History of Sonoma County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county, who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present time, Part 12

Author: Gregory, Thomas Jefferson
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1190

USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county, who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present time > Part 12

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SUTTER'S FORT OF REFUGE.

About that time Lieutenant Joseph W. Revere and several other officers of the United States sloop of war Portsmouth ascended the Sacramento river and

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

visited Sutter's Fort. Revere gives the following description of the place destined to be the capital of the sovereign state of California :

"On our arrival at the embarcadero, or landing, we were not surprised to find a mounted guard of Sutter's hunters who had long been apprised by the Indians that a boat was coming up the river. These Indians were indeed im- portant auxiliaries to the revolutionists during the short period of strife between the parties contending for the territory of California. Having been most cruelly 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 del pais. 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 antici- pated a complete deliverance 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 Sierras appearing in the distance. We now came to some extensive fields of wheat in full bearing, waving grace- fully in the gentle breeze like the billows of the sea, and saw the white-washed walls of the fort situated on a small eminence commanding the approach on all sides.

"We were met and welcomed by Captain Sutter and the officers of the gar- rison ; but the appearance of things indicated that our reception would have been very different had we come on a hostile errand.

"The appearance of the fort with its crenated walls, fortified gateway and bastioned angles ; the heavy-bearded fierce-looking hunters and trappers, armed with rifles, pistols and bowie-knives; their ornamental hunting-shirts and gar- tered-leggings, their long hair, turbaned with colored handkerchiefs; 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 horse- men scouring the valley in every direction; all these accessories conspired to carry me back to the barbarous east; and I could almost fancy again that I was the guest of some powerful Arab chieftain in his desert stronghold. Every- thing bore the impress of vigilance and preparation for defense, and not without reason, for Castro then at the Pueblo de San Jose, with a force of several hun- dred men, well provided with horses and artillery, had threatened to march upon the valley of the Sacramento.

"The fort consists of a parallelogram, enclosed by adobe walls fifteen feet high and two 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 official quarters, armories, guard and state rooms, 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

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

the guard. Cannon frown from the various embrasures, and the ensemble pre- sents the very ideal of a border fortress. It must have 'astonished the natives' when this monument of the white man's skill rose from the plain and showed its dreadful teeth in the midst of those peaceful solitudes."

THE CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC OBSERVES THE "FOURTIL."

Fremont remained in camp at Sausalito until July 2, hoping for the ap- pearance of Castro. He sent a squad across the bay and spiked the guns in the presidio at Yerba Buena. These pieces were old, not of much use, and the magazine was without powder, but the visitors did their work so well that Com- mander Montgomery had considerable difficulty getting the spikes out a few weeks later, when he took possession of San Francisco. But the party did not come away altogether empty handed, as they captured Port Captain Robert Ridley and sent the prisoner to Sutter's Fort. Among the war claims presented in Washington during the after years was one by Captain Phelps of the "Mos- cow." He wanted $10,000 payment for providing the boat or boats that ferried the party from Sausalito to San Francisco and return. He was allowed $50. The northern portion of the state being cleared of California forces the "Osos" returned to Sonoma, desiring, as one of them said, to have their first Fourth of July at home, in their California Republic. Out on the plaza they read the Declaration of American Independence under their Bear Flag-not having a United States ensign in the entire new state-spoke an oration, enjoyed a bar- becne, and the old battery on the wall bellowed a salute to the separation from the mother kingdom across the eastern sea. It was a remarkable observance- the only one of its kind in history. The guns of the Mexican republic fired by the California Republic to celebrate the birthday of the American Republic. It was a republican voice of thunder from Forty-six speaking to Seventy-six. Over the space of seventy years, over the space of a hemisphere, rebel called to rebel, brotherhood to brotherhood, one flag-one blood, after all.

