The Mormon Battalion Part 3

[29:a] This is Sergeant Daniel Tyler, author of "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War." The work was published in 1881. H. H. Bancroft speaks very highly of this work in his History of California, Vol. V, p. 477, note.

[30:b] Col. Doniphan had come to Santa Fe with Kearny, commanding the first Missouri regiment; and after the departure of the General for California, he was left in command at Santa Fe until the arrival of Col.

Sterling Price, who when he arrived, was to take command at Santa Fe (Doniphan's expedition, Connelley, 1907, pp. 250-1-3). The historian of the Mormon Battalion notes that the command of Col. Price, numbering about 1,200 men, received no such marked honor on their arrival in Santa Fe as was accorded to the Battalion. (Tyler's Battalion, p. 164.)

[31:c] The Colonel was born in Virginia in 1809. Graduated from West Point in 1827; was in the Black Hawk war in Illinois--1832, and at the Battle of Bad Ax, fought in July of that year. In 1833 he was made a Lieutenant; saw service on the plains, princ.i.p.ally in what is now Kansas, before the Mexican war; in this war he took a prominent part in the affairs at Santa Fe and marched the Mormon Battalion to California.

"During the fifties, in the border troubles in Kansas he saw much service; in the Civil War he was for the Union. He was retired in 1873, having served in the army continuously for forty-six years. He died March 20, 1895." "Doniphan's Expedition," p. 264.

[31:d] Later, Col. Cooke again complains of his teams, in the following pa.s.sage: "I have brought road tools and have determined to take through my wagons; but the experiment is not a fair one, as the mules are broken down at the outset. The only good ones, about twenty, which I bought near Albuquerque, were taken for the express for Fremont's mail--the General's order requiring the twenty-one best in Santa Fe." (Cooke's Conquest, p. 93). To this Sergeant Tyler adds: "It is but justice to the Colonel to state here that with few exceptions, the mule and ox teams used from Santa Fe to California were the same worn out and broken down animals that we had driven all the way from Council Bluffs and Fort Leavenworth; indeed, some of them had been driven all the way from Nauvoo, the same season." (Tyler's Battalion, p. 175).

[32:e] Conquest of New Mexico and California. An Historical and Personal Narrative by P. St. George Cooke, G. P. Putnam and Sons, N. Y. 1878: pp.

91-2.

[32:f] See History of the Mormon Church, Americana, (Roberts), April No.

p. 3776--note.

V.

THE MARCH OF THE BATTALION FROM SANTA FE TO THE MOUTH OF THE GILA.

The Battalion began its march from Santa Fe on the 19th of October, Colonel Cooke in command, Lieutenant A. J. Smith, who had led the Battalion to Santa Fe, became the acting commissary of subsistence; and Lieutenant George Stoneman, acting quartermaster, instead of Lieutenant Samuel E. Gully, who had resigned. Both Smith and Stoneman were of the regular army. Dr. Sanderson was continued as Physician-surgeon to the command. The guides to the expedition--appointed by Gen. Kearny--were Weaver, Charbonneau, and Leroux; and Stephen C. Foster, called "Doctor,"

in all the narratives, was employed as interpreter.

=More Invaliding.=--The course of the march for some time was southward down the valley of the Rio Grande. On the 10th of November, fifty-five more men were declared physically unable through sickness to continue the march, and accordingly were detached, and under Lieutenant W. W.

Willis were ordered back to Pueblo to join the other detachments that had been sent there. After much suffering from the hards.h.i.+ps of the journey--weak teams, scant supplies of food, illy clad, general sickness among the men, the fall of December snows in the mountain ranges north of Santa Fe, excessive cold, and several deaths occurring, this detachment finally arrived at Pueblo between the 20th and 24th of December, in a most pitiable condition; but they were warmly received by members of the Battalion already quartered there,[35:a] numbering, now, all told, about one hundred and fifty.

