USA > California > Contra Costa County > The history of Contra Costa County, California > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
"Headquarters, Santa Clara, June 17, 1846."
"JOSÉ CASTRO.
"The citizen, José Castro, Lieutenant-Colonel of Cavalry in the Mexi- can Army, and Acting Commandant of the Department of Califor- nia.
"All foreigners residing among us, occupied with their business, may rest assured of the protection of all the authorities of the department while they refrain entirely from all revolutionary movements.
"The General Comandancia under my charge will never proceed with vigor against any persons, neither will its authority result in mere words, wanting proof to support it ; declarations shall be taken, proofs executed, and the liberty and rights of the laborious, which is ever commendable, shall be protected.
"Let the fortunes of war take its chance with those ungrateful men who, with arms in their hands, have attacked the country, without
56
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
recollecting that they were treated by the undersigned with all the in- dulgence of which he is so characteristic. The imperative inhabitants of the department are witness to the truth of this. I have nothing to fear ; my duty leads me to death or victory. I am a Mexican soldier, and I will be free and independent, or I will gladly die for those inestimable blessings.
"JOSÉ CASTRO.
"Headquarters, Santa Clara, June 17, 1846."
On June 20th a body of about seventy Californians, under Captain José Joaquin de la Torre, crossed the Bay of San Francisco, and hav- ing joined Correo and Padilla, marched to the vicinity of San Rafael, while General Castro had, by the utmost pressure, raised his forces to two hundred and fifty men, most of them being forced volunteers. Of this system of recruiting Lieutenant Revere says: "I heard that on a feast day, when the rancheros came to the mission in their 'go-to-meet- ing' clothes, with their wives and children, Castro seized their horses and forced the men to volunteer in defense of their homes, against los salvajes Americanos. Castro, at the head of his army, on the evening of the 27th of June, marched out of Santa Clara, and proceeding around the head of the Bay of San Francisco as far as the San Leandro Creek, halted on the rancho of Estudillo, where we shall leave them for the present.
Captain J. C. Frémont, having concluded that it had become his duty to take a personal part in the revolution which he had fostered, on June 2Ist transferred his impedimenta to the safe-keeping of Captain Sutter at the fort, and recrossing the American River encamped on the Sin- clair Rancho, where he was joined by Pearson B. Redding and all the trappers about Sutter's Fort, and there awaited orders. On the after- noon of the 23d Harrison Pierce, who had settled in Napa Valley in 1843, came into their camp, having ridden the eighty miles with but one change of horses, which he procured from John R. Wolfskill, on Putah Creek, now Solano County, and conveyed to Frémont the intelligence that the little garrison at Sonoma was greatly excited consequent on news received that General Castro, with a considerable force, was ad- vancing on the town and hurling threats of recapture and hanging of the rebels. On receiving the promise of Frémont to come to their rescue
57
THE BEAR FLAG WAR
as soon as he could, putting ninety men into the saddle, Pierce obtained a fresh mount and returned without drawing rein to the anxious garri- son, who received him and his message with every demonstration of joy. Frémont, having found horses for his ninety mounted rifles, left the Sinclair Rancho on June 23d-a curious looking cavalcade, truly. One of the party writes of them :
"There were Americans, French, English, Swiss, Poles, Russians, Prussians, Chileans, Germans, Greeks, Austrians, Pawnees, native In- dians, etc., all riding side by side, and talking a polyglot lingual hash never exceeded in diversibility since the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. Some wore the relics of their homespun garments, some relied upon the antelope and the bear for their wardrobe, some lightly habited in buckskin leggings and a coat of war-paint, and their weapons were equally various. There was the grim old hunter, with his long heavy rifle, the farmer with his double-barreled shot-gun, the Indian with his bow and arrows, and others with horse-pistols, revolvers, sa- bers, ships' cutlasses, bowie-knives and 'pepper-boxes' (Allen's revol- vers)."
Though the Bear Flag army was incongruous in personnel, as a body it was composed of the best fighting material. Each of them was inured to hardship and privation, self-reliant, fertile in resources, versed in woodcraft and Indian fighting, accustomed to handling fire-arms, and full of energy and daring. It was a band of hardy adventurers, such as in an earlier age wrested this land from the feebler aborigines. With this band Frémont arrived at Sonoma at two o'clock in the morning of June 25, 1846, having made forced marches.
