USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California : including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description > Part 13
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"JOSÉ CASTRO.
" Head-quarters, Santa Clara, June 17th, 1846."
Fremont, who had held communication with the leaders of the Bear Flag faction, now concluded that it had become his duty to take a personal part in the revolution which he had fostered, therefore on June 21st he trans- ferred his impedimenta to the safe-keeping of Captain Sutter at the fort, re-crossed 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 Napa valley in 1843, came into their camp, having ridden the eighty intervening miles with but one change of horses, and conveyed to Fremont the intelligence that the little garrison of Sonoma was greatly excited consequent on news received that General Castro, with a considerable force, was advancing on the town and hurling threats of recapture and hang- ing of the rebels. To promise to come to their rescue as soon as he could place ninety men in the saddle, was to Fremont, the work of a moment, and on June 23d, he made a forward movement with his mounted rifles who formed a curious looking cavalcade. One of the party writes of them :-
" There were Americans, French, English, Swiss, Poles, Russians, Prussians, Chilenians, Germans, Greeks, Austrians, Pawnees, native Indians, etc., all rid- ing side by side and talking a polyglot lingual hash never exceeded in diversi- bility since the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel.
" Some wore the relics of their homespun garments, some relied upon the antelope and the bear for their wardrobe, some lightly habited in buckskin 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
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with horse-pistols, revolvers, sabers, ships' cutlasses, bowie-knives and 'pep- per-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 wooderaft and Indian fighting, accustomed to handle fire-arms, and full of energy and daring. It was a band of hardy adventurers, such as in an earlier age wrested this land from the feeble Aborigines. With this party Fremont arrived in Sonoma, at two o'clock, on the morning of June 25th, having made forced marches. Castro, however, had not carried out his threat, but plac- idly remained in the San José valley, the valiant captain being carefully guarded by his equally valiant soldiers.
About this time a small party, intended for service under the Bear Flag had been recruited by Captain Thomas Fallon, then of Santa Cruz but after- wards, for many years, a resident of San José. This company, which con- sisted of only twenty-two men, crossed the Santa Cruz mountains, entered the Santa Clara valley at night and called a halt about three miles south of San José, near the rancho of Grove C. Cook. Here Fallon learned that Castro was close at hand with a force of some two hundred men, therefore, acting on the principle of discretion being the better part of valor, he fell back into the mountains and there encamped. It will thus be seen that Castro still had command of this portion of the country. At sunset of the 27th June, placing himself at the head of his army, he marched out of Santa Clara to chastise the Sonoma insurgents. Passing around the head of San Francisco bay he attained the San Leandro creek whence he dispatched three men to cross the bay in boats to reconnoitre, who being captured, were shot. The eldest of these was Don Jose Reyes Berreyessa, a retired Sergeant of the Pre- sidio of San Francisco. In 1834 he took up his residence on the Rancho de la Cañada de los Capitancillos which was granted him by Governor Alva- rado in 1837, and upon which is situated the New Almaden mine. Castro, on finding that his men did not return, feared the like fate for himself, he there- fore retraced his steps to the Santa Clara Mission, where he arrived on the 29th after a prodigious expedition of two days' duration,
In the meantime great events had been occurring without. War had been declared by the United States against Mexico; General Scott had carried on a series of brilliant exploits which resulted in the capture of the Mexican Capital, and Commodore John Drake Sloat had hoisted the Ameri- can ensign at Monterey, July 7, 1846.
Two days later than the last-mentioned date, there might have been observed a solitary horseman urging his animal, as if for bare life, through the then almost impassable gorges of the Santa Cruz mountains, and across the wide expanse of the Santa Clara valley. From his pre-occupied
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air, it could be remarked that he bore a weighty burden upon his shoulders, and still he pressed his jaded steed, whose gored sides and dilated nostrils gave evidence of being pushed to his utmost. Erelong both come to a halt, within the open space fronting the Justice Hall in San José. With a wave of his cap, our traveler announces to his compatriots the welcome intelli- gence of the glory of American arms; he hastily asks of the whereabouts of the General, whom he at once seeks ; he finds him enjoying his otium cum dignitate in the seclusion of his well-appointed quarters, and here the dusty voyager, Henry Pitts, delivers into the hands of the redoubtable soldier, José Castro, the dispatch which tells him of the defeat of Mexican arms, and the ascendency of the United States forces. With moody brow he breaks the seal; he calls forth his men, mounts at their head, forms line in front of the Juzgado, on Market street, and then exclaiming, " Monterey is taken by the Americans !" proceeded to read, in Spanish, the proclamation of Commodore Sloat, of which the annexed is a translation :-
" To the Inhabitants of California-
" The central troops of Mexico having commenced hostilities against the United States of America, by invading its territory, and attacking the troops of the United States, stationed on the north side of the Rio Grande, and with a force of seven thousand men, under the command of General Arista, which army was totally destroyed, and all their artillery, baggage, etc., captured, on the eighth and ninth of May last, by a force of twenty- three hundred men, under the command of General Taylor, and the city of Matamoras taken and occupied by the forces of the United States, and the two nations being actually at war by this transaction, I shall hoist the standard of the United States at Monterey, immediately, and shall carry it through California.
