Oregon Voices: "Doing Nothing with a Vengeance": The Diary of David Hobart Taylor, First Oregon Cavalry, January 1 through May 31, 1862

Abstract

OREGON VOICES "doing nothing with a vengeance" TheDiary of David Hobart Taylor, First Oregon Cavalry,Januaryi through May 31, 1862 byJames Robbins Jewell THE CIVIL WAR came to the people of Oregon in a rather circuitous way. Following the April 12 and 13, 1861, attack on Fort Sumter in theCharles ton, South Carolina, harbor, President Lincoln called on every state, includ ingOregon, to provide troops for the national emergency. Given the state's small population and distance from the seat ofwar, Oregon's effortto raise a regiment did not get under way for severalmonths. By the late fallof 1861, with most of theRegular Army forces called out of the Pacific Northwest and sent east, the need to provide troops to protect the region against emboldened southern sympathizers and increasingly aggressive Native American tribes (particularly the Bannocks, referred to as Snakes by the Euro-American settlers) had become obvious.1 California volunteers were dispatched to replace the departing Regulars ? who leftplaces like Fort Walla Walla to fight in theEast? but theCalifornians, who would be needed elsewhere, were only a temporary solu tion until a sufficientvolunteer force could be raised inOregon. Usually, governors assumed respon sibility for selecting the men who would raise volunteer regiments in their states, but thiswas not the case inOregon.2 Instead of entrustingGov. JohnWhiteaker with the task, the War Department ignored him and took the unusual step of asking three private citizens, none then a part of Oregon's governing body, to take up the responsibility.3 The reason for this step was simple: in themonths following the presidential election, Whiteaker had made a number of public comments tinged with south 598 OHQ vol. 110, no. 4 ? 2009 Oregon Historical Society ." /* :U^ 7 /~C?.- ^-^?9-2 ' /^V '| /% ;.? ypr This image is taken from theJanuary to May 1862diary keptbyDavid H. Taylor,a member of theFirstOregon Cavalry Regiment during theCivilWar. ern sympathy.4 The culmination of those controversial statements came in May 1861, when he published a lengthy commentary on the justness of the southern cause thatwas carried in all theOregon newspapers. While claim ing loyalty to theUnion, the governor stated theConfederacy had a right "if need be, touse every justmeans within theirpower todefend themselves, their property and institutions, against the unjust encroachments of theNorth." The governor, furthermore, attacked theUnion government, stating: "It is difficult tofind an apology fordecep tion in any case, but duplicity isheld to be a crime in those in authority, when practiced toward the [south ern] people."5 In the fall, Whiteaker further fueled suspicions about his loyaltieswhen he failed to respond to a request by the District of Oregon commander, Col. George Wright, and raise even a single company of cavalry to protect immigrants from raids by Bannock Indians.6 Given increasing suspicions aboutWhiteaker's loyalties, the War Department decided to take the extraordinary step of skirting the governor when ordering the creation of a regiment ofOregon cavalrymen. Thus, prominent civilians Thomas Jewell,1862Diary ofDavid Hobart Taylor 599