The reader may not have forgotten the capture and horrible butchery of Cowie and Fowler by the Padilla party. A few days thereafter, while William L. Todd (the artist of the Bear Flag) was trying to catch a horse a little distance from the barracks at Sonoma, he was captured by the same gang, and afterward, falling in with another man, he too was taken prisoner. The party several times signified their intention of slay- ing Todd, but he, fortunately knowing something of the Spanish tongue, was able to make them understand that his death would seal General Vallejo's doom, and this saved his life. He and his companion in mis- fortune, with whom he had no opportunity to converse, and who ap- peared to be an Englishman-a half fool and common loafer-were
58
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
conveyed to the Indian ranchería called Olompoli, some eight miles from Petaluma.
For the purpose of liberating the prisoners and keeping the enemy in check until the arrival of Captain Frémont, Lieutenant Ford mus- tered a squad, variously stated at from twenty to twenty-three men, among whom were Granville P. Swift, Samuel Kelsey, William Bald- ridge, and Frank Bedwell, and on June 23d, taking with them from Sonoma the two prisoners, Blas Angelina and Three-Fingered Jack, marched for where it was thought the Californians had established their headquarters. Here they learned from some Indians, under con- siderable military pressure, that the California troops had left three hours before. They now partook of a hasty meal, and with one of the Indians as guide proceeded toward the Laguna de San Antonio, and that night halted within half a mile of the enemy's camp. At dawn they charged the place and took the only men they found there prisoners ; their number was four, the remainder having left for San Rafael.
Four men were left here to guard their prisoners and horses, and Ford, with fourteen others, started in pursuit of the enemy. Leaving the lagoon of San Antonio and striking into the road leading to San Rafael, after a quick ride of four miles, they came in sight of the house where the Californians had passed the night with their two prisoners, Todd and his companion, and were then enjoying themselves within its walls. Ford's men were as ignorant of their proximity as were the Californians of theirs. However, when the advance guard arrived in sight of the corral, and perceiving it to be full of horses, with a num- ber of Indian vaqueros around it, they made a brilliant dash to prevent the animals from being turned loose. While exulting over their good fortune at this unlooked for addition to their cavalry arm, they were surprised to see the Californians rush out of the house and mount their already saddled quadrupeds.
It should be said that the house was situated on the edge of a plain, some sixty yards from a grove of brushwood. In a moment Ford formed his men into two half companies and charged the enemy, who, perceiving the movement, retreated behind the grove of trees. From his position Ford counted them, and found that there were eighty-five. Notwithstanding he had but fourteen in his ranks, nothing daunted, he dismounted his men, and, taking advantage of the protection offered
59
THE BEAR FLAG WAR
by the brushwood, prepared for action. The Californians, observing this evolution, became emboldened and prepared for a charge. On this Ford calmly awaited the attack, giving stringent orders that his rear rank should hold their fire until the enemy were well up. On they came with shouts, the brandishing of swords, and the flash of pistols, until within thirty yards of the Americans, whose front rank then opened a withering fire and emptied the saddles of eight of the Mexican sol- diery. On receiving this volley the enemy wheeled to the right-about and made a break for the hills, while Ford's rear rank played upon them at long range, causing three more to bite the earth and wounding two others. The remainder retreated helter-skelter to a hill in the direc- tion of San Rafael, leaving the two prisoners in the house. Ford's little force, having now attained the object of their expedition, secured their prisoners of war, and going to the corral where the enemy had a large drove of horses changed their jaded nags for fresh ones, took the re- maining animals, some four hundred, and retraced their victorious steps to Sonoma, where they were heartily welcomed by their anxious countrymen, who had feared for their safety.
We last left Captain Frémont at Sonoma, where he had arrived at two o'clock in the morning of the 25th of June. After giving his men and horses a short rest and receiving a small addition to his force, he was once more in the saddle and started for San Rafael, where it was said Castro had joined De la Torre with two hundred and fifty men. At four o'clock in the afternoon they came in sight of the position thought to be occupied by the enemy. They approached cautiously until quite close, then charged, the first three to enter being Frémont, Kit Carson, and J. W. Marshall (the future discoverer of gold), but they found the lines occupied by only four men, Captain Torre having left some three hours previously. Fremont camped on the ground that night, and on the following morning dispatched scouting parties, while the main body remained at San Rafael for three days. Captain Torre had departed, no one knew whither ; he left not a trace ; but General Castro was seen from the commanding hills behind approaching on the other side of the bay. One evening a scout brought in an Indian, on whom was found a letter from Torre to Castro, purporting to inform the latter that he would that night concentrate his forces and march upon Sonoma and attack it in the morning.
