Editing Pony Express (section)

==Attacks==
[[File:Pony Express Stolen Mail 1860.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Stolen Pony Express mail. Notation on the cover reads "recovered from a mail stolen by the Indians in 1860" and bears a New York back stamp of May 3, 1862, the date when it was finally delivered in New York. The cover is also franked with the U.S. Postage issue of 1847, Washington, 10c black.<ref name="Scotts" />]]

The [[Paiute War]] was a minor series of raids and ambushes initiated by American expansion into the territory of the [[Northern Paiute|Paiute]] Indian tribe in Nevada, which resulted in the disruption of mail services of the Pony Express. It took place from May through June 1860, though sporadic violence continued for a period afterward.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}
In the brief history of the Pony Express, only once did the mail not go through. After completing eight weekly trips from both Sacramento and Saint Joseph, the Pony Express was forced to suspend mail services because of the outbreak of the Paiute Indian War in May 1860.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

About 6,000 Paiutes in Nevada had suffered during a winter of fierce blizzards that year. By spring, the whole tribe was ready to embark on a war, except for the Paiute chief named [[Numaga]]. For three days, Numaga fasted and argued for peace.{{sfnp|Angel|1881|p=151}}
Meanwhile, a raiding party [[Williams Station Massacre|attacked Williams Station]], a Pony Express station<ref>{{cite web |title=Pony Express NHT: Historic Resource Study (Chapter 8) |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/poex/hrs/hrs8a.htm |access-date=February 7, 2021}}</ref> located on the then [[Carson River]] under present-day [[Lake Lahontan (reservoir)]], not to be confused with the large [[endorheic]] [[Pleistocene]] lake of the same name ([[Lake Lahontan]]). One account says the raid was a deliberate attempt to provoke war. Another says the raiders had heard that men at the station had kidnapped two Paiute women, and fighting broke out when they went to investigate and free the women. Either way, the war party killed five men and the station was burned.{{sfnp|Michno|2007|p=89-90}}

During the following weeks, other isolated incidents occurred when whites in the Paiute country were ambushed and killed. The Pony Express was a special target. Seven other express stations were also attacked; 16 employees were killed, and around 150 express horses were either stolen or driven off. Those who worked at the stations had no one around, possibly for miles, to help defend against the attacks, making working at the stations one of the deadliest jobs in the whole operation.<ref>{{Cite web|date=April 23, 2013|title=The Pony Express Battles the Paiutes|url=https://tripsintohistory.com/2013/04/23/the-pony-express-battles-the-paiutes/|access-date=2021-03-08|website=Trips Into History|language=en-US}}</ref> The Paiute War cost the Pony Express company about $75,000 {{USDCY|75000|1860}} in livestock and station equipment, not to mention the loss of life. In June of that year, the Paiute uprising had been ended through the intervention of U.S. troops, after which four delayed mail shipments from the East were finally brought to San Francisco on June 25, 1860.{{sfnp|Frajola|Kramer|Walske|2005|p=18}}

During this brief war, one Pony Express mailing, which left San Francisco on July 21, 1860, did not immediately reach its destination. That mail pouch (''mochila'') did not reach St. Joseph and subsequently New York until almost two years later.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}