USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Volume I > Part 9
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pursue the policy of peace, and that he was anxious that every part of the commodore's squadron should be assiduously careful to avoid any act which could be construed as one of aggression, Secretary Bancroft gave the follow- ing instruction to the Commodore:
"Should Mexico, however, be resolutely bent on hostilities, you will be mindful to protect the persons and interests of citizens of the United States near your station, and should you ascer- tain beyond a doubt that the Mexican Govern ment has declared war against us, you will at once employ the force under your command to the best advantage. The Mexican ports on the Pacific are said to be open and defenseless. If you ascertain with certainty that Mexico has de- clared war against the United States, you will at once possess yourself of the port of San Fran- cisco, and blockade or occupy such other ports as your force may permit."
Commodore Sloat remained ten days in Hono- lulu, taking on supplies and water, and making such necessary repairs as were required. In the meantime the British ship Frolic came in and anchored in the inner harbor. On October 12th, 1845, the United States frigate, Savannah, Com- modore Sloat's flagship got under way, and Commodore Sloat sailed for Mazatlan, Mexico, where, after thirty-seven days, he arrived on November 18, 1845, and saluted the Mexican flag, which salute was duly returned. Here he waited for many months in a sickly harbor with his flag- ship, the Savannah, while the other vessels of his squadron were watching the movements of the
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British fleet under Admiral Seymour with his flagship, the Collingwood, of eighty guns, which was constantly sailing between Mazatlan, San Blas and California.
Sloat became very anxious to learn what was being done by the administration, and dispatched Surgeon William Maxwell Wood from Mazatlan across to the city of Mexico, and from thence to Vera Cruz, with instructions to forward him all the information that he could gather, and also to visit Washington and give the Secretary of the Navy an oral account of what was transpiring in Pacific waters. Surgeon Wood dispatched a let- ter from the city of Mexico to the Commodore, giving an account of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and giving also the informa- tion that the port of Vera Cruz had been block- aded by the American squadron. He gave no information of war having been declared be- tween the two countries, but stated that hostili- ties had actually commenced. The declaration of war was not made by the United States until four days after these battles were fought. Upon the receipt of the information from Surgeon Wood, on the 7th of June, 1846, Commodore Sloat prepared for action, and on the next day, sailed for Monterey. Before his sailing, the British tender, the brigantine Spy, which was in the harbor of Mazatlan at that time, noticing what was transpiring on the Savannah, hoisted its anchor and sailed for San Blas to convey the information to the British Admiral, Seymour.
Commodore Sloat arrived at the harbor of Monterey on July 2nd, 1846, just twenty-four
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days from Mazatlan, his flagship being one of the fastest vessels known at that time. At Monterey he found the sloops Cyane and Levant belonging to his squadron, which had previously been dis- patched there. Having made all necessary prep- arations he took possession of the town of Mon- terey on the 7th. On the 6th he sent, by a trusty courier, the following dispatch to Captain John B. Montgomery, commanding the sloop of war Portsmouth, at San Francisco, also sending a copy of it by boat at the same time :
"I have determined to hoist the flag of the United States at this place tomorrow, as I would prefer being sacrificed for doing too much than too little. If you consider you have sufficient force, or if Fremont will join you, you will hoist the flag at Yerba Buena, or at any other proper place, and take possession of the fort and that portion of the country."
Acting upon this order Captain Montgomery took possession of the port of San Francisco.
Sixteen days after Commodore Sloat arrived at Monterey, Admiral Seymour, in his flagship, the Collingwood, sailed into the harbor, and, much to his disappointment, found the American flag hoisted above the fort.
It seems the irony of fate that, Sir Francis Drake having hoisted the first British flag over California, it should have been taken from the British Government by one of his descendants, the American Commodore, John Drake Sloat.
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WAR WITH MEXICO.
CHAPTER IX. WAR WITH MEXICO.
GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR-GENERAL AMPUDIA'S DECLARATION OF HOSTILITY - ATTACK OF AMERICAN DRAGOONS-DECLARATION OF WAR BY UNITED STATES-ARMY OF THE WEST- GENERAL STEPHEN W. KEARNY-COLONEL ALEX W. DONIPHAN-MORMON BATTALION- CAPT. P. ST. GEORGE COOKE - GOVERNOR ARMIJO-AMBASSADOR JAMES MAGOFFIN --- GENERAL KEARNY'S INSTRUCTIONS - CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF NEW MEXICO-KEARNY CODE - DONIPHAN'S EXPEDITION - KEAR- NY'S EXPEDITION TO CALIFORNIA-KIT CAR- SON'S DEVOTION TO DUTY-PIMA INDIANS- CAPTAIN COOKE'S MARCH WITH WAGON TRAIN AND MORMON BATTALION-WILD CAT- TLE-GAME-ARRIVAL AT TUCSON-LETTER TO DON MANUEL GANDARA, GOVERNOR OF SONORA-MARICOPAS-CROSSING THE COLO- RADO-COLONEL PRICE-REVOLT IN MEXICO- KILLING OF GOVERNOR BENT AND OTHER OFFICIALS-PUNISHMENT OF REVOLUTION- ISTS.
On the 28th of March, 1846, General Zachary Taylor took up his position on the banks of the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, and strength- ened himself by the erection of fieldworks. Texas, at that time, claimed the Rio Grande as the western boundary of the republic, which not only embraced what is now known as Texas,
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but a large portion of what is now New Mexico. The Mexicans claimed that the River Nueces was the western boundary of the Lone Star republic. The territory between that river and the Rio Grande-a breadth of one hundred and fifty miles along the coast-they claimed was a part of their territory. It is well to remember that Mexico had no army of occupation in this disputed territory.
General Taylor was notified by General Ampudia of the Mexican Army to break up his camp and in twenty-four hours to retire beyond the Nueces River. To this, General Taylor made no reply, and General Arista, who had succeeded General Ampudia in command of the Mexican army, on the 24th of April, advised General Tay- lor that "he considered hostilities commenced, and should prosecute them." After this notifi- cation was received, General Taylor sent a party of dragoons, sixty-three in number, up the valley of the Rio Grande to ascertain whether the Mex- icans had crossed the river. They encountered a larger force than their own, and after an en- gagement in which seventeen of the Americans were killed or wounded, they were surrounded and compelled to surrender. Intelligence of this affair raised the war spirit of the United States. Our country had been invaded; American blood had been spilled on American soil, was the cry heard on every side. In response to public opin- ion, President Polk, on the 11th of May, sent a message to Congress, "invoking its prompt ac- tion to recognize the existence of war, and to place at the disposition of the Executive the
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means of prosecuting the contest with vigor, and thus hastening the restoration of peace." Fol- lowing this message, the House of Representa- tives introduced a bill authorizing the President to call out a force of fifty thousand men, and giv- ing him all the requisite powers to organize, arm and equip them. This bill was passed through the Senate and the House, and approved by the President on the 13th day of May, 1846.
The story of the successful campaigns of Gen- eral Taylor into the heart of Mexico, and the cap- ture of Mexico City by General Scott, does not belong to this history. We deal only with that portion of it which ended in the subjugation of New Mexico, Arizona and California.
War, or its existence, having been declared, the Army of the West was organized at Fort Leaven- worth, in June, under the command of General Stephen W. Kearny, its mission the occupation of the broad territory stretching from New Mex- ico to California, and co-operation with other branches of the army in expeditions farther south. The advance division of this force consisted of 300 regulars of the first United States dragoons, under Major Edwin V. Sumner, afterwards a Major General in the Union Army, accompanied by a regiment of mounted volunteers called out by Governor Edwards of Missouri for this cam- paign, and commanded by Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, and five additional companies of vol- unteers, including one of infantry and two of light cavalry, or a total of nearly seventeen hun- dred men. The reserve division comprised an- other regiment of Missouri volunteers under 9
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Colonel Sterling Price, a battalion of four com- panies under Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, and the Mormon Battalion, in all about eighteen hundred men.
The advance of the army left Fort Leaven- worth late in June with a supply train of over 1,000 mules, which was soon augmented by 400 wagons of the annual Santa Fe caravan. All the companies, except that of the artillery, encamped at the beginning of August near Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, after an uneventful but tedious march of some 650 miles across the plains. From Bent's Fort Captain P. St. George Cooke, with twelve picked men, was sent in advance as a kind of ambassador to treat with Governor Armijo for the peaceful submission of eastern New Mex- ico, "but really," says Bancroft, "to escort James Magoffin, the venerable ambassador, in- trusted with a secret mission at Santa Fe."