60
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Captain Gillespie and Lieutenant Ford held that the letter was a ruse designed for the purpose of drawing the American forces back to Sonoma, and thus leave an avenue of escape open for the Californians. Opinions on the subject were divided; however, by midnight every man of them was in Sonoma. It was afterward known that they had passed the night within a mile of Captain de la Torre's camp, who, on ascertaining the departure of the revolutionists, effected his escape to Santa Clara via Sausalito.
On or about the 26th of June, Lieutenant Joseph W. Revere, of the sloop-of-war "Portsmouth," in company with Doctor Andrew A. Hen- derson and a boatload of supplies, arrived at Sutter's Fort; there arriv- ing also on the same day a party of men from Oregon, who at once cast their lot with the Bear Flag band, while on the 28th another boat, with Lieutenants Washington and Bartlett, put in an appearance. Of this visit of Lieutenant Revere to what afterward became Sacramento City, he says :
"On arriving at the 'Embarcadero' (landing) were were not surprised to find a mounted guard of 'patriots,' who had long been apprised by the Indians that a boat was ascending the river. These Indians were indeed important auxiliaries to the revolutionists during the short period of strife between the parties contending for the sovereignty of California. Having been most cruelly treated by the Spanish race, mur- dered even on slight provocation, when their oppressors made maraud- ing expeditions for servants, and when captured compelled to labor for their unsparing task-masters, the Indians throughout the country hailed the day when the hardy strangers from beyond the Sierra Ne- vada rose up in arms against the hijos del pais (sons of the country). Entertaining an exalted opinion of the skill and prowess of the Ameri- cans, and knowing from experience that they were of a milder and less sanguinary character than the rancheros, they anticipated a complete deliverance from their burdens, and assisted the revolutionists to the full extent of their humble abilities.
"Emerging from the woods lining the river, we stood upon a plain of immense extent, bounded on the west by the heavy timber which marks the course of the Sacramento, the dim outline of the Sierra Nevada ap- pearing in the distance. We now came to some extensive fields of wheat in full bearing, waving gracefully in the gentle breeze like the billows
61
THE BEAR FLAG WAR
of the sea, and saw the whitewashed walls of the fort, situated on a small eminence commanding the approaches on all sides.
"We were met and welcomed by Captain Sutter and the officer in com- mand of the garrison, but the appearance of things indicated that our reception would have been very different had we come on a hostile errand.
"The appearance of the fort, with its crenated walls, fortified gate- way and bastioned angles; the heavily bearded, fierce-looking hunters and trappers, armed with rifles, bowie-knives, and pistols; their orna- mented hunting-shirts and gartered leggings; their long hair, turbaned with colored handkerchiefs; their wild and almost savage looks and dauntless and independent bearing ; the wagons filled with golden grain ; the arid, and yet fertile plains ; the caballadas driven across it by wild, shouting Indians, enveloped in clouds of dust, and the dashing horse- men scouring the fields in every direction; all these accessories con- spired to carry me back to the romantic East, and I could almost fancy again that I was once more the guest of some powerful Arab chieftain in his desert stronghold. Everything bore the impress of vigilance and preparation for defense, and not without reason, for Castro, then at the Pueblo de San José with a force of several hundred men, well pro- vided with horses and artillery, had threatened to march upon the val- ley of the Sacramento.
"The fort consists of a parallelogram, inclosed by adobe walls fifteen feet high and two thick, with bastions or towers at the angles, the walls of which are four feet thick, and their embrasures so arranged as to flank the curtain on all sides. A good house occupies the center of the interior area, serving for officers' quarters, armories, guard and state rooms, and also for a kind of citadel. There is a second wall on the inner face, the space between it and the outer wall being roofed and divided into workshops, quarters, etc., and the usual offices are pro- vided, and also a well of good water. Corrals for the cattle and horses of the garrison are conveniently placed where they can be under the eye of the guard. Cannon frown from the various embrasures, and the ensemble presents the very ideal of a border fortress. It must have as- tonished the natives when this monument of the white man's skill arose from the plain and showed its dreadful teeth in the midst of those peaceful solitudes.
