USA > California > Lassen County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 11
USA > California > Plumas County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 11
USA > California > Sierra County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 11
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In the north, Fremont had found that it was impossible to mount his command at Santa Barbara, and had moved up the country to Monterey, where recruiting, as well as the procuring of horses to trans- form his force into cavalry, was prosecuted with energy. On the evening of the twenty-eighth of Octo- ber, a courier from Fremont at Monterey arrived at Sutter's Fort, the bearer of dispatches, giving to the north the news of the defeat of Captain Gillespie at Los Angeles, Lieutenant Talbot at Santa Barbara, and Captain Mervine at San Pedro, and in the dispatch Fremont asked for horses and men. On that day J. F. Reed, of the ill-fated Donner party, reached Sutter's Fort. He immediately put down his name as a recruit for the war, in the company that commenced its organization that night, which after- wards became two companies, one commanded by Captain Burroughs, who was killed on the sixteenth, near San Juan, the other by Capt. R. T. Jacobs, Lieut. Edwin Bryant (afterwards alcalde at San Fran- cisco) and Lieut. George M. Lippincott. In this company five men enlisted at the ranch of William Gordon, in Yolo county; also Mr. Grayson, who lived in a log house near the mouth of Capay valley.
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Seven men were temporarily camped on Puto creek, en route for Sonoma. Lieutenant Bryant chanced to pass that way, and five of them became recruits ; and thus the spark, kindling to a flame, swept the · country, swelling the little battalion of 180 to 428 before it had moved beyond Gilroy in its march toward Los Angeles.
A company was enlisted in Napa valley and vicinity, commanded by John Grigsby, D. T. Bird, of Yolo county, being its second lieutenant. Another company, under Captain Thompson, recruited by Captain Weber at San José, was added to the California Battalion.
The organization of the company at Sutter's Fort had not yet been completed, when about sixty, the total number at the rendezvous at the time, left for Monterey under command of Captain Burroughs, having in charge some four hundred government horses that Fremont had requested should be sent to him. On the sixteenth of October, Bryant, Reed and Jacobs started south with what recruits had as- sembled at the fort since the departure of the main body. In passing through what is now San Joaquin county, they were joined by thirty Indians, among whom was the chief, José Jesus. They arrived at San Jose on the twenty-first, where they first learned of the engagement that had taken place on the sixteenth between those preceding them under Captain Burroughs and the Californians, ten miles south of San Juan, on the Monterey road. What had led to this encounter and its results is thus described by Thomas O. Larkin, United States consul, who was a prisoner at the time.
" On the fifteenth of November, from information received of the sickness of my family in San Francisco, where they had gone to escape the expected revolutionary troubles in Monterey, and from letters from Captain Montgomery, requesting my presence respecting some stores for the Portsmouth, I, with one servant, left Monterey for San Francisco, knowing that for one month no Californian forces had been within one hundred miles of us. That night I put up at the house of Don Joaquin Gomez, sending my servant to San Juan, six miles beyond, to request Mr. J. Thompson to wait for me, as he was on the road for San Francisco. About midnight I was aroused from my bed by the noise made by ten Californians (unshaved and unwashed for months, being in the mountains) rushing into my chamber with guns, swords, pistols and torches in their hands. I needed but a moment to be fully awake and know my exact situation ; the first cry was, 'Comoestamos Señor Consul,' ' Vamos Señor Larkin.' At my bedside were several letters that I had re-read before going to bed. On dressing myself, while my captors were saddling my horse, I assorted these letters and put them into different pockets. After taking my own time to dress and arrange my valise, we started and rode to a camp of seventy or eighty men, on the banks of the Monterey river. There each officer and principal person passed the time of night with me, and a remark or two. The commandante took me to one side and informed me that his people demanded that I should write to San Juan to the American captain of volunteers, saying that I had left Monterey to visit the distressed families on the river, and request or demand that twenty men should meet me before daylight, that I could station them, before my return to town, in a manner to protect these families. The natives, he said, were determined on the act being accomplished. I at first endeavored to reason with him on the infamy and the impossibility of the deed, but to no avail ; he said my life depended on the letter ; that he was willing-nay, anxious-to preserve my life as an old ac- quaintance, but could not control his people in this affair. From argument I came to a refusal; he advised, urged and demanded. At this period an officer called out (* * * come here-those who are named). I said : 'In this manner you may act and threaten night by night ; my life on such condition is of no value or pleasure to me. I am by accident your prisoner-make the most of me ; write I will not ; shoot as you see fit, and I am done talking on the subject.' I left him and went to the camp-fire. For a half-hour or more there was some commotion around me, when all disturbance subsided.
