Great Warriors II

Sometime in the late 1880's, two old men who had once been bitter enemies sat down side by side to have their picture taken.  One was General John Gibbon, Commander of the Department of the Columbia, which included military operations for the state of Washington and Oregon.  The other was Chief Joseph, Chief of the Wallowa Band of the Nez Perce.  The first time these two met, circumstances had been much different.  It was Gibbon who led the ambush of the Nez Perce at the Battle of Big Hole in 1877.  Based on their mutual history, it would've been natural if these two didn't want to be in the same area together, let alone sitting for a photograph, but they had put the past away long enough to capture a piece of personal history together. John Gibbon was born in Holmesburg, now part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The family later moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where his father was chief assayer at the U.S. Mint.  The Gibbon family was wealthy enou...

Even the best military commanders can have battles where things just don't go right.  Whether or not the fault was theirs or just a matter of circumstance, the buck always stops at the top.  Looking Glass of the Nez Perce suffered this unfortunate truth during the retreat of the Nez Perce toward Canada during the Nez Perce War of 1877. The Nez Perce were fighting to avoid being placed on a reservation.  Though they had held their own against the Army in several battles, being able to withdraw after each engagement, the Nez Perce leaders knew that their only safety lay in Canada.  Chief Joseph, Looking Glass and White Bird knew that their only safety lay in reaching Canada.  They crossed the border of what is now Idaho, trekked through Montana's Bitterroot range and entered the Bitterroot Valley.  While on the march, the Nez Perce warriors were under Looking Glass' command.  He convinced the local settlers that the Nez Perce would pass through the are...