USA > California > History of California, Volume XXII > Part 51
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country.' Tyler's Hist., 147. All were delighted when the acting colonel was arrested by a sentinel for not giving the right password. 'The appoint- ment of Smith, even before his character was known, caused a greater gloom throughout the command than the death of Colonel Allen had.' Id., 144. Young's letter affirming Allen's promise to leave the command to Hunt. Id., 135-6. Whether Col Smith had had no experience in travelling with teams, or whether he desired to use up the teams and leave the battalion on the plains helpless, does not appear.' Id., 159. 'It appears that the colonel and surgeon are determined to kill us, first by forced marches to make us sick, then by compelling us to take calomel or to walk and do duty.' Rogers' jour- nal in Id., 100. ' While privates were punished by him for the merest trifles, officers could go where and do what they pleased.' Id., 177. 'And now com- meneed a series of the most trying cruelties. Our commander was not of himself cruel and wicked, but he was weak, and became to a great extent the creature of Dr Sanderson, a rotten-hearted quack that was imposed upon 11s as our surgeon.' Ferguson in Id., 365. Bigler and all the rest confirin the lieutenant's cruelty, weakness, and want of skill.
481
DOCTOR SANDERSON.
from President Young was received, saying: "If you are sick, live by faith, and let surgeons' medicine alone if you want to live." For a time the doctor dealt out his drugs, which the patients put anywhere but down their throats; but presently Sanderson learned how his prescriptions were being treated, and thereafter in some cases obliged the sick to take the potions from an old iron spoon in his presence. The wrath of the soldiers and the troubles of the doctor may be im- agined; the controversy was kept up till the end; and the Mormons were satisfied that all deaths in the bat- talion were due to the surgeon's quackery.11 Indeed, the chief cause of complaint against Smith was his
11 'The surgeon was from Mo., did not belong to our people, and had been heard to say he did not care a damn whether he killed or cured; and for this our sick refused to go at sick-call and take his medicine, and Smith was told, straight up and down, there and then, before we would take Dr Sanderson's medicines we would leave our bones to bleach on the prairie.' Bigler's Diary of a Mormon, MS., 9. Sept. 2d, 'Smith began to show his sympathy for the sick by ordering them out of the wagons, and swore if they did not walk he would tie them to the wagons and drag them.' Id. But Tyler relates that Sergt Williams defended the sick and threatened to knock the colonel down. Tyler's Hist., 144. Young's letter of August 19th on medicine. Id., 146. 'It was customary every morning for the sick to be marched to the tune of "Jim along Joe" to the doctor's quarters, and take their portion from that same old iron spoon,' and the doctor 'threatened with an oath to cut the throat of any man who would administer any medicine without his orders.' Id. The author having a fever begged to be left on the road and reported dead rather than take the drugs. Id., 148. He had to take them, but to neutralize their effect he drank a large quantity of water against the doctor's orders. Id., 150. Alva Phelps was suffering severely. . The doctor prepared his dose and ordered him to take it, which he declined doing, whereupon the doctor with horrid oaths forced it down him with the old rusty spoon. A few hours later he died, and the general feeling was that the doctor had killed him. Many boldly expressed the opinion that it was a case of premeditated murder. When we consider the many murderous threats previously made, the conclu- sion is by no means far-fetched.' That evening a dancing star was noted in the east. Id., 158. All were glad when the doctor left with the advance party of the well, leaving the sick behind. Id., 163.
'A doctor which the government Has furnished proves a punishment. At his rude call of "Jim along Joe" The sick and halt to him must go. Both night and morn this call is heard, Our indignation then is stirred. And we sincerely wish in hell His arsenic and calomel.' Hancock's song on the Desert Route. Id., 183.
To Boyle the doctor 'gave the usual dose-calomel-which he did not swal- low, but consigned it to the flames. The writer and another elder or two were called upon to anoint him with oil and lay hands upon him, and before night he was well.' Id., 209. Calomel gave out and arsenic was sub- stituted long before Cal. was reached. Id., 215. David Smith killed by the doctor's medicines. Id., 274.