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"At daylight we started, with a flag flying and a drum beating, and traveled eight or ten miles, when we camped in a low valley or hollow. There they caught with the lasso three or four head of cattle belonging to the nearest rancho, and breakfasted. The whole day their out-riders rode in every direction, on the lookout to see if the American company left the mission of San Juan, or Lieutenant -. Colonel Fremont left Monterey ; they also rode to all the neighboring ranchos and forced the rancheros to join them.
"At one o'clock they began their march with one hundred and thirty men (and two or three hundred extra horses); they marched in four single files, occupying four positions, myself, under charge of an officer and five or six men, in the center. Their plan of operations for the night was to rush into San Juan ten or fifteen men, who were to retreat, under the expectation that the Americans would follow them, in which case the whole party outside was to cut them off. I was to be retained in the center of the party. Ten miles south of the mission they encountered eight or ten Americans, a part of whom retreated into a low ground covered with oaks; the others returned to the house of Señor Gomez, to alarm their companions. For over one hour, the hundred and thirty Californians surrounded this six or eight Americans, occa- sionally giving and receiving shots. During this period I was several times requested, then commanded, to go among the oaks and bring out my countrymen, and offer them their lives on giving up the rifles and persons. I at last offered to go and call them out on condition that they should return to San Juan or go to Monterey, with their arms ; this being refused, I told the commandante to go in and bring them out himself. While they were consulting how this could be done, fifty Americans came down on them, which caused an action of about twenty or thirty minutes. Thirty or forty of the natives leaving the field at the first fire, the remainder drew off by fives and tens until the Americans had the field to them- selves. Both parties remained within a mile of each other until dark. Our countrymen lost Captain Burroughs, of St. Louis, Missouri, Captain Foster and two others, with two or three wounded. The Californians lost two of their countrymen and José Garcia, of Val., Chili, witli seven wounded."
The Californian, of November 21, 1846, published at Monterey, says, in addition to what was recorded by Larkin, that " Burroughs and Foster were killed at the first onset. The Americans fired and then charged on the enemy with their empty rifles and ran them off. However, they still kept rallying and firing now and then a musket at the Americans, until about 11 o'clock at night, when one of the Walla Walla Indians offered his services to come into Monterey and give Colonel Fremont notice of what was passing. Soon after he started he was pursued by a party of the enemy. The foremost in pursuit drove a lance at the Indian, who, trying to parry it, received the lance through his hand ; he immediately, with the other hand, seized his tomahawk and struck a blow at his opponent, which split his head from the crown to the mouth. By this time the others had come up, and with the most extraordinary dexterity and bravery the Indian vanquished two more, and the rest ran away. He rode on towards this town as far as his horse was able to carry him, and then left his horse and saddle and came in on foot. He arrived here about 8 o'clock on Tuesday morning, Nov. 17th."
Fremont at once marched to the assistance of the Americans, but failed to meet the enemy, and camped at San Juan, where for several days he waited for reinforcements. The first night after his arrival at the mission some of the soldiers were attacked, when sleeping, by numerous half-starved dogs that had been left behind by the people when they removed from the mission. One soldier had his nose bitten off, and in the morning some three hundred of these famishing curs were shot by order of Fremont.
On the twenty-sixth of November, Lieutenant Bryant left San Jose en route for San Juan, to join the battalion. He had with him between two and three hundred horses, which Capt. C. M. Weber had suc- ceeded in securing for our forces, and had availed himself of this opportunity to forward them. On the thirtieth of November, the battalion started for Los Angeles, commanded by Colonel Fremont, under
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whom were 428 men, rank and file, including Indians and servants, accompanied by about 600 loose horses for a change. The battalion was officered as follows :-
Officers. Rank or Remarks.
J. C. Fremont Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding.
A. H. Gillespie . . Major. P. B. Reading : Paymaster.
Henry King .. Commissary.
J. R. Snyder.
Quartermaster.
Wm. H. Russell Ordnance Officer.
