USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > The Herald's history of Los Angeles City > Part 13
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CHAPTER XXII.
LOS ANGELES REGAINED.
C HE American force which set out from San Diego to capture Los Angeles consisted of about 500 men, nine- tenths of whom were Stockton's sail- ors and marines, and the remainder Kearny's dragoons. The commission under which Kearny had been sent to California made him military governor of the territory, thus superseding Stockton, as well as Fre- mont, whom Stockton had proposed to make civil governor. The commodore seems to have understood that Kearny's authority went be- yond his own, for he offered, as soon as Kear- ny came into camp from San Pasqual, to turn over the control of affairs to him. The latter was, however, suffering from a wound, or he may have thought it only courtesy to allow Stockton to continue with the work of prepar- ation.
At all events he certainly declined the com- mand at that time. But when the expedition was ready to start, December 29, 1846, Kearny asked who was to take charge, and, on being told by Commodore Stockton that Lieutenant Rowan had been appointed, he announced that he would prefer to occupy that position him- self. Stockton thereupon appointed him to the command.
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This was the beginning of an undignified controversy between the two commanders, which presently involved many of the officers stationed in Los Angeles, and at last brought Fremont to a court-martial in Washington. There is no doubt that of the two principals to this affair, Stockton's behavior was the more reprehensible, for the military governorship certainly lay with Kearny, and not with the commodore; but, on the other hand, there was a lamentable lack of judgment shown by Kear- ny in all his acts, and a seeming desire to make trouble rather than to smooth over diffi- culties.
When the party had been on the march a few days they were met by Julian Workman and Charles Flugge of Los Angeles, who had been sent out by the Californians to negotiate for a temporary cessation of hostilities. They bore a letter from Flores, in which he asserted that news had been received from Mexico that the war with the United States was at an end, and that satisfactory terms of settlement were now being negotiated. He suggested that un- der the circumstances it might be well to wait and see whether bloodshed in California could not be averted.
When Stockton read this letter-he seems to have ignored Kearny in the matter, al- though the latter was theoretically in com- mand-he returned answer orally that he had released Flores on a parole of honor, in spite
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of which he was now in arms; therefore if he caught him he would shoot him, but would have no further dealings with him.
On the 8th of January, eleven days having been consumed on the march; the party came to the San Gabriel river, and prepared to cross, just north of the place where the bridge of the Santa Fe railroad to Orange now spans the stream. At this spot, which is situated about ten miles southeast of Los Angeles, the battle of San Gabriel was fought. The Californians had mustered all their forces-a total of 500 mounted men-and with four pieces of artil- lery were posted in an advantageous position on high ground, a quarter of a mile back from the river. The Americans sent forward their artillery, and were about to drag it across the stream, when some one warned Kearny that there was quicksand in the river, and that the cannon would be lost. There was a momen- tary halt, and some confusion, for the roar of the enemy's guns was already heard. Stock- ton rode up, and was told by Kearny what was the matter. "Damn the quicksand," shouted Stockton, "bring up those guns." Kearny fell back, and allowed Stockton to di- rect affairs. The cannon were hurried across, and no quicksand was encountered.
A heavy cannonading was begun by the Americans, under cover of which the troops waded the river, and, climbing up on the high- er ground, formed into squares to resist the
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attack of cavalry. The Californians charged, but were unable to stand the fire, and fell back. Presently the whole line of the enemy began to give way in a slow and orderly re- treat. They continued to fire their cannon at intervals as they fell back, until they were en- tirely out of range.
The engagement lasted only about an hour and a half. The Americans lost two killed and eight wounded. The loss of the Californians was about the same. Had the latter possessed powder of any value the American loss would undoubtedly have been much greater. The Americans advanced, with their band playing "Hail Columbia," and took up the ground that Flores had occupied before the battle opened, and here encamped for the day and the fol- lowing night.
