USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 9
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" Headquarters, Santa Clara, June 17, 1846." JOSE CASTRO.
"The citizen José Castro, Lieutenant-Colonel of Cavalry in the Mexican Army and Acting Commandant of the Department of California.
" All foreigners residing among us, occupied with their business, may rest assured of the protection of all the authorities of the Department while they refrain entirely fron all revolutionary movements.
" The general comandancia under my charge will never proceed with vigor against any persons; neither will its authority result in mere words, wanting proof to support it. Declarations shall be taken, proofs executed, and the liberty and rights of the laborious, which is ever commendable, shall be pro- tected.
"Let the fortunes of war take its chance with those ungrateful men, who, with arms in their hands, have attacked the country, without recollecting that they were treated by the undersigned with all the indulgence of which he is so characteristic. The imperative inhabitants of the department are witness to the truth of this. I have nothing to fear; my duty Icads me to death or victory. I am a Mexican Soldier, and I will be free and independ- ent, or I will gladly die for those inestimable blessings.
"JOSE CASTRO.
" Headquarters, Santa Clara, June 17, 1846."
On June 20th, a body of about seventy Californians, under Captain José Joaquin de la Torre, crossed the bay of San Francisco, and being joined by Correo and Padea, marched to the vicinity of San Rafael, while Genera! Castro had, by the utmost pressure, raised his forces to two hundred and fifty men, most of them being forced volunteers. Of this system of recruit- ing Lieutenant Revere says: "I heard that on a feast day, when the
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rancheros came to the mission in their 'go-to-meeting' clothes, with their wives and children, Castro seized their horses, and foreed the men to volunteer in defense of their homes, against los Sulvages Americanos." Castro, at the head of his army, on the evening of the 27th of June, marched ont of Santa Clara, and proceeding around the head of the Bay of San Francisco, as far as the San Leandro creek, halted on the raneho of Estndillo, where we shall leave them for the present.
Captain J. C. Fremont having conelnded that it had become his duty to take a personal part in the revolution which he had fostered, on June 21st transferred his impedimenta to the safe keeping of Captain Sutter at the fort, and recrossing the American river, encamped on the Sinclair rancho, where he was joined by Pearson B. Redding and all the trappers about Sutter's Fort, and there awaited orders. On the afternoon of the 23d, Harrison Pierce, who had settled in the Napa valley in 1843, came into their camp, having ridden the eighty miles with but one change of horses, which he procured from John R. Wolfskill, on Putah ereek, now Solano county, and conveyed to Fremont the intelligence that the little garrison at Sonoma was greatly excited, consequent on news received that General Castro, with a considerable foree, was advaneing on the town and hurling threats of recap- ture and hanging of the rebels. On receiving the promise of Fremont to come to their rescne as soon as he could put ninety men into the saddle, Pierce obtained a fresh mount, and returned without drawing rein to the anxious garrison, who received him and his message with every demonstration of joy. Fremont having found horses for his ninety mounted rifles left the Sinelair rancho on June 23d-a eurious looking cavalcade, truly. One of the party writes of them :-
"There were Americans, French, English, Swiss, Poles, Russians, Prussians, Chileans, Germans, Greeks, Austrians, Pawnees, native Indians, ete., all riding side by side and talking a polyglot lingual hash never exceeded in diversibility since the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel.
: "Some wore the relies of their home-spun garments, some relied upon the antelope and the bear for their wardrobe, some lightly habited in buek- skin leggings and a coat of war-paint, and their weapons were equally various.
" There was the grim old hunter with his long heavy rifle, the farmer with his double-barreled shot-gun, the Indian with his bow and arrows; and others with horse-pistols, revolvers, sabres, ships' entlasses, bowie-knives and 'pepper- boxes' (Allen's revolvers)."
Though the Bear Flag army was incongruous in personnel, as a body it was composed of the best fighting material. Each of them was inured to hardship and privation, self-reliant, fertile in resources, versed in woodcraft and Indian fighting, accustomed to handle firearms, and full of energy and daring. It was a band of hardy adventurers, such as in an earlier age wrested
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this land from the feebler aborigines. With this band Fremont arrived at Sonoma at two o'clock on the morning of June 25, 1846, having made forced marches.
