A long period of unrest between the settlers and Indians of Tulare County erupted in war during the spring of 1856 after untrue reports that five hundred head of cattle had been stolen in Frazier Valley and the burning of Orson K. Smith's sawmill aroused local settlers. A group of volunteers under Foster DeMasters found more than seven hundred Indians in fortified positions on the cone-shaped mountain in the valley below, but when the volunteers could not breach the defenses alone they called for help. A second company of Tulare County Volunteers under Sheriff W. G. Poindexter, miners from Keysville on the Kern River, settlers from as far north as Merced and Mariposa, and Army detachments from Fort Tejon and Fort Miller joined them. Captain Livingston of Fort Miller took overall command of a combined force estimated at three to four hundred men. Unable to withstand the assault by this force and its Army howitzer, the Indians withdrew into the pine forest above. Reports indicate that three settlers were wounded and several Indians were killed.