On the morning of January 9, 1847, the Americans advanced toward Los Angeles and came upon the enemy about noon, three miles south of the city. There was a long-range ar- tillery duel, in which neither side effected much damage on the other. The Americans formed a large hollow square, with the bag- gage in the center, and advanced slowly for about four hours, driving the enemy before them. Three times Flores ordered his cavalry to charge, but when they came within a few hundred feet of the American line they encoun- tered a fire so severe that they were compelled to withdraw. Stockton had five men wounded,
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but none killed. At about 4 o'clock the enemy gave up the struggle and retreated. The Americans crossed the Los Angeles river, and encamped for the night within sight of the pueblo.
Next morning, January 10th, a small dele- gation of citizens waited on Stockton and in- formed him that the Californian army had fled, and that the people were prepared to surren- der the city without resistance, if they could have an agreement that their lives and prop- erty would be respected. They were evidently in fear that the place was to be sacked. Stock- ton assured tham that no injury would be done peaceable citizens, and they went away. In spite of these friendly advances on the part of the rebellious city, the Americans proceeded slowly and with great caution. About noon they came to the plaza. The streets were filled with people, some few of whom showed their disapproval by curses and shaking of fists. The hills above were crowded with horsemen, who fled at the approach of sol- diers sent to dislodge them.
The band played its repertoire of national and popular airs, and the Californians forgot their anger and crowded to listen. Gillespie led the way to the old adobe on Main street, which he had formerly occupied as headquar- ters, and asked permission himself to run up the colors which he had been compelled to haul down some four months before. The per- mission was granted him, and the men cheered
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lustily as they saw the flag restored to its ac- customed spot. Los Angeles was once more an American city, and this time it was des- tined permanently to remain so.
A strong detachment of artillery was placed on the hill directly above the city, and the chief topographical engineer of General Kearny's division was instructed to prepare plans for a fort in that location. Before this work had advanced very far Kearny left the city, and Lieutenant J. W. Davidson of the First United States Dragoons was ordered to enlarge the plan and begin the work. This was finally completed by July 4th of that year, 1847, and was named Fort Moore. It was on the hill above the present Broadway tunnel.
Looking about for a place in which to es- tablish his headquarters, as he entered the town, Stockton discovered a large, well-fur- nished house, with its doors open and appar- ently quite unoccupied. It was the residence of Dona Encarnacion Abila, at 14, 16, 18 Oli- vera street. This building is still to be seen standing (1901), although now in very bad re- pair. Olivera is a small street running out from the plaza, north of Marchessault. Fear- ing lest the vengeance of the American sol- diery might fall upon the inhabitants of the pueblo, the Senora Abila had left the house in charge of a young man, and escaped into the country ; and he, attracted by the playing of the band, had left it unguarded and standing open. Here Stockton made his headquarters
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Los Angeles Regained.
during his stay, to the great discomfiture, no doubt, of the loyalist owner of the property. General Fremont secured for his use, and that of the civil government which he established, a series of low adobes that occupied the space where the engine-house now stands, on the southeast corner of the plaza. Adjoining these to the west was the residence of J. A. Carrillo, pretentious for its day, on the spot where the Pico house, now called the National hotel, was afterward constructed.
On the day that Stockton and Kearny en- tered Los Angeles, Fremont, coming down from the north, encamped at San Fernando. He had made the march slowly, acting on re- peated messages from the commodore, who advised the utmost caution. Santa Barbara was retaken as he passed, and garrisoned against further attack. Learning that the Cal- ifornian army was encamped on the Verdugo 1anch, Fremont sent out Jesus Pico, the man whose life he had spared, to confer with the rebels.
After the battle on the mesa, on the gtli of January, the Californians scattered, many of them laying down their arms and returning to their homes. Flores, mindful of the threat of Stockton that he would put him to death if captured, took a small escort and escaped over the border into Mexico. The command was transferred to Andres Pico, with J. A. Carrillo second in authority, and they were advised by the escaping leader to yield on the best terms
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possible. Two days later Jesus Pico came into the rebel camp and announced that Fremont was at hand with a large force; and he urged the Californians to surrender to him, rather than to Stockton, in the hope that they might secure better conditions.
