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 9

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

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THE RIDE TO SONOMA.

It is to be regretted that history cannot record a more fitting reward for this work and that the pages devoted to jealousies and wrangling of his seniors, which made Fremont the official scapegoat, cannot be removed from the story of the Mexican conflict in California. He left this coast under arrest, the fame of his conquests blanketed by a degradation unmerited, to be court-martialed on frivolous charges from which he was partially vindicated by fellow-officers, and finally fully vindicated by the public. Stockton, Kearny and others who sought to crush a junior who had proved himself greater than they, left names to certain localities in the state, but Fremont, scientist, explorer, soldier, states- man and all but president, left a name written over all the mountains, plateaus and valleys of the wide west.

After Comandante Jose Castro had "driven" Fremont and his "vagabonds" from the "Free State of Alta California," he valiantly started in to complete the eviction of the Americanos, also to complete the downfall of Governor Pio Pico. His conquest of the intruding "gringos" would make him so popular in Mexico and at home that the leap to the gubernatorial chair would be "easy." When Fremont returned to New Helvetia he found the settlers in great excite- ment over Castro's flaming proclamations and war preparations. The farm lands in the Sacramento valley gave promise of good grain crops and it was believed that the Indians in the neighborhood were being induced to destroy property of the Americans. Castro, securing all the horses he could to mount his cavalry, had directed Lieutenant De Arce, of the garrison at Sonoma, to

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

gather all the animals he could find north of San Francisco Bay and remove them to Santa Clara. That officer with a number of vaqueros drove his band up the Sacramento river to Knight's Landing, the nearest point where he could swim the horses across the stream. This was reported at Sutter's Fort as "two or three hundred armed men approaching," and the settlers with their rifles rallied to Fremont's camp. It was decided by these settlers not to let Castro have the horses that would be used against theni, and Ezekiel Merritt, with twelve companions, was ordered to capture the animals. On the night of June 9th, they surprised De Arce's camp on the Cosumnes river, and returned with the horses to Fremont's camp. The seizure was made without violence, De Arce offering no resistance, secing that such would be useless.

Having gone this far the Americans felt that they could not stop here. The constant threat of the Mexican officials to drive them from the territory had grown tiresome, and there is no doubt that the advice of Fremont encour- aged them to "go ahead." Doubtless he evolved the entire plan from what he had read "between the lines" in the oral dispatches Gillespie brought him. He had no authority over the settlers, no war was on, and while he knew the guns were shotted for the coming conflict between the two republics, he remem- bered Commodore Jones' error at Monterey four years before, where the Amer- ican flag went up one day to come down the next; and he was careful not to appear untimely in an act that would involve the government he represented. Moreover, he knew that even then Commodore John Drake Sloat in the United States Frigate Savannah, was sailing northward along the Mexican coast closely followed by Admiral Sir George Seymour in the British ship Collingwood, an ocean race between America and England with California as the prize. Pos- sibly he knew that Secretary Bancroft of the Navy Department, fully advised that the British Vice Consul was impatiently awaiting the coming of Seymour and the guns that were to complete the plan of annexation, had ordered Sloat to take Monterey and hold it. Whether or not Fremont sent Merritt and his thirty-three history-makers from the camp on the Feather river down to So- noma, the pathfinder saw them start away and their mission, to him, was no mystery.

They left at 3 p.m., June 12, for their one hundred and twenty mile ride, reaching Captain John Grigsby's ranch in Napa valley at 9 a.m., the 13th, where they received more reinforcements. Here the company was organized and prepared for entry into Sonoma. The following list of names of the party is probably correct : Ezekiel Merritt, Dr. Robert Semple, William Fallon, W. B. Ide, H. L. Ford, G. P. Swift, Samuel Neal, William Potter, Samuel Gib- son, W. M. Scott, James Gibbs, P. Storm, Samnel and Benjamin Kelsey, John Grigsby, David Hudson, Ira Stebbins, William Hargrave, Harrison Pierce, William Porterfield, Patrick and James McChristian, Elias Barrett, C. Griffith, William C. Todd, Nathan Combs, Lucien Maxwell, Franklin Bidwell, Thomas Cowie, W. B. Elliott, Benjamin Dewell, John Sears, George Fowler and W. Barti, known as "Old Red." James McChristian, a native of New York, was the youngest of the party, being eighteen. With his family he lives in Sebasto- pol, eighty-four years old, the Last of the Bear Flaggers.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER XIV.