HIST. CAL., VOL. V. 31
482
THE MORMON BATTALION.
support of Sanderson; and another, Adjutant Dykes, though a Mormon and a preacher, was regarded as an apostate because he had favored Smith and only mildly opposed the doctor. Says Elder Hyde: "It was plainly manifest that Lieutenant Dykes sought to gain favor of and please the wicked rather than favor his brethren." And Tyler, that "Dykes be- came so notorious for his officious and captious man- ner, that the battalion accorded to him the title of 'accuser of the brethren.'" And another saint: "There are a few like G. P. Dykes that go into error, and who will not do right. Brother Dykes has gone into er- rors and is damned; he has the curse of his brethren upon him for his follies and misdoings."
The route proposed had included Bent's Fort, where supplies were expected and where perhaps the win- ter might be passed; but to gain time the commander decided on a shorter way, much to the displeasure of his men. On the Arkansas River, about the middle of September, many of the families were detached and sent to pass the winter at Pueblo under Captain Hig- gins with a guard of ten men. This division of the battalion was also opposed, as was a later one of Oc- tober 3d, when the stronger half of each company was sent on in advance, leaving the feeble to follow more slowly. The two divisions arrived at Santa Fe the 9th and 12th of October, and were saluted with a hundred guns by order of General Doniphan, an old friend of the Mormons, who were delighted to know that no such honor had been paid to Colonel Sterling Price, their enemy, on his arrival a few days before. From Santa Fé 88 men deemed unfit for prospective hardships were sent back to Pueblo for the winter under Captain Brown and Lieutenant Luddington, and with them went also the laundresses of the bat- talion. Again, on November 10th, after the start from Santa Fé, 55 sick under Lieutenant Willis were detached for Pueblo. Of the 150, more or less, thus left en route, it is only necessary to state that they
483
FROM SANTE FÉ TO CALIFORNIA.
never came to California, but most of them found their way to Salt Lake the next year.
General Kearny had already left Santa Fe for Cal- ifornia with his dragoons, as the reader will remem- ber;12 but he had left Lieutenant-colonel Philip St George Cooke, of the Ist dragoons, with orders to take command of the battalion and open a wagon route to the Pacific by the Gila route. Cooke as- sumed the command the 13th of October. Lieuten- ant Smith became acting commissary of subsistence; Lieutenant George Stoneman, of the 1st dragoons, acting quartermaster instead of Gully, who soon left the service; Lieutenant Merrill, adjutant instead of Dykes, who resumed his place in the company; and James Ferguson was appointed sergeant-major. Ma- jor J. H. Cloud, paymaster U. S. A., accompanied Cooke. Stephen C. Foster, called "doctor" in the narratives, was employed as interpreter. The guides were Weaver, Charbonneau, and Leroux, and a Mr Hall seems to have served in a similar capacity. Dr Sanderson continued his services as surgeon.
For the march from New Mexico to California we have, in addition to Tyler's work and Bigler's diary, the official journals and reports of the commander.13 Of this officer the Mormons speak in favorable terms, describing him as a stern man of forbidding manner, a strict disciplinarian, but impartial in his orders, and
12 See chap. xiii. of this volume.
13 Journal of the march of the Mormon battalion of infantry volunteers, un- der the command of Lieutenant-colonel P. St George Cooke (also captain of dragoons), from Santa Fé, New Mexico, to San Diego, California, kept by him- self by direction of the commanding general of the army of the west, in U. S. Govt Doc., special sess. (30th cong.), Sen. Doc. no. 2, Washington, 1849, Svo, 85 p. This journal extends to Jan. 30, 1847.
Report of Lieut-col P. St George Cooke, of his march from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to San Diego, Upper California (1846-7), in U. S. Govt Doc., 30th cong. Ist sess., H. Ex. Doc. 41, p. 549-63, with a map of the route. This is a report to Gen. Kearny, dated at San Luis Rey Feb. 5, 1847.
The Conquest of New Mexico and California; an historical and personal narrative. By P. St Geo. Cooke, brigadier, brevet major-general, U. S. A. Author of Scenes and Adventures in the Army; or, Romance of Military Life, etc. N. Y. 1878. 12mo. This contains a condensed narrative of the march, with much additional matter, though hardly enough to justify the author in presenting the book as he does in a preface as the 'first historical narrative of the conquest,' and 'a connected and permanent record.'
