“We passed the last of the Clearwater, where we at night, after twenty-one miles of the roughest country, with Spurgin’s pioneers ahead cutting out the trail, we came into camp in the twilight, where we heard loud echoes of ring by the advanced scouts, and thought they had come upon Joseph’s rear guard.

Then we spurred up the weary animals into a tired trot, and along this narrow trail descended for miles through the almost impenetrable forest, for a horse or mule, but the nicest of salmon for the men, in water about knee deep, water as clean as crystal, rushing and splashing over the rocks.

The echoes which deceived us into thinking the enemy was near, were from the scouts carbines, shooting the bigger fish, as they were swimming up the Clearwater (Crooked Fork).”

– General Oliver Otis Howard