Wright, George, Gen.

The following data is extracted from History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington, 1889.

GENERAL GEORGE WRIGHT. - The work of this stern and skillful soldier in quelling some of the Indian wars of the Pacific Northwest was so conspicuous that the reader who has learned the story of his campaigns will be anxious to know the general features of his life. Born in Vermont in 1803, he received an appointment to West Point, from which he graduated in 1822. He was early introduced to the Indian warfare of the frontier, spending the first nine years of his army life at various places in the great West. In 1831 he went to Louisiana, where he remained till 1836. He then took part in the Florida Indian war. After this he spent several years in quiet, to again enter the field on the outbreak of the Mexican war. In this he served with great distinction under both Taylor and Scott.

He came to the Pacific coast in 1852 as a major in the Fifth Infantry. He took a leading part in the military operations in the Pacific Northwest in the great Indian wars of 1855-56 and later. His exploits in those events, and especially his thoroughness in dealing with the Indians who had handled Steptoe's command so roughly, have been chronicled many times. In 1861 he was ordered to San Francisco to relieve General Sumner, receiving in September of that year his promotion to a brigadier-generalship. He remained in San Francisco till 1865, when he was transferred again to Oregon. He set sail for his old department on the ill-omened steamer Brother Jonathan, which was wrecked on the coast of Southern Oregon on the 30th of July; and the old hero, with his wife and three hundred other passengers, was drowned.

Source: History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington, 1889

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