62
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
"I found during this visit that General Vallejo and his companions were rigorously guarded by the 'patriots,' but I saw him and had some conversation with him, which it was easy to see excited a very ridic- ulous amount of suspicion on the part of his vigilant jailers, whose position, however, as revolutionists was a little ticklish and incited in them that distrust which in dangerous times is inseparable from low and ignorant minds. Indeed they carried their doubts so far as to threaten to shoot Sutter for being polite to his captives."
Frémont, with his men having partaken of the early meal, on the morning of the 27th of June returned to San Rafael, being absent only twenty-four hours.
Castro, who had been for three days watching the movements of Frémont from the other side of the bay, sent three men, Don José Reyes Berryessa (a retired sergeant of the Presidio company of San Francisco) and Ramon and Francisco de Haro (twin sons of Don Francisco de Haro, alcalde of San Francisco in 1838-39), to recon- noiter, and these three landed on what is now known as Point San Quentin. Here they were seized, with their arms, and on them were found written orders from Castro to Captain de la Torre (who it was not known had made his escape to Santa Clara) to kill every foreign man, woman, and child. These men were shot on the spot-first, as spies, and, second, in retaliation for the Americans so cruelly butchered by the Californians. General Castro, fearing that he might, if caught, share the fate of his spies, left the rancho of the Estudillos, and after a hasty march arrived at the Santa Clara Mission on June 29, 1846.
Captain William D. Phelps, of Lexington, Mass., who was lying at Sausalito with his bark, the "Moscow," remarks (according to Mr. Lancey ) :
"When Frémont passed San Rafael in pursuit of Captain de la Torre's party I had just left them, and he sent me word that he would drive them to Sausalito that night, when they could not escape unless they got my boats. I hastened back to the ship and made all safe. There was a large launch lying near the beach ; this was anchored farther off, and I put provisions on board to be ready for Frémont should he need her. At night there was a boat on the shore. Torre's party must shortly arrive, and show fight or surrender. Toward morning we heard them arrive, and to our surprise they were seen passing with a small boat
-
Joseph Lucas
63
THE BEAR FLAG WAR
from the shore to the launch; a small boat had arrived from Yerba Buena during the night, which had proved their salvation. I dispatched a note to the commander of the 'Portsmouth' sloop-of-war, then lying at Yerba Buena, a cove (now San Francisco), informing him of their movements, and intimating that a couple of his boats could easily inter- cept and capture them. Captain Montgomery replied that not having received any official notice of war existing he could not act in the matter.
"It was thus the poor scamps escaped. They pulled clear of the ship, and thus escaped supping on grape and canister, which we had pre- pared for them.
"Frémont arrived and camped opposite my vessel, the bark 'Mos- cow,' the following night. They were early astir the next morning, when I landed to visit Captain Frémont, and were all variously employed in taking care of their horses, mending saddles, cleaning their arms, etc. I had not up to this time seen Frémont, but from reports of his charac- ter and exploits my imagination had painted him as a large-sized, martial-looking man or personage, towering above his companions, whiskered, and ferocious-looking.
"I took a survey of the party, but could not discover any one who looked as I thought the captain to look. Seeing a tall, lank, Kentucky- looking chap (Doctor R. Semple), dressed in a greasy deerskin hunt- ing-shirt, with trousers to match, and which terminated just below the knees, his head surmounted by a coonskin cap, tail in front, who, I sup- posed, was an officer, as he was giving orders to the men, I approached and asked if the captain was in camp. He looked, and pointed to a slen- der-made, well-proportioned man sitting in front of the tent. His dress was a blue woolen shirt of somewhat novel style, open at the neck, trimmed with white and with a star on each point of the collar (a man- of-war-'s-man's shirt), over this a deerskin hunting-shirt, trimmed and fringed, which had evidently seen hard times or service, his head un- encumbered by hat or cap, but had a light cotton handkerchief bound around it, and deerskin moccasins completed the suit, which if not fashionable for Broadway, or for a presentation dress at court, struck me as being an excellent rig to scud under or fight in. A few minutes' conversation convinced me that I stood in the presence of the king of the Rocky Mountains."