4S4
THE MORMON BATTALION.
a man of great energy and perseverance. They were delighted that a captain was the first to be put under arrest for failure to comply with the regulations; and they were pleased with some flattering things he said of them in later years. In his journal the colonel says: "The battalion were never drilled, and though obedient, have little discipline; they exhibit great heedlessness and ignorance, and some obstinacy." And in his later work: "Everything conspired to dis- courage the extraordinary undertaking of marching this battalion 1,100 miles, for the much greater part 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 many women; it was undisciplined; it was much worn by travelling on foot and marching from Nauvoo;14 their clothing was very scant; there was no money to pay them or eloth- ing to issue; their mules were utterly broken down; the quartermaster department was without funds, and its credit bad; and mules were searce. Those pro- cured were very inferior, and were deteriorating every hour for lack of forage or grazing. So every prepa- ration must be pushed-hurried."
They started October 19th down the valley, ob- tained such supphes and fresh animals on the way as the inhabitants could be induced to part with for ex- orbitant prices, sent back 58 of the feeblest, as already noted, and the 13th of November left the Rio Grande for the south-west, 340 strong, accompanied by only five women, who were wives of officers and trans- ported at their husbands' expense. The guides de- elared it impossible to follow the Gila route proper, or that taken by Kearny, who had left his wagons behind; and a circuit to the south through Sonora was deter- mined on. The country proved to be almost un- known to the guides, who presently recommended a
14 And by Lieut Smith's tyranny and blunders, and most of all by Dr Sanderson's calomel and arsenic, as the Mormon writers assert.
485
HARDSHIPS OF THE MARCH.
route by Janos and Fronteras; but on learning that Janos lay toward the south-east, Cooke determined to turn to the right, and did so the 21st of Novem- ber, moved thereto, the Mormons believed, by divine interposition; for at the suggestion of Father Pette- grew and Brother Hancock, their spiritual advisers, they sent up fervent prayers the night before "that the Lord might change the colonel's mind," and ac- cordingly that officer ordered a turn to the west, say- ing "he would be damned if he would go round the world to reach California." The way followed was from a point on the Rio Grande in latitude 32' 40', south-westward to San Bernardino on the later bound- ary of the two republies at the corner of four states, westward to the Rio San Pedro, down that stream northward, and thenee west to Tueson, and to Kearny's trail on the Gila.
For infantry with wagons for which they must find or make a road, with worn-out animals and short rations, the journey was much more difficulty than that of Kearny's company, or any that had previously crossed the continent in these latitudes.
" How hard, to starve and wear us out Upon this sandy desert route,"
was the chorus of a song by which the saints relieved their minds along the way. Nothing short of long extraets from the diaries, for which I have no space, would adequately picture their toils, which I do not attempt to catalogue. Their sufferings were, how- ever, less severe than between Fort Leavenworth and Santa Fé, because the families and the feeble had been left behind. On December 11th on the San Pedro there was an exciting battle with a band of wild bulls, described by Levi Hancock in a song, in which affray several men were wounded, including Lieutenant Stoneman, who as I write is governor of California. They were at Tueson in the middle of December, but the town had been abandoned by the garrison and most of the people, though Cooke had
486
THE MORMON BATTALION.
some correspondence with the comandante. The Mexicans began to plan on paper an organization for defence,15 but the Americans did not stay to be anni- hilated. The day after Christmas they were on the Gila, having three days before received a letter from Kearny; on January 8th the junction of the Gila and Colorado was reached; on the 15th news came back of the disaster at San Pascual; and on the 21st the battalion encamped at Warner's rancho, where the Mormons were not inhospitably received.16 News respecting the state of affairs in California, though of vital interest to the new-comers, need not be re- called to the memory of my readers, who are familiar with the situation. Cooke proposed at first to go to Los Angeles, where he thought his aid might be needed; but presently came an order to march to San Diego, where the battalion finally arrived the 29th of January, and where the commander issued next day a congratulatory order, with well merited compliments to the Mormons for the manner in which they had performed their difficult task.17
15 Some correspondence on the subject in El Sonorense, Jan. 1, 8, 1847; as there had been in Id., Oct. 23, 1846, a warning of Kearny's approach.
16 Notwithstanding that, 'unlike the hospitable Pimas, he hid his bread and drove his cattle into the mountains,' as Ferguson remarks. C'ooke, Tyler, and the rest speak not unfavorably of Warner.