On the 13th of January, 1847, articles of capitulation were ratified between the Califor- nians and Fremont, at the Cahuenga ranch house, only a few miles out of Los Angeles. It was agreed that the Californians should sur- render their artillery and "public arms," and should take the parole not to assist in carry- ing on war against the United States. Such as preferred to go out of the territory into Mexico would be allowed to depart, and those that re- mained were to be pardoned for their partici- pation in the rebellion, irrespective of whether they had been under parole or not. Until a treaty of peace should be signed between the United States and Mexico, no resident of Cali- fornia was to be compelled to take the oath of allegiance. The "public arms" thus secured amounted to a handsome total of six muskets, and two diminutive cannon-the "Woman's Gun" and one other.
The evidence is clear that Fremont knew of the occupation of Los Angeles by Stockton at the time he entered into this agreement with the Californians; and it was afterwards charged by his enemies-of which he had al- ways a flourishing crop-that he overstepped the bounds of his authority in making terms
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Los Angeles Regained.
with the belligerents almost in the very pres- ence of his superior. It was an infraction of military etiquette, to say the least, but it did not displease Stockton, who was, on the con- trary, rather relieved to have the matter thus taken out of his hands. He had repeatedly threatened to put to death Flores and others who had broken their parole, and such sever- ity, if actually carried out, would have made the complete pacification of the country diffi- cult, if not impossible. Fremont had provided him a way out of an awkward dilemma.
There may have been another reason why Stockton was well satisfied with Fremont's course in this matter. The tendency toward disagreement and mutual suspicion that had always been rife among the Californians, and which was indigenous to the southern pueblo, seems by this time to have thoroughly infected the Americans, and the row between Stockton and Kearny was assuming serious proportions. The former may have been the more ready to overlook any seeming irregularity in Fre- mont's conduct in the hope of obtaining his support in the controversy.
On the day of the surrender at Cahuenga, Fremont sent on his second in command to Los Angeles, with instructions to find out which of the two-Stockton or Kearny-was in authority. He found that each claimed to be the civil and military governor of the state, although they each admitted privately that as
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soon as peace was restored in the territory they intended to make Fremont civil governor. Kearny based his claim on the fact that he had been commissioned by the national gov- ernment to take entire charge of affairs, his instructions bearing a later date than any held by Stockton. As a matter of fact, this claim was entirely valid, and Stockton's position was untenable. The latter held that Kearny's in- structions were based on a theory that a state of war existed in California, and that the coun- try was in alien hands, whereas, before Kear- ny had come to the state the Americans had secured complete control, and a civil govern- ment was practically in operation. To this he added the argument that when Kearny had first arrived at San Diego and was offered the reins of authority by Stockton he had de- clined to accept them.
Fremont's emissary dodged the whole question by making his report to both claim- ants, and when Fremont himself came into the pueblo the next day he made an official call upon each of them, and waited for develop- ments.
On the 16th of January the matter came to a direct issue upon Kearny's sending instruc- tions to Stockton to proceed no further in the formation of a civil government for the terri- tory. Stockton refused to obey, and issued an order removing Kearny from command of the troops. For the purpose of putting Fremont
THE ABILA RESIDENCE, STOCKTON'S HEADQUARTERS
Photo by Pierce
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on record, Kearny sent word to him not to make certain contemplated changes in his bat- talion. He then sent for Fremont, and urged him to come over to his side, assuring him that he would make him governor in return. But Fremont was loyal to Stockton, to whom he felt himself indebted, and he refused to be led away by a bribe. He sent a formal com- munication to Kearny to the effect that until the latter and Stockton settled their differences as to their respective authority he would be compelled to take his orders, as before, from Commodore Stockton.
A day or two later, finding himself utterly ignored in the plans of Stockton and Fremont for the governing of the territory, Kearny ad- dressed a note to the commodore, in which he said that to avoid further discussion and dis- agreement, which would bring scandal upon the powers they represented, he would with- draw for the present to San Diego, and await further instructions from Washington. On January 18th he left Los Angeles with his dra- goons and marched south.