T. Talbot Adjutant.
J. J. Myers
Sergeant-Major.
Appointed Lieutenant in June, 1847.
Company A.
Richard Owens . Captain.
William N. Loker 1st Lieutenant.
Appointed Adjutant Feb. 10, 1847.
B. M. Hudspeth
2d Lieutenant.
Appointed Captain February, 1847.
Wm. Findlay
Lieutenant.
Appointed Captain February, 1847.
Company B.
Henry Ford. . Captain.
Andrew Copeland Ist Lieutenant.
Company C.
Granville P. Swift . Captain.
Wm. Baldridge Ist Lieutenant,
Wm. Hartgrove 2d Lieutenant,
Company D.
John Sears Captain,
Wm. Bradshaw Įst Lieutenant,
Company E.
John Grigsby Captain.
Archibald Jesse Ist Lieutenant,
D. T. Bird
2d Lieutenant,
Company F.
L. W. Hastings (author of a work on California) . Captain,
M. M. Wombough. 1st Lieutenant.
J. M. Hudspeth 2d Lieutenant,
Company G.
- Thompson Captain.
Davis Ist Lieutenant,
Rock 2d Lieutenant,
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Company H.
R. T. Jacobs . . Captain.
Edward Bryant (later alcade of San Francisco) 1st Lieutenant.
Geo. M. Lippincott 2d Lieutenant.
Artillery Company.
Louis McLane (afterwards Major) Captain. John K. Wilson (made Captain in January, 1847) 1st Lieutenant. Wm. Blackburn (later alcade at Santa Cruz). 2d Lieutenant.
This company had two pieces of artillery. There were a number of officers who did not accompany their battalion on this march, but were performing duties in other parts of the state, as follows :-
S. J. Hensley . Captain.
S. Gibson (lanced through the body at San Pasqual) . Captain.
Miguel Pedrorena (a Spaniard) Captain.
Stgo Argüello (a Californian) Captain.
Bell (an old resident of Los Angeles) Captain.
H. Rhenshaw 1st Lieutenant.
A. Godey 1st Lieutenant.
Jas. Barton 1st Lieutenant.
L. Argüello (a Californian) 1st Lieutenant.
The march south was during the rainy season, and the suffering of the troops before reaching Santa Barbara on the twenty-seventh of December was very severe, and the loss in horses was so great that not enough were left to mount the command. Only three events of special interest had occurred up to that time on the march through the country. The first was the capture of an Indian, who was condemned and shot as a spy on the thirteenth of December, about fifteen miles out from the mission of San Miguel, on the road to San Luis Obispo. He was fired upon by a file of soldiers, and, says Lieuten- ant Bryant, " He fell upon his knees, and remained in that position several minutes without uttering a groan, and then sank upon the earth. No human being could have met his fate with more composure or with stronger manifestations of courage. It was a scene such as I desire never to witness again." We called Lieutenant Bird's attention to this passage in Bryant's work, and he said, " It's all right except the courage part. I saw him shot, and thought he was badly scared." The dead Indian had been the servant of José de Jesus Pico, and two days later his master was captured at San Luis Obispo, and condemned to be executed, but a procession of females with covered faces, except the leader, who was, says Bryant, " of fine appearance, and dressed with remarkable taste
* whose beautiful features * * required no concealment," visited the quarters of Fremont, praying that the life of Pico might be spared. The Colonel deemed it policy to grant a pardon and the prisoner went free, although he was to have been executed for having broken his parole. The third event was the terrible march of the army, on Christmas day and night, from the summit of St. Ines mountain down into the valley of Santa Barbara. Again we introduce an extract from that excellent journal kept by Lieutenant Bryant, when accompanying the California battalion as an officer in its march to Los Angeles :-
" DECEMBER 25th .- Christmas Day, and a memorable one to me. Owing to the difficulty in hauling the cannon up the steep acclivities of the mountains, the main body of the battalion did not come up with us until twelve o'clock, and before we commenced the descent of the mountain a furious storm com- menced, raging with a violence rarely surpassed. The rain fell in torrents, and the wind blew almost
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with the force of a tornado. This fierce strife of the elements continued without abatement the entire afternoon, and until two o'clock at night. Driving our horses before us, we were compelled to slide down the steep and slippery rocks, or wade through deep gullies and ravines filled with mud and foam- ing torrents of water, that rushed downward with such force as to carry along the loose rock, and tear up the trees and shrubbery by the roots. Many of the horses, falling into the ravines, refused to make an effort to extricate themselves, and were swept downward and drowned. Others, bewildered by the fierceness and terrors of the storm, rushed or fell headlong over the steep precipices and were killed. Others obstinately refused to proceed, but stood quaking with fear or shivering with cold ; and many of these perished in the night from the severity of the storm. The advance party did not reach the foot of the mountain, and find a place to encamp, until night-and a night of more impenetrable and terrific darkness I never witnessed. The ground upon which our camp was made, although sloping from the hills to a small stream, was so saturated with water that men as well as horses sank deep at every step. The rain fell in such quantities that fires with great difficulty could be lighted, and most of them were immediately extinguished.