=Hards.h.i.+p of Excessive Toil.=--One cause of so many men breaking down in health was the excessive toil at the wagons through the sand stretches of the road, began early in the march from Santa Fe--while yet in the valley of the Rio del Norte, in fact, and continuing along the whole route to and through the California desert lying between the Colorado and the coast range of mountains. "Our course now lay down the Rio del Norte [The Rio Grande]," says Sergeant Tyler. "We found the roads extremely sandy in many places, and the men while carrying blankets, knapsacks, cartridge boxes (each containing thirty-six rounds of ammunition), and muskets on their backs, and living on short rations, had to pull at long ropes to aid the teams. The deep sand alone, without any load was enough to wear out both man and beast." Later he remarks: "We had to leave the river for a time, and have twenty men to each wagon with long ropes to help the teams pull the wagons over the sand hills.

The commander perched himself on one of the hills, like a hawk on a fence post, sending down his orders with the sharpness of--well, to the Battalion, it is enough to say--Colonel Cooke."

One of the Battalion celebrates this incident of the march in doggerel verse of which two stanzas follow:

"Our hards.h.i.+ps reach their rough extremes, When valiant men are roped with teams, Hour after hour, and day by day, To wear our strength and lives away.

"We see some twenty men or more With empty stomachs and foot sore, Bound to one wagon plodding on Through sand, beneath a burning sun."[36:b]

In the trackless part of the Battalion's march through the sand stretches, in addition to pulling at the wagons, companies marched in double-single file, in each other's footsteps, to make tracks for the wagon wheels.

=Irrigation in New Mexico.=--It was while at Santa Fe, and while pa.s.sing down the Rio del Norte, that the Battalion saw, for the first time, irrigation in operation. Tyler thus describes it: "Ca.n.a.ls for irrigation purposes were found all along the banks of the river. Some of them several miles in length. They conveyed water to the farms, or as they were called in that country, ranchos. There being little or no rain during the growing season, the water was made to flow over the ground until it was sufficiently saturated, and then shut off until needed again for the same purpose."

=March Down the Rio Grande.=--As the command in its southward movement down the Rio Grande reached the point where General Kearny left the valley for a direct march westward--228 miles south of Santa Fe--and where, too, Kearny had abandoned his wagons; the guides declared it impossible to follow the Gila route proper with the wagons; and hence a circuit to the south through Sonora via Janos and Fronteras was proposed and determined upon at a council of officers.

In the first stages of this changed course, however, the road bore to the southeast, and this was not to the liking of Col. Cooke, because it would carry his command within hailing distance of General Wool, who might incorporate it in the "Army of the Centre,"--as the General's division of the invading forces against Mexico was called--to operate against Chihuahua. In that event, as the Colonel himself expressed it, he would lose his trip to California. To bear to the southeast was not to the liking of the Battalion, as that was not in the direction of California, but one which might lead them within the sphere of the "Army of the Centre," and they would find themselves discharged in Old Mexico instead of California, at the end of their term of enlistment. The entire command was thrown into gloom by this change in the line of march: "All of our hopes, conversations and songs," says the historian of the Battalion--Tyler--"were centered on California. Somewhere on that broad domain we expected to join our families and friends."

="Blow the Right!" The Westward Turn.=--"On the morning of the 21st," says Tyler, "the command resumed its journey, marching in a southern direction for about two miles, when it was found that the road began to bear southeast instead of southwest, as stated by the guides. The Colonel looked in the direction of the road, then to the southwest, then to the west, saying, 'I don't want to get under General Wool, and lose my trip to California.' He arose in his saddle and ordered a halt. He then said with firmness: 'This is not my course. I was ordered to California,' 'and,' he added with an oath, 'I will go there or die in the attempt.' Then turning to the bugler, he said, 'Blow the right!'

"Turning westward at this point, 32 41' north lat.i.tude, and but a short distance--some thirty miles--north of the present city of El Paso--the course of march was westward to San Bernardino rancho, thence to Yanos and so to the San Pedro river where the command arrived on the 9th of December.

"=The Fight with Wild Bulls.=--Here occurred the only fighting the Battalion engaged in on its expedition, a battle with wild bulls. This section of the country seemed to abound with herds of wild cattle, and the males among them were much more bold and ferocious than among the buffalos. Attracted by curiosity these herds gathered along the line of march, alternately scampering away and approaching; and some of the bolder ones, as if in resentment of the Battalion's invasion, attacked the column. Several mules were gored to death by them, both in the teams and among the pack animals; and Colonel Cooke records how some of the wagons were thrown about by the mad charge of these furious beasts. The troops had been ordered to march with guns unloaded, but in the presence of such a danger the men loaded their muskets without waiting for an order to that effect, and when attacked would fire upon the charging beasts, so that the rattle of musketry was for once heard all along the line. The bulls were very tenacious of life, however, and more desperate and dangerous when wounded than before."

