USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 55
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neighboring Indians also came in, and before night the city was thronged as it had never been before-and there was a good deal of cursing General Armijo for his cowardice and inefficiency. On the 23d General Kearney, with his staff and a number of the American officers, attended church, an act of complai- sance which was so well received that, after the service, the church band, two violins and a guitar, escorted the general to the palace. On the 28th he gave a ball at the palace which was as brilliant an affair as the condi- tions and locality would allow, an assemblage of several hundred persons, containing the prominent families of the city, and the army officers in full dress, the ball room being decorated with many flags wrought by the fair hands of daughters of Missouri which the regiment and companies had brought with them. After this, fandangos at Pruett's Hotel were of frequent occurrence, and Americans and New Mexicans soon became good friends. Willard P. Hall and Colonel A. W. Doniphan were appointed to revise the laws, many of which were oppressive and ab- surd, and prepare a code suitable to the new conditions. Charles Bent was appointed Gov- ernor ; Richard Dallam, marshal, and Francis P. Blair, Jr., United States district attorney. On the IIth of September a new flagstaff, 100 feet high, which had been set in the plaza, received its flag, which was run up with a salute of thirteen guns and the cheers of a multitude of Americans and Mexicans. On the 25th of September General Kearney departed for California with 400 men, and a month later Colonel Doniphan, with his com- mand, marched from Santa Fe south, having been directed to make an incursion into the Navajo country, and then proceed to Chi- huahua and report to General Wool, who ยท was expected to advance upon that city from the south. Colonel Sterling Price, with his regiment of Missourians, had already reached Santa Fe and was left in command. On the 4th of December, Lieutenant Colonel D. D. Mitchell was detailed with an escort of 100 men to march south in the direction of Chi- huahua and open communication with Gen- eral Wool, who was reported to be advancing on that place-and Lieutenant George R. Gibson, of Captain Murphy's company of Augney's battalion, was selected to go along as assistant quartermaster and commissary. On the arrival of this detachment at Val-
verde, a week after the departure from Santa Fe, it encountered Colonel Doniphan on his return from the Navajo country. The incur- sion had been successful. The Navajos, a warlike and refractory tribe, occupying a region in the West, on the Gila River, had made irruptions on the New Mexican settle- ments and driven off cattle, sheep and goats, and the weak and timid people were helpless to protect themselves against the hostile visits; and the object of Colonel Doniphan in making the diversion from the main expe- dition was, not only to give the savages a token of the authority and power of the United States, but also to conciliate the New Mexicans by assuring them of protection against their Indian foes. He marched over the Rocky Mountains over a rough and un- known route, guided by two mountain hunt- ers, into the Navajo country on the Gila River, called the chiefs together, and forced them to sign a treaty in which they pledged themselves to peace and to abstain from pil- lage against the New Mexican settlements. His return to Valverde closed the Navajo expedition, involving a difficult march of 300 miles, which was accomplished in less than a month. The army, with Colonel Mitchell's escort, continued the march under Colonel Doniphan through the Jornada del Muerto, and on toward El Paso, until the enemy were encountered, for the first time, at a place called Brazito, "Little Arm," a short distance from El Paso, under General Ponce de Leon. The Mexicans were 1,200 strong, and Doni- phan's army was still stretched along the road for ten miles back, the artillery being in the rear. Nevertheless it was determined to give battle, as the troops, after marching 1,200 miles without seeing a hostile force, were weary of the inaction and ready for a fight. The army was formed in single line, the escort of Colonel Mitchell, 100 strong, on the extreme left. The enemy's line, with a howitzer in the center, was in plain sight 600 yards distant, with the intervening level ground partly covered with chaparral. Be- fore a shot was fired a gallant looking young Mexican horseman, afterward learned to be Lieutenant Lara, dashed out with a flag, and Colonel Doniphan's interpreter, Mr. Colwell, and Adjutant De Courcey advanced to meet him. The conference held in plain view of both armies was brief and decisive. The Mexican had a message from his commander,
