1846-1847.
GENERAL WOOL INSPECTS AND MUSTERS THE WESTERN TROOPS.--ARMY OF THE
CENTRE.--NEW MEXICO--KEARNEY--MACNAMARA--CALIFORNIA.--FRÉMONT--
SONOMA--CALIFORNIAN INDEPENDENCE--POSSESSION TAKEN.--SLOAT--
STOCKTON.--A REVOLT--PICO--TREATY OF COUENGA.--KEARNEY AT SAN
PASCUAL--IS RELIEVED--DISPUTES--SAN GABRIELLE--MESA--LOS
ANGELES.--FRÉMONT'S CHARACTER, SERVICES, TRIAL.
General Wool, who had been for a long period inspector general of the
United States army, was entrusted with the difficult task of examining
the recruits in the west, and set forth on his journey after receiving
his orders on the 29th of May, 1846. He traversed the states of Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, and, in
somewhat less than two months, had journeyed three thousand miles and
mustered twelve thousand men into service. This expedition of a hardy
soldier exhibits, at once, the powers of a competent American officer,
and the facility with which an efficient _corps d'armée_, may at any
urgent moment, be raised in our country.
Nearly nine thousand of these recruits were sent to Taylor on the Rio
Grande, while those who were destined for the "Army of the Centre,"
rendezvoused at Bejar, in Texas. At this place their commander Wool
joined them, and commenced the rigid system of discipline, under
accomplished officers, which made his division a model in the army. He
marched from Bejar with five hundred regulars and two thousand four
hundred and fifty volunteers, on the 20th of September, and passed
onwards through Presidio, Nava, and across the Sierra of San José and
Santa Rosa, and the rivers Alamos, Sabine, and del Norte, until he
reached Monclova. He had been directed to advance to Chihuahua, but as
this place was in a great measure controlled by the states of New Leon
and Coahuila which were already in our possession, he desisted from
pursuing his march thither, and, after communicating with General
Taylor and learning the fall of Monterey, he pushed on to the fertile
region of Parras and thence to the headquarters of General Taylor, in
the month of December, as soon as he was apprised of the danger which
menaced him at that period.
We have already said that it was part of our government's original plan
to reduce New Mexico and California,--a task which was imposed upon
Colonel Kearney, a hardy frontier fighter, long used to Indian character
and Indian warfare--who, upon being honored with the command was raised
to the rank of Brigadier General. This officer moved from Fort
Leavenworth on the 30th of June, towards Santa Fé, the capital of New
Mexico, with an army of sixteen hundred men, and after an unresisted
march of eight hundred and seventy-three miles, he reached his
destination on the 18th of August. Possession of the place was given
without a blow, and it is probable that the discreet Armijo yielded to
the advice of American counsellors in his capital, in surrendering
without bloodshed to our forces. Kearney had been authorized to organize
and muster into service a battalion of emigrants to Oregon and
California, who eagerly availed themselves of this favorable military
opportunity to reach their distant abodes on the shores of the Pacific.
After organizing the new government of Santa Fé, forming a new code of
organic laws, and satisfying himself of the stability of affairs in that
quarter, Kearney departed on his mission to California. But he had not
gone far when he was met by an express with information of the fall of
that portion of Mexico, and immediately sent back the main body of his
men, continuing his route through the wilderness with the escort of one
hundred dragoons alone. In September of this year, a regiment of New
York volunteer infantry had been despatched thither also, by sea, under
the command of Colonel Stevenson.
There is evidence in existence that shortly before the commencement of
this war, it had been contemplated to place a large portion of the
most valuable districts of California, indirectly, under British
protection, by grants to an Irish Catholic clergyman named Macnamara,
who projected a colony of his countrymen in those regions. He excited
the Mexicans to accede to his proposal by appeals to their religious
prejudices against the Protestants of the north, who, he alleged,
would seize the jewel unless California was settled by his countrymen
whose creed would naturally unite them with the people and
institutions of Mexico. "Within a year, he declared, California would
become a part of the American nation; and, inundated by cruel
invaders, their Catholic institutions would be the prey of Methodist
wolves." The government of Mexico granted three thousand square
leagues in the rich valley of San Joaquin, embracing San Francisco,
Monterey, and Santa Barbara, to this behest of the foreign priest; but
his patent could not be perfected until the governor of California
sanctioned his permanent tenure of the land.