Of this expedition, Cooke, in his "Conquest of New Mexico and California," says: "My mission * * was in fact a pacific one. The general had just issued a proclamation of annexation of all the territory east of the Rio Grande; the gov- ernment thus adopting the old claim of Texas; and thus, manifestly, in a statesmen's view, a bloodless process would lead to its confirmation in the treaty of peace; and the population would be saved from the bitterness of passing sub- jugum. The difficulty of a half measure re- mains; it cuts the isolated province in two! There must be an influential Micawber in the cabinet. At a plaintive complaint that I went to plant the olive from which he would reap a lau-
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rel, the general endeavored to gloss the barren field of toil to which his subordinates, at least, were devoted."
The mission of Magoffin was, in part, success- ful, in so far that there was no armed resistance on the part of Governor Armijo to the American advance. Cooke's party arrived on the 12th of August at Santa Fe, and was hospitably received by Armijo, who seemed to think that the ap- proach of the army was "rather sudden and rapid." He concluded to send a commissioner, in the person of Dr. Connelley, with whom the Captain set out the next day on his return to meet the army. Magoffin easily prevailed on the governor to make no defense at Apache Canyon, "a point on the approach to Santa Fe, which might have been held by a small force." He had more difficulty with Archuleta, the second in command, but by appealing to his ambition, and suggesting that by a pronunciamento he might secure for himself Western New Mexico, he at length overcame that officer's patriotic objec- tions, and thus secured an open road for the army.
Kearny's army left Bent's fort on the 2nd of August. His route was nearly identical with that traveled by the later line of stages, and differed but slightly from that of the modern Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. On the 14th, 15th and 16th, respectively, the army reached Las Vegas, Tecolote and San Miguel del Vado. At these places Kearny, now a brigadier- general, made a speech from a house-top, absolv- ing the people from their allegiance to Armijo,
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and promising protection to the life, property and religion of all who should peacefully submit to the new order of things. The alcalde, and, in some cases, the militia officers of each town, after taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, were continued in office.
The General's authority for this course has no ampler record than may be found in the confiden- tial instructions received by him from the Sec- retary of War, dated July 3rd, 1846:
"Should you conquer and take possession of New Mexico and Upper California, you will establish temporary civil governments therein, abolishing all arbitrary restrictions that may ex- ist, so far as it may be done with safety. In per- forming this duty, it would be wise and prudent to continue in their employment all such of the existing officers as are known to be friendly to the United States and will take the oath of alle- giance to them. * * * You may assure the people of these provinces that it is the wish and design of the United States to provide for them a free government, with the least possible delay, similar to that which exists in our territories. They will be called on to exercise the rights of freemen in electing their own representatives to the territorial legislature. It is foreseen that what relates to the civil government will be a difficult and unpleasant part of your duty, and much must necessarily be left to your own discre- tion.
"In your whole conduct, you will act in such a manner as best to conciliate the inhabitants, and render them friendly to the United States."
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Marcy also states: "No proclamation for cir- culation was ever furnished to General Kearny."
Acting under these instructions, General Kearny occupied all the principal towns of New Mexico, and organized a civil government for the territory, with the following officers :
Governor, Charles Bent, part owner of Bent's Fort, married to a native of Taos.
Secretary : Donaciano Vigil, a native of New Mexico, of long official experience in civil and military positions.
Marshal: Richard Dallam, an American min- ing operator at Los Placeres.
United States Attorney : Francis P. Blair, Jr., in later years famous as congressman, soldier, and statesman. Afterwards a defeated candi- date for the Presidency of the United States.
Treasurer: Charles Blumner.
Auditor: Eugene Leitzendorfer, a Santa Fe trader, married to a daughter of a former gov- ernor, Santiago Abreu.
Superior Court Judges: Joab Houghton, An- tonio Jose Otero, and Charles Beaubien.
A code of laws, founded mainly on the laws of Missouri and Texas, was prepared by Colonel Doniphan, who was an accomplished lawyer, and this code of laws was in force in New Mexico as late as the year 1885. This code, known as the Kearny code, was submitted to Congress, and with it there was also submitted an organic law for the territory of New Mexico, which provided for a permanent territorial organization under the laws of the United States, naming the first
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Monday in August, 1847, as the day for electing a delegate to Congress.