It was also a remarkable observance to the Californians who were then attending a "Quarto de Julio" for the first time in their lives. But it was some kind of a fiesta, and they all had been invited, so they turned out in their native finery. Because of the flag and guns they knew the gathering was of a patriotic character, but the literary exercises in the English language were mysti- fying. The Declaration seemed to be a pronunciamento against somebody ; they understood pronunciamentos, and when the reader fiercely hurled his denuncia- tion at King George III, they felt war in the air, and smiled at the anticipated enjoyment of witnessing an Americano revolution,-seeing the gringos get up a fight among themselves.

The July celebration probably reminded the Bears that independence only could be while there were arms behind it, consequently the next day the Cali- fornia Battalion of Mounted Riflemen, two hundred and fifty strong, was or- ganized. Brevet-Captain John C. Fremont, Second-Lieutenant of U. S. Topo- graphical Engineers, was chosen Commander : First Lieutenant of U. S. Marines, .Archibald H. Gillespie, was elected Adjutant and Inspector, with the rank of captain. Thus it will be noticed that the two leading officers of the organization were commissioned officers in the United States service, indicating how near the Sonoma republie stood to Uncle Sam's great Rancho.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER XX.

COUNTRY DRIFTING TO UNCLE SAM.

Naturally, the approval of Mexico to these important changes was not ex- pected, nor did it manifest itself in any of the florid proclamations or accounts of the revolution. The following is one of the official reports of the Bear Flag rebellion :

"About a year before the commencement of the war with the United States, 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 in the contest for usurpation. Various acts committed by these adventurers in violation of the laws of the country indicated their inten- tions. But unfortunately the authorities knew not how to arrest the tempest. In the month of July, 1846, Captain Fremont, an engineer of the United States Army, entered the Mexican territory with a few mounted riflemen under the pre- text of a scientific commission, solicited and obtained from the Comandante- General, Don Jose Castro, permission to traverse the country. Three months afterwards, on the 19th of May, that same force and their commander took pos- session by armed force and surprised the town of Sonoma, seizing all the ar- tillery, ammunition, armaments, etc., which it contained.

"The adventurers scattered along the Sacramento river, amounting to about four hundred, one hundred and sixty having joined their forces. They pro- claimed for themselves and on their own authority, the independence of Cal- ifornia, 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 Mexicans and the assassination of others-three men shot as spies by Fremont, who, faith- ful to their duty to the country, wished to make resistance. The Comandante General demanded explanations on the subject of the Commander of an Amer- ican 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, Commander J. B. Montgomery replied that neither the Government of the United States or the subalterns had any part in the insurrection, and that the Mexican authorities ought, therefore, to punish its authors in conformity with the laws."

The account has the usual Mexican flavor and is slightly astray in dates, but on the whole is fairly correct and especially true is the reference to the authorities then existing being divided among themselves. This division may be said to have existed in California from the dawn of Mexican officialdom to the hour the American forces changed the administration of the territory. When Fremont first appeared in the valley near Monterey, the northern and southern ends of the country were engaged in a civil conflict, and when Sonoma fell they were still at it. When Castro called on the south to forget old scores and sores and help him expel the invaders his political foes around Los Angeles considered his olive-branch offer a clever trick. Commodore Sloat took posses-

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

sion of Alta California, but they did not seem to awake to the full significance of the thing till the American riflemen began to mix in their internal troubles.

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER ALOFT.

But a change in the Bear Flag party's plans was coming near. July 6th, the riflemen set out by way of Knight's Landing on the Rio Sacramento to reach Castro in the Santa Clara valley, where the comandante general was as intently noting Pico in the south as he was watching Fremont in the north. At Sutter's Fort they learned that California was United States territory, Com- modore Sloat having raised the American flag at Monterey the 7th. And by his order, dispatched to Yerba Buena the day previous, Commander Mont- gomery of the United States sloop of war Portsmouth, had hoisted that vessel's ensign in the plaza that bears her name, and the noble harbor of San Francisco belonged to the Stars and Stripes. They also learned that Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere, U. S. N., of the Portsmouth, July 9th, had raised the United States flag at Sonoma. On the IIth, the national ensign floated over New Helvetia.