In November, 1845, Lieutenant Gillespie was despatched from Washington
with verbal instructions to Captain Frémont who had been pursuing his
scientific examinations of California, and had been inhospitably
ordered by the authorities to quit the country. Early in March of
1846, the bold explorer was within the boundaries of Oregon, where he
was found, in the following May, by Gillespie, who delivered him his
verbal orders and a letter of credence from the Secretary of State.
In consequence of this message, Frémont abandoned his camp in the
forest, surrounded by hostile Indians, and moved south to the valley
of the Sacramento, where he was at once hailed by the American
settlers, who, together with the foreigners generally, had received
orders from the Mexican General Castro, to leave California. Frémont's
small band immediately formed the nucleus of a revolutionary troop,
which gathered in numbers as it advanced south, and abstaining
guardedly from acts which might disgust the people, they injured no
individuals and violated no private property. On the 14th of June,
Sonoma was taken possession of, and was garrisoned by a small force,
under Mr. Ide, who issued a proclamation, inviting all to come to his
camp and aid in forming a republican government. Coure and Fowler, two
young Americans, were murdered about this period in the neighborhood,
and others were taken prisoners under Padilla. But the belligerants
were pursued to San Raphael by Captain Ford, where they were conquered
by the Americans; and, on the 25th of June, Frémont, who heard that
Castro was approaching with two hundred men, joined the camp at
Sonoma. Thus far, every thing had been conducted with justice and
liberality by our men. They studiously avoided disorderly conduct or
captures, and invariably promised payment for the supplies that were
taken for the support of the troopers. The Californians were in
reality gratified by the prospect of American success in their
territory, for they believed that it would secure a stable and
progressive government, under which, that beautiful region would be
gradually developed.
On the 5th of July, the Californian Americans declared their
independence, and organizing a battalion, of which Frémont was the
chief, they raised the standard of the Bear and Star.
[Illustration: MONTEREY.]
Frémont, at the head of his new battalion, moved his camp to Sutter's
Fort on the Sacramento and whilst he was preparing, in July, to follow
General Castro to Santa Clara, he received the joyful news that
Commodore Sloat had raised the American flag on the 7th of the month
at Monterey, and that war actually existed between Mexico and the
United States. The Californian Americans of course immediately
abandoned their revolution for the national war, and substituted the
American ensign for the grisly emblem under which they designed
conquering the territory.
On the 8th of July, Commander Montgomery took possession of San
Francisco, and soon after, Frémont joined Commodore Sloat at Monterey.
Sloat, who had in reality acted upon the faith of Frémont's operations
in the north, knowing that Gillespie had been sent to him as a special
messenger, and having heard, whilst at Mazatlan, of the warlike
movements on the Rio Grande, was rather fearful that he had been
precipitate in his conduct; but he resolved to maintain what he had
done; and accordingly, when admiral Sir George Seymour, arrived in the
Collingwood at Monterey, on the 6th of July, the grants to the Irish
clergyman were not completed, and the American flag was already
floating on every important post in the north of California. Seymour
took Macnamara on board his ship, and thus the hopes of the British
partizans were effectually blighted when the Admiral and his passenger
sailed from the coast.
Commodore Stockton arrived at Monterey during this summer and Sloat
returned to the United States, leaving the Commodore in command.