After performing this work in New Mexico, General Kearny sent Colonel Doniphan south with a thousand men, to capture Chihuahua. About two thousand men, including many in- valids, were left in command of Col. Price, to hold the territory already conquered, and Gen- eral Kearny himself, with a force of about a hundred and fifty dragoons, started for Califor- nia, and Captain Cooke, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, was ordered to take command of the Mormon Battalion, and follow General Kearny to California.
On September 26th, 1846, General Kearny, with his small company of dragoons, commenced his march to California. On the 6th of October, he met Kit Carson with fifteen men, carrying im- portant mail and dispatches for Washington. He gave General Kearny the great news of the subjugation of California by Commodore Stock- ton and Captain Fremont. Six of Carson's party were Delaware Indians; he had started with fifteen riding animals; the most of them had been ridden down and abandoned; others swapped two for one, with friendly Apaches. Carson had come by way of the Gila River, and advised General Kearny that no news of the invasion of New Mexico had been received in California. General Kearny determined that Carson should return with him and be his guide over the route he had just passed, but Carson resisted this attempt to make him turn back, and the General did not prevail until he
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took upon himself every responsibility, especi- ally the prompt and safe delivery of the dis- patches. This instance furnishes one of the most striking illustrations of Carson's loyalty to his country. He had just ridden eight hundred miles over a desert, a very wilderness, where he had met with no human being except savages, likely to seek his destruction; he had ridden ninety miles without halting, over a jornada of sand; was on the border of civilization, near the residence of his family, but at the call of his country, he turned back for another year of absence. Surely this was no common sacrifice to duty.
On October 14th, General Kearny once more resumed his march, and, next day, being about two hundred and thirty miles below Santa Fe, he left the river, turned westward toward the cop- per mines on the Gila, and wrote to Colonel Cooke, assigning to him the command of the Mor- mon Battalion, and the task of opening a wagon road to the Pacific. From the copper mines, the General's route was nearly due west along the course of the Gila River. His train consisted entirely of pack mules, in addition to which he had two mountain howitzers, but no wagons. His journey across what is now the State of Ari- zona was uneventful. He traded mules with the Apaches headed by Mangus Colorado, and had several meetings with the Pimas, of whom his chronicler says :
"To us it was a rare sight to be thrown in the midst of a large nation of what are termed wild Indians, surpassing many of the Christian na-
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tions in agriculture, little behind them in the use- ful arts, and immeasurably before them in hon- esty and virtue. During the whole of yesterday, our camp was full of men, women and children, who sauntered among our packs, unwatched, and not a single instance of theft was reported."
On the 25th of November, having reached the Colorado River, they forded that river, some of the horses swimming when its crooked course was lost; they camped fifteen miles below, at the first well, where only the men got water, and on the 12th day of December, General Kearny and his column reached San Diego.
The Mormon Battalion, which General Kearny had ordered Colonel Cooke to assume command of, arrived at Santa Fe on October 12th, 1846. It had been commanded by Lieutenant A. J. Smith, First Dragoons, on its long march from Fort Leavenworth. Everything conspired to discourage the extraordinary undertaking of marching this battalion eleven hundred miles, for the greater part of the journey through an unknown wilderness without road or trail, and with a wagon train. It was enlisted too much by families; some were too old, some feeble, and some too young. It was embarrassed by too many women; it was worn by travelling on foot, and marching from Nauvoo, Illinois, where it had been organized; they had little clothing, there was no money to pay them, or clothing to issue; their mules were entirely broken down; the quartermaster department was without funds, and its credit was not good, and mules were scarce. Those procured were inferior, and
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were deteriorating every hour for lack of forage and grazing. A small party, with families, had been sent from Arkansas Crossing, up the river, to winter at a settlement near the mountains, which bore the name of Pueblo. After an in- spection of the battalion, its ranks were reduced by the discharge of old men and those unfit for service by reason of physical incapacity, or youthfulness, from five hundred, to three hun- dred and fifty men, and with this number, and five wives of officers, who were reluctantly allowed to accompany the march, and who furnished their own transportation, Colonel Cooke, on October 19th, 1846, started upon his expedition. Before leaving Santa Fe, the battalion was paid by checks, not very available at that place. Using every effort, the quartermaster could only undertake to furnish rations for sixty days, and, in fact, full rations of only flour, sugar, coffee and salt. Salt pork could only be furnished for thirty days and soap for twenty. It was abso- lutely necessary to take with them pack saddles, so these were added to the equipment.
