Historic California
Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields
Camp in the Lava
Beds
(General Gillem's
Camp)
The National Park Service maintains the
Lava Beds National Monument, a California Historical landmark,
the site from which the Army fought the protracted Modoc
War. General E. R S. Canby, commanding officer of the Department
of the Columbia, was bitterly disappointed to learn that his
army had been decisively repulsed although they outnumbered the
hostile Modocs seven to one. Canby replaced the commanding officer
on the scene with Colonel Alvin C. Gillem (Brevet Major General
during the Civil War), who, after being delayed en route, had
to reorganize the forces under his new command. He moved the
original camp to a new site closer to the Modocs' stronghold.
The boundary line between Modoc and Siskiyou coun ties runs through
the Lava Beds National Monument locating Gillem's camp in Siskiyou
County and the Modoc stronghold in Modoc County. Near the Army
camp is the site where two members of Indian agent Alfred B.
Meacham's government sponsored peace commission were treacherously
shot dead on April 11, 1873, by Modoc leader Captain Jack and
several of his men during a prearranged parley (Meacham, also
shot, survived after being left for dead). Captain Jack and his
Indian forces successfully resisted capture by U.S. Army troops
from December 1, 1972 to April 18, 1873. The hostiles had taken
refuge near the California Oregon border in the region's desolate
lava beds. Four of the involved Indians were ultimately found
guilty of murder and hanged, as was Captain Jack, their leader,
who went for the scaffold later, an unrepentant man.