The Mormon Battalion Part 5

VII.

THE BATTALION IN CALIFORNIA.

Subsequent movements of the Battalion were as follows:

=At San Luis Rey Mission.=--On the evening of their second day at San Diego Mission, an order was issued for the Battalion to return to San Luis Rey Mission, to garrison that station. This Mission was somewhat midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and it was doubtless thought that the Battalion by being stationed there could keep that important position out of the enemies' hands, should Mexican hostilities again be resumed, as at the time seemed probable; and they would also be available there for quicker movement either to Los Angeles or to San Diego should danger threaten at either point.

Accordingly on February 1st, the return march was begun and ended about noon of the 3rd.

=Clean Up and Drill.=--Here orders were given for a general clean up of arms and clothes--such as they had--shaving, cutting hair, and the like.

"Some had not shaved since the march began, and would have preferred not to do so until they returned to their people," says the Battalion's historian. But the order was imperative. "It prescribed that no beard be allowed to grow below the tip of the ear, hence the mustache only could be saved. The hair also must be clipped even with the tip of the ear,"

hence the long and tangled locks and shocks of hair of a year's growth had to be sacrificed.

By the 6th of February the men had finished cleaning up and repairing their quarters, which in some respects even then "were not the most pleasant," writes Tyler, "as we were over-run with fleas, as well as the more filthy vermin, and no person, however cleanly he aimed to be, could escape from them."

On the 8th of February, according to Tyler, "Colonel Cooke and Lieutenant Stoneman commenced the squad drill with officers which, continued and extended to companies and thence to the Battalion, and lasted altogether for twenty days, when the Battalion was supposed to have learned the drill, and all the officers were considered capable of teaching it."

=Company B at San Diego.=--On the 15th of February Company B was ordered to be detached from the Battalion and directed to march to the port of San Diego to perform garrison duty at that place, though the order, apparently, for the removal of the company was not given until the 15th of March.

=Los Angeles Garrisoned by Companies A. C. D. E.=--On the 18th of the same month nine privates of Company A., eight from C., five from D., and eight from E., were designated as a detachment, under command of Lieutenant Oman and Sergeant Brown, to garrison the Mission of San Luis Rey, while the remainder of companies A. C. D. and E. were designated to go to Los Angeles for garrison duty. These companies began their march on the 19th, and arrived at Los Angeles on the 23rd. The chief activities here were maintaining by successive details from the command an out-post at Cajon Pa.s.s,--fifty miles north east of Los Angeles--as a protection against hostile bands of Indians; and the erection of a fort on an eminence commanding the city of Los Angeles. The San Luis Rey detachment remained at that post until the 6th of April, when under orders the station was abandoned and the detachment marched to Los Angeles. The companies thus grouped so remained until near the expiration of the term of their enlistment.

=The Conquest of California.=--The conquest of California was easily achieved. Fremont in the north with a company of but sixty Americans, with whom he had been sent to explore portions of New Mexico and California, was opposed in the vicinity of Monterey by a force under General Castro, in June, 1846. With the aid of American settlers in the vicinity of San Francisco, Fremont defeated the Mexicans in two engagements and on the 5th of July, the American Californians declared themselves independent, and placed Fremont at the head of their affairs.

On the 7th of the same month Commodore Sloat, then in the command of the U. S. squadron in the Pacific, bombarded and captured Monterey. On the 9th Commodore Montgomery took possession of San Francisco. Commodore Stockton arrived on the 15th of July and in co-operation with Colonel Fremont took possession of the city of Los Angeles, on the 17th of August. There was, however, a subsequent uprising in the south, an attempt of the Mexicans to regain possession of the country. The attempt, however, proved abortive, and was chiefly noteworthy as occurring at such a time as to allow General Kearny's troop of one hundred soldiers, who had marched from Santa Fe, to partic.i.p.ate in some of the last engagements--December 16th, 1846, and Jan. 8th, 1847--these ended in the conquest, and brought to pa.s.s the pacification of California.

=The Kearny-Fremont Controversy.=--A question of authority arose between Col. Fremont and General Kearny. The former had acted in the self appointed capacity of "Military Commandant of California." General Kearny refused to recognize him in that capacity, since in addition to being Fremont's superior military officer, Kearny also had been instructed himself to establish civil government in California.[57:a]

Fremont refused to obey the orders of his superior, and was ordered home to be tried for his disobedience. He was deprived of his commission; but in consideration of previous service, it was offered to him again, but refused; and Fremont "went again to the wilderness and engaged in exploration."[57:b]

FOOTNOTES:

[57:a] See Letter of Secretary of War to Kearny, Executive Doc.u.ment No.