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demanding that the American commander come to his camp and see him. Colwell and De Courcey replied : "Come and take him !" The Mexican cried out: "Craijho! We will neither give nor ask quarter," and with a flourish of his flag, which proved to be a black one, on a lance, wheeled his horse and galloped back to his line. The only effect this proceeding had on the Missourians was to cheer them with the hope that they were in the presence of a foe who would stand their ground and give them something to do. The Mexicans advanced in good style, and were allowed to fire five rounds at a distance of only 150 yards before the Americans re- plied; their silence under the attack being made easy enough by the fact that the enemy's bullets passed ten feet over their heads. When the proper moment arrived the Americans fired, and Colonel Doniphan or- dered Captain Reid, who, with fourteen mounted men he had managed to gather in rear of the center of the line, to charge, when the Mexicans broke and fled, easily making their escape, as Doniphan had no cavalry to pursue them. Only three prisoners were taken. On the American side the loss was trifling, not a single man killed and only eight slightly wounded. The enemy's loss was estimated at thirty or forty killed and 150 wounded. The Missourians behaved with a gallantry and steadiness that won the ad- miration of their commander, and two vet- eran mountain men, in the service as scouts, one of whom was T. Forsythe, were partic- ularly distinguished for the bravery of their conduct. Dressed in their buckskin hunting shirts, they advanced in front of the line, and deliberately loaded and fired their pieces, taking aim every time. It is supposed that the Mexican general, Ponce de Leon, who was severely wounded, owed his wound to a shot from one of them. The Mexican howitzer was captured by our men in the charge which broke their line and forced them to take flight. The battle was fought on the 25th of December, and the Americans were in high spirits over their Christmas frolic, a considerable quantity of wine which they found in the enemy's abandoned camp contributing not a little to the celebration of the festival. Two days afterward, when the army was fifteen miles distant from El Paso, a deputation of citizens, bearing a white flag, met them to surrender the town. They
reported that the Mexican Army was amazed and confounded when the Missourians stood still and suffered themselves to be shot at without returning the fire, and thought they intended to surrender, until they fired with deadly effect and charged with a determina- tion they were not prepared for. The Mexi- cans were completely broken up and, with- out halting in El Paso, fled in squads and in disorder to Chihuahua. The army spent six weeks at El Paso, enjoying the fruits and melons-melons in January-and other good things that were very pleasant to the Mis- sourians after their long march from Santa Fe. The people were hospitable and friendly, the only conspicuous exception being the priest, Ortiz, made famous by George W. Kendall in his "Santa Fe Expedition;" he was courteous and respectful, but persisted in regarding the Americans as invaders of his . country. Colonel Doniphan had an alterca- tion with him the first day of the entrance into the city, and the disagreement continued as long as the army remained. When the expedition started south from Santa Fe it was expected that General Wool, advancing north from San Antonio de Bexar, would have reached and captured Chihuahua by the time Colonel Doniphan reached El Paso; but during the stay at El Paso no word from General Wool was received, and none could be received, as all communication with both General Taylor and General Wool was cut off. Colonel Doniphan, therefore, in the ab- sence of orders and instructions, had to rely upon himself and do what he thought best -- and as he was gifted with high courage and an unusual amount of enterprise, and had un- bounded confidence in his men, who soon grew weary of the tame life at El Paso, and asked to be led to Chihuahua, it is not strange that he determined to march against Chihuahua and capture it without waiting longer for the assistance of General Wool. It was a daring determination, for Chihuahua was an ancient and opulent city, 300 miles distant, in a hostile country-and Doniphan had only 850 men, and in the event of a reverse could not expect succor from any quarter. On the 3d of February, Lieutenant Colonel D. D. Mitchell, who had commanded the escort of 100 men sent from Santa Fe to Valverde, and in whose discretion and cour- age the commander had perfect confidence, was sent out in advance, and Colonel Doni-
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phan followed a few days later, with the whole force, taking with him the padre, Ortiz, and two other prominent malcontent citizens whom he did not think it wise to leave behind. After a march of three weeks through a region in which, at times, the ani- mals were without water for a whole day, the enemy were encountered in force at the River Sacramento, fifteen miles from the city -and every man knew that the crisis had arrived, and the fate of the expedition was at stake. The Mexicans, under Generals Heredias, Conde, Trias, Ugasti, Cordero and Alvarez, were 4,000 strong-four times the number of the Missourians-and were well posted, with artillery, behind field works and redoubts, on an eminence, with an arroyo in front-and the odds were great enough to inspire misgivings in the breast of a less reso- lute commander. But Doniphan had not marched 1,500 miles from the Missouri bor- der to turn back now, He had the utmost faith in his troops, and he relied on his artil- lery, under Major Clark and Captain Weight- man, which he knew would be well served, to compensate for his deficiency in numbers. The redoubts which the enemy had erected to defend the main road, were avoided by a flank movement, and in advancing across the arroyo the wagon train was taken along to serve as a corral in case the troops should be hard pressed. But this device was not needed. The artillery opened first, and the effect of its fire was seen at once, one of the enemy's guns being dismounted, and a body of 1,000 lancers who came out as if to charge, thrown into disorder from which they never recovered. Under cover of the artil- lery fire the mounted men, two companies, under Captain Reid and Captain Parsons, gallantly crossed the arroyo under the enemy's fire, and pressed up the eminence, halting to dismount and fire, and then mount- ing again to advance, and in this way reached the enemy's line of defense. The infantry, seven companies, followed, with equal spirit, on their part of the field. The fight on the part of the Americans was a steady, sustained charge, without a moment of wavering, from the first, officers and men exhibiting the same bravery, and all having confidence in the re- sult. One-half the Mexican force were reg- ulars, but their fighting was poor and their fire ineffective. They did not rise in their intrenchments to level their pieces, but, keep-
ing themselves out of sight, stuck their pieces forward as nearly in the direction of the Americans as they could guess, and pulled trigger-the bullets' passing far above the heads of those whom they were intended for. When the Americans reached their line of de- fense they abandoned it and fled precipi- tately, their retreating masses over the hills contrasting strangely with the thin line of Americans before which they were fleeing. The mounted companies pursued them for miles into the hills, and their dead and wounded were found scattered over a wide area of ground. The Mexicans' loss was 304 killed and about 500 wounded, and 40 pris- oners, among them being General Cuilta ; the American loss was one killed, Major Samuel C. Owens, of Independence, struck down by a cannon shot in the beginning of the en- gagement, and II wounded. There was a large quantity of spoils taken-ten field pieces, the black flag that figured in the battle of Brazito, 1,500 head of cattle, 100 mules, 50,000 head of sheep, twenty wagons, while the Americans were so loaded with booty in the shape of flags, clothing, lances, saddles, provisions, gold and silver coins- one man was said to have discovered 100 doubloons-gathered from the field, that it was a serious encumbrance on the march. Next day Colonel Mitchell, with a detachment and the artillery to sup- port him, was sent to take posses- sion of the city, which was done with out resistance, and the day after Colonel Doniphan entered at the head of the army, horse, foot and artillery, with banners flying and the band playing "Yankee Doodle" and "Hail Columbia," and all the accompaniments of sound, splendor and pomp, that the little force could present, a traders' caravan of 300 wagons which had followed the army all the way from the Missouri border for protection, constituting a very long and conspicuous feature in the pageant. Every officer, in full dress, was at the head of his command, and the troops, flushed with their two victories, stepping with the bearing of lions, and carry- ing their burnished arms in fine martial manner, presented a really impressive spec- tacle as they wheeled into the great plaza of the ancient city and, drawing up in order, fired a national salute of twenty-eight guns in token of the conquest. Lieutenant Gibson, in his diary, thus speaks of this formal en-
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trance of the little body of Missourians into the brilliant city: "When we approached the city with its churches, aqueduct and alameda, all were struck with astonishment that a mere handful of men should be suffered to capture such a city, and when we entered the plaza our astonishment was increased." The foreign residents came out and met the Americans on their march, and tendered the assurances of their friendship and obedience. They appeared to be greatly relieved at the result of the battle; the popular feeling against them had been so hostile and strong that at one time they had found it necessary to lock themselves in their houses to escape the fury of the mob, and they expected to be murdered if the Americans were defeated and driven back. The body of Major Owens was buried in the city with religious and martial ceremonies, an imposing requiem mass being celebrated in the cathedral, at the conclusion of which the coffin was escorted to the cemetery by Major Gilpin's battalion, and interred with all the honors due to a brave and gallant officer. On the 5th of March a little paper called the "Anglo- Saxon" was issued by a number of printers in the army, with Lieutenant Chris Kribben, of St. Louis for its editor, and it was regu- larly published as long as the army remained. On the 4th of April Colonel Doniphan, taking with him all the force except Colonel Jack- son's battalion, made an excursion to a point seventy miles from Chihuahua, where a body of the enemy was said to be gathered, but not finding any opposition, returned. On the 28th of April, after having remained inactive and without communication with the outside world for two months, he dispatched an ex- press of twelve mounted men with a report of his operations, with instructions to hunt up General Wool or General Taylor and deliver it; and on the 28th of May he received by return express an order from General Tay- lor directing him to march south and report at Saltillo. This march of 700 miles was ac- complished by the army in three divisions and attended by the unvarying good fortune that had marked the expedition from the begin- ning. On the route the Missourians had an opportunity of showing their good will to the people. At Parras the inhabitants appealed to them for protection against the Apache tribe of Indians, who, a short time before,
had made an irruption on the settlement and carried off a number of children. Colonel Doniphan listened to their petition and promptly dispatched Colonel Reid with a de- tachment in pursuit of the Indians. Reid overtook them, fought and defeated them,. and returned with the eighteen Mexican chil- dren whom he had retaken from their cap- tors, and whom he returned to their grateful and delighted parents-leaving the people a happy recollection of the brave and generous Missourians. On the 24th of May the expe- dition encamped on the field of Buena Vista, and effected a junction with General Wool, who reviewed the troops, and in his order an- nouncing the arrival of the expedition, said : "No troops can point to a more brilliant career than those commanded by Colonel Doniphan, and no one will ever hear of the battles of Brazito and Sacramento without a feeling of admiration for the men who gained them. The State of Missouri has just cause to be proud of the achievements of the men who have represented her in the army against Mexico." On the 26th of May the expedition reached Monterey, where General. Taylor had his headquarters, and was re- ceived by old "Rough and Ready" in an order of the day, in which he "extended to the Missouri volunteers his earnest wishes for their prosperity and happiness, and a safe return to their families and homes." Contin- uing their march through these tokens of honor and admiration which met them at every point along the route where detach- ments and officers of General Taylor's army were encountered, the expedition arrived at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, where its march of nearly 3,000 miles was ended. At Point Isabel it embarked on vessels for New Orleans, arriving there on the 15th of June. At New Orleans the troops were mus- tered out, and Doniphan's expedition passed into history-a history which is an honor to the country and a special cause for honest pride to the State whose sons composed it, and from whose border it started on the long- est march ever made by an American army. The men, after being mustered out, were brought up on boats to St. Louis and sent to . their homes. As a special favor to the expe- dition and its commander, and a mark of the government's appreciation of its achieve- ments, the Mexican guns captured at Sacra --
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mento were given to Colonel Doniphan, and were brought by him to Missouri and de- posited in the State arsenal at Jefferson City.
D. M. GRISSOM.
Donovan, John, lawyer and real es- tate broker, was one of the men who helped to transform greater St. Joseph from a cher- ished dream to a substantial reality. He was born in February, 1828, at Cambridge, Dor- chester County, Maryland, and died August 7, 1895, at his home in St. Joseph, Missouri. His parents were John and Sarah Ellen (Pat- tison) Donovan, members of old and promi- nent Maryland families. The grandfather and great-grandfather on the Donovan side were born in Maryland, and their predecessors came from Virginia in an early day. The ancestors of these people were participants in Revolutionary affairs, and . the lineage is clearly traced back to the time when the colonies were strug- gling for independence and such noble patriots as these sacrificed their for- tunes and their lives on the altar of freedom. John Donovan received his education at Cambridge and Easton, Maryland, finishing the academic course. After leaving school he served as clerk in the office of the regis- ter of wills of Talbot County, Maryland, at Easton, and was afterward elected to the office of register of wills of that county, filling the position several terms. At the ex- piration of his last term he owned a plan- tation in Talbot County and there he resided until the breaking out of the Civil War. He removed to Oxford, in the same county, and engaged in the canning business, putting up oysters, fruits, vegetables, poultry, etc. Mr. Donovan was a pioneer in this industry, which was then in its infancy and which has grown to be one of the most important in the country. His name was familiar in the busi- ness world, and the business was in a flour- ishing condition, when, in 1865, the entire plant was wiped out by fire and financial ruin stared the owner in the face. Mr. Donovan then removed to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was deputy collector of the port of Balti- more until the early spring of 1868. In that year he came to Missouri and settled at St. Joseph, his family arrivingearly in June of the same year. Mr. Donovan was a lawyer, but engaged in the practice but little, confining his work along this line to the problems of
a legal character which affected his own busi- ness affairs or those of his friends. He en- gaged in the real estate business with A. M. Saxton, the firm name being Donovan & Saxton, and after the death of the latter the firm became Donovan & Son. During the War of the Rebellion and for some time be- fore the civil strife, Mr. Donovan was cap- tain of a troop of Maryland Cavalry. He also served in the State Guards of Maryland dur- ing the progress of hostilities, but did not participate in active field service. He was a life long Democrat, and a devoted Episco- palian and vestryman in Christ Church, St. Joseph, always taking an active part in and donating to, with liberal hand, every whole- some cause and philanthropic movement that appealed to him as meriting support. Mr. Donovan was a Mason of high standing. He was married December 1, 1850, to Miss Eve- lina M. Robinson, of Talbot County, Mary- land. Mrs. Donovan's father an
was agriculturist and old resident of Maryland, of English descent. Her death occurred March 31, 1895, only a few months before the demise of John Donovan, whose noble life was an inspiration to the young and a blessing to his associates and the entire com- munity.
Donovan, John, Jr., general manager of the St. Joseph Stock Yards Company, and a man to whom is given a great share of the credit for the prosperity of the new and greater St. Joseph, was born July 28, 1855, at Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, son of John and Evelina M. (Robinson) Donovan. He was educated in the common schools of the Maryland town where he spent his boy- hood days, and the grammar school at Balti- more, Maryland. He entered upon his active business career, which has been so fruitful and marked by repeated successes, in the winter of 1868, when he secured employment as errand boy in the shoe store of W. T. Stone, St. Joseph, Missouri, his parents hav- ing removed to that city in the meantime. Later he worked for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company as a clerk, and then entered the employ of the contracting firm of Hastings & Saxton, buying ties and equipment for the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad, now the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad. His next position was with the Northern Kansas Land and Town
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Company, his duties being such as arose in the company's work of laying out towns along the route of the present St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad. In the spring of 1871, Mr. Donovan began buying cattle in northwest Mis- souri and drove the animals to Maryville and vicinity, selling them to the farmers. On May 17th of that year, after having had a varied experience for one of his years, and having profited by the practical tests through which he had passed, he laid the foundation for the more substantial and last- ing part of his business career by entering the State National Bank of St. Joseph, Mis- souri, in the capacity of messenger. He re- mained in that bank exactly ten years. When he left it, in May, 1881, he had attained a position of responsibility and liad won the esteem of his associates, his superiors and of all who had dealings with the institution with which lie was connected. He gave up his place in the bank in order that he might take the management of the Hemphill County Cattle Company, an enterprise projected by prominent St. Joseph capitalists in Hemphill County, Texas. The company sold out in the fall of 1881, and Mr. Donovan then pur- chased the land on which the St. Joseph Stock Yards now stand. The ground was then flat and wet, and the new owner inaugu- rated the necessary work of ditching, drain- ing and reclaiming the land from its useless, swampy condition. The history of the St. Joseph Stock Yards is a subject familiar to every person who lives in the rich territory tributary to St. Joseph. The debt of grati- tude which the people of that city owe to Mr. Donovan, and which they are free to recog- nize in every possible way, is best known when it is said that through the efforts of this man the kings of the packing world were induced to erect immense plants at South St. Joseph, and that on the land which Mr. Donovan reclaimed from the swamp and the soggy marsh there now stand the most modern packing houses and the handsomest live stock exchange building in the world, as well as acres of sheds which shelter the thousands of head of cattle, hogs and sheep shipped from the broad grazing fields of the Western States. Mr. Donovan was the founder of the German-American Bank of St. Joseph, one of the soundest financial institu- tions in that city, and was its first president,
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