17 ' Headquarters Mormon Battalion, Mission of San Diego, Jan. 30, 1847. (Orders no 1.) The lieut-colonel commanding congratulates the battalion on their safe arrival on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and the conclusion of their march of over 2,000 miles. History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry. Half of it has been through a wilderness where nothing but savages and wild beasts are found, or deserts where, for want of water, there is no living creaturc. There, with almost hopeless labor, we have dug deep wells, which the future traveller will enjoy. Without a guide who had traversed them, we have ventured into trackless table-lands where water was not found for several marches. With crowbar and pick and axe in hand, we have worked our way over mountains, which seemed to defy aught save the wild goat, and hewed a passage through a chasm of living rock more narrow than our wagons. To bring these first wagons to the Pacific we have preserved the strength of onr mules by herding them over large tracts, which you have laboriously guarded without loss. The garrison of four presidios of Sonora concentrated within the walls of Tucson gave us no pause. We drove them out with their artillery, but our intercourse with the citizens was unmarked by a single act of injustice. Thus, marching half naked and half fed, and living upon wild animals, we have discovered and made a road of great value to our country. Arrived at the first settlement of California, after a single day's rest, you cheerfully turned off from the ronte to this point of promised repose, to enter upon a campaign, and meet, as we supposed, the
487
GARRISON LIFE.
The war in California was at an end when the bat- talion arrived, and in the garrison life of some six months there is but little that demands notice. The Mormons have always been disposed to overestimate the value of their services during this period, attaching undue importance to the current rumors of impending revolt on the part of the Californians and of the ap- proach of Mexican troops to reconquer the province. They also claim the credit of having enabled Kearny to sustain his authority against the revolutionary pre- tensions of Frémont. The merit of this claim will be apparent to the reader of preceding chapters. But during the interregnum of military occupation a garri- son force was essential, and in this respect, as in their march across the continent, the Mormons did faithful service, giving no cause for unfavorable criticism. Devoting themselves zealously to military drill under the instructions of Cooke and Stoneman, they became so proficient in the manual of arms as to elicit high compliments from Colonel Mason and other regular- army officers. At first the men suffered from want of proper clothing, and for want of other food than fresh beef; but gradually their needs were supplied. They made some complaints of petty wrongs, else had they not been volunteers. Many were sorrowful that inexorable discipline would not allow them to retain their flowing beards to be shown at Salt Lake. Dr Sanderson still prescribed, but only one man was thought by them to have been killed by his drugs. A sentinel was found asleep at his post, but the sen- tence of a court-martial was very mild, and was re- mitted by the colonel-"a specific and direct answer
approach of an enemy; and this, too, without even salt to season your sole subsistence of fresh meat. Lieutenants A. J. Smith and George Stoneman, of the Ist dragoons, have shared and given valuable aid in all these labors. Thus, volunteers, you have exhibited some high and essential qualities of veterans. But much remains undone. Soon you will turn your attention to the drill, to system and order, to forms also, which are all essential to the soldier.'
Tyler, p. 255, says: ' The foregoing order, one of those simple acts of jus- tice so rarely done to Mormons, which was not read until Feb. 4th, six days after it was written, was cheered heartily by the battalion.'
488
THE MORMON BATTALION.
to prayer." The dragoons were stanch friends of the Mormons, but the men of Frémont's battalion were regarded as foes. Doubtless many of the latter, im- migrants from the western states, were hostile, and circulated among the Californians damaging reports on Mormon character; but it is probable that this enmity, especially that of Fremont himself, and the rumored threats to attack the camp and "wipe the saints out of existence," were seen through the glasses of prejudice. It is true that the Californians had formed in advance a very unfavorable opinion of the Mormons, but equally true that the latter by their conduct succeeded in almost entirely removing this feeling. In morals and general deportment they were far superior to other troops in the province, being largely under the control of their religious teachers. Church meetings were held often, and sermons were preached by Captain Hunt, the spiritual guardians Pettegrew and Hancock, or by elders Hyde, Tyler, and others. With a view to the future necessities of themselves and families, they were allowed to hire themselves out as farmers and artisans, and did so to a considerable extent, especially at San Diego, where they burned bricks, dug wells, and made log pumps, to the great advantage of themselves and of the citi- zens. 13
The battalion left San Diego on February 1st, and on the 3d took possession of San Luis Rey, where part of the force was stationed for two months. On the 15th Company B under Captain Hunter was sent to garrison San Diego. At the end of the month Lieutenant Thompson was despatched to the Colorado
18 On the popular feeling against the saints, see Fremont's Court-martial, 233, 242-3, 259-63. In Foster's Angeles in'47, MS., 6-7, 35-41, is found some slight information on the battalion, including a long yarn about some trouble between J. A. Carrillo and the Mormon officers. Seealso, for mention of the arrival, etc., Ripley's War with Mex., i. 489; Griffin's Pap., MS., 23; Cutts' Conq., 69, 209; Julio Cesar, Cosas de Ind., MS., 10-11; Los Angeles Express, Nov. 17, 1871; S. F. Cal. Star, Feb. 6, 1847; Bryant's What I Saw, 416-17; Warren's Mem., 54-5; Hughes' Doniphan's Exped., 244-8; Millennial Star, x. 23-4; xi. 47-8; Tullige's Women of Mormondom, passim.