The reader may not have forgotten the capture and horrible butchery of Cowie and Fowler by the Padilla party. A few days thereafter, while William L. Todd (the artist of the Bear flag) was trying to catch a horse at a little distance from the barracks at Sonoma, he was captured by the same gang, and afterwards falling in with another man, he too was taken prisoner. The party several times signified their intention of slaying Todd, but he for- tunately knowing something of the Spanish tongue was enabled to make them understand that his death would seal General Vallejo's doom, which saved him. He and his companion in misfortune, with whom he had no opportun- ity to converse, but who appeared like an Englishman-a half fool and com- mon loafer -- were conveyed to the Indian rancherie called Olompali, some eight miles from Petaluma.
For the purpose of liberating the prisoners and keeping the enemy in check, until the arrival of Captain Fremont, Lieutenant Ford mustered a squad, variously stated at from twenty to twenty-three men, among whom were Granville P. Swift, Samuel Kelsey, William Baldridge, and Frank Bedwell, and on June 23d, taking with them the two prisoners, Blas Angelina and Three-fingered Jack from Sonoma, marched for where it was thought the Cal- ifornians had established their headquarters. Here they learned from some Indians, under considerable military pressure, that the Californian troops had left three hours before. They now partook of a hasty meal, and with one of the Indians as guide, proceeded towards the Laguna de San Antonio, and that night halted within half a mile of the enemy's camp. At dawn they charged the place, took the only men they found there prisoners; their number was four, the remainder having left for San Rafael.
Four men were left here to guard their prisoners and horses, Ford, with four- teen others starting in pursuit of the enemy. Leaving the lagoon of San Anto- nio, and having struck into the road leading into San Rafael, after a quick ride of four miles, they came in sight of the house where the Californians had passed the night with their two prisoners, Todd and his companion, and were then within its walls enjoying themselves. Ford's men were as ignorant of their proximity. as the Californians were of theirs. However, when the advanced guard arrived in sight of the corral, and perceiving it to be full of horses, with a number of Indian vacqueros around it, they made a brilliant dash to prevent the animals from being turned loose. While exulting over their good fortune at this unlooked for addition to their cavalry arm, they were surprised to see the Californians rush out of the house and mount their already saddled quadrupeds. It should be said that the house was situated on the edge of a plain, some sixty yards from a grove of brushwood. In a moment Ford formed his men into two half companies and charged the enemy,
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who, perceiving the movement, retreated behind the grove of trees. From his position Ford counted them and found that there were eighty-five. Not- withstanding he had but fourteen in his ranks, nothing daunted, he dismounted his men, and taking advantage of the protection offered by the brushwood, prepared for action. The Californians observing this evolution became emboldened and prepared for a charge; on this, Ford calmly awaited the attack, giving stringent orders that his rear rank should hold their fire until the enemy were well up. On they came with shouts, the brandishing of swords and the flash of pistols, nntil within thirty yards of the Americans, whose front rank then opened a withering fire and emptied the saddles of eight of the Mexican soldiery. On receiving this volley the enemy wheeled to the right-about and made a break for the hills, while Ford's rear rank played upon them at long range, causing three more to bite the earth, and wounding two others. The remainder retreated helter-skelter to a hill in the direction of San Rafael, leaving the two prisoners in the house. Ford's little force hav- ing now attained the object of their expedition, secured their prisoners-of-war, and going to the corral where the enemy had a large drove of horses, changed their jaded nags for fresh ones, took the balance, some four hundred, and retraced their victorious steps to Sonoma, where they were heartily welcomed by their anxious countrymen, who had feared for their safety.