"The officers and men belonging to the company having the cannon in charge, labored until nine or ten o'clock to bring them down the mountain, but they were finally compelled to leave them. Much of the baggage, also, remained on the side of the mountain, with the pack-mules and horses conveying them, all efforts to force the animals down being fruitless. The men continued to straggle into the camp until a late hour of the night ; some crept under the shelving rocks, and did not come in until the next morn- ing. We were so fortunate as to find our tent, and after much difficulty pitched it under an oak tree. All efforts to light a fire and keep it blazing proving abortive. we spread our blankets upon the ground and endeavored to sleep, although we could feel the cold streams of water running through the tent, and between and around our bodies. In this condition we remained until about two o'clock in the morning, when, the storm having abated, I rose, and shaking from my garments the dripping water, after many unsuccessful efforts succeeded in kindling a fire. Near our tent I found three soldiers who had reached camp at a late hour.
"They were fast asleep on the ground, the water around them being two to three inches deep ; but they had taken the care to keep their head above water by using a log of wood for a pillow. The fire beginning to blaze freely, I dug a ditch with my hands and a sharp stick of wood, which drained off the pool surrounding the tent. One of the men, when he felt the sensation consequent upon being 'high and dry,' roused himself, and sitting upright, looked around for some time with an expression of bewil- dered amazement. At length he seemed to realize the true state of the case, and exclaimed in a tone of energetic soliloquy :--
" ' Well, who wouldn't be a soldier and fight for California?'
" ' You are mistaken,' I replied.
"Rubbing his eyes, he gazed at me with astonishment, as if having been entirely unconscious of my presence ; but, reassuring himself, he said :
" ' How mistaken ?'
" ' Why,' I answered, 'you are not fighting for California.'
" ' What the d-1, then, am I fighting for ?' he inquired.
" 'For Texas.'
" 'Texas be d-d; but hurrah for Gen'l Jackson!' and with this exclamation he threw himself back again upon his wooden pillow, and was soon snoring in a profound slumber.
"DECEMBER 26TH .- Parties were detailed early this morning, and despatched up the mountain to bring down the cannon and collect the living horses and baggage. The destruction of horseflesh, by
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those who witnessed the scene by daylight, is described as frightful. In some places large numbers of dead horses were piled together. In others, horses half buried in the mud of the ravines, or among the rocks, were gasping in the agonies of death. The number of dead animals is variously estimated at from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty by different persons. The cannon, most of the missing baggage and the living horses were all brought in by noon. The day was busily employed in cleaning our rifles and pistols, and drying our drenched baggage."
On the third of January, 1847, Fremont resumed his march for Los Angeles, approaching it from the north, while Commodore Stockton, who had started from San Diego on the twenty-ninth of Decem- ber, was approaching that place from the south, neither of those commanders knowing what the other was doing. Leaving them on the march, let us return to the north and see what had transpired there after the removal of so many Americans, who had gone to the south by sea and land with the two armies.
