Rosalia museum will feature battle display

Budding Rose Art Gallery will have a display in honor of the 160th Anniversary of the Steptoe (Tohotonimme) Battle of 1858.

The display includes a 4x3 foot enlargement of Colonel Steptoe’s May, 1858 Post Return report to Fort Walla Walla following the battle. The return, retrieved in 2008 by an intern for Sen. Cathy McMorris Rodgers at the Army Heritage & Education Center Archives in Carlisle, Pa., includes names of officers, soldiers and supporting staff of their status of either wounded, killed in action, returned to fort or deserted, according to Diane Nebel.

New information has been collected from the Fort Walla Walla Museum that indicates there were actually six forts at Walla Walla. According to the museum, the first three were part of the fur trade and the first military site and were within a few miles of each other just upstream of Wallula Gap on the Columbia River.

The second fort was at what is currently the downtown area along the banks of Mill Creek. At that time, the creek didn’t have a bridge.

The third and final fort covered about a square mile, with Garrison Creek running through it from east to west. The current boundaries would be Dalles Military Road to the south, Myra Road to the west and Rose Street on the east to about 13th Street. Concrete boundary stones with U.S. engraved on all four sides were set intermittently around the original perimeter. The museum has two of the stone markers.

To add to the story, the Nez Perce Tribe, which helped guide Col. Steptoe in 1858, became the enemy that Fort Walla Walla Companies H and F 1st Calvary fought in the Battle at White Bird Creek, Idaho, June 17, 1877, and the Battle of Cottonwood Canyon, Idaho, July 3, 1877. Fort Walla Walla Museum sent a photo of the Fort Walla Walla Cemetery Roster with a list of 110 soldiers, seven women and 16 children that are buried there.

The Walla Walla museum plans to send a DVD of 14 tombstone photos and a photo of the cemetery interpretative sign which will be displayed at the Budding Rose Gallery if it arrives in time for Battle Days.