Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 18

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366

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General Kearny sent back about 300 of his men, taking with him 120. After a toilsome march by way of the Pima villages, Tucson, the Gila and across the Colorado desert, they reached the Indian village of San Pasqual, (about 40 miles from San Diego), where the battle was fought. It was the bloodiest battle of the con- quest ; Kearny's men, at daybreak, riding on broken-down mules and half-broken horses, in an irregular and disorderly line, charged the Californians. While the American line was stretched out over the plain Capt. Andrés Pico, who was in command, wheeled his column and charged the Americans. A fierce hand-to-hand fight ensued, the Californians using their lances and lariats, the Americans clubbed guns and sabers. Of Kearny's command 18 men were killed and 19 wounded; three of the wounded died. Only one, Capt. Abraham R. Johnston (a relative of the author's), was killed by a gun- shot ; all the others were lanced. The mules to one of the liowitzers became unmanageable and ran into the enemy's lines. The driver was killed and the gun captured. One Californian was captured and several slightly wounded ; none was killed. Less than half of Kearny's 160 men took part in the battle. IIis loss in killed and wounded was fifty per cent of those engaged. Dr. John S. Griffin, for many years a leading physician of Los Angeles, was the sur- geon of the command.

The foraging expeditions in Lower California having been quite successful in bringing in cat- tle, horses and mules, Commodore Stockton lastened his preparation for marching against Los Angeles. The enemy obtained information of the projected movement and left for the pueblo.

"The Cyane having arrived." says Duvall, "our force was increased to about 600 men, most of whom, understanding the drill, per-

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formed the evolutions like regular soldiers. Everything being ready for our departure, the commodore left Capt. Montgomery and officers in command of the town, and on the 29th of December took up his line of march for An- geles. Gen. Kearny was second in command and having the immediate arrangement of the forces, reserving for himself the prerogative which his rank necessarily imposed upon him. Owing to the weak state of our oxen we had not crossed the dry bed of the river San Diego before they began breaking down, and the carts, which were 30 or 40 in number, had to be dragged by the men. The general urged on the commodore that it was useless to commence such a march as was before us with our present means of transportation, but the commodore insisted on performing at least one day's march even if we should have to return the next. We succeeded in reaching the valley of the Soledad that night by dragging our carts. Next day the commodore proposed to go six miles far- ther, which we accomplished, and then contin- ued six miles farther. Having obtained some fresh oxen, by assisting the carts up hill, we made ten to twelve miles a day. At San Luis Rey we secured men, carts and oxen, and after that our day's marches ranged from 15 to 22 miles a day.

"The third day out from San Luis Rey a white flag was seen ahead, the bearer of which had a communication from Flores, signing himself 'Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Califor- nia,' asking for a conference for the purpose of coming to terms, which would be alike 'honora- ble to both countries.' The commodore refused to answer him in writing, saying to the bearer of the truce that his answer was, 'he knew no such person as Governor Flores, that he himself was the only governor in California; that he knew a rebel by that name, a man who had given his parole of honor not to take up arms against the government of the United States, who, if the people of California now in arms against the forces of the United States would deliver up, he (Stockton) would treat with them on con- dition that they surrender their arms and retire peaceably to their homes and he would grant them, as citizens of the United States, protection from further molestation.' This the embassy refused to entertain, saying 'they would prefer to die with Flores than to surrender on such terms.'

"On the 8th of January, 1847, they met us on the banks of the river San Gabriel with between five and six hundred men mounted on good horses and armed with lances and carbines, hav- ing also four pieces of artillery planted on the

heights about 350 yards distant from the river. Owing to circumstances which have occurred since the surrender of the enemy, I prefer not mentioning the particulars of this day's battle and also that of the day following, or of refer- ring to individuals concerned in the successful management of our forces." (The circumstance "to which Lieut. Duvall refers was undoubtedly the quarrel between Stockton and Kearny after the capture of Los Angeles.) "It is sufficient to say that on the 8th of January we succeeded in crossing the river and driving the enemy from the heights. Having resisted all their charges, dismounted one of their pieces and put them to flight in every direction, we encamped on the ground they had occupied during the fight.