60, of June 3rd, 1846, delivered to Kearny by Col. Kane.

[57:b] Lossing's Hist. U. S. p. 487. Bancroft's Hist. of Cal., Vol. V., pa.s.sim, but especially pp. 411-468.

VIII.

RECORD OF THE BATTALION IN CALIFORNIA.

The Battalion had opened a wagon road to the Pacific, but had arrived too late to partic.i.p.ate actively in the conquest of California. It was useful, however, in the performance of garrison duty at San Diego, San Luis Rey, and Los Angeles; and, in connection with the New York volunteers, recently arrived under command of Col. Jonathan D.

Stevenson, via Cape Horn to San Francis...o...b..y, also in connection with the constantly increasing naval forces along the coast, they a.s.sisted in making secure the conquest achieved.

While performing garrison duty many members of the Battalion at San Diego obtained permission to accept employment of the inhabitants of the town, such as making adobes, digging wells, building houses, and making bricks. The first bricks in San Diego, and for matter of that in California, were made and burned by members of the Mormon Battalion.[58:a] They made an enviable reputation for industry and frugality.

=Efforts to Re-Enlist the Battalion.=--As the expiration of the term of the Battalion's enlistment drew near, strong efforts were made for their re-enlistment by General Kearny, before departing for the east in May.

"On the 4th of May," writes Tyler, "an order was read from Col. Cooke, giving the Battalion the privilege of being discharged on condition of being re-enlisted for three years as U. S. Dragoons; but under the circ.u.mstances the generous proposition could not consistently be accepted." General Kearny addressed the Battalion on the 10th of May: "He sympathized with us in the unsettled condition of our people," says Tyler, "but thought, as their final destination was not definitely settled, [in this of course the General's information was defective] we had better re-enlist for another year, by which time the war would doubtless be ended, and our families settled in some permanent location.

In conclusion he said he would take pleasure in representing our patriotism to the President, and in the halls of congress, and give us the justice our praiseworthy conduct had merited." It was on this occasion, according to Tyler, that Gen. Kearny in praising the Battalion said: "Bonaparte crossed the Alps, but these men have crossed a continent."[59:b]

Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson of the New York volunteers, who succeeded Col. Cooke in command of the Battalion by being given command of the southern district of California--Col. Cooke having been detailed to accompany Kearny on his return to the east--made an effort to induce the Battalion to re-enlist. Stevenson's effort was prompted by Governor Richard B. Mason's instructions. Stevenson represented among the advantages of the Battalion's re-enlistment, the privilege of choosing their own officers, "and the fact that the Mormon commander would be the third in rank among the officers of California, and might become first."

The Battalion's officers quite generally favored re-enlistment, but not so the men, who, under the leaders.h.i.+p of "Father" Pettegrew, William Hyde, and Sergeant Tyler, were in favor of returning to their families and the body of their people.

The result of the effort at re-enlistment was, that a company of eighty-one, officers and men, re-enlisted for six months, and performed garrison service at San Diego.

=Homeward Bound.=--The rest of the Battalion, on being mustered out of service, in July, began their march for the Great Basin of the Rocky Mountains, going via Sutter's Fort, at the juncture of the American and Sacramento rivers, north-eastward from San Francisco about seventy-five miles, and now the site of Sacramento, capital of the state. About one-half of these returning volunteers arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the first of October. The reason for not more than one-half of this number reaching Salt Lake Valley that fall--they numbered about 240 when leaving Los Angeles--arose from the following circ.u.mstances: Arriving at Sutter's Fort, and finding opportunity for employment at good wages, a number desired to take advantage of that opportunity, and accordingly, with the consent and approval of their a.s.sociates, "a few" remained. On the sixth of September, when the returning volunteers were leaving the basin of Lake Tahoe, they met Samuel Brannan,--leader of the "Brooklyn Colony" of Mormons to San Francis...o...b..y via Cape Horn, in 1846. Brannan was returning to California from his visit to Brigham Young, whom he had met at the Green River Crossing, and accompanied to Salt Lake Valley. He gave the Battalion members a doleful account of the semi-desert region where the Mormon people were settling, and predicted their final removal to California. He urged all, except those known to have families in Salt Lake Valley, to return to California and work until spring. This without avail. The next day, however, the volunteers met Captain James Brown, ranking officer of the Pueblo detachment of the Battalion, and a small party enroute for California. He brought with him letters from many of the families of the Battalion; also an epistle from the Mormon leaders advising those who had no means of subsistence to remain in California and labor during the winter, and make their way to Salt Lake valley in the spring, bringing their earnings with them. About one-half of the volunteers accepted this suggestion and returned to Sutter's Fort where they found employment.

The rest of the company continued their journey to Salt Lake valley where they arrived at the time already stated.

=The Discharge and Payment of the Pueblo Detachment.=--Captain Brown took with him to California the muster rolls of the Pueblo detachment of the Battalion, and also had a power of attorney from all its members to draw their pay. The Pueblo detachment had drawn its pay per Captain Brown up to May at Santa Fe, at which time he received orders to resume the march to California, via Fort Laramie. The detachment arrived in Salt Lake valley on the 29th of July, where they were disbanded, since the term of their enlistment had expired on the 16th of that month. On the presentation of the claims for the three months' pay still due to this detachment to Governor Mason of California, they were allowed.

"Paymaster Rich," says the Governor, "paid to Captain Brown the money due to the (Pueblo) detachment up to that date, according to the rank they bore upon the muster rolls, upon which the Battalion had been mustered out of the service."

=The Purchase of Ogden Site with Battalion Money.=--Sometime early in 1848 the Goodyear claim to a tract of land at the mouth of Weber Canyon, said to be twenty miles square, was purchased by Captain James Brown out of the Battalion money collected by him, and "by the advice of the Council," meaning the high council at Salt Lake City. The sum paid was $1,950.00, cash down. In this statement I follow the Journal History of Brigham Young, which under date of March 6th, 1848, contains a letter from "Father" John Smith, President of the Salt Lake high council, giving to the Mormon leader,--absent at the time in Winter Quarters--the above information.[62:c]

The Goodyear tract is specifically described as commencing at the mouth of Weber Canyon, thence following the Wasatch Mountains north to the Hot Springs; thence westward to the sh.o.r.es of the Salt Lake; along the sh.o.r.es southward to a point opposite Weber Canyon; thence eastward to the point of beginning.[62:d] Goodyear was supposed to have held this tract of land on which Ogden City now stands by virtue of a Mexican grant. This, however, it was subsequently discovered, was not the case.

Goodyear's t.i.tle amounted to no more than a squatter's claim, as there were evidently no Mexican grants of land in the eastern and northern parts of the territory ceded to the United States by Mexico that rested upon any clearly valid evidence of t.i.tle from Mexico; and the government of the United States, in subsequent years, refused to recognize the so-called Mexican grant of Goodyear's, and held that t.i.tle inhered in the government of the United States alone, and that by virtue of the cession of the territory to the United States.

Such t.i.tle, however, as Goodyear claimed, was purchased, as above related, and by Battalion money. And while the t.i.tle of Goodyear was not valid, the purchase quit-claimed his t.i.tle, such as it was, and gave a sense of security to the colonists who first settled upon one of the most desirable tracts of land in the Salt Lake Valley.

=The Battalion's Contribution of Seeds to Utah Colonies.=--These returning members of the Battalion brought to Utah various kinds of garden and fruit seeds, as well as grain from California, all which were found to be very useful in the new colonies where both variety and quant.i.ty of seeds were limited. Lieutenant James Pace introduced the club-head wheat, which proved to be hardy and of thrifty growth in Utah soil.

Daniel Tyler brought the California pea which in the early years grew so prolific as the field pea of Utah. The detached members of the Battalion who wintered at Pueblo brought with them to Salt Lake Valley the variety of wheat known as "taos," which, mixed with the club-head, became for many years the staple seed wheat sown in Utah fields.

=The Battalion's Part in the Discovery of Gold in California.=--As already stated a number of the Mormon Battalion members found employment at Sutter's Fort, with Mr. John Sutter himself, in fact, who was a rather enterprising Swiss; one "who had houses and land, flocks and herds, mills and machinery. He counted his skilled artisans by the score," says the account I am following, "and his savage retainers by the hundred. He was, moreover, a man of progress." Among his pressing needs and the needs of the country at large, was a saw mill. The flour mills he then had in course of construction needed timbers, and there would be large profit in s.h.i.+pping lumber to San Francisco. Accordingly his foreman, a Mr. James W. Marshall, a native of New Jersey, and then about thirty-three years of age, and a carpenter, took in hand the task of building a saw mill. After considerable exploration the requisite combination of water power, timber, and the possibility of easy access to the Fort, was found in the Coloma valley, on the south fork of the American River, and about forty-five miles due east of the Fort.

In the latter part of August, or the first of September, Mr. Marshall with a party of about a dozen white men, nine of whom were discharged members of the Mormon Battalion,[64:e] and about as many Indians, went to Coloma valley and began the construction of the proposed mill. A brush dam was built in the river and a mill race constructed along a dry channel, to economize labor. The largest stones were thrown out of this and during the night the water would be turned in to carry off the dirt and sand. On the 24th of January while sauntering along the tail race inspecting the work, Mr. Marshall noticed yellow particles mingled with the excavated earth, which had been washed by late rains. Sending an Indian to his cabin for a tin plate Marshall washed out some of the soil and obtained a small quant.i.ty of yellow metal. During the evening he remarked to his a.s.sociates of the camp that he believed he had found gold, which was received with some doubts, the expressions being "I reckon not;" and, "no such luck." But Henry W. Bigler, one of the Battalion members, made the following entry in his journal that day:

"Monday 24 (January): This day some kind of metal was found in the tail race that looks like gold."

"Jan. 30th: Clear, and has been all the last week. Our metal has been tried and proves to be gold. It is thought to be rich. We have picked up more than a hundred dollars' worth this week."

=The Date of the Discovery of Gold.=--Thus it is the journal of a member of the Mormon Battalion which determines the date of the event which startled the world. Usually the 19th of January is given as the date, but in his History of California, Bancroft discusses the subject as follows:

"The 19th of January is the date usually given; but I am satisfied it is incorrect. There are but two authorities to choose between, Marshall, the discoverer, and one Henry W. Bigler, a Mormon engaged upon the work at the time. Besides confusion of mind in other respects, Marshall admits that he does not know the date. On or about the 19th of January," he says (Hutchings' Magazine, II, 200); "I am not quite certain to a day, but it was between the 18th and 20th." Whereupon the 19th has been generally accepted. Bigler, on the other hand, was a cool, clear-headed, methodical man; moreover he kept a journal, in which he entered occurrences on the spot, and it is from this journal I get my date. If further evidence be wanting, we have it. Marshall states that four days after the discovery he proceeded to New Helvetta [identical as to the location with Sutter's Fort] with specimens. Now, by reference to another journal, New Helvetta Diary, we find that Marshall arrived at the Fort on the evening of the 28th. If we reckon the day of discovery as one of the four days, allow Marshall one night on the way, which Parsons gives him, and count the 28th one day, we have the 24th as the date of discovery trebly proved.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Facsimile of Henry W. Bigler's Journal, from a photograph]

=The Tide of Western Civilization Started.=--The discovery of gold is the historical event that turned the eyes of the civilized world to California. Within a year it started that mighty wave of western emigration from all parts of the United States, many parts of Europe, and even from Asia. It was to be a subject of the President's message to Congress before the close of the year; within two years it would make California one of the sovereign states of the American Union, with a population of nearly one hundred thousand; in seven years it would result in adding nearly five hundred million dollars to the world's store of gold; and then as the gold from soil and sand was exhausted, and costly operations upon gold-bearing quartz ledges, and delving into the earth were required to secure the precious metal, many men who had come to the mines turned their attention to agriculture and to horticulture and found in the grain fields, vineyards and orchards of the Pacific slope, even a greater source of wealth than in the gold mines.

For a time an effort was made to keep the discovery of gold quiet, but gradually it became known, and the secret of the Sierras was revealed to the world, with the result already noted. San Francisco, however, was indifferent for some time, the final conversion of that town to the discovery of gold did not take place until Samuel Brannan, the leader of the Brooklyn Colony of Mormons to California, came down from Sutter's Fort--where he had a store--to San Francisco, in company with a number of others who had with them specimens of collected gold in both dust and nuggets. Brannan, holding in one hand a bottle of yellow dust, and with the other swinging his hat, rushed down the street shouting, "Gold!

Gold! Gold! from the American River." This in May; and soon afterwards San Francisco was deserted for the gold-fields.