We last left Captain Fremont at Sonoma, where he had arrived at 2 A. M. of the 25th June. After giving his men and horses a short rest, and receiv- ing a small addition to his force, he was once more in the saddle and started for San Rafael, where it was said that Castro had joined de la Torre with two hundred and fifty men. At four o'clock in the afternoon they came in sight of the position thought to be occupied by the enemy. This they approached cau- tiously until quite close, then charged, the three first to enter being Fremont, Kit Carson, and J. W. Marshall, (the future discoverer of gold), but they found the lines occupied by only four men, Captain Torre having left some three hours previously. Fremont camped on the ground that night, and on the following morning, the 26th, dispatched scouting parties, while the main body remained at San Rafael for three days. Captain Torre had departed, no one knew whither; he left not a trace; but General Castro was seen from the commanding hills behind, approaching on the other side of the bay. One evening a scout brought in au Indian on whom was found a letter from Torre to Castro, purporting to inform the latter that he would. that night, concentrate his forces and march upon Sonoma and attack it in the morning.
Captain Gillespie and Lieutenant Ford held that the letter was a ruse designed for the purpose of drawing the American forces back to Sonoma, and thus leave an avenne of escape open for the Californians. Opinions on the subject were divided; however, by midnight every man of them was in Sonoma. It was afterwards known that they had passed the night within a
6
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mile of Captain de la Torre's camp, who, on ascertaining the departure of the revolutionists effected his escape to Santa Clara via Saucelito.
On or about the 26th of June, Lieutenant Joseph W. Revere, of the sloop- of-war "Portsmouth," in company with Dr. Andrew A. Henderson, and a boat load of supplies, arrived at Sutter's Fort; there arriving also on the same day a number of men from Oregon, who at once cast their lot with the " Bear Flag" party, while on the 28th, another boat with Lieutenants Washington and Bartlett put in an appearance.
Of this visit of Lieutenant Revere to what afterwards became Sacramento city, he says :--
"On arriving at the 'Embarcadero' (landing) we were not surprised to find a mounted guard of 'patriots,' who had long been apprised by the Indians that a boat was ascending the river. These Indians were indeed important auxiliaries to the revolutionists during the short period of strife between the parties contending for the sovereignty of California. Having been most cru- elly treated by the Spanish race, murdered even, on the slightest provocation, when their oppressors made marauding expeditions for servants, and when captured compelled to labor for their unsparing task-masters, the Indians throughout the country hailed the day when the hardy strangers from beyond the Sierra Nevada rose up in arms against the hijos de pais (sons of the country). Entertaining an exalted opinion of the skill and prowess of the Americans, and knowing from experience that they were of a milder and less sanguinary character than the rancheros, they anticipated a complete deliver- ance from their burdens, and assisted the revolutionists to the full extent of their humble abilities.
"Emerging from the woods lining the river, we stood upon a plain of immense extent, bounded on the west by the heavy timber which marks the course of the Sacramento, the dim outline of the Sierra Nevada appearing in the distance. We now came to some extensive fields of wheat in full bear- ing, waving gracefully in the gentle breeze, like the billows of the sea, and saw the white-washed walls of the fort, situated on a small eminence com- manding the approaches on all sides.
" We were met and welcomed by Captain Sutter and the officer in com- mand of the garrison; but the appearance of things indicated that our recep- tion would have been very different had we come on a hostile errand.
"The appearance of the fort, with its crenated walls, fortified gate-way and bastioned angles; the heavily-bearded, fierce-looking hunters and trap- pers, armed with rifles, bowie-knives and pistols; their ornamented hunting shirts and gartered leggings; their long hair turbaned with colored handker- chiefs; their wild and almost savage looks and dauntless and independent bearing; the wagons filled with golden grain; the arid, yet fertile plains; the caballados driven across it by wild, shouting Indians, enveloped in clouds of dust, and the dashing horsemen scouring the fields in every direction; all
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these accessories conspired to carry me back to the Romantic East, and I could almost fancy again that I was once more the guest of some powerful Arab chieftain, in his desert stronghold. Everything bore the impress of vig- ilance and preparation of defense, and not without reason, for Castro, then at the Pueblo de San Jose, with a force of several hundred men, well provided with horses and artillery, had threatened to march upon the valley of the Sacramento.