"The next day the Californians met us on the Plains of the Mesa. For a time the fighting was carried on by' both sides with artillery, but that proving too hot for them they concentrated their whole force in a line ahead of us, and at a given signal divided from the center and came down on us like a tornado, charging us on all sides at the same time ; but they were effectually defeated and fled in every direction in the utmost confu- sion. Many of their horses were left dead on the field. Their loss in the two battles, as given by Andrés Pico, second in command, was 83 killed and wounded; our loss, three killed (one acci- dentally) and 15 or 20 wounded, none danger- ously. The enemy abandoned two pieces of artil- lery in an Indian village near by."

I have given at considerable length Midship- man Duvall's account of Stockton's march from San Diego and of the two battles fought, not be- cause it is the fullest account of those events, but because it is original historical matter-never having appeared in print before-and also be- cause it is the observations of a participant writ- ten at the time the events occurred. In it the losses of the enemy are greatly exaggerated, but that was a fault of his superior officers as well. Commodore Stockton, in his official reports of the two battles, gives the enemy's loss in killed and wounded "between seventy and eighty." And Gen. Kearny, in his report of the battle of San Pasqual, claimed it as a victory, and states that the enemy left six dead on the field. The actual loss of the Californians in the two battles (San Gabriel River and La Mesa) was three killed and ten or twelve wounded .*

While the events recorded in this chapter were transpiring at San Diego and its vicinity, what was the state of affairs in the capital, Los An- geles? After the exultation and rejoicing over the expulsion of Gillespie's garrison, Mervine's

*The killed were Ignacio Sepulveda, Francisco Rubio, and El Guaymeño, a Yaqui Indian.

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defeat and the victory over Kearny at San Pas- qual there came a reaction. Dissensions con- tinued between the leaders. There was lack of arms and laxity of discipline. The army was but little better than a mob. Obedience to orders of a superior was foreign to the nature of a Cali- fornian. His wild, free life in the saddle made him impatient of all restraint. Then the impossi- bility of successful resistance against the Ameri- cans became more and more apparent as the final conflict approached. Fremont's army was moving down on the doomed city from the northi and Stockton's was coming up from the south. Either one of these, in numbers, exceeded the force that Flores could bring into action; com- bined they would crush him out of existence. The Californian troops were greatly discouraged, and it was with great difficulty that the officers kept their men together. There was another and more potent element of disintegration. Many of the wealthier natives and all the foreigners, re- garding the contest as hopeless, secretly favored the American cause, and it was only through fear of loss of property that they furnished Flores and his officers any supplies for the army.

During the latter part of December and the first days of January Flores' army was stationed at San Fernando Mission, on the lookout for Fremont's battalion ; but the more rapid advance of Stockton's army compelled a change of base. On the 6th and 7th of January, Flores moved his army back secretly through the Cahuenga Pass, and, passing to the southward of the city, took position where La Jabonéria (the soap factory) road crosses the San Gabriel river. Here his

nien were stationed in the thick willows to give Stockton a surprise. Stockton received informa- tion of the trap set for him, and after leaving the Los Coyotes swung off to the right until he struck the Upper Santa Ana road. The Califor- nians had barely time to effect a change of base and get their cannon planted when the Ameri- cans arrived at the crossing.

Stockton called the engagement there the bat- tle of the San Gabriel river; the Californians call it the battle of Paso de Bartolo, which is the better name. The place where the battle was fought is on the bluff just south of the Upper Santa Ana road, near where the Southern Cali- fornia Railroad crosses the Old San Gabriel river. (The ford or crossing was formerly known as Pico's Crossing.) There was, at the time of the battle, but one San Gabriel river. The new river channel was made in the great flood of 1868. What Stockton, Emory, Duvall and other American officers call the battle of the "Plains of the Mesa" the Californians call the battle of La Mesa, which is most decidedly a better name than the "Plains of the Plain." It was fought at a ravine, The Cañada de Los Alisos, near the southeastern corner of the city's boundary. In these battles the Californians had four pieces of artillery, two iron nine-pounders, the Old Wo- man's gun and the howitzer captured from Kearny. Their powder was very poor. It was made at San Gabriel. It was owing to this that they did so little execution in the fight. That the Californians escaped with so little punish- ment was probably due to the wretched marks- manship of Stockton's sailors and marines.