January 19th Stockton issued to Fremont his commission as civil governor of the state, a position which he held about fifty days, al- though his technical right to it is open to ques- tion. Stockton offered the place of secretary of state to Gillespie, but the latter preferred to be major of the battalion. An order was is- sued, convening a legislative council, which
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was to contain, among others, ex-governor Al- varado, Juan Bandini and his brother-in-law, Santiago Arguello, and Thomas O. Larkin, the American consul, who had been captured early in the rebellion, and was held as a prisoner in Los Angeles through the whole affair. But this gathering never came together, for early in March Colonel Richard B. Mason arrived with new instructions from the national gov- ernment that left no doubt as to the pre-emi- nence of Kearny's military and civil author- ity. Stockton was no longer in command on the coast, having been succeeded by Commo- dore Shubrick, and the latter at once recog- nized Kearny as governor of the state. Fre- mont came up to Monterey, whither Kearny had repaired, and he also admitted the author -. ity of Kearny. About this time Fremont and Colonel Mason, who was Kearny's chief of staff, and who was subsequently appointed governor, became involved in a quarrel, out of which came a challenge to a duel. The affair of honor never took place, owing to the inter- vention of General Kearny. Fremont was or- dered to Washington, where he was tried be- fore a court-martial for disobedience and con- duct prejudicial to good order and military dis- cipline. After a long and tempestuous trial he was found technically guilty, and recom- mended to the clemency of the president. But Fremont declined to accept the verdict as a just one and resigned from the army.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE PUEBLO IS MADE AMERICAN.
L
OS ANGELES was under military rule from January of 1847, when the Americans took possession of the city for the second time, to August, 1848-a period of nineteen months.
During the time of his quasi-governorship, Fremont kept his headquarters at Los Ange- les, because it had been the capital under the Mexican administration, but as soon as Gener- al Kearny came to be recognized as governor, he sent for the archives and had them brought up to Monterey. This put a final quietus on the long-cherished ambition of the southern city.
On the first of March Kearny sent instruc- tions to Fremont to muster out his battalion, and report in person at Monterey. Colonel P. St. George Cooke, who was in command of a battalion of Mormon volunteers from Mis- souri, was appointed to succeed Fremont in charge of affairs at Los Angeles. Through the disbanding of the California Battalion, a regi- ment which Fremont had gathered in Califor- nia, Los Angeles gained a number of settlers. The Mormon command came up from San Luis Rey, in San Diego county, where it had been stationed, and encamped in Los Angeles. These were the men that did most of the work
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on the fort. They had it nearly completed when they were summoned to Monterey, to be mustered out. Colonel Cooke was succeeded in the month of May by Colonel J. B. Steven- son, of the New York regiment of volunteers. This regiment, like the Mormon battalion, had been enlisted on the understanding that when the war came to an end, the men were to be paid off in California, and allowed to remain there. Thus the conflict between the United States and Mexico brought many settlers to California.
The presence of so large a body of soldiers in Los Angeles, varying from 300 to 1000, had the effect not only of finally demolishing all plans for rebellion against the new authority, but also of rapidly initiating the Spanish city into American manners and customs. The up- per class Californians, those whose blood was largely or entirely Spanish, and who had ed- ucation and a property interest, adapted them- selves in dignified fashion to the new order. When the state constitutional convention met in 1849, J. A. Carrillo and Manuel Dominguez were elected delegates from Los Angeles, as representing the progressive Spanish-Ameri- can element. W. M. Gwin, who was afterward United States senator, happening to remark, in the course of his argument on some point, that the constitution of the state was not framed so much for the original inhabitants of the territory as for the newcomers of American birth, Carrillo was on his feet in an instant,
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The Pueblo is Made American.
declaring that he considered himself and his fellow-Californians just as true and patriotic Americans as any members of that body; and the remark brought out long and enthusiastic applause. But in the lower class of Califor- nians the same adaptability to new conditions did not develop. There were no rebellions, al- though rumors to that effect were incessant ; but the presence of the Americans, or "grin- gos," as they came now to be called, was more and more resented, and, in the end, acting upon a bad example set by the Americans them- selves, a great amount of lawlessness sprang up among this class.
