the worst defeats ever suffered by the American military during the Indian wars. The Nez Perce victory at White Bird Canyon boosted their confidence as warriors and made them believe they could prevail in their fight to keep their homeland. The confrontation was the spark that ignited a four-month, 1,000-mile running battle that ended with Chief Joseph's surrender at Bear Paw, in Montana, less than 100 miles from safety. John D. McDermott's account of the White Bird battle, from both Indian and white points of view, is considered by many experts one of the best books ever written on an event from the western Indian wars. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
The First Raid	p. 1
The Second Raid	p. 13
The Norton Party	p. 25
Developments at Mount Idaho	p. 35
Help From Fort Lapwai	p. 45
Military Biography	p. 55
The Approach	p. 69
The Battle: White Side	p. 77
Incidents, Escapes, and Rescues	p. 99
Burying the Dead	p. 113
Court of Inquiry	p. 131
The Reasons Why	p. 147
Laid to Rest	p. 155
Appendixes	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 207
Index	p. 219
Illustrations
Photographs	p. 112
Maps
White Bird battleground	p. 44
Route of the Nez Perce after the battle	p. 130
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