El Dorado Indian War

During the summer of 1850, a group of Indians were murdered by miners and settlers in the neighborhood of Johnson's ranch, an area six miles north of Placerville, California. At the time, it was believed that the Indians had done nothing to provoke the incident. In fact, it was believed that the attack had been done in order to provoke the Indians to commit an act out of retaliation and anger. If the Indians were to retaliate, extreme measures would be taken against them, such as building a permanent military post to monitor and keep them under control. As expected, the Indians retaliated and killed several miners. As a consequence, the miners and settlers complained and wrote a petition to the county and State, pleading for aid against the attacks of the Indians. In response to the complains, three companies of militia were sent out, one from Mud Springs and two from Placerville. The army was placed in command of Sheriff William Rogers and B.F. Ankenny was appointed Quartermaster of the expedition.

Once all three companies of militia were organized, they started their march to Johnson's ranch. The army set up camp there and they waited for the Indians to show up, but they never did. After approximately four weeks of uneventful camping, the officers in control of the expedition decided to go looking for the Indians. They gave the order to break camp and soon after the whole army was searching for Indians in the direction of a town named Fiddletown. They searched the area extensively, but were unsuccessful in finding any Indians. The unsuccessful search came to an end and the army headed back to Mud Springs, where they were demobilized. This marked the end of the first war of El Dorado county, which was considered a failure. The official report for the war stated that only one Indian had been killed.^[3]