REPUBLIC OF CALIFORNIA.

June 14, 1846, at daybreak, the company of Americans rode quietly over the Napa hills and down into Sonoma. All was peace in the quadrangle of adobes around the plaza. War was on south of the Rio Grande and already the tricolor of Mexico had been trampled under the hoofs of Taylor's charging dragoons. Santa Ana had lost Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma the month before, but their gun-thunders had not reached California. Even the bicker- ings and wranglings of the territorial officials over the meager spoils of the country, that kept Los Angeles and Monterey awake, were unknown north of the great bays. Merritt led his company across the plaza to the residence of Comandante M. G. Vallejo and awoke that officer from sleep. Hastily dress- ing himself, he admitted them to his premises and demanded their identity and mission. The answers were clear and brief. These visitors were not trained in the phraseology of war. There was no formal truce, no exchange of notes, as laid down in modern military tactics. Some writers have tried to make this important incident dramatic, while others have scolded these early morning disturbers. They have been described as being rude and lawless, without leader and without definite object. It has been said their buckskin clothing was "greasy," and they frightened the folk of the town. Even H. H. Bancroft, the eminent historian, in his faithful narrative does not appear to be over- pleased with their manner. But there was nothing stagy in the appearance of this band of "conspirators," and they were not of the rude and lawless kind. Vallejo was a near-American-so near that only a change of flags in the plaza would complete his naturalization. He had long noted the drift of American immigration into the territory and the drift of Mexican institutions out of it. He was a republican and was opposed to the plots and counter-plots of Pico and Castro that would annex his native land to a monarchy. He had expected this hour and calmly rose to meet it when he heard English words calling him

to his door. While the company of horsemen did not produce any visual authority authorizing their action, they told him that they arrested him virtu- ally by order of Captain Fremont. They told no more, possibly they had no more to tell. It is likely they had not heard the details of Gillespie's message to the Pathfinder, but Vallejo knew of the intrepid surveyor who was mapping the continent, bringing the West to the East, and he was satisfied that this was not the irresponsible act of a mere mob. He had little or no objection to an arrest by United States officers, as that would relieve him of his obligation as a Mexican official and his desire for annexation to the Great Republic made him regard his captors rather as welcome visitors. The arrest of two officers, Sal- vador Vallejo, the comandante's brother, and Victor Prudon, and the surrender of all the government property in the castillo to the Americans ended Guada- lupe Vallejo's connection with the Republic of Mexico, and his official occupa-

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

tion gone, lie became the graceful host and aroused the cooks to prepare break- fast for his guests.

BREAKFAST INSTEAD OF BATTLE.

The story of the menu of that early meal-that breakfast instead of a battle, does not appear in the annals of the times, but from verbal accounts that have come down from the table, it was a gathering of peace. The pueblo vineyards, in that pioneer period, had purpled on the warm slopes above the valley level and from the richest vintage of his cellar the ex-comandante toasted his captors in Sonoma wine. In war or in peace, he was the host-the expo- nent of California's hospitality. They were the enemies of his country, and his flag and his soldiery sword, his city, his trust, were in their possession. They were not fair foes fighting in the open, but were his guests and he served them. The flower of knighthood was in that service. Bancroft says, "those who met so unceremoniously, became merry companions." Dr. Semple had just finished modifying several pages of articles of capitulation, was satisfied with his adju- tant-labors and was enjoying the good things the gods-or rather, the Vallejos -provided. Merritt, who had led them to that "promised land" looked over the generous board and thought that war is not what General Sherman, years later, said it is. Knight, the interpreter didn't try to interpret ; just let every- body eat and drink in his own mother-tongue. Ide, the new Captain, won- dered if the rest of the campaign would be where the blood of the Mission grape would be the only thing shed. It may not be true that one enthusiastic guest toasted the host and nominated him for the presidency of the new repub- lic, established just before the nominee called them to breakfast. If this took place Vallejo without doubt declined the doubly-dangerous honor, he having lost his post and yet having to reckon with the Government of Mexico for yield- ing without some appearance of a fight. The world has seen an army march up a hill and then march down again, but never before saw one come to battle and stay to breakfast.