64
HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Captain Frémont and his men remained at Sausalito until July 2d, when they left for Sonoma, and there prepared for a more perfect or- ganization, their plan being to keep the Californians to the southern part of the State until the immigrants then on their way had time to cross the Sierra Nevada into California. On the 4th the national holiday was celebrated with due pomp; while on the 5th the California battalion of mounted riflemen, two hundred and fifty strong, was organized. Brevet Captain John C. Frémont, Second Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, was chosen commandant; First Lieutenant of Marines Archibald H. Gillespie, adjutant and inspector, with the rank of cap- tain. Says Frémont :
"In concert and in co-operation with the American settlers, and in the brief space of thirty days, all was accomplished north of the Bay of San Francisco, and independence declared on the 5th of July. This was done at Sonoma, where the American settlers had assembled. I was called to my position and by the general voice to the chief direction of affairs, and on the 6th of July, at the head of the mounted riflemen, set out to find Castro.
"We had to make the circuit of the head of the bay, crossing the Sacramento River (at Knight's Landing). On the 10th of July, when within ten miles of Sutter's Fort, we received (by the hands of William Scott) the joyful intelligence that Commodore John Drake Sloat was at Monterey and had taken it on the 7th of July, and that war existed between the United States and Mexico. Instantly we pulled down the Flag of Independence (Bear Flag) and ran up that of the United States, amid general rejoicing and a national salute of twenty-one guns on the morning of the IIth from Sutter's Fort, with a brass four- pounder called 'Sutter'."
We find that at two o'clock on the morning of July 9th Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere of the "Portsmouth" left that ship in one of her boats, and reaching the garrison at Sonoma at noon of that day, hauled down the Bear Flag and raised in its place the Stars and Stripes, and at the same time forwarded a United States flag to Sutter's Fort by the hands of William Scott, and another to Captain Stephen Smith at Bodega. Thus ended what was called the Bear Flag war.
The following is the Mexican account of the Bear Flag war :
"About a year before the commencement of the war a band of ad-
65
THE BEAR FLAG WAR
venturers, proceeding from the United States, and scattering over the vast territory of California, awaited only the signal of their Govern- ment to take the first step in the contest for usurpation. Various acts committed by these adventurers in violation of the laws of the country indicated their intentions. But, unfortunately, the authorities then ex- isting, divided among themselves, neither desired nor knew how to ar- rest the tempest. In the month of July, 1846, Captain Frémont, an engineer of the U. S. A., entered the Mexican territory with a few mounted riflemen, under the pretext of a scientific commission, and solicited and obtained from the commandant-general, Don José Castro, permission to traverse the country. Three months afterwards, on the 19th of May (June 14th), that same force and their commander took possession by armed force and surprised the important town of Sonoma, seizing all the artillery, ammunition, armaments, etc., which it contained.
"The adventurers, scattered along the Sacramento River, amounted to about four hundred, one hundred and sixty men having joined their force. They proclaimed for themselves and on their own authority the independence of California, raising a rose-colored flag with a bear and a star. The result of this scandalous proceeding was the plundering of the property of some Mexicans and the assassination of others- three men shot as spies by Frémont, who, faithful to their duty to the country, wished to make resistance. The commandant-general de- manded explanations on the subject of the commander of an American ship-of-war, the 'Portsmouth,' anchored in the Bay of San Francisco; and although it was positively known that munitions of war, arms, and clothing were sent on shore to the adventurers, the commander, J. B. Montgomery, replied that 'neither the Government of the United States nor the subalterns had any part in the insurrection, and that the Ameri- can authorities ought, therefore, to punish its authors in conformity with the laws.'"
CHAPTER VI
EXTRACTS FROM GENERAL JOHN A. SUTTER'S DIARY1
I LEFT the State of Missouri, where I had resided for many years, on the first of April, 1838, and traveled with a party of men under Capt. Tripps, of the American Fur Company, to their rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains (Wind River Valley). From there I traveled with six brave men to Oregon, as I considered myself not strong enough to cross the Sierra Nevada and go direct to California, (which was my in- tention from my start, having got some information from a gentlman from Mexico, who had been in California).
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.