" I declare to the inhabitants of California, that although I come in arms with a powerful force, I do not come among them as an enemy to California ; on the contrary, I come as their best friend, as henceforth California will be a portion of the United States, and its peaceable inhabitants will enjoy the same rights and privileges they now enjoy, together with the privilege of choosing their own magistrates and other officers for the administration of justice among themselves, and the same protection will be extended to them as to any other State in the Union. They will also enjoy a permanent government, under which life, and property, and the constitutional right and lawful security to worship the Creator in the way most congenial to each one's sense of duty will be secured, which, unfortunately, the Central Government of Mexico cannot afford them, destroyed as her resources are by internal factions and corrupt officers, who create constant revolutions to promote their own interest and oppress the people. Under the flag of the United States, California will be free from all such troubles and expenses ;
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consequently, the country will rapidly advance and improve, both in agri- culture and commerce; as, of course, the revenue laws will be the same in California as in all other parts of the United States, affording them all manufactures and produce of the United States free of any duty, and for all foreign goods at one-quarter the duty they now pay. A great increase in the value of real estate and the products of California may be anticipated.
" With the great interest and kind feelings I know the Government and people of the United States possess toward the citizens of California, the country cannot but improve more rapidly than any other on the conti- nent of America.
" Such of the inhabitants, whether natives or foreigners, as may not be disposed to accept the high privileges of citizenship, and to live peacefully under the Government of the United States, will be allowed time to dispose of their property, and remove out of the country, if they choose, without any restriction; or remain in it, observing strict neutrality.
" With full confidence in the honor and integrity of the inhabitants of the country, I invite the Judges, Alcaldes, and other civil officers, to execute their functions as heretofore, that the public tranquility may not be disturbed, at least, until the government of the Territory can be definitely arranged.
" All persons holding titles to real estate, or in quiet possession of lands under color of right, shall have these titles guaranteed to them.
" All churches, and the property they contain, in possession of the clergy of California, shall continue in the same right and possession they now enjoy.
"All provisions and supplies of every kind furnished by the inhabi- tants for the use of the United States ships and soldiers, will be paid for at fair rates; and no private property will be taken for public use without just compensation at the moment. " JOHN D. SLOAT,
"Commander-in Chief of the U. S. Naval Force in the Pacific ocean."
The reading of the foregoing concluded, Castro is said to have exclaimed, " What can I do with a handful of men against the United States? I am going to Mexico! All you who wish to follow me, right-about-face! All that wish to remain can go to their homes!" Only a very few chose to follow the Don into Mexico, whither he proceeded on that same day, first taking prisoner Captain Charles M. Weber, out of his store in San José, and not releasing him until they arrived at Los Angeles.
Upon hearing of Castro's departure, Captain Fallon, who the reader may remember we saw encamped in the Santa Cruz mountains, left his rendez- vous, marched into the town of San Jose, seized the Juzgado, and arrested Dolores Pacheco, the Alcalde, whom he caused to surrender the keys and pueblo archives as well, and appointed James Stokes Justice of the
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Peace. On the 13th he hoisted an American ensign on the flagstaff in front of the Court House, when for the first time did the Star Spangled Banner wave in the county. While in San Jose Fallon had the following corres- pondence with Captain Montgomery, stationed at Yerba Buena (San Fran- cisco) :-
" U. S. SHIP PORTSMOUTH, " Yerba Buena, July 13, 1846. )
" Sir : I have just received your letter, with a copy of Mr. James Stokes' appointment as Justice of the Peace at the pueblo; also, a dispatch from the Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Naval Forces, at Monterey, for which I thank you. By the bearer of them, I return a dispatch for Commodore Sloat, which I hope you 'will have an opportunity of forwarding to Monterey.
" I received your letter of July 12th, and wrote to you, by the bearer of it, on the 13th, in answer, advising you by all means to hoist the flag of the United States at the Pueblo of St. Joseph, as you expressed to do, if you had sufficient force to maintain it there; of course you will understand that it is * not again to be hauled down.
"Agreeable to your request, I send you a proclamation of the Commander- in-Chief, in both languages, which I shall be glad to have distributed as far and generally as possible; and be pleased to assure all persons of the most perfect security from injuries to their persons and property, and endeavor, by every means in your power, to inspire them with confidence in the exist- ing authorities and Government of the United States.
