USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The beginnings of San Francisco : from the expedition of Anza, 1774, to the city charter of April 15, 1850 : with biographical and other notes, Vol. I > Part 24
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Up to this time Frémont had taken no active part in affairs. Asked to head the uprising he had replied that he was a United States officer and could not take part in an insurrection. He may have waited to see if some real settlers joined the movement-men who had a stake in the country. He sent emissaries to Doctor Marsh and other land owners, and later Bidwell, Baldridge, Reading, and others came in, some of whom did not approve the filibustering plan, but joined, believing that Frémont was acting under secret orders from his govern-
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ment; a belief that was general among both Californians and foreigners. At last Frémont decided to come out into the open, or, as he says: "I decided that it was for me to govern events rather than to be governed by them. I represented the Army and the Flag of the United States."* Breaking camp on the American river June 23d, he appeared at Sonoma on the twenty-fifth with his entire force accompanied by some thirty settlers under Samuel J. Hensley, an immigrant of 1843. Fre- mont at once assumed command of the Bears, the com- bined force amounting now to about one hundred and sixty-five men. Leaving a garrison to hold Sonoma, Frémont at the head of one hundred and thirty men marched to San Rafael where he expected to find De la Torre. Now occurred a most lamentable incident; and affair that must leave an indelible stain upon the name of Fremont-the murder of Berreyesa and the De Haros. I will let Jasper O'Farrell tell the story. In a statement published in the Los Angeles Star September 27, 1856, O'Farrell says: "I was at San Rafael in June 1846 when the then Captain Frémont arrived at the mission with his troops. The second day after his arrival there was a boat landed three men at the mouth of the estero on Point San Pedro. As soon as they were discovered by Frémont there were three men (of whom Kit Carson was one) detailed to meet them. They mounted their horses and after advancing about one hundred yards halted and Carson returned to where Frémont was standing on the corridor of the mission in company with Gillespie, myself and others, and said 'Captain, shall I take those men prisoners?' In response Frémont waived his hand and said, 'I have got no room for pris- oners.' They then advanced to within fifty yards of the three unfortunate and unarmed Californians, alighted
* Memoir: 520.
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from their horses and deliberately shot them. One of of them was an old and respectable Californian, Don José R. Berreyesa, whose son was then alcalde of Sonoma. The other two were twin brothers and sons of Don Francisco de Haro, a citizen of the Pueblo of Yerba Buena. I saw Carson some two years ago and spoke to him of this act and he assured me that then and since he regretted to be compelled to shoot those men, but Frémont was blood-thirsty enough to order otherwise, and he further remarked that it was not the only brutal act he was compelled to commit while under his com- mand." José de los Santos Berreyesa, the alcalde of Sonoma, who, with his two brothers had been imprisoned by the Bears, says that his mother had sent the father to Sonoma to ascertain their condition. The three men were unarmed and were non-combatants. They had left their saddles on the beach and were walking up to the mission to obtain horses to continue their journey .* So far as is known, no one of them was connected with Castro's army. Kit Carson, G. P. Swift, and a French Canadian trapper of Frémont's company are named by contempo- rary writers as constituting the firing party. Frémont wrote Benton, in the letter already mentioned, that three of Castro's party having landed in advance were killed near the beach: adding; "beyond this there was no loss on either side." This implies an engagement. If so, it was Frémont's only battle during the conquest of California. In his Memoirs, Fremont says: "My
scouts, mainly Delawares, influenced by feelings of retaliation (for murder of Cowie and Fowler) killed Berreyesa and de Haro who were the bearers of inter- cepted dispatches."t Captain Phelps of the barque
* For the full text of these communications, see Appendix D.
t Memoir of My Life, 525. This does not agree with his statements to Benton, and both statements are false.