Commodore Sloat with his fleet had been lying at Monterey since the 2nd inst., undecided as to action. He was a brave and faithful officer, careful and conscientious to a fault-but the fault was indecision, and that trait of charac- ter was his undoing. According to his departmental instructions he had long been in a position to go ahead and raise his flag over the ports of California and according to departmental opinion he should have done so. Twice the rumors of hostilities on the Rio Grande decided him to act, but instead of doing so he announced his intention to wait till he heard that the gulf squadron had commenced offensive operations. All this was noted at Washington, and months later, even after he had placed the territory safe under the American flag, he was advised of official disapproval by the following severe reprimand from the Secretary of the Navy: "The Department willingly believes in the purity of your intentions ; but your anxiety to do no wrong has led you into a most unfortunate and unwarranted inactivity."

SLOAT DRIVEN TO ACTION.

Next day after the receipt of this communication the commodore was re- lieved from command-at his own request-and for other reasons. As has been seen, he finally raised his flag at Monterey, and directly up went the colors at Yerba Buena, New Helvetia, Sonoma and Bodega. Sloat has acknowledged that he was guided more by Fremont's activities than by the Navy Depart- ment's orders, and while it may give some unmerited credit to the topographical engineer, the commodore's blunder was an unwise one. But had he blundered a week earlier he would have escaped the departmental reprimand. On the night of July 5th, a council of war was held on board the flagship Savannah and the officers of the fleet advised immediate action. Sloat, still irresolute, was called to a sense of his personal danger by Captain Mervine of the United States sloop of war Levant, who angrily told the commodore that it was more than his commission was worth to hesitate in the matter. The Portsmouth's launch had just arrived from San Francisco bringing advices of Torre's retreat from the vicinity of Sonoma, of Fremont spiking the guns at Yerba Buena and showing some sign of extending his war-zone even as far south as Monterey-

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

all these activities called for motion on Sloat's part and on the 6th, he sent the following dispatch to Commander Montgomery by the returning launch: "I have determined to hoist the flag of the United States at this place tomorrow, as I would prefer to be sacrificed for doing too much than too little. If you consider you have sufficient force, or if Fremont will join you, you will hoist the flag at Yerba Buena, or any other proper place, and take possession of the fort and that portion of the country."

"Flag Day," at Monterey, as well as at the other points in California where the stars and stripes went over the land, were days of peace and the ceremonies of raising the colors were short and simple. Just bent the ensign to the hal- vards, hoisted it aloft, fired the gun-salutes and read the proclamation in two languages, telling everybody what Uncle Sam proposed to do regarding their inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that was all. The Californian attended the show with the same apathy that had always marked his attitude when destiny or politics sent him a fresh batch of masters. True, he could always be induced to observe the official change with a fandango or a fight-he would dance or lance equally with little or no thought of cause or consequences. He was a good vaquero, but wasn't strong on other features. His wants were too few, too simple to make him covetous,-a prime virtue of his race. One never finds among the Spanish peasantry the choice frailties of the Saxon poor. However, the Californian was not an intolerable fellow even if his mind seldom got higher than the back of his mustang, and his world could be encircled with his riata.

PASSING OF THE BEAR.

There was not on the program of flag-day exercises the feature-ceremony of lowering or publicly exhibiting the "conquered colors," with the victors at salient points on the stage, for there were no Mexican flags present to grace the occasion. Monterey and Yerba Buena had been colorless for months-sup- plies worn out, and Sutter at New Helvetia did not pay close attention to flags. Born in Switzerland, a naturalized Mexican citizen, and an American in sym- pathies, his nationality was somewhat mixed. At Sonoma the flag of "Los Osos" was lowered and the Portsmouth's ensign was substituted just as soon as Lieutenant J. W. Revere of that war vessel arrived from San Francisco with the colors. That was not a hostile point and the change of flags, giving full satisfaction, called for no formal ceremony. Lieutenant Revere sent an- other flag out to Bodega, but Captain Stephen Smith did not need it. He had kept the ensign of his old bark and that with a small bear flag had been flying quite brotherly from the same tall redwood pole. When the patriotic old mar- iner received the news the little bear came down and the stars and stripes alone waved over "Smith's Ranch." At Sutter's the news and flag were received with wild joy, and the men proceeded to wake the old Rio Sacramento with their celebration. They loaded the historic brass gun-purchased with the Fort Ross junk and renamed "Sutter." as even the Captain couldn't pronounce the original Russian name-and saluted until Sutter ordered "cease firing" to save his entire powder supply and the cracking adobe walls of the fort. So the noted piece of ordnance, cast in Russia for the destruction of the vandal Bonaparte, and by him captured at Austerlitz and used with telling effect on its late owners, re- turned to the Russians by treaty, made a part of the Fort Ross equipment, sold