Regarding the capture, General Vallejo, at the Centennial celebration in Santa Rosa, July 4, 1876, said in part :

"A little before the dawn, June 14, 1846, a party of hunters and trappers. with some foreign settlers, under command of Captain Merritt, Dr. Semple and William B. Ide, surrounded my residence at Sonoma and without firing a shot made prisoners of myself, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Prudon, Captain Sal- vador Vallejo and Jacob P. Leese. I should here state that down to 1845, I had maintained at my own expense a respectable garrison there, which often, in union with the settlers, did good service in campaigns against the Indians, but at last tired of spending money which the Mexican government never refunded, and most of the force that had constituted it had left Sonoma. Thus, in June, 1846, the place was entirely unprotected, although there were ten pieces of artillery with other arms and ammunitions of war. Years before I had urgently represented to the Government of Mexico the necessity of stationing a force on the frontier, else Sonoma would be lost, which would be equivalent to leaving the rest of the country an easy prey to the invader. What think you, my friends, were the instructions sent me in reply to my repeated demands for means to fortify the country? These instructions were that 'I should at once force the immigrants to at once recross the Sierra Nevadas and depart from

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

the territory of the republic.' To say nothing of the inhumanity of these orders, their execution was physically impossible-first, because the immigrants came in autumn, when snow covered the Sierras so quickly as to make a return in1- practicable. We always made a show of authority, but were well convinced all the time that we had no power to resist the invasion which was coming upon us. With the frankness of a soldier I can assure you that the American immi- grants never had cause to complain of the treatment they received at the hands of either authorities or citizens."

The captors immediately drew up the following guarantee, which was signed and presented to Vallejo:

"We, the undersigned, having resolved to establish a government upon republican principles, in connection with others of our fellow-citizens, and hav- ing taken up arms to support it, we have taken three Mexican officers as prison- ers, Gen. M. G. Vallejo, Lieut .- Col. Victor Prudon and Capt. Salvador Val- lejo. Having formed and published to the world no regular plan of govern- ment, feel it our duty to say it is not our intention to take or injure any person who is not found in opposition to the cause, nor will we take, or destroy, the property of private individuals further than is necessary for our support.

EZEKIEL MERRITT, R. SEMPLE, WILLIAM FALLON."

SPIKING THE BRITISH GUNS.

This voluntary on the part of the invaders, revolutionists, or whatever they have been called, shows that they were under discipline and were intelligently actuated with a definite purpose. The details of the plan may not have stood out in relief to them but the object was in view. They respected the first rule of warfare-that lives and property of non-combatants be protected. Blindly, pos- sibly, as to the ultimate end, they were working along the way of destiny and they were working well. The forces of the two republics were facing each other below the Rio Grande and these thirty-three settlers who left their threatened homes in the Napa and Sacramento valleys and rode down into Sonoma early that morning, were the forerunners of the war in the territory that was only twenty-five days distant. While Castro, plotter and blusterer, was driving the "perfidious" settlers, not out of the territory, but to arms. these same settlers capturing the Mexican battery in Sonoma were virtually spiking the guns of the British fleet then racing toward California. This is borne out by the fact that when Commodore Sloat sailed into Monterey, July 2, 1846, beating Seymour in their joint dash up the Pacific, he was at a standstill as to further action. War had been declared between Mexico and the United States but such was nn- known on the Pacific coast. Nor did he know that Secretary of the Navy Ban- croft, May 15, 1846, had sent him orders instructing him with the ships under his command to take Mazatlan, Monterey and San Francisco, either or all as his force would permit, and hold them at all hazard. On his arrival in port he learned more of the annexation scheme. In the last conference between British Consul Forbes, Governor Pico and General Castro, they discussed the plan of a fresh declaration of the independence of California and then an appeal to Great Britain for protection. A British fleet was to be convenient to respond to the call. Mexico would be easily appeased. for California was but a troublesome

