Hunt for battle roster stretches into second decade

Jana Mathia, Gazette Reporter | Feb 15, 20180

count

Steptoe

The Steptoe Battle occurred 160 years ago and for the past decade Diane Nebel has been trying to compile a list of all those who fought in it.

“It’s been a long process,” said Nebel who lives in Rosalia and is a former member of the Rosalia Historical Commission.

Nebel’s search began in 2008 as a joint effort with her late husband, Jim. The Nebels worked to help put together the interpretative panels at the Steptoe Battle monument.

“I still have an interest in updating things for the battlefield,” Diane Nebel said.

The project’s first big success was when an intern at Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodger’s office was able to provide names from a copy of what was known as a post return from the Steptoe mission.

A post return was a standard report made out following a return to post after an operation. Col. Steptoe filed a return after he returned to Fort Walla Walla following the May 17, 1858, battle at Steptoe.

Steptoe’s post return was filed at the Army Heritage and Education Center Archives in Carlisle, Pa. Copies of the return, which amounted to four sheets of 8 1/2 X 14 paper, were made by the intern and sent to Rosalia.

Steptoe’s post return was filed for the month of May, 1858, and the date it was received at the fort was listed July 10, 1858.

Nebel noted the hand-written entries on the return were tiny and hard to read. A magnifying glass had to be used and some of the spellings may be questionable. They were able to decipher approximately half of the 160 names of officers and soldiers believed to have been under the command of Col. Steptoe.

Fort Walla Walla closed in 1859, one year after the battle, and all military records, including a muster roll, were sent back east. Not even the Fort Walla Walla Museum has a copy of the muster list, Nebel noted.

In 2016, Nebel contacted the Spokane office of Sen. Patty Murray. An intern advised her that the National Archives would have the muster rolls for Steptoe’s command, but due to the fragile condition of the records they could not be removed from the building in Washington, D.C.

The next year Nebel requested help from ROTC units at Washington State University and the University of Idaho and learned the muster rolls are now available through Ancestory.com. She has inquired to Ancestry but has not received a response.

Nebel has attempted to include the names of the tribal participants in the battle. So far she has received a response from the Coeur d’Alene tribe, but has yet to hear from the Nez Perce, Yakamas, Spokane, Palouse or other tribes that were in the Washington Territory.

The Coeur d’Alene responded the descendants of participants preferred to keep the accounts in their families and would not participate.

Nebel looks forward to one of these days having the result of “History Solved” for both the Steptoe Battlefield and Fort Walla Walla Museum.

She hopes to develop and install a memorial kiosk at the Rosalia Steptoe memorial site with the names of those involved. The monument at the battle already has the names of officers and Nez Perce scouts, but she thinks it would be fitting to have the names of all of those who were involved commemorated.

A copy of the post return listing the names of soldiers who returned after the Steptoe Battle.