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

to Sutter with the Russian holdings in California for $30,000 (poor deal for the captain) roared out welcomes of peace to the flag of a Newer California until it broke every window in New Helvetia. Likely its spirit of destruction nur- tured on twenty battle fields when eagle clashed with eagle over Europe, was not wholly dead.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER XXI.

THE HISTORIAN CONTINUES THE CONFLICT.

The modest little republic of Los Osos ended as it had begun-without making a stir among the old established governments of the world. To one ob- serving from afar it seems to have been a company of American pioneers in the California territory secking conditions more favorable to settlers of their nationality. forcibly took possession of the town of Sonoma. In the minds of the leaders this was preliminary to the conquest of the Mexican territory by the United States government, which conquest was widely anticipated and which conquest-unknown here-was then in progress. The observer, still observing from his place afar, does not see that during that twenty-five days the "Osos." insurgents, revolutionists, filibusters or whatever title may best fit them, checked or changed the march of events, whatever accomplishment may have been within their intentions. During that brief regime, law and order were in the pueblo, and no resident there suffered because of the new-comers. That the revolution- ists-at least the leaders and principal members-were of the stuff from which good citizens are made, their after-lives in this and adjoining counties have proved. No impropriety of act, no impropriety of intention has been established against these men, and in view of this fact one wonders why Hubert Howe Bancroft in his excellent work, the "History of California." wrote the following peculiar tribute to the passing men of the Bear Flag.

"It will be remembered that Grigsby and about fifty men had been left as a garrison, the main force of the insurgents having gone to the Sacramento. This fact, perhaps, accounts in part for the commonplace, matter-of-course way in which the Bear Flag gave place to the Stars and Stripes. But while under the former regime with Ide in command, such an event might have been attended with more diplomacy, speechmaking and general excitement. there is no reason to believe that there would have been the slightest opposition by the revolutionists. Doubtless some of the leading spirits would have preferred that the change should have come a little later, accompanied by negotiations which might give themselves more prominence ; and many adventurers saw with regret their chance for plunder in the near future cut off ; but there were very slight. if any, manifestations of displeasure, and no thoughts of resistance. The natives were naturally delighte:l at the change; and as is usual in such cases, the: were disposed to exaggerate the chagrin experienced by the hated 'Osos.'

ON THE TRAIL OF THE BEAR.

Thus has Mr. Bancroft followed and camped on the trail of the l'ear Flag party from the night they raided Castro's horse corral on the Cosumnes river, to the morning Lieutenant Revere hoisted the Portsmouth's ensign on the plaza at Sonoma. With tireless persistency. through his pages, he pursues the quarry. exults over the fallen bear, and discharges a Parthian arrow at closing, when he refers to the unholy joy of the natives over the change, and over the chagrin they imagine is experienced by the hated "Osos." The historian repeats his