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

province, and her enemy, the United States, would thus be cheated out of the principal prize that made war acceptable to her. Of all this, which was con- cealed from the American people in California, intimations had reached Wash- ington through the vigilance of United States Consul Thomas O. Larkin, at Monterey. Another detail of the plot was the establishment of a large British colony in the choice portions of the territory, and grants of land for that purpose only needed the Governor's signature. Possibly, in general the simple Cali- fornians, without seeking absorption into a foreign monarchy, were seeking for- eign protection from that "Bogy Man," the Yankee, whose energy, intelligence and "get-ahead" characteristics made him unwelcome in a land when they sleep today and work mañana. Whatever their real intentions while trying to get under the wing of the purring British Lion, they would have remained there and California would have been a rich security and payment for the debts due in Mexico to English subjects. Washington, knowing this, drew Fremont back to the Rio Sacramento, from where, without revealing the plans of the govern- ment, he sent Merritt to Sonoma, which his civil engineering training readily told him was a strategic point, being in touch with Sutter's Fort, the objective of the eastern immigration, and near San Francisco Bay, the natural naval base of the territory.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER XV.

COMMODORE SLOAT AT MONTEREY.

While Sloat was waiting, undecided, at Monterey, he heard of the capture of Sonoma by orders of Fremont and assumed that the Engineer officer must be in receipt of the news for which they were looking. He had been instructed by the Secretary of the Navy not to wait for official information of the declara- tion of war, but at the first news of it possess California. But the Savannah swung idle at her anchors and the Commodore still hesitated. He knew the British Frigate Collingwood-slow but sure-was nearing port and now was his opportunity. He also knew that the administration at Washington, pretty well harassed by the opposition and being charged with seeking a war of conquest and for the acquisition of territory in contravention of the spirit of American institutions and in violation of the popular wishes; and to offset this there was, on the part of the "war" party, an inclination to "coax" California away from Mexico and into the Union. He had been schooled from the tyrannical text- book of the long-ago quarterdeck where a subordinate had no discretion and never dared look behind the letter of an order; and, he had seen Commodore Jones recalled for hoisting his flag in this same place four years too soon. His- tory was repeating itself, for he was now in exactly the same position as was Jones-on the horns of the same dilemma. If Seymour's flag got ashore first, then a courtmartial for Sloat; if Sloat's flag got ashore too soon, then Sloat would only have the fellow-sympathy of Jones. Finally, he took the dilemma by both horns and, July 7th, hoisted the stars and stripes for all time over Mon- terey. But Commodore Sloat was not satisfied with the range of affairs and, not without considerable reason, complained that he was being kept in the dark and that officers who were his juniors in rank-Gillespie being a lieutenant in an arm of the naval service, and Fremont in actual rank a second-lieutenant, the lowest grade officer in the army. And these young men were winning a state while he, a fleet commander, was virtually marking time and listening for the sound of their guns. Then it was borne in upon him that all hands were blundering and he ordered the two officers into his presence. It was a mem- orable interview.

SETTING THE COMMODORE A PACE.

"I want to know." said the Commodore, "by what authority you are acting. Mr. Gillespie has told me nothing. He came to me at Mazatlan and I sent him to Monterey, but I know nothing. And, I want to know by what authority you are acting."

Gillespie could not answer, and Fremont saw that the worthy naval man was not in the plan of campaign, consequently he made the best reply possible, that he was acting on his own authority. "And I have acted," said Sloat, "upon the faith of your operations in the north, as I would rather suffer from doing too much than too little." 5

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.