Frémont and Gillespie, who were at the head of forces on shore
determined to act under the orders of the naval commander, and
Stockton immediately prepared for a military movement against the city
of Los Angeles, where, he learned, that General Castro and the civil
governor Pico had assembled six hundred men. Frémont and the
Commodore, embarking their forces at Monterey, sailed for San Pedro
and San Diego, where, landing their troops, they united and took
possession of Los Angeles on the 13th of August. The public buildings,
archives and property fell into their possession without bloodshed,
for Castro, the commanding general, fled at their approach. Stockton
issued a proclamation announcing these facts to the people on the 17th
of August, and having instituted a government, directed elections, and
required an oath of allegiance from the military. He appointed
Frémont, military commandant and Gillespie, secretary. On the 28th of
August he reported these proceedings to the government at Washington,
by the messenger who was met by General Kearney, as we have already
related, on his way from Santa Fé to the Pacific. Carson, the courier,
apprised the General of the conquest of California, and was obliged
by him to return as his guide, whilst a new messenger was despatched
towards the east, with the missives, escorted by the residue of the
troop which was deemed useless for further military efforts on the
shores of the Pacific.
But before Kearney reached his destination, a change had come over
affairs in California. Castro returned to the charge in September with
a large Mexican force headed by General Flores, and the town of Los
Angeles and the surrounding country having revolted, expelled the
American garrison. Four hundred marines who landed from the Savannah
under Captain Mervine, were repulsed, while the garrison of Santa
Barbara, under Lieutenant Talbott had retired before a large body of
Californians and Mexicans. Frémont, immediately resolving to increase
his battalion, raised four hundred and twenty-eight men, chiefly from
the emigrants who moved this year to California. He mounted his
troopers on horses procured in the vicinity of San Francisco and
Sutter's Fort, and marched secretly but quickly to San Luis Obispo,
where he surprised and captured Don Jesus Pico, the commandant of that
military post. Pico having been found in arms had broken his parole,
given during the early pacification, and a court-martial sentenced him
to be shot; but Frémont, still steadily pursuing his humane policy
towards the Californians, pardoned the popular and influential
chieftain, who, from that hour, was his firm friend throughout the
subsequent troubles.
On Christmas day of 1846, amid storm and rain, in which a hundred
horses and mules perished, Frémont and his brave battalion passed the
mountain of Santa Barbara. Skirting the coast through the long
maritime pass at Punto Gordo,--protected on one flank by one of the
vessels of the navy, and assailed, on the other, by fierce bands of
mounted Californians,--they moved onward until they reached the plain
of Couenga where the enemy was drawn up with a force equal to their
own. Frémont summoned the hostile troops to surrender, and after their
consent to a parley, went to them with Don Jesus Pico and arranged the
terms of the capitulation, by which they bound themselves to deliver
their arms to our soldiers and to conform, at home, to the laws of the
United States, though no Californians should be compelled to take an
oath of allegiance to the United States, until the war was ended and
the treaty either exonerated them or changed their nationality.
Meanwhile General Kearney, on his westward march from Santa Fé, had
reached a place called Warner's _Rancho_, thirty-three miles from San
Diego, where a captured Californian mail for Sonoma apprised him that
the southern part of the territory was wrested from our troops. The
letters exulted over our discomfiture, but it was supposed that, as
usual in Mexico, they exaggerated the misfortune of the Americans.
Kearney's small troop was much enfeebled by the long and fatiguing
journey it had made from Santa Fé amid great privations. From Warner's
Rancho the commander communicated with Stockton by means of a neutral
Englishman, and, on the 5th of December, was joined by Gillespie, who
informed him, that a mounted Californian force, under Andres Pico, was
prepared to dispute his passage towards the coast. On the 6th the
Americans left the _rancho_, resolving to come suddenly upon the
enemy, and confident that the usual success of our troops would attend
the exploit;--but the fresh forces of this hardy and brave Californian
band, composed perhaps, of some of the most expert horsemen in that
region, were far more than a match for the toil-worn troopers of
Kearney. Eighteen of our men were killed in this action at San
Pascual, and thirteen wounded. For several days the camp of the
Americans was besieged by the fierce and hardy children of the soil.
The provisions of the beleagured band were scant, and it was almost
entirely deprived of water. Its position was, in every respect, most
disastrous, and, in all probability, it would have perished from
famine or fallen an easy prey to the Mexicans, had not the resolute
Carson, accompanied by Lieutenant Beale and an Indian, volunteered to
pass the dangerous lines of the enemy to seek assistance at San Diego.