CHAPTER XX.

OCCUPATION OF LOS ANGELES-BUILDING OF FORT MOORE.

A FTER the battle of La Mesa, the Ameri- cans, keeping to the south, crossed the river at about the point where the south boundary line of the city crosses it, and en- camped on the right bank. Here, under a willow tree, those killed in battle were buried. Lieut. Emory, in his "Notes of a Military Reconnois- sance," says : "The town, known to contain great quantities of wine and aguardiente, was four miles distant (four miles from the battlefield). From previous experience of the difficulty of controlling men when entering towns, it was de- termined to cross the river San Fernando (Los Angeles), halt there for the night and enter the town in the morning, with the whole day before 11S.

"After we had pitched our camp, the enemy

came down from the hills, and 400 horsemen with four pieces of artillery drew off towards the town, in order and regularity, whilst about sixty made a movement down the river on our rear and left flank. This led us to suppose they were not yet whipped, as we thought, and that we should have a night attack.

"January 10 .- Just as we had raised our camp, a flag of truce borne by Mr. Celis, a Castilian, Mr. Workman, an Englishman, and Alvarado, the owner of the rancho at the Alisos, was brought into camp. They proposed, on behalf of the Californians, to surrender their dear City of the Angels, provided we would respect prop- erty and persons. This was agreed to, but not altogether trusting to the honesty of Gen. Flores, who had once broken his parole, we

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moved into the town in the same order we should have done if expecting an attack.

"It was a wise precaution, for the streets were full of desperate and drunken fellows, who bran- dished their arms and saluted us with every term of reproach. The crest, overlooking the town, in rifle range, was covered with horsemen engaged in the same hospitable manner.

"Our men marched steadily on, until crossing the ravine leading into the public square (plaza), when a fight took place amongst the Californians on the hill ; one became disarmed, and to avoid deatlı rolled down the hill towards us, his adver- sary pursuing and laneing him in the most cold- blooded manner. The man tumbling down the hill was supposed to be one of our vaqueros, and the cry of 'rescue him!' was raised. The crew of the Cyane, nearest the scene, at once and with- out any orders, halted and gave the man that was lancing him a volley ; strange to say, he did not fall. The general gave the jack tars a curs- ing, not so much for the firing without orders, as for their bad marksmanship."

Shortly after the above episode, the Califor- nians did open fire from the hill on the vaqueros in charge of the cattle. (These vaqueros were Californians in the employ of the Americans and were regarded by their countrymen as traitors.) A company of riflemen was ordered to clear the hill. A single volley effected this-killing two of the enemy. This was the last bloodshed in the war; and the second conquest of California was completed as the first had been by the cap- ture of Los Angeles. Two hundred men, with two pieces of artillery, were stationed on the hill.

The Angeleños did not exactly welcome the invaders with "bloody hands to inhospitable graves," but they did their best to let them know they were not wanted. The better class of the native inhabitants closed their houses and took refuge with foreign residents or went to the ranchos of their friends in the country. The fel- lows of the baser sort, who were in possession of the city, exhausted their vocabularies of abuse on the invading gringos.

There was one paisano who excelled all his countrymen in this species of warfare. It is a pity his name has not been preserved in history with that of other famous scolds and kickers. He rode by the side of the advancing column up Main street, firing volleys of invectives and denunciation at the hated gringos. At certain points of his tirade he worked himself up to such a pitch of indignation that language failed him; then he would solemnly go through the motions of "make ready, take aim!" with an old shotgun he carried, but when it came to the order, "fire !" discretion got the better of his valor ; he lowered

his gun and began again, firing invective at the gringo soldiers; his mouth would go off if his gun would not.