Fremont then, from the deck of the Savannah, might have called the Com- modore's attention to the Collingwood which had arrived in port only the day before, and that she was only one of the big fleet of war vessels Great Britain was keeping in that part of the Pacific. Also that this was a time for quick action and not for the unwinding of red tape. If Sloat had then known that the declaration of war was two months old and that an order censuring him for not taking Monterey sooner, was coming to him from the Navy Department, he might not have worried over the pace that Fremont had set him. Thus it is seen that the government made no mistake at that critical period when it directed this junior officer of the United States Topographical Engineers to move at his own discretion. He took part in the subsequent events-mere skirmishes -between the Californians and American forces, also in the skirmishes between himself and the fellow-officers whose malice followed him to the close of the conflict he began in the Plaza at Sonoma.

PRESIDENT WILLIAM B. IDE.

After receiving the surrender of General Vallejo and Sonoma, the Amer- icans organized themselves into something resembling a municipal government, with William B. Ide president and Dr. Robert Semple secretary. John Grigs- by was appointed captain, Ezekiel Merritt, who had conducted them there, not wishing to retain command. Henry L. Ford was made lieutenant. In order that the movement should go on record as proceeding decently and regularly, Ide, as commander-in-chief, formulatedi the following declaration, which was published June 18th :

"A proclamation to all persons and citizens of the district of Sonoma re- questing them to remain at peace and follow their rightful occupations without . fear of molestation.

"The commander-in-chief of the troops assembled in the fortress of Sonoma gives his inviolable pledge to all persons in California, not found under arms, that they shall not be disturbed in their persons, their property or social rela- tion, one with another, by men under his command.

"He also solemnly declares his object to be: first, to defend himself and companions in arms, who were invited to this country by a promise of lands on which to settle themselves and families ; who were also promised a republican form of government; when, having arrived in California, they were denied the privilege of buying or renting lands of their friends, who instead of being al- lowed to participate in or being protected by a republican government, were oppressed by a military despotism, who were even threatened by proclamation by the chief officers of the aforesaid despotism with extermination if they should not depart out of the country leaving all of their property, arms and beasts of burden; and thus deprived of the means of flight or defense, were to be driven through deserts inhabited by hostile Indians, to certain destruction. To over- throw a government which has seized upon the prosperity of the mission for its individual aggrandizement; which has ruined and shamefully oppressed the laboring people of California by enormous exaction on goods imported into this country, is the determined purpose of the brave men who are associated under my command.

"I also solemnly declare my object, in the second place, to be to invite all peaceable and good citizens of California who are friendly to the maintenance

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

of good order and equal rights, and I do hereby invite them to my camp at Sonoma without delay to assist us in establishing and perpetuating a republican government, which will secure to all, civil and religious liberty; which shall encourage virtue and literature : which shall leave unshackled by fetters, agri- culture, commerce and manufactures.

"I further declare that I rely upon the reetitude of our intentions, the favor of heaven and the bravery of those who are bound and associated with me by principles of self-preservation, by love of the truth and the hatred of tyranny. for my hopes of success.

"I furthermore declare that I believe that a government to be prosperous and happy must originate with the people who are friendly to its existence, that the citizens are its guardians, the officers its servants, its glory its reward.

WILLIAM B. IDE."

This proclamation, while it was a laudable and intelligent effort on their part to set themselves right before the world, also to satisfy the people in the neigh- borhood that no lives or property were in peril, was somewhat crude in its word- ings, and in its allegations often wandered some distance from the facts. The settlers, the proclamation declared, had been invited to this country under the promise of lands and a republican form of government and those promises had been violated. It does not appear in the declaration who made the promises and the seizure of the mission property ycars previous does not seem to be a sufficient cause of action. However, the preparation of state-papers is hardly the work of the pioneer and Ide was sufficiently explicit and direct for all pur- poses, and if his language was less splendid than the diction of Castro, who was issuing call after call for the Californians to arise and sweep from the earth the "gang of North American adventurers" who had captured Sonoma "with the blackest treason the spirit of evil ean invent." Ide's off-hand procla- mation drew better and he soon had in his camp enough men well-armed, to police the surrounding country and run out the several gangs of desperados that were disturbing the settlements.

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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 9

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