" I am, sir, respect'y your ob't servant, JNO. B. MONTGOMERY, " Commandiny U. S. Ship Portsmouth.
" To Capt. Thos. Fallon, Pueblo of St. Joseph, Upper California."
" U. S. SHIP PORTSMOUTH, " Yerba Buena, July 18, 1846. 5
"Sir: I have just received your letter with the official dispatch from Commodore Sloat, which has been accidentally delayed one day in its trans- mission from pueblo, and am much obliged to you for sending it to me.
"I am gratified to hear that you have hoisted the flag of our country, and cannot but feel assured, as I certainly hope, that your zealous regard for its honor and glory will lead you nobly to defend it there.
"I am, sir, your ob't servant, JNO. B. MONTGOMERY, Commander. " To Capt. Thos. Fallon at the Pueblo, San Jose, Upper California."
Let us now make a slight retrograde movement so that the relative posi- tions of the parties may be ascertained.
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
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receiving 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 cautiously 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 par- ties 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 an 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 avenue 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 mile of Captain de la Torre's camp, who, on ascertaining the departure of the revolutionists effected his escape to Santa Clara via Saucelito.
Fremont having, with his men, partaken of an early meal, on the morning of the 27th June returned to San Rafael, after being absent only twenty - four hours, proceeded to Saucelito, there remained until July 2d, when he returned to Sonoma, and here prepared a more perfect organization. On the Fourth, the national holiday was celebrated with becoming pomp, and on the fifth the California Battalion of mounted riflemen, two hundred and fifty strong, was formed; Brevet-Captain John C. Fremont, Second Lieu- tenant of Topographical Engineers, was chosen Commandant; First Lieuten- ant of Marines, Archibald A. Gillespie, Adjutant and Inspector with the rank of Captain. Says Fremont :-
"In concert and co-operation with the American settlers, and in the brief space of thirty days, all was accomplished north of the Bay of San Fran- cisco, and independence declared on the fifth 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 sixth of July, at the head of the mounted riflemen, set out to find Castro."
Their route caused them to make circuit of the head of the Bay of San Fran- cisco, crossing the Sacramento river at Knight's Landing, and thence proceeding
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down the valley of the San Joaquin, found themselves at the San Juan Mis- sion, where Fremont was joined by Captain Fallon, whose company had been disbanded in Monterey, and sailed at once in the U. S. ship Cyane for San Diego to ent off Castro's retreat, who had united with Pio Pico, giving them a combined force of six hundred.
The Indians of the San Joaquin valley had, during the year 1846, com- meneed to be such a source of annoyance to the residents in the district that in the month of April complaint had been made to the Departmental Assem- bly, but up to July nothing had been done. On the ninth of that month, wishing to intercept Captain Fremont, Captain Montgomery penned the following letter to that officer :-
"U. S. SHIP PORTSMOUTH, "Yerba Buena, July 9, 1846. 5
"Sir: Last evening I was officially notified of the existence of war between the United States and the Central Government of Mexico, and have this morning taken formal possession of this place, and hoisted the flag in town. Commodore Sloat, who took possession of Monterey on the 7th instant, has directed me to notify you of this change in the political con- dition of things in California, and to request your presence at Monterey, with a view to future arrangements and co-operations, at as early a period as possible.
" I forwarded at two o'clock this morning a dispatch from Commodore Sloat to the Commandant at Sonoma, with an American flag for their use, ' should they stand in the need of one. Mr. Watmough, who will hand you this, will give you all the news.
" Very respectfully, etc.,
JNO. B. MONTGOMERY.
"To Captain J. C. Fremont, Top. Engineer, Santa Clara."
On the same day the following order was given to purser James H. Wat- mough by Captain Montgomery :-
" Sir : You will proceed to Santa Clara, and to the Pueblo, if necessary, in order to intercept Captain Fremont, now on his march from the Sacra- mento; and on meeting, please hand him the accompanying communication, after which you will return to this place, without delay, and report to me."
Whether he delivered his dispatch to Fremont then is uncertain, the pre- sumption is that he did, and that on reporting such to Captain Montgomery, also the state of affairs in regard to the Indians in the valley of the San Joaquin, he was instructed to occupy San Jose with the thirty-five marines who had accompanied him as an escort, for we find that the gallant Purser established his head-quarters in the Juzgado, added some volunteers to his forces, and, in the month of August, with thirty marines and about the same number of volunteers, crossed the mountains and met a party of a hundred Indians, which he drove back into their own valley. After doing
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much to allay the excitement which then existed, his command was with- drawn in the month of October.