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

assurance that there was no thought of resistance on the part of the revolution- ists-an assurance so needless that one wonders why so eminent an annalist inade it. Mr. Bancroft apparently did not learn that never was there any inten- tion to resist the raising of the United States flag at Sonoma. Among the large number of men, roughened in the severe school of their wild life, in Sonoma that day, there were doubtless "irresponsibles," but if one of them for a moment con- templated an act so unspeakably foolish as resistance, his thought does not merit a single reference in the History of California. It would be interesting to know what personai prominence would have satisfied the vanity of the leading spirits. and what greater gain in any form could have come to these leaders, possibly, if Sloat had waited inactive longer in Monterey bay; and what chances for plunder-and what kind of plunder-in the near future were cut off when the American eagle superseded the California bear. It is true, plunder was the main- spring of action on the part of the Mexican governors and other territorial officials, and their continuous struggling for the pitifully small loot the country then afforded, kept the state about as progressive as a prairie-dog settlement. But to such pioneers as Merritt, Ide, Semple, the Grigsbys, the Elliotts, Sears, Ford, Todd, Knight, Gregson and others, mere prominence and plunder would have been too cheap for the sacrifice they were ready at all times to make in their labor of upbuilding a commonwealth. The only "plunder" possible to them was land, and that was "cheap as dirt," in fact, that popular comparison grew from California's market-valueless soil. And the cattle-the only other possibility for plunder-"the cattle on a thousand hills" were as cheap as the hills.

ONLY A DEEP, DEEP SEA YARN.

Having made fragments of the theory or belief that John Charles Fremont, United States Topographical Engineer, was secretly inspired by the administra- tion, or political power in Washington to anticipate the near-approaching war by inducing the American settlers to capture Sonoma, a frontier point easily held, and the western terminus of the great immigrant route, the historian turns and strips the Pathfinder of all patriotism, strips him of the results of faithful service in years of exploration, in two wars, in the United States Senate, in the gubernatorial chairs of California and Arizona, and leaves him a self-seeking filibuster, a cheap adventurer ; and the Bears stripped of cause and object, hang- ing in the air limp as their rude flag. Fremont, seasoned soldier, trained scientist. and a politician schooled by no less a master than Thomas Hart Benton, who learned his own lessons during the thirty strenuous years in the United States Senate .- Fremont, a government officer possessing full knowledge that the United States Government was moving irresistibly to possess Alta California. is represented as craftily encouraging a company of immigrants to plant a toy- house state in the path of the Great Republic of the North. The alarm of Great Britain over the encroachment of the American government on the Mexican frontier, was a false alarm; the ship-building Briton whose sails crowd the Seven Seas had no interest in the grand harbors of the California coast, and the historical ocean race from Mazatlan to Monterey, the Savannah leading and the Collingwood at her heels-or at least not ahead-is a deep, deep sea- yarn. We younger Californians-native sons and daughters-have clung to that story. Not only is it the last record of a Yankee ship beating a Britisher, but it is our story, and one that critics cannot destroy, nor the Atlantic steal. Even

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

the bear's title to distinction is clouded. In fact, Mr. Bancroft's route through this period of California's history may be traced by the broken idols that line the way.

NO PEN CAN OBLITERATE THE PATHS HE FOUND.

No history of the American West can be written without the name of John Charles Fremont. Between the Missouri and the Pacific, from the Colorado to the Columbia, over peak and mesa, over dale and desert stretch away the trails he has found, and along these trails passed the pioneers who reared an empire on the shores of the sundown sea. Hence to him came the title "Pathfinder," and it could fit no other man, and the paths he mapped are as lasting as the continent he traversed. As Jessie Benton Fremont, who lives in Los Angeles, the honored occupant of the beautiful home the women of that city gave her, wrote in the story of her famous husband, "the pathfinder may be forgotten but the paths he found will never be lost." And the pathfinder was not forgotten, as was shown when the popular voice reversed the military court that sought to deprive him of his sword. He was named for the presidency not because of his training in statecraft or of his party standing, for he was without either qualifica- tion. He did not possess in any degree temperamental or technical fitness for that exalted position. Simmered down, the court martial affair was a mere ques- tion of rank, of which officer wore the widest stripe of yellow lace; and the public not only brushed the whole matter out of sight, but in its place left a re- buke for the gilt-braid system that placed etiquette above worth, decorum above valor.

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History of Sonoma County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county, who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present time, Part 12

Author: Gregory, Thomas Jefferson Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1190

Author: Gregory, Thomas Jefferson
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1190