Commodore Stockton's headquarters were in the Abila House, the second house on Olvera street, north of the plaza. The building is still standing, but has undergone many changes in fifty years. A rather amusing account was re- cently given me by an old pioneer of the manner in which Commodore Stockton got possession of the house. The widow Abila and her daughters, at the approach of the American army, had aban- doned their home and taken refuge with Don Luis Vignes of the Aliso. Vignes was a French- man and friendly to both sides. The widow left a young Californian in charge of her house (which was finely furnished), with strict orders to keep it closed. Stockton had with him a fine brass band-something new in California. When the troops halted on the plaza, the band began to play. The boyish guardian of the Abila casa could not resist the temptation to open the door and look out. The enchanting music drew him to the plaza. Stockton and his staff, hunting for a place suitable for headquarters, passing by, found the door invitingly open, entered, and, finding the house deserted, took possession. The recreant guardian returned to find himself dis- possessed and the house in possession of the ene- my. "And the band played on."

THE BUILDING OF FORT MOORE.

It is a fact not generally known that there were two forts planned and partially built on Fort Hill during the war for the conquest of Cal- ifornia. The first was planned by Lieut. William H. Emory, topographical engineer of Gen. Kear- ny's staff, and work begun on it by Commodore Stockton's sailors and marines. The second was planned by Lieut. J. W. Davidson, of the First United States Dragoons, and built by the Mor- mon Battalion. The first was not completed and not named. The second was named Fort Moore. Their location seems to have been identical. The first was designed to hold 100 men. The second was much larger. Flores' ariny was supposed to be in the neighborhood of the city ready to make a daslı into it, so Stockton decided to fortify.

"On January 11," Lieut. Emory writes, "I was ordered to select a site and place a fort capable of containing a hundred men. With this in view a rapid reconnoissance of the town was made and the plan of a fort sketched, so placed as to enable a small garrison to command the town and the principal avenues to it. The plan was approved."

"January 12 .- I laid off the work and before night broke the first ground. The population of

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the town and its dependencies is about 3,000;

that of the town itself about 1,500. * * * Here all the revolutions have had their origin, and it is the point upon which any Mexican force from Sonora would be directed. It was therefore desirable to establish a fort which, in case of trouble, should enable a small garrison to hold out till aid might come from San Diego, San Francisco or Monterey, places which are des- tined to become centers of American settle- ments."

"January 13 .- It rained steadily all day and nothing was done on the work. At night I worked on the details of the fort."

"January 15 .- The details to work on the fort were by companies. I sent to Capt. Tilghman, who commanded on the hill, to detach one of the companies under his command to commence the work. He furnished, on the 16th, a company of artillery (seamen from the Congress) for the day's work, which they performed bravely, and gave me great hopes of success."

On the 14th of January, Fremont, with his bat- talion of 450 men, arrived from Cahuenga. There were then about 1,100 troops in the city, and the old ciudad put on military airs. On the 18th Kearny, having quarreled with Stockton about who should be governor of the conquered terri- tory, left for San Diego, taking with him Lieut. Emory and the other members of his staff, and the dragoons. Emory was sent east by way of Panama with dispatches. Stockton appointed Col. Fremont governor, and Col. Russell, of the battalion, secretary of state of the newly acquired territory; and then took his departure to San Diego, where his ship, the Congress, was ly- ing. The sailors and marines, on the 20th, took up their line of march for San Pedro to rejoin their ships, and work on the fort was abandoned.

Lieut. Emory says : "Subsequent to my leav- ing the Ciudad de Los Angeles, the entire plan of the fort was changed, and I am not the pro- jector of the work finally adopted for delense of that town." So far as I know, no plan of the first fort exists. One company of Fremont's bat- talion was left in charge of the city; the command of the battalion was turned over to Capt. Owens, and the other companies marched to San Ga- briel. Fremont, as governor, established his headquarters in the Bell block, corner of Aliso and Los Angeles streets, that being the finest building in the city. The quarrel for superiority between Stockton, Kearny, Mason and Fremont continued and waxed hotter. Kearny had re- moved to Monterey. Col. Cooke, with his Mor- mon battalion, having crossed the plains by the southern route, had arrived and been stationed at San Luis Rey. He was an adherent of Kear- ny's. On the 17th of March Cooke's Mormon

battalion arrived in Los Angeles. Capt. Owens, in command of Fremont's battalion, had moved all the artillery-ten pieces-to the Mission San Gabriel.