48
AT SAN DIEGO AND LOS ANGELES.
to bring wagons left there. From the 2d of March Stoneman with his dragoons took the place of Com- pany B at San Diego for two weeks, after which the Mormons resumed the post. News of the assump- tion of the command by Shubrick and Kearny came on the 14th, with Cooke's appointment to the military command in the south; and four days later the main body of the battalion marched to Los Angeles, Lieu- tenant Oman being left at San Luis with thirty-two men until April 6th, when the post was abandoned, and all of the four companies were reunited at the pueblo. At the same time the men petitioned for discharge, but the petition was suppressed by the officers. On the 11th Company C was sent to hold a position already occupied by the dragoons in Cajon pass, and eleven days later Lieutenant Pace was sent with another detachment to relieve the first company; but this force was recalled in haste on the 24th, and the Mormons were set at work building a fort on the hill at Los Angeles in consequence of reports that a Mexican force was approaching. The saints declined on May 4th an offer of discharge on condition of en- listing for five years as dragoons. On the 8th came the first letters from absent families at Council Bluffs and Nauvoo; and the same day Lieutenant Thomp- son was sent with twenty men of Company C against some hostile Indians in the mountains, six of whom were killed, and two of the Mormons wounded with arrows. Next day General Kearny arrived with the New York volunteers and Colonel Stevenson, who succeeded Cooke in command of the southern district. After some efforts to promote a reënlistment of the Mormon volunteers, Kearny departed on the 13th with Cooke, whose resignation had been accepted, and who took with him twelve of the men as a body- guard, three from each company. A small detach- ment was sent to San Pedro on the 10th of June; and next day John Allen, an apostate Mormon, was court-martialled and soon drummed out of camp, as
490
THE MORMON BATTALION.
he had previously been expelled from the church. During the rest of June and the first half of July there is nothing requiring special notice, though there were continued efforts to secure a promise of reënlist- ment. Company B arrived from San Diego on July 15th; next day all were mustered out by Lieutenant Smith in the unceremonial way that might have been expected from the battalion's bête noir of earlier times; a few days sufficed for paying off the men; and on the 20th one company of Mormon volunteers under Captain Daniel C. Davis was mustered into the ser- vice for an additional term of six months.19
There was an earnest effort by the authorities to secure a reenlistment of the battalion for another term of garrison duty. Favorable conditions were offered, and the command was to be given to Captain Hunt. Kearny made a speech on the subject before his departure, and Stevenson was active in the mat- ter under Governor Mason's instructions, visiting the San Diego company in June, and making a speech at Los Angeles on his return. He presented as a strong attraction the privilege of choosing their own officers, with the fact that the Mormon commander would be the third in rank among officers in California, and might become first. The company officers favored the proposition, and urged the men to reenlist as the best means of aiding the cause and their absent fami- lies. The men as a rule had no serious objections; but the religious advisers, the parties really in control, decided adversely. Father Pettegrew thought that duty to the families demanded a return, which would be sanctioned by the church leaders. Elder Hyde
19 Tyler's Hist., passim; Bigler's Diary, MS., contains many details of the experience of Co. Bat S. Diego from March 17th to July 9th. Sergt Hyde and 18 men were posted in the fort on the hill. Religions services were held regularly, Hyde being the preacher; and there was also a ' young men's club' for debate, etc. Capt. Hunter's wife died April 27th. On May 4th six months' pay was received, and chiefly devoted to the purchase of an outfit for return to Salt Lake. Sam. Miles acted as assistant to the alcalde; and on June 24th Lieut Clift was appointed alcalde of the post. The Mormons entirely conquered the original prejudice of the Dieguinos against them, and effected a kind of industrial revolution in the town.
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