Upon this expedition Colonel Cooke had a large wagon train and his expedition was, as far as the country through which he passed was con- cerned, of more importance than that of General Kearny, because it demonstrated the fact that wagons could be used in crossing what is now the State of Arizona. Twenty-two miles from Santa Fe, Cooke turned south, continuing in a southwesterly direction some twenty-five or thirty miles to the Santa Rita Copper Mines, crossing the Mimbres River a little north of
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where it sinks; thence continuing southwest through a small range of foothills, where water was obtained by digging.
Upon this expedition, Colonel Cooke had the services of several guides, the chief of them being Leroux, and another Pauline Weaver, of whom further mention will be made later on in this work. Leroux thought the country to the west was an open prairie and a good route to the San Pedro River, if water could be obtained in sufficient quantity. Colonel Cooke, however, continued his route in a southwesterly direction, to a point about fifteen miles north of Fronteras, Sonora, Mexico, thence in a northwesterly direc- tion to the headwaters of the San Pedro River in Arizona. He followed this river about forty miles in a northerly direction, and from thence struck off to the northwest to Tucson, from which point, still going northwesterly, he struck the trail that General Kearny had made to the Pima Villages, and followed the Gila down to its junction with the Colorado.
In this march, which was made in the winter of 1846, the command suffered much hardship from lack of food and water, and also suffered from cold at night and heat by day. It met with no hostile forces of Indians or Mexicans but it was harassed a good deal by the wild cattle near the old abandoned ranch of San Bernardino, of which St. George Cooke says:
"The ox, in a perfectly wild state, abounds here; the guides have shot three or four. As we descended from the high ground, an immense red bull rushed by in front at great speed ; it was
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more novel and exciting than the sight of buffa- loes."
On December 3rd, the command passed the day at San Bernardino and was disappointed in not obtaining mules from the Apaches. Along the San Pedro River, Colonel Cooke found bands of wild horses, herds of cattle and ante- lopes. Following this stream, on December 11th, the command had quite an engagement with bulls. Of this the Colonel says :
"I had to direct the men to load their muskets to defend themselves. The animals attacked in some instances without provocation, and tall grass in some places made the danger greater ; one ran on a man, caught him in the thigh, and threw him clear over his body lengthwise; then it charged on a team, ran its head under the first mule and tore out the entrails of the one be- yond. Another ran against a sergeant who es- caped with severe bruises, as the horns passed at each side of him; one ran at a horse tied behind a wagon, and as it escaped, the bull struck the wagon with a momentum that forced the hind part of it out of the road. I saw one rush at some pack mules, and kill one of them. I was very near Corporal Frost, when an im- mense coal black bull came charging at us, a hundred yards. Frost aimed his musket, flint- lock, very deliberately, and only fired when the beast was within six paces; it fell headlong, al- most at our feet. One man, charged on, threw himself flat, and the bull jumped over him and passed on.
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"A bull, after receiving two balls through its heart, and two through the lungs, ran on a man. I have seen the heart. Lieut. Stoneman was accidentally wounded in the thumb. We crossed a pretty stream, which I have named 'Bull Run.' "'
The Lieutenant Stoneman mentioned, was afterwards a general in the Union Army, and Governor of California. His son, Geo. Stone- man, is now a resident of this state, and one of its leading lawyers.
On December 14th, Colonel Cooke rode in among four or five Mexican soldiers, cutting grass, their horses, arms and saddles nearby. The sergeant in command of the Mexican party said that reports had been spread which alarmed the people who were about to fly, and he was sent by the commandant to request the Americans not to pass through the town (Tucson) ; that he had orders to prevent it, but that the Americans could pass on either side. Colonel Cooke told him to return and inform the commander of the garrison, that if it was very weak, he would probably not molest it, but to tell the people that the Americans were their friends and wanted to purchase flour, etc. He soon left. Before reaching Tucson, a commission was received by Cooke from the Commandant at Tucson, author- ized to make a special armistice. "After a rather long conference, they were dismissed with the proposition that a few arms should be de- livered as tokens of a surrender, which only
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