On the morning of January 26, 1856, after months of raids and clashes with federal troops in southern King County and in Thurston County, Native Americans attack Seattle. Previously warned by friendly...
In early March 1856, Nisqually, Klickitat, and Yakama warriors battle U.S. Army soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel Silas Casey (1807-1882) and Washington Territorial Volunteers under Major Gilmore Hays...
On March 26, 1856, warriors of the Yakama, Klickitat, and Cascades tribes attack Americans at the Cascades of the Columbia, killing 14 civilians and three soldiers. The settlers are besieged overnight...
In April 1856, during the Indian wars, Captain Hamilton J. C. Maxon and his citizen militia come upon a Nisqually encampment near where the Ohop Creek and the Mashel River join with the Nisqually Rive...
On April 10, 1856, Yakamas and Klickitats under Kamiakin (ca. 1800-1877) ambush Oregon volunteers under Colonel Thomas Cornelius along Satus Creek near what will be the boundary between Klickitat and ...
On May 12, 1856, Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) uses martial law and militia officers to eject Judge Edward M. Lander (1816-1907) from his court. This is Washington's first civil right...
On July 17, 1856, Washington Territorial Volunteers under Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin F. Shaw attack a camp of Cayuse Indians in the Grande Ronde Valley in Oregon Territory. Shaw had been assigned to ...
In August 1856, U.S. Army Colonel George Wright (1803-1865) establishes Fort Simcoe at the foot of the Simcoe Mountains about 30 miles west of what will become Toppenish, in the future Yakima County. ...
On August 26, 1856, U.S. Army Captain George Pickett (1825-1875) arrives on Bellingham Bay from Fort Steilacoom to construct a military installation. Pickett's job is to build a fort that will deter t...
On September 11, 1856, Governor Isaac Stevens (1819-1862) convenes the Second Walla Walla Council with Native American tribes to end hostilities and to extinguish their title to their lands. The tribe...
On November 11, 1856, two soldiers from the recently established Fort Bellingham steal more than $160 worth of clothes from the Warbass sutlery (the fort's store) located next to the fort. The two men...
In the early-morning hours of November 19, 1856, Nisqually Chief Quiemuth (d. 1856), a half-brother of Chief Leschi (1808-1858), is murdered in Olympia. Both Leschi and Quiemuth had fought white settl...