At the time Fremont left Gilroy, the first of December, Capt. C. M. Weber had started from San José to join him with a company of men he had recruited for that purpose, and there were but ten men left in San José and Santa Clara to protect the families of those who had joined the armies from those places. The captain and his lieutenant, James Williams, became so strongly impressed with the fact that danger and duty both demanded of them to turn back and protect the families and homes of those who were away, that both left their command, which continued on its way and joined Fremont, and immediately set about recruiting another company for that purpose. With the assistance of John M. Murphy, Weber was so far successful as to enlist thirty-three men, some of whom were from Yerba Buena. He was at that place with his company when Lieut. Washington A. Bartlett was captured in · the outskirts of that town by Francisco Sanches, who had raised the standard of revolt as soon as the California battalion had reached in its march a point sufficiently far south to make it (as he supposed) safe for him to do so. Bartlett was a friend of Weber, and the latter immediately tendered his services and that of his company of mounted men to Captain Montgomery, for immediate service in going to his rescue. Montgomery at once accepted the offer, and promptly fitted out a party under Capt. Ward Marston to pursue Sanches. That expedition marched, one hundred and one strong, from Yerba Buena on the twenty-ninth of December, 1846, the same day that Commodore Stockton started from San Diego for Los Angeles, Fremont being then with the California battalion in Santa Barbara.
The following is a list of the force constituting the command that marched from Yerba Buena in pursuit of Francisco Sanches :-
THE ORGANIZATION.
Ward Marston, U. S. M. Corps Captain commanding. J. Duval. Assistant Surgeon, acting Aid de Camp.
John Pray. Interpreter. - Tansil Lieutenant in command of 34 marines.
Wm. F. D. Iongh, Master 1 commanding one field-piece and 10 men.
John M. Kell, Midshipmar
C. M. Weber, Captain. .
John M. Murphy, Ist Lieutenant. . ... commanding San José Vols., 33 men. John F. Reed, acting 2d Lieutenant
Wm. M. Smith, Captain.
John Rose, Ist Lieutenant. commanding Yerba Buena Vols., 12 men. Julius Martin, 2d Lieutenant Total .101.
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On the second of January, 1847, they came up with Sanches, who, with one hundred men and one piece of artillery, was about to attack the Santa Clara mission, where some thirty immigrant families had congregated, with only fifteen men under Capt. Joseph Aram to protect them. All night the camp- fires of Sanches' forces had been seen within a half-mile of the mission. The fifteen riflemen were out as skirmishers and in the belfry of the church, watching for the enemy with feelings better imagined than described. They knew of the fate of the Americans at the Alamo. As the morning came, with a heavy fog obscuring everything from view, there suddenly broke upon the ear of the sentinel in the tower, the report of a rifle-shot, then another, followed by an uneven rumbling detonation that led the watchers to believe that Sanches was driving back into town the weak little line of skirmishers, who had no force to support them. There were others beside the sentinel listening-helpless women and children, whose paled faces marked the agony of fear, as they waited with bated breath and white lips a some- thing that should tell if there was hope for them out yonder in the gloom and fog. Suddenly there came a sound like the falling of a distant tree, then another and another, when the watchman quickly comprehended the cause, and shouted from the tower to the listeners below :- " It's volleys of mus- ketry-they are firing by platoons. It's Weber come to our rescue with the marines." Elmer Brown, who was that sentinel, in speaking of the event says :- "It caused many a big tear to trickle down the faces of the poor immigrants," as they realized the glad message borne to them on the air from over the plains, like a Scottish slogan, telling them that friends were coming through the smoke of battle to their relief. The fog was soon dispelled, and the people at the mission could see the contending forces from the house-tops. An old Californian, at the mission, whose feelings were hostile to the Amer- icans, kept saying of his friends as he watched the strife :- " Oh ! they can't shoot? They can't fight !! " The enemy were finally driven away, and our forces entered Santa Clara, about eleven A. M., on the second of January.
The following extract we take from The California Star, of Feb. 6, 1847, a paper published by Samuel Brannan and edited by E. P. Jones, at Yerba Buena :-
"The following particulars of the recent expedition from this place we have received from an au - thentic source. We believe it to be * * the most correct account of the movement of our * troops and of the enemy, and of the final settlement of the difficulties, yet given to the public." The article, in speaking of the battle on the plains of Santa Clara, after bringing the two forces together, says :- "An attack was immediately ordered, the enemy was forced to retire, which they were able to do in safety, after some resistance, in consequence of their superior horses.
"The affair lasted about one hour, during which time we had one marine slightly wounded in the head, and one volunteer of Capt. Weber's company in the leg, and the enemy had one horse killed and some of their force supposed to be killed or wounded. In the evening the enemy sent in a flag-of-truce, with a communication requesting an interview with the commanding officer of the expedition the next day, which was granted, when an armistice was entered into preparatory to a settlement of the difficulties.
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