Tyler speaks of one fight between Dr. William Spencer and a bull which was shot five times, twice through the lungs, twice through the heart, and once through the head, and yet would alternately rise and fall and rush upon the doctor until a sixth ball between the eyes, and near the curl of the pate, proved fatal.[38:c] Colonel Cooke confirms Tyler's narrative about the bull continuing to rush on after being twice shot through the heart, and adds: "I have seen the heart." Cooke also relates the feat of Corporal Frost in bringing down one of these ferocious animals: "I was very near Corporal Frost, when an immense coal-black bull came charging upon us, a hundred yards distant. Frost aimed his musket, a flintlock, very deliberately and only fired when the beast was within six paces; it fell headlong, almost at our feet."[39:d] Tyler adds: "The Corporal was on foot while, of course, the Colonel and staff were mounted. On the first appearance of the bull, the Colonel, with his usual firm manner of speech, ordered the corporal to load his gun, supposing, of course, that he had observed the previous order of prohibition. To this command he (the corporal) paid no attention.

Thinking him either stupified or, dumbfounded, with much warmth and a foul epithet he next ordered him to run, but this mandate was as little heeded as the other. Doubtless Cooke thought one man's 'ignorance with some stubborness' was about to receive a terrible retribution, but when he saw the monster lifeless at his feet, through the well-directed aim of the brave and fearless corporal, how changed must have been his feelings!"[39:e] The number of the wild bovine enemy killed in the engagement is variously reported as from twenty to sixty, and by one writer as high as eighty-one.

=Mexican Opposition at Tucson.=--Leaving the San Pedro the command marched northeasterly to Tucson, a Mexican town of between four and five hundred inhabitants. It was garrisoned at the time by a Mexican force two hundred strong, according to Cooke, commanded by Captain Comaduran, who was under order from the Governor of Sonora, Don Manuel Gandara, not to allow an armed force to pa.s.s through the town without resistance. The guides furnished the Battalion by General Kearny, however, declared it was for the command either to march through Tucson, or make a detour which would mean a hundred miles out of the way over a trackless wilderness and mountains. Cooke determined to march through Tucson.

Foster, the interpreter, went into the town in advance and was put under guard; a corporal, son of the Mexican commander, with three Mexican soldiers was met by the command and questioned about Foster, and on admitting that he was under guard, the corporal and his escort were immediately placed under arrest by Cooke, to be held as hostages for the safety of the interpreter. One Mexican, however, was released, who, with two of the Battalion guides, carried a note demanding Foster's release.

This was complied with, and about midnight Foster was brought to camp, attended by two officers authorized "to make a special armistice." Cooke proposed that the Mexican command deliver up a few arms as a guarantee of surrender, and a token that the inhabitants of Tucson would not fight against the United States unless they were exchanged as prisoners of war; the Mexican prisoners were also released.[40:f] These events occurred while the Battalion was about sixteen miles from Tucson.

The next day, when on the march, Cooke received a message from Captain Comaduran declining the proposition to surrender. The Battalion were ordered to load their guns with ball. Before reaching the town, however, another message was received saying that the garrison had retreated taking two bra.s.s cannons and forcing most of the inhabitants to accompany them. About a dozen armed Mexicans met the American force to escort them into the town. Before pa.s.sing through the gates, the commander of the Battalion addressed the soldiers saying, in effect, that the garrison and citizens had fled leaving their property behind; but they had not come to make war upon Sonora, and there must be no interference with the private property of the citizens.[41:g] The Battalion marched through Tucson and went into camp about half a mile beyond on a small stream.