Colonel Stevenson found his position by no means an easy one, although his difficulties were identical with those of the governor and all others in authority in the state, who were attempting to apply American ideas of justice and civic improvement, through the awkward medium of old Spanish laws. Mason's instruc- tions to his subordinates had been to inter- fere as little as possible with the civil affairs. They were to keep order and assist in the ad- ministration of the laws as they existed. This was by no means as easy as it sounds. Ques- tions were constantly coming up, as between the military and civil authorities, and on sev- eral occasions things came to a complete dead- lock.
In the year 1847, an ayuntamiento had been chosen in Los Angeles that was made up en- tirely of native-born Californians. They were
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informed by Colonel Stevenson that they might go on with the government of the city, just as before, with the one limitation that they were not to give away or sell any of the pueblo real estate. The "Very Illustrious" body continued to hold meetings, after its an- cient custom, observing its traditional formali- ties with all the more pomp and circumstance by reason of the fact that the Americans were looking on. In the month of June of that year the records show that one of the regidores, or councilmen, was fined $10 for impoliteness to- ward another member. A month or two later the second alcalde caused the arrest of Varela, the same who had raised the tumult and driven out Gillespie and started the rebellion a year before. Colonel Stevenson, for some reason, set him free; whereupon the alcalde resigned, and the ayuntamiento left his place vacant as a standing protest.
This experience and several others of a similar character led Stevenson to suggest to the governor that he appoint at least one American in the next ayuntamiento, and he, acting upon this advice, notified the people of Los Angeles that Stephen C. Foster, who had come to the coast with the New York regi- ment as their interpreter, and who for nearly half a century was destined to play an active part in the city affairs, was to be alcalde. This was, of course, an assumption of authority on the party of the governor to which he could lay no legal claim. It was, in fact, a war
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measure, and it seems to have been seriously resented by the citizens of native birth. The out-going alcalde refused to comply with cus- tom and swear in his successor, Foster, and Stevenson cut the Gordian knot by swearing him in himself. The other members of the ayuntamiento all resigned, and Foster and Don Abel Stearns, who had been elected sindico, or city attorney and tax collector, ran the government for a time.
They seem to have conducted the city's affairs very successfully. A chain gang was established and put to work on the dam, or headworks on the river, and on the irrigating ditch, both of which had fallen into disrepair. Several small Indian settlements within the pueblo, which were haunts of vice and filth, were demolished, and their inhabitants driven out-a harsh but probably salutary measure. Vagrants were brought to time, and some reg- ulation of the liquor traffic was attempted.
In December of 1848, notice was issued for an election of a new ayuntamiento, but the people paid no attention to it; whereupon the governor announced that the present officers would continue to hold until the voters of Los Angeles made up their minds to elect success- ors for them. In May of the following year, 1849, the governor learned that the fit of sulks was over, and he issued another order for an election. This time a considerable vote was cast. The ayuntamiento chosen was made up of Californians, except that John Temple was
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elected sindico. By 1850 the prejudice against admitting Americans to a share of the local government seems to have died out, for Abel Stearns was chosen first alcalde that year, with D. W. Alexander and B. D. Wilson also members of the ayuntamiento. Although the Americans continued for many years to be in the minority at the polls, they were always, after this, admitted to more than their propor- tion of the local offices.
In the year 1847, Los Angeles being still a military post and full of soldiers, a great cel- ebration was held of the Fourth of July. This was the first recognition of Independence Day in the old Spanish pueblo. Col. Stevenson is- sued a proclamation, in which he called for a celebration of the day, to be combined with the dedication of the fort, now nearly com- pleted. The troops under his command were instructed to make ready for the affair, and to put up the best showing that was possible. "Circumstances over which we have no con- rol," says Col. Stevenson in his proclamation, "have prevented the command at this post be- ing completely uniformed, but each officer will appear on the Fourth with the perfect equip- ments of his corps, as far as he has them; and most perfect cleanliness as well in arms and accoutrements as in person will be required of all."
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