These heroic men performed their perilous duty, and Lieutenant Grey,
with a hundred and eighty soldiers and marines, reached and relieved
his anxious countrymen on the 10th of December, bringing them, in two
days, to the American camp at San Diego.
As soon as the band had recruited its strength, Kearney naturally
became anxious to engage in active service. He had been sent to
California, according to the language of his instructions, to conquer
and govern it; but he found Commodore Stockton already in the position
of governor, with an ample naval force at his orders, whilst the
broken remnant of the dragoons who accompanied him from Santa Fé, was
altogether incompetent to subdue the revolted territory. By himself
therefore, he was altogether inadequate for any successful military
move. Stockton, quite as anxious as Kearney to engage in active
hostilities, was desirous to accompany the general as his aid; but
Kearney declined the service, and, in turn, volunteered to become the
aid of Stockton. The commodore, less accustomed, perhaps, to military
etiquette than to prompt and useful action at a moment of difficulty,
resolved at once to end the game of idle compliments, and accepted the
offer of General Kearney; but, before they departed, Stockton agreed
that he might command the expedition in a position subordinate to him
as commander-in-chief.
On the 29th of December, with sixty volunteers, four hundred marines,
six heavy pieces of artillery, eleven heavy wagons, and fifty-seven
dragoons composing the remains of General Kearney's troop, they
marched towards the north, and, on the 7th of January, found
themselves near the river San Gabrielle, the passage of which the
enemy, with superior numbers under General Flores, was prepared to
dispute. It was a contest between American sailors and soldiers, and
California horsemen, for the whole Mexican troop was mounted; yet the
Americans were successful and crossed the river. This action occurred
about nine miles from Los Angeles, and our men pushed on six miles
further, till they reached the Mesa, a level prairie, where Flores
again attacked them and was beaten off. Retreating thence to Couenga,
the Californians, refusing to submit to Stockton and Kearney,
capitulated, as we have already declared to Colonel Frémont, who had
been raised to this rank by our government. On the morning of the 10th
of January, 1847, the Americans took final possession of Los Angeles.
Soon after this a government was established for California, which was
to continue until the close of the war or until the government or the
population of the region changed it.
The disputes which arose between Stockton, Kearney, and Frémont, as to
the right to command in California, under the orders from their
respective departments, are matters rather of private and personal
interest than of such public concern as would entitle them to be
minutely recounted in this brief sketch of the Mexican war. It is
impossible to present a faithful idea of the controversy and its
merits without entering into a detail of all the circumstances, but
for this, we have no space, in the present history. Strict military
etiquette appears to have demanded of Kearney, immediately upon his
arrival, the assertion of his right to command as a general officer
operating in the interior of the country. This was a question solely
between Stockton and himself, in which Frémont, a subordinate officer,
recently transplanted from the Topographical corps into the regular
army as a Colonel, had of course, no interest save that of duty.
Nevertheless he became involved in the controversy between the
claimants, and although raised to the rank of Governor of California,
by Commodore Stockton, he was deprived of his authority when General
Kearney subsequently assumed that station. The disputes between the
Commodore and the General seem to have arisen under the somewhat
conflicting instructions of the War and Navy Departments, and were
calculated, as distinguished officers afterwards declared officially,
to "embarrass the mind, and to excite the doubts of officers of
greater experience" than the Colonel.
Although Frémont's services were lost for a while on the shores of the
Pacific, he was not forgotten either there, or at home. What he had
done for his country in that remote region by exploring its solitudes
with his hardy band; what he added to geographical and general
science; what regions he almost revealed to American pioneers; what
services he rendered in securing a happy issue to the war in
California--have all been recollected with gratitude and rewarded with
the virgin honors of the new born State. But, at that time, this
brilliant officer who combined the science of Humboldt with the energy
and more than the generosity of Cortéz, was doomed to suffer more than
the temporary deprivation of power. After the war was in reality over,
after Commodore Stockton had departed and General Kearney had assumed
the governorship which was subsequently given to Colonel
Mason--Frémont was refused permission to continue his scientific
pursuits in California or to join his regiