any part of the Yosemite area backcountry in 1855, when it extended an approximation of the Mount Diablo Baseline eastward from a point west of the present park boundary, to a point south of Mono Lake. The actual route taken was 5 to 6 miles south of the actual baseline, due to topographic difficulties, including the Tuolumne River canyon at low elevations, and steep mountain slopes higher up. Nevertheless, this was the first straight line survey made across the Sierra Nevada From 1879 to 1883 large parts of the western half of the park were surveyed as part of the General Land Office survey. However, the individual contracted for the largest area, one S. A. Hanson, was later listed among those associated with the Benson Syndicate, and he combined actual with probably fabricated surveys. Topographic surveys performed by Lieutenant Montgomery M. Macomb, under George M Wheeler's Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, were completed in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Mariposa Wars and legacy James Savage's trading camp on the Merced River, west of Yosemite Valley, was raided by Native Americans in December 1850, after which the raiders retreated into the mountains. An appeal to the governor of California to put an end to this and other raids led to the formation of the Mariposa Battalion in 1851, and the start of the Mariposa War. Savage led the battalion into Yosemite Valley in 1851, in pursuit of around 200 Ahwaneechees led by Chief Tenaya. On March 27, 1851, the company of 50 to 60 men reached what is now called Old Inspiration Point, from where Yosemite Valley's main features are visible. Chief Tenaya and his band were eventually captured and their village burned, fulfilling the prophecy an old and dying medicine man had given Tenaya many years before. The Ahwahnechee were escorted by their captor, Captain John Bowling, to the Fresno River Reservation, and the battalion was disbanded on July 1, 1851. Life on the reservation was unpleasant and the Ahwahneechee longed for their valley. Reservation officials consented and allowed Tenaya and some of his band to return on their own recognizance. A group of eight miners in possession of guns entered Yosemite Valley in May 1852, and were allegedly attacked by Tenaya's warriors; two of the miners were killed. Regular army troops under the direction of Lt. Tredwell Moore retaliated by shooting six Ahwahneechee who were in possession