Col. Cooke was placed in command of tlie southern district, Fremont's battalion was mus- tered out of service and the artillery brought back to Los Angeles.

On the 20th of April rumors reached Los An- geles that the Mexican general, Bustamente, was advancing on California with a force of 1,500 men. "Positive information," writes Col. Cooke, "has been received that the Mexican government has appropriated $600,000 towards fitting out this force." It was also reported that cannon and military stores had been landed at San Vi- cente, in Lower California, on the coast below San Diego. Rumors of an approaching army came thick and fast. War's wrinkled front once more affrighted the Angeleños, or rather, the gringo portion. The natives were supposed to be in league with Bustamente and to be pre- paring for an insurrection. Precautions were taken against a surprise. A troop of cavalry was sent to Warner's ranch to patrol the Soñora road as far as the desert. The construction of a fort on the hill fully commanding the town, which had previously been determined upon, was begun and a company of infantry posted on the hill.

On the 23d of April, three months after work had ceased on Emory's fort, the construction of the second fort was begun and pushed vigor- ously. Rumors continued to come of the ap- proach of the enemy. On May 3, Col. Cooke writes : "A report was received through the most available sources of information that Gen. Busta- mente had crossed the gulf near the head in boats of the pearl fishers, and at last information was at a rancho on the western road 70 leagues below San Diego." Col. Stevenson's regiment of New York volunteers had arrived in California. and two companies of the volunteers had been sent to Los Angeles. The report that Col. Cooke had received large reinforcements and that the place was being fortified, was supposed to have frightened Bustamente into abandoning the recapture of Los Angeles. Bustamente's in- vading army was largely the creation of some- body's fertile imagination. The scare, however, had the effect of hurrying up work on the fort.

On the 13th of May Col. Cooke resigned and Col. J. B. Stevenson succeeded him in command of the southern military district. Work on the fort still continued. As the fort approached con- pletion, Col. Stevenson was exercised about a suitable flagstaff-there was no tall timber in the vicinity of Los Angeles. The colonel wanted a flagstaff that would be an honor to his field

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works and that would float the old flag where it could be seen of "all men," and women, too. Nothing less than a pole 150 feet high would do.

A native Californian, named Juan Ramirez, was found, who claimed to have seen some trees in the San Bernardino Mountains that were mucho alto-very tall-just what was needed for a flagstaff. A contract was made with him to bring in the timber. The mountain Indians were hostile, or rather, they were horse thieves. The rancheros killed them on sight, like so many rattlesnakes. An escort of ten soldiers from the Mormon battalion, under command of a lieuten- ant, was sent along with Juan to protect him and his workmen. Ramirez, with a small army of Indian laborers and a number of Mexican carts, set out for the headwaters of Mill Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains. Time passed ; the colonel was becoming uneasy over the long absence of the flagstaff hunters. He had not yet become accustomed to the easy-going,' poco tiempo ways of the native Californians. One afternoon a cloud of dust was seen out on the mission road. From out the cloud came the most unearthly shriekings, groanings and wail- ings. At first it was surmised that it might be the fag end of Bustamente's army of invasion that had gotten away from its base of supplies, or possibly the return of a Mexican revolution that had been lost on the plains years ago. As the cloud crossed the river into the Aliso road, Juan Ramirez' cavalcade and its Mormon es- cort emerged from it. They had two tree trunks, one about 90 feet and the other 75 or 80 feet long, mounted on the axles of about a dozen old carretas, each trunk hauled by twenty yoke of oxen, and an Indian driver to each ox (Indi- ans were plentiful in those days). Each wooden wheel of the carts was sending forth its agoniz- ing shrieks for axle grease in a different key from its fellows. Each Indian driver was ex- hausting his vocabulary of invective on his espe- cial ox, and punctuating his profanity by vicious punches with the goad in the poor ox's ribs. The Indian was a cruel driver. The Mormons of the escort were singing one of their interminable songs of Zion-a pean of deliverance from the hands of the Philistines. They had had a fight with the Indians, killed three of the hostiles and had the ears of their victims strung upon a string.

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Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 18

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co. Number of Pages: 1366

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366