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Odeneal made the mistake of ordering Major John Green, commander of Fort Klamath to carry out the directive. Green had clear orders not to attack the Modocs with less than fifty soldiers. However, on Odeneal's order, Major Green decided there was no need
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The soldiers came before dawn, routed the Modocs out of bed, and forced them to march north. The Modocs were armed. When Captain Jackson ordered them to give up their arms, one man refused; Scarface Charley. Jackson ordered his Lieutenant Boulette to disarm Charley. The exchange that followed was recorded by witnesses.
Boulette, in an insulting order to one of the Modocs, said to Scar-face Charley, “Here, Injun, give me that pistol here, damn you, quick.”
Charley replied, “Me no dog. You talk to me like I just dog. Talk me good. I listen you.”
Boutelle drew his revolver, shouting, “You son of a bitch, I’ll teach you to talk back to me.”
Boutelle leveled his revolver at Scar-face’s breast. Scar-face Charley drew his pistol and both pistols went off.
Immediately at the sound of the altercation, every Modoc got his weapon and the soldiers followed suit. In a matter of seconds there were dead and wounded men on both sides. More Indians came and the soldiers were forced back. The Modoc fighters scattered and Major Green returned to report the battle and their failure to capture the Modoc band.
By January, within weeks of fighting small battles, both sides realized war had come. Captain Jack’s Stronghold was the torturous black lava fields that stretched as far as a man can see. Uneven and rough, it was filled with caves and lava tunnels with the Tule Lake bordering the north. The Modoc men were in the lava caves and tunnels with their wives and children as they waited for the soldiers to attack.
Among Captain Jack’s band, his fiercest fighters were men with Americanized names; Bogus Charley, Hooker Jim, Steamboat Frank, One-eyed
Mose, Scar-face Charley, Boston Charley, Curly-headed Doctor, Schonchin John, Shack Nasty Jim, William Faithful, Long Jim, Black Jim, Ellen’s Man George, and Sam Ball.
The Author drove through Klamath Falls, on the way to Bend, Oregon and beyond to Washington State. The road signs identified rivers; the Klamath, Lost River, the Pit River. There were towns in that part of California; Dorris, Merrill, Langell Valley and Olene. I was, as most citizens of Lake County also were, completely unaware of the battles and the War that had been fought there fifty years before. The Stronghold Captain Jack, with Schonchin John, chose the rugged landscape because he knew the lava beds would be a natural defense against any soldiers sent against him. For centuries, his people had used the lava ice-caves for storage and water with the warmer caves as their temporary hunting lodges. Jack had fifty to sixty fighters, many in their late teens and twenties. They wore dungarees, boots, shirts, and bandannas. They were all tough men and good fighters.
The Stronghold was two miles long and less than a thousand feet wide with deep chasms running through the rocky lava. The tribe had a hundred cattle for food, kept in secluded ravines and caves. There were dwellings for the warriors and their families in the lava tubes and trenches. More trenches were dug in the war zone to allow easier access when attacked and to strengthen their defenses. Where the natural terrain did not provide a defense, rock barriers, up to four feet in height, were built. Defensive positions for one or two men were added and mounds of rocks, heaped twenty feet above the battle ground, warned the Modoc when the soldiers came.