" The fort consists of a parellelogram, enclosed by adobe walls fifteen feet high and two thick, with bastions or towers at the angles, the walls of which are four feet thick, and their embrasures so arranged as to flank the curtain on all sides. A good house occupies the center of the interior area, serving for officers' quarters, armories, guard and state rooms, and also for a kind of . citadel. There is a second wall on the inner face, the space between it and the outer wall being roofed and divided into workshops, quarters, etc., and the usual offices are provided, and also a well of good water. Corrals for the cattle and horses of the garrison are conveniently placed where they can be under the eye of the guard. Cannon frown from the various embrasures, and the ensemble presents the very ideal of a border fortress. It must have 'astonished the natives' when this monument of the white man's skill arose from the plain and showed its dreadful teeth in the midst of those peaceful solitudes.
" I found during this visit that General Vallejo and his companions were rigorously guarded by the 'patriots, but I saw him and had some conversa- tion with him, which it was easy to see excited a very ridiculous amount of suspicion on the part of his vigilant jailors, whose position, however, as revo- lutionists was a little ticklish and excited in them that distrust which in dan- gerous times is inseparable from low and ignorant minds. Indeed, they car- ried their doubts so far as to threaten to shoot Sutter for being polite to his captives."
Fremont having with his men partaken of the early meal, on the morning of the 27th June returned to San Rafael, after being absent only twenty- four hours.
Castro, who had been for three days watching the movements of Fremont from the other side of the bay, sent three men, Don José Reyes Berryesa, (a retired Sergeant of the Presidio Company of San Francisco), and Ramon and Francisco de Haro (twin sons of Don Francisco de Haro, Alcalde of San Francisco in 1838-39), to reconnoiter, who landed on what is now known as Point San Quentin. On landing they were seized with their arıns, and on them were found written orders from Castro to Captain de la Torre, (who it was not known had made his escape to Santa Clara) to kill every foreign man, woman and child. These men were shot on the spot; first as spies, second in retaliation for the Americans so cruelly butchered by the Californians. Gen- eral Castro, fearing that he might, if caught, share the fate of his spies, left
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the rancho of the Estudillos, and after a hasty march arrived at the Santa Clara Mission on June 29, 1846.
Captain William D. Phelps, of Lexington, Massachusetts, who was lying at Saucelito with his bark, the "Moscow," remarks, says Mr. Lancey :-
" When Fremont passed San Rafael in pursuit of Captain de la Torre's party, I had just left them, and he sent me word that he would drive them to Saucelito that night, when they could not escape unless they got my boats. I hastened back to the ship and made all safe. There was a large launch lying near the beach; this was anchored further off, and I put provisions on board to be ready for Fremont should he need her. At night there was not a boat on the shore. Torre's party must shortly arrive and show fight or surrender. Towards morning we heard them arrive, and to our surprise they were seen passing with a small boat from the shore to the launch; (a small boat had arrived from Yerba Buena during the night which had proved their salvation). I dispatched a note to the commander of the 'Portsmouth,' sloop-of-war, then lying at Yerba Buena, a cove (now San Francisco), inform- ing him of their movements, and intimating that a couple of his boats could easily intercept and capture them. Captain Montgomery replied that not having received any official notice of war existing he could not act in the matter.
"It was thus the poor scamps escaped. They pulled clear of the ship and thus escaped supping on grape and canister which we had prepared for them.
"Fremont arrived and encamped opposite my vessel, the bark, 'Moscow,' the following night. They were early astir the next morning when I land "} to visit Captain Fremont, and were all variously employed in taking care of their horses, mending saddles, cleaning their arms, etc. I had not up to this time seen Fremont, but from reports of his character and exploits my imag- ination had painted him as a large sized, martial looking man or personage, towering above his companions, whiskered and ferocious looking.
"I took a survey of the party, but could not discovery any one who looked, as I thought the captain to look. Seeing a tall, lank, Kentucky-looking chap (Doctor R. Semple), dressed in a greasy deer-skin hunting shirt, with trowsers to match, and which terminated just below the knees, his head sur- mounted by a coon-skin cap, tail in front, who, I supposed, was an officer, as he was given orders to the men. I approached and asked him if the captain was in camp. He looked and pointed out a slender-made, well-proportioned man sitting in front of a tent. His dress was a blue woolen shirt of some- what novel style, open at the neck, trimmed with white, and with a star on each point of the collar (a man-of-war's man's shirt), over this a deer-skin hunting shirt, trimmed and fringed, which had evidently seen hard times or service, his head unencumbered by hat or cap, but had a light cotton hand- kerchief bound around it, and deer-skin moccasins completed the suit, which if not fashionable for Broadway, or for a presentation dress at court, struck
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me as being an excellent rig to scud under or fight in. A few minutes' con- versation convinced me that I stood in the presence of the King of the Rocky Mountains."
Captain Fremont and his men remained at Saucelito until July 2d, when they left for Sonoma, and there prepared for a more perfect organization, their plan being to keep the Californians to the southern part of the State until the immigrants then on their way had time to cross the Sierra Nevada into Cal- ifornia. On the 4th the National Holiday was celebrated with due pomp; while on the 5th, the California Battalion of Mounted Riflemen, two hundred and fifty strong, was organized. Brevet-Captain John C. Fremont, Second Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, was chosen Commandant; First Lieutenant of Marines, Archibald H. Gillespie, Adjutant and Inspector, with the rank of Captain. Says Fremont :---
"In concert and in co-operation with the American settlers, and in the brief space of thirty days, all was accomplished north of the Bay of San Francisco, and independence declared on the 5th of July. This was done at Sonoma where the American settlers had assembled. I was called by my position and by the general voice to the chief direction of affairs, and on the 6th of July, at the head of the mounted riflemen, set out to find Castro.
" We had to make the circuit of the head of the bay, crossing the Sacra- mento river (at Knight's Landing). On the 10th of July, when within ten miles of Sutter's Fort, we received (by the hands of William Scott) the joyful intelligence that Commodore John Drake Sloat was at Monterey and had taken it on the 7th of July, and that war existed between the United States and Mexico. Instantly we pull down the flag of Independence (Bear Flag) and rau up that of the United States amid general rejoicing and a national salute of twenty-one guns on the morning of the 11th, from Sutter's Fort, from a brass four-pounder called "Sutter."
We find that at two o'clock on the morning of July 9th, Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere, of the " Portsmouth," left that ship in one of her boats, and reaching the garrison at Sonoma, did at noon of that day haul down the Bear Flag and raise in its place the stars and stripes; and at the same time forwarded one to Sutter's Fort by the hands of William Scott, and another to Captain Stephen Smith at Bodega. Thus ended what was called the Bear Flag War.
The following is the Mexican account of the Bear Flag war :--
"About a year before the commencement of the war a band of adventurers, proceeding from the United States, and scattering over the vast territory of California, awaited only the signal of their Government to take the first step
NOTE .- We find that it is still a moot question as to who actually brought the first news of the war to Fremont. The honor is claimed by Harry Bee and John Daubenbiss, who are stated to have gone by Livermore and there met the gallant colonel; but the above quoted observa- tions purport to he Colonel Fremont's own.
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in the contest for usurpation. Various acts committed by these adventurers in violation of the laws of the country indicated their intentions. But unfor- tunately the authorities then existing, divided among themselves, neither desired nor knew how to arrest the tempest. In the month of July, 1846, Captain Fremont, an engineer of the U. S. A., entered the Mexican territory with a few mounted riflemen under the pretext of a scientific commission, and solicited and obtained from the Commandant-General, D. José Castro, per- mission to traverse the country. Three months afterwards, on the 19th of May (June 14th), that same force and their commander took possession by armed force, and surprised the important town of Sonoma, seizing all the artillery, ammunition, armaments, etc., which it contained.
"The adventurers scattered along the Sacramento river, amounting to about four hundred, one hundred and sixty men having joined their force. They proclaimed for themselves and on their own authority the independence of California, raising a rose-colored flag with a bear and a star. The result of this scandalous proceeding was the plundering of the property of some Mexi- cans and the assassination of others-three men shot as spies by Fremont, who, faithful to their duty to the country, wished to make resistance. The Commandant-General demanded explanations on the subject of the Comman- der of an American ship-of-war, the "Portsmouth," anchored in the Bay of San Francisco; and although it was positively known that munitions of war, arms and clothing were sent on shore to the adventurers, the Commander, J. B. Montgomery, replied that "neither the Government of the United States nor the subalterns had any part in the insurrection, and that the Mexican authorities ought, therefore, to punish its authors in conformity with the laws.'"
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