The year was 1860 in the month of May,
a man by the name of James Williams
owned a trading post, about 30 miles
East of Virginia City. Williams brother
and three other men were living at the
trading post, while James was away the
men kidnapped two indian girls of 12
years of age and held them prisoner. The
Indians came to the trading post in
search of the girls and did not find
them. A day later a Piaute who was
trading for a pistol heard the girls
cries and left right away when the white
men sicked their dogs on the piaute
while cheatng him on a trade of his pony
for a pistol, power and lead. The Piaute
found the family of the girls who had
been searching for the girls for days.
It might be mentioned that the girls
were related to Chief Winnemucca as the
girls were his grandchildren. The girls
father rode to the trading post with a
group of Piautes to confront the white
men again and search the trading post
once more. Finally the hiding place of
the girls was revealed when one of the
white men was struck by one of the
Piautes. It turned out that they had
been hidden under a trap door in the
barn. The hole where the girls had been
kept had two beds with the girls tied
and gaged. The Piaute's became inflamed
when they saw the condition of the girls
and the fact that they had been
molested. One of the white men drew a
knive and one of the Piautes broken his
arm and fell on him and choked him to
death. One man escaped to the river but
drown in the river, and another died in
the fighting. Three more white men died
when the station house was burned to the
ground by the enraged Piautes. When
James Williams returned and saw the
mudered men he sent word to Virginia
City that the Paiutes Indians were on
the war path and a massacre had taken
place out at his place. The news of
this incident was not checked out by the
miners and settlers in the area, instead
they proceeded to form a military
company to meet the attack that everyone
believed was coming from the Indians.
When the men were all assembled and
ready to go there was 105 men loosely
commanded by Major William Ormsby. It is
said that there was little discipline in
this company, it was poorly equipped,
and poorly mounted. Many of the milita
were young men under the age of 20 years
of age and were out after an adventure,
and had hopes of getting Indian ponies,
and Indian women. Some of them felt
their communities were in danger of
attack from Indians. The Paiute
Indians heard that the white men had
formed a militia and were going to mount
an attack against them. So they started
to assemble their warriors to defend
against any attack. The troops March
toward Pyramid Lake and got caught in a
trap by the Indians who killed 76 of the
men including Major Ormsby in a battle
on the 12 of May 1860. There was only
twenty-nine men who made it back from
this battle to tell the story of what
had happened. The fear of the Indians
attacking the towns along the Sierra
range was such that a lot of the women
and children were sent to California for
saftey. The miners and settlers
became so concerned about Indian attacks
of the towns in the area that they asked
for help from the U. S Army. They got
500 muskets from the Governor of
California. Then they organised a
volunteer milita and organized it into a
efficent well disciplined fighting unit.
The second time the white men marched on
Pyramid Lake they were prepared and
equipment with good weapons and had good
mounts. The volunteer milita was 500
hundered men strong and were supported
by 200 US Army troops. They began their
march the 24th of March, and met up with
the Paiutes a few days later and killed
about 176 Indians in the ensuing battle.
It wasn't until after the second battle
took place that the true facts of the
case came to light, concerning the
actions the Indians took against the
white men at the trading post. The white
men remained paranoia about attacks from
the Indians so Fort Churchill was
established on the Carson River. The
Fort remained there for as long as the
Civil war was going on so there is some
reason to believe that perhaps the
Federal Government had a different
reason for keeping the fort in the
territory of Nevada than to protect
against Indian attacks. Back To: Historical Ghost
Towns of Nevada