Such was the military enthusiasm of the period that it was not as difficult as it might be to-day to recruit an armed force. In October, Charles M. Weber and John M. Murphy were commissioned by Commander Hull of the U. S. Sloop-of-war Warren, in command of the Northern District of Cali- fornia, as Captain and Lieutenant respectively in the land forces. They quickly raised a company of scouts, which had their head-quarters in the adobe building to the rear of Frank Lightston's residence. And this recruit- ing spirit was not confined to the settler, for as soon as immigrants arrived at Sutter's Fort, they were visited at once by Captain Granville Swift of Fremont's battalion and asked to volunteer, which several of them did. Among these was Joseph Aram, familiarly known in San José. He was commissioned by Fremont as Captain, and told to proceed with some of the immigrant families to the Santa Clara Mission rather than to San José, for there were more houses there, but such was their state, and owing to the inclement Winter, the unfortunate women and children suffered terribly and no less than fourteen of them died. Captain Aram had managed to form a company of thirty-two men, whose head-quarters he established at Santa Clara for the purpose of protecting the families there; he thereupon essayed to place the mission in a suitable state of defense, by constructing barricades, built principally of wagons, and the branches of trees, for he had learned that Colonel Sanchez and a body of mounted Californians were hovering in the vicinity. In the month of November, San Jose was formed into a mili- tary post and sixty inen with Messrs. Watmough and Griffin, under Lieuten- ant Pinkney of the U. S. Ship Savannah, sent to protect the inhabitants in the district. This force left Yerba Buena early on the morning of the 1st, and proceeding by the ship's boats up the bay, about sunset, made fast to the shore and that night camped on the site of the present town of Alviso. Dawn of the next day found Lieutenant Pinkney and his command on the route, and after a weary march, for muskets, bayonets, cartridges, provisions and blankets had to be transported on the men's backs, arrived that after- noon at San José, when he immediately took possession of the Juzgado, converted it into a barrack, placed a sentry on the Guadalupe bridge, and ordered a guard to patrol the streets throughout the night. He dug a ditch around the Juzgado of two feet in depth and one in width, at about sixty feet therefrom in which he drove pickets seven or eight feet long. On the outside thereof he dug a five feet wide, and four feet deep trench, the dirt from which he threw against the pickets thus forming a breast-work. At each corner he made a gate, and on each side mounted a guard, and other- wise made himself free from surprise and attack.
The military freebooter Sanchez was at this time creating a reign of ter-
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ror in the district conterminous to San Jose, neither man, horse, nor stock of any kind being free from his predatory band. Concealing themselves in thicket or ravine they were wont to fall upon the unsuspecting traveler, who after being robbed was too often mostly foully murdered. In the month of December, 1846, about the 8th day, a party under Lieutenant W. A. Bartlett of the sloop-of-war Warren and five men, among these being Martin Corcoran, afterwards and still a resident of San Jose, started from Yerba Buena to purchase beef for the United States Forees. When arrived in the vieinage of that locality where now stands the Seventeen-mile House, and when in the act of driving together some cattle, thirty of Sanchez' men rushed from an ambuscade, captured them and carried them off to their eamp in the redwoods in the Coast Range of mountains; but after a space removing to another portion of the same chain in San Mateo county, he increased his corps to a hundred inen and one piece of artillery-a six pounder-and commenced a succession of marauding expeditions in the country between San Jose and San Francisco. Intelligence reaching the former place of these depredations of Colonel Sanchez, Captain Weber with- out delay sounded the "call " to boot and sad dle, and about Christmas Day, was in full pursuit. Learning, however, of the recent addition to the enemy's strength he avoided an encounter with a foree so much his superior in num- bers and pushed on to San Francisco where he reported to the Commandant.
Still retaining his six prisoners under elose guard, Sanchez advanced into the valley, by way of the head of the Bay of San Francisco, and called a halt about ten miles from San José, which place he came to after a rest of forty-eight hours. Aware full well that Weber and his company were not in the town, and nothing remaining for its defense save a few marines, he thought that it would fall before his mighty presence, even without firing a shot, he therefore dispatched a note to Lieutenant Pinkney, calling upon him to surrender and withdraw his men; in which event the Americans would be permitted to retire unmolested; should he refuse, an attack would be forthwith made and all put to the sword. But Pinkney was not to be intimidated by such shallow bravado. As the sun sank into the west on that day he formed his men in line and read to them the arrogant commu- nication of the robber chief, which being ended he said if there were any there who did not wish to fight they had full liberty to rejoin the ship at San Francisco. Such, however, happily is not the spirit of the American people or their forces, else the glorious Union would not be in the lead of nations as it is to-day. Pinkney's men raised their voices as one man, and elected to stay and let Sanchez do his worst, while their gallant commander vehemently asserted " Then, By G-d, Sanchez shall never drive me out of here alive!" and then there burst from the throats of that handful of heroes one hoarse cheer that made the welkin ring. Like a true soldier, the Lieu-
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