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Moscow makes the statement that on the body of one of the men was found an order from Castro to De la Torre to kill every foreigner he could find, man, woman, and child. This absurd story has been repeated by sev- eral writers. It is said that the De Haros were carrying dispatches from Castro to De la Torre, which was probably the fact. The testimony of Jasper O'Farrell has never been impeached .*
The position of De la Torre was not a pleasant one. He was greatly outnumbered and even if his men were equals in arms, courage, and skill of those who were pursuing him-which they were not-he stood no chance of success in an engagement. He therefore prepared a letter announcing his intention to attack Sonoma the next morning (June 29th), and sent it out by an Indian to be captured by Frémont's scouts. The ruse was successful. Frémont hurried back to Sonoma where he arrived before daylight of the twenty-ninth and De la Torre quietly embarked his men-some seventy-five or eighty-in a lighter at Sausalito, crossed to San Pablo, and joined Castro at Santa Clara. On July Ist Frémont crossed from Sausalito to the old fort at San Francisco, Castillo de San Joaquin, and spiked the guns lying on
* Many writers of the time speak of this murder and a few attempt to justify it. Ide (Biog. Sketch, 190) says that the men fell on their knees and begged for quarter; "but the orders were to take no prisoners from this band of mur- derers, and the men were shot and never rose from the ground." Swasey (Cal. '45-6, MS. 10) says: "The firing was perfectly justifiable under the circumstances." Fowler (Bear Flag Revolt. 5), says: "The killing of old Berreyesa and two youths in the most wanton manner somewhat opened the eyes of the officers in command to the fact that they must assume a stricter control over the doings of their subordinates." He puts the blame on Kit Carson and a Canadian Frenchmen, both of whom, he says, were drunk. Charles Brown, an immigrant of 1828, married to a sister of the De Haros, says: "The murder of Jose Reyes Berreyesa and the De Haros was a most infamous act." (Early Events, 25-6). The bodies were stripped and lay unburied where they fell for several days.
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the ground, as has been told; and on the second, Doctor Semple landed at Yerba Buena with ten men, captured that valiant Mexican warrior, Robert Ridley, and sent him to join the other prisoners at Sutter's fort. Frémont announced to Benton that he had defeated De la Torre, driven him across the bay, spiked the guns of the fort, and had freed from all Mexican authority the territory north of the bay of San Francisco from the sea to Sutter's fort. He writes as if this was an important military campaign in which he had swept a large section of the country clear of the enemy. The guns he spiked were large and handsome pieces, he says, but he does not say that they were dismounted and lying on the ground .* Frémont's letter of July 25th gives to Benton the history of events as he wished them to appear, from the meeting with Gillespie at Klamath to the transfer of command to Stockton. He speaks of "Sonoma, in the department of Sonoma, commanded by General Vallejo," as if it were a real military department commanded by a general officer with, presumably, a military force. Again, he says: "At daybreak on the 15th, the military fort of Sonoma was taken by surprise," etc. The term "fort" implies to the general public, a fortified place defended by a garrison. There were no fortifications at Sonoma and there had been no troops there for two years. Vallejo's rank in the regular army was that of lieutenant-colonel, t and at this time he had no military command. None of these things are explained in the letter. The mission of Santa Clara was "a strong place" and San Juan Bautista was "a fortified post." There were no forti-
* See Gillespie's testimony: Note 40. Gillespie was with the party. Bancroft says (Hist. of Cal. v. 177): "So far as can be known, not one of the ten cannon offered the slightest resistance."
t He was also colonel of Second Regiment, Defensores de la Patria, a militia organization on paper.
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fications at either place, unless the mission churches may be so termed. The statements made in this letter were used by Benton and repeated by the secretary of war, and form the basis of Fremont's claim to glory as conqueror of California; for the letter is a summary of his active military service. He made two trips to the south with his battalion but engaged in no more battles.
After driving De la Torre from the field Frémont returned to Sonoma and addressed the people, July 5th, advising a course of operations which was unanimously adopted. California was declared independent; the country was put under martial law; the force, now amount- ing to two hundred and twenty-four men, was organized into three companies with Frémont in command, and all pledged to continue in service as long as necessary for the purpose of gaining and maintaining the independence of California.
These proceedings ended the political career of that administrator, William B. Ide, who strongly resented the unwarranted interference of Captain Frémont. He had accomplished a successful revolution and now came this captain of engineers, after all was done, to claim the glory of a conqueror and to present to the United States, with his compliments, the fair province of California.
Leaving fifty men to garrison Sonoma, Frémont marched with about one hundred and seventy men to the Sacramento and moved up to his old camp on the American river on the 9th of July. It was given out, and it was so understood, that he was in "pursuit of Castro," but on the tenth an express from Captain Montgomery arrived with the announcement that Com- modore Sloat had raised the flag of the United States. The Bear Flag war was ended.
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On raising the flag at Monterey Sloat sent a summons to Castro at Santa Clara to surrender his forces to the United States, and at the same time invited the general and also the governor to a conference at Monterey, assuring the governor that though he came with a power- ful force, he came as the best friend of California. Sloat's summons reached Castro at San Juan Bautista July 8th and that officer started southward with what remained of his army-about one hundred men-to join forces with Pico for the national defence.
Leaving Sacramento July 12th Frémont marched with one hundred and sixty men and two guns in hot pursuit of Castro, then in the neighborhood of San Luis Obispo .* On the seventeenth he reached San Juan Bautista where he met a company of dragoons formed from the sailors of Sloat's squadron and commanded by Daingerfield Fauntleroy, purser of the Savannah. Assuming com- mand of the combined forces of the army and navy Frémont resumed his march and entered Monterey July 19th, where his fame had preceded him, and where he and his men created no little interest. The following picture is by Lieutenant Walpole of Admiral Seymour's Collingwood: "During our stay Captain Frémont and his party arrived, preceded by another troop of American horse. It was a party of seamen mounted. * Fré- mont's party naturally excited curiosity. Here were true trappers. These men had passed years in the wilds, living on their own resources. They were a curious set. A vast cloud of dust appeared first, and thence in a long file emerged this wildest wild party. Frémont rode ahead, a spare, active-looking man, with such an eye! He was dressed in a blouse and leggings, and wore a felt hat. After him came five Delaware Indians, who
* The distance between Sacramento and San Luis Obispo is about three hundred miles.
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were his bodyguard; they had charge of two baggage- horses. The rest, many of them blacker than the Indians, rode two and two, the rifle held by one hand across the pommel of the saddle. Thirty-nine of them are his regular men, the rest are loafers picked up lately. His original men are principally backwoodsmen from Tennes- see and the banks of the Missouri. * * The dress of these men was principally a long, loose coat of deer-skin, tied with thongs in front; trousers of the same, of their manufacture, which, when wet through they take off, scrape well inside with a knife, and put on as soon as dry. The saddles were of various fashions, though these and a large drove of horses, and a brass field gun, were things they had picked up in California. The rest of the gang were a rough set; and perhaps their private, public, and moral characters had better not be too closely examined. They are allowed no liquor * and the discipline is very strict. They were marched up to an open space on the hills near the town, under some large firs, and there took up their quarters in messes of six or seven, in the open air. The Indians lay beside their leader."*
Walter Colton says:f "Monday, July 20th. Capt. Frémont and his armed band, with Lieut. Gillespie of the marine corps, arrived last night from their pursuit of Gen. Castro. * They defiled, two abreast, through the principal street of the town. The citizens glanced at them through their grated windows. Their rifles, revolv- ing pistols, and long knives glittered over the dusky buckskin which enveloped their sinewy limbs, while their untrimmed locks, flowing out from under their foraging caps, and their black beards, with white teeth glittering through, gave them a wild, savage aspect."
* Walpole: Four Years in the Pacific, ii, 215-16.
t Deck and Port: 390-1.
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These men were not United States troops; they were Frémont's "hired men," and this spectacular entrance must have satisfied even the theatrical soul of that young conqueror.
Commodore Sloat had heard at Mazatlan on the 17th of May of trouble on the Rio Grande between General Taylor and the Mexicans and on the thirty-first he learned of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. On the 7th of June he learned that the ships of the United States were blockading the gulf ports of Mexico. His instructions from the secretary of the navy required him to take possession of the port of San Francisco and other ports of California immediately on learning that war had been declared between United States and Mexico .* Uncertain how to act, not having specific information that war had been declared in terms, though hostilities had begun, he sailed June 8th for Monterey where he arrived July 2d. Still uncertain, he sent an officer ashore to tender the usual civilities by offering to salute the Mexican flag, which honor was declined for want of powder to return the salute.f Larkin came on board and had a long interview with the commodore. On the third the commodore landed and called on the California authorities. On the fifth came a dispatch from Mont- gomery with an account of Frémont's doings. The sixth was spent by Sloat in consultation with Larkin and in preparation for landing. Larkin still hoping for a
* Later instructions from the secretary substituted the words "in the event of actual hostilities" for this sentence.
t "It was a matter of great surprise on the part of many officers that the commodore should have tendered these civilities, knowing, as we all did, that the Mexican government had already commenced offensive operations against our army on the Rio Grande, and that the squadron of the United States was blockading the gulf coast of Mexico." Midshipman J. K. Wilson before Cal. Claims Commission, 30th Cong. Ist Ses. Senate Rep. 75.
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change of flag by consent of the California authorities, notwithstanding the acts of the filibusters, counseled delay, but the commodore, fearful of blame, would wait no longer and the next morning, Tuesday July 7th, after a demand for surrender, landed two hundred and fifty men under Captain Mervine and took possession.
On arrival at Monterey Frémont called on the com- modore and in reply to a request for information told him that in what he had done he had acted on his own responsibility without any express authority from the government and that he knew nothing whatever about the breaking-out of war. Sloat was much put out by this piece of information and gave the captain distinctly to understand that in raising the flag at Monterey he had acted upon the faith of Frémont's operations in the north. Reports of the interview state that the com- modore was violent in his denunciations of Frémont's conduct. He declined to adopt Frémont's plan of conquest or to accept the Bear Flag battalion as a part of the United States forces. In short, Sloat's decision left Frémont without any standing as a conqueror. Commodore Stockton, however, had arrived in the Congress a few days before and reported to Sloat for duty. Sloat who was in ill health and had asked to be sent home, had on July 23d made Stockton commander- in-chief of the land forces, and on the twenty-ninth sailed for home, leaving Stockton in command of the squadron. On receiving command of the forces operating on land Stockton immediately accepted Frémont's force of one hundred and sixty men, as a battalion of volunteers, giving Frémont the rank of major, Gillespie that of captain, and ordered the battalion to embark on the Cyane for San Diego for the conquest of the south.
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Stockton was a conqueror after Fremont's own heart and on assuming command issued a proclamation* as false in its premises and as full of buncombe as any bando ever issued by Mexican revolutionist. He sailed on the Congress for San Pedro where he landed three hundred and fifty men and marched to Los Angeles without opposition from an "exasperated and powerful enemy" as he terms Castro's force, meeting Major Frémont's battalion just outside the town, and the combined forces entered the pueblo and raised the United States' flag without opposition or disapproval on the part of the inhabitants, Castro's formidable army having . melted away and the comandante-general being on his way to the City of Mexico.
Considering the conquest of California complete, Stockton and Frémont returned to the north leaving Los Angeles in charge of Gillespie with a garrison of fifty men, and Santa Barbara in charge of Lieutenant Talbot with a garrison of nine. Stockton appointed Frémont military commandant of the territory and instructed him to increase his battalion to three hundred men for garrison duty.
On September 29th came the news of the revolt of the Californians in the south and Stockton sent Mervine in the Savannah to Gillespie's assistance and sailed himself in the Congress, October 13th. Soon came the news of Mervine's defeat at San Pedro and Frémont, now made lieutenant-colonel, sent his officers to enlist the immigrants arriving in large numbers in the Sacra- mento valley. On the 29th of November, Colonel Frémont began his march from the rendezvous, San Juan Bautista, with four hundred and twenty-cight men in eight companies of mounted rifle-men and a company artillery. Before he got off there occurred a sharp
* See note 37.
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engagement at Natividad, in the Salinas valley, between a detachment of the battalion under Captain Burroughs and a party of Californians under Manuel Castro, in which Burroughs and three or four of his men were killed and a number wounded. The loss to the Californians, who slightly outnumbered the Americans, was three killed and four wounded.
Frémont swept the country of horses-with or without the consent of the rancheros-and he promised his men twenty-five dollars a month pay. One company was composed of Walla Walla and California Indians. The artillery, six pieces, was commanded by Louis McLain, passed midshipman of the Savannah. This officer had served as lieutenant of Fauntleroy's dragoons and his rank in the battalion was that of captain. Later he had the rank of major and was one of Frémont's commissioners in the treaty of Cahuenga. He resigned from the navy in 1850 and returned to California. He was for many years manager of Wells Fargo and Company's express and was the first president of the Nevada Bank, serving from 1875 to 1882.
The heavy rains made the march of the battalion slow and difficult. The route was up the San Benito and into the Salinas valley, up which they marched, then over the Cuesta de Santa Lucia to San Luis Obispo where they arrived December 14th. In the Salinas they captured an Indian servant of Don Jesus Pico whom they shot as a spy-a concession to the "feelings of the undisciplined men." Another outrage was the plunder and destruction of Los Ojitos, whose owner had two sons with the California army .* At San Luis Don Jesus Pico (called Totoi Pico) was arrested for breaking his parole, tried by court-martial, condemned, and sentenced
* Mariano Soberanes. He put in a claim before the commission for $19,930 and was allowed $423.
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to be shot. His wife with her fourteen children and a number of women of San Luis, threw themselves at the leader's feet and begged for the life of the husband and father. Unable to withstand their tears and pleadings, to which were added the solicitation of his officers, Frémont granted a pardon to Don Jesus and made a life-long and very useful friend.
Santa Barbara was reached December 27th and after a week's rest the march was resumed and on January IIth the battalion occupied the buildings of the mission of San Fernando. Frémont had proceeded cautiously, having received exaggerated accounts of the number of Californians engaged in the revolt, and his respect for them had been increased by the affairs of San Pedro, Natividad, and San Pascual,
Advised of the occupation of Los Angeles by the Americans Frémont sent Don Jesus Pico to the camp of the Californians at Los Verdugos, just north of the pueblo, and Don Andrés Pico, realizing that further resistance was useless with his command reduced to less than one hundred men, made terms with the conqueror that protected the lives and property of his men; and on January 13, 1847, the war in California was ended, somewhat to the annoyance of that other conqueror, Commodore Stockton, who was put out to find that his clever young protégé had stepped in between him and his final triumph.
The controversy that arose between Kearny and Frémont is told in the note on the military governors .*
On the 19th of January 1847, Stockton turned over to Frémont the civil command and on the twenty-second Frémont proclaimed order and peace restored, required the release of all prisoners, and ordered civil officers to
* Note 35.
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return to their duties. In Los Angeles Frémont was recognized as governor and was able to borrow money and buy cattle for government use. Into his financial transactions I will not go. The government, after many years, paid some portion of the claims but the greater part, so far as I know, have never been settled.
On March 1, 1847, Kearny issued his proclamation assuming charge of California as civil governor and although Frémont continued for some weeks thereafter to issue orders as governor he was soon obliged to cease.
On March 23d Major William H. Russell, sometime "secretary of state" under "Governor" Frémont departed for Washington with dispatches and, it is said, a petition signed by Frémont's friends in the south for his appoint- ment as governor. In May another petition was cir- culated in the north and received a number of signatures; but on June 14th a public meeting was held in San Francisco to protest against the appointment, his Bear Flag exploits and unpaid accounts of the California battalion being urged against him. The question of payment for property taken by the officers and men of the California battalion and by various irresponsible persons, as well as the pay of the volunteers, was a burning one, and Colonel Mason and Special Agent Larkin urged the payment of these claims as a means of reconciling the Californians to the change of flag; but it was not until 1853 that any part of these claims were paid, and a large number of them were never paid at all.
In his memoirs, in his letters to Benton, in his defence before the court-martial, in his testimony before the claims commission, and in the numerous statements of his admirers, Frémont's claim to fame as the hero of California is maintained on the following points: By his action in June 1846 he saved the lives and property of the American settlers in California; by his acts and
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those of his fellow filibusters of the Bear Flag he pre- vented the acquisition of California by England through the McNamara grant and plan of colonization, and also ended the disposal of public land, it being the evident intent of the Mexican governor to place all the land in private ownership so that when the Americans came in there would be no land obtainable and finally by forcing prompt action on the part of the United States by means of the settler's revolt he prevented the English admiral from anticipating Commodore Sloat's action and raising the English flag.
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