Before leaving the vicinity Cooke with a party of fifty reconnoitered the country above the town towards a village and church, where, it was supposed, the garrison and main body of the people had taken refuge. As the nature of the country, however, afforded excellent opportunities for ambush, if the Mexicans should choose to make resistance, the company of fifty returned. However the movement was not without its value since, according to Col. Cooke, and as was afterwards ascertained, it caused the Mexicans who had fled to the aforesaid village to still further retreat, and the reinforcements which had come from the presidios of Fronteras, Santa Cruz and Tubac, to return to their posts.[42:h]

=Junction With Kearny's Trail.=--Renewing its journey the command in the course of three days, by hard marching, reached the Gila river and intersected the route followed by General Kearny, four hundred and seventy-four miles from the point at which they left it in the valley of the Rio Grande.

The Southern Pacific Railroad traverses practically the route of the Battalion between these two points. Colonel Cooke made a map of this part of the Battalion's journey--published in his book, (see map fold) and referring to it, in connection with the Southern Pacific Railroad, he says: "A new administration, in which Southern interests prevailed, with the great problem of the practicability and best location of a Pacific Railroad under investigation, had the map of this wagon route before them with its continuance to the west, and perceived that it gave exactly the solution of its unknown element, that a southern route would avoid both the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, with their snows, and would meet no obstacle in this great interval. The new 'Gadsden Treaty'

was the result; it was signed, December 30, 1853."[42:i]

=The March Down the Gila.=--Following more or less the windings of the Gila, the way made difficult from alternating stretches of deep sand and miry clay, the command arrived at the junction of the Gila with the Colorado on the 8th of January.

An attempt at the s.h.i.+pment of part of the command's provisions down the river on a flat boat proved a sad failure, and ended in considerable loss. The scheme was Col. Cooke's. The "boat" was constructed by placing two wagon beds end to end and las.h.i.+ng them to two dry cottonwood logs.

On this improvised boat two thousand five hundred pounds of provision and corn were placed. At places the river spread out over sand bars with but three or four inches of water covering them; the boat was repeatedly lodged on these, and the precious stores of food had to be landed in several places. The most of it was never recovered, though repeated efforts were made to regain it.

=At the Mouth of the Gila.=--Speaking of the Gila at its junction with the Colorado, and of the conditions obtaining in the command at that stage of the march, Col. Cooke writes: "A vast bottom; the country about the two rivers is a picture of desolation; nothing like vegetation beyond the alluvium of the two rivers; bleak mountains, wild looking peaks, stony hills and plains, fill the view. We are encamped in the midst of wild hemp. The mules are in mezquit thickets, with a little bunch gra.s.s, a half a mile off. The mules are weak, and their failing, or flagging to-day in ten miles, is very unpromising for the hundred mile stretch, dry and barren, before them. There is no gra.s.s, and only scanty cottonwood boughs for them to-night, but I sent out forty men to gather the fruit, called tornia, a variety of the mezquit. They have gathered twelve or fifteen bushels, which has been spread out to be eaten on a hard part of the sand-bar.

"Francisco was sent across the river to fire the thickets beyond--this to clear the way for the pioneer party in the morning. He says the river is deeper than usual; it is wider than the Missouri, and of the same muddy color. * * * It is said to be sixty miles to the mouth of the river."--the Colorado.[44:j]

FOOTNOTES:

[35:a] See Tyler's Battalion Ch. XX. Lieutenant Willis gives the date of arrival 24th of December. Captains Brown and Higgins, stationed at Pueblo, give the 20th. The latter kept a daily journal.

[36:b] Tyler's History of The Mormon Battalion, pp. 180-183.

[38:c] Tyler's Battalion, pp. 219, 220.

[39:d] Cooke's Conquest, pp. 145, 6.

[39:e] Tyler's Battalion, p. 219.

[40:f] Cooke's Conquest, p. 149.

[41:g] Previous to this the Colonel had issued the following order:

"Head Quarters Mormon Battalion, "Camp on the San Pedro, "December 13th, 1846.

"Thus far on our course we have followed the guides furnished us by the General [Kearny]. These guides now point to Tucson, a garrison town, as our road, and a.s.sert that any other course is a hundred miles out of the way and over a trackless wilderness of mountains, rivers and hills. We will march, then, to Tucson. We came not to make war on Sonora, and less still to destroy an important outpost of defense against Indians: but we will take the straight road before us, and overcome all resistance. But shall I remind you that the American soldier ever shows justice and kindness to the unarmed and unresisting? The property of individuals you will hold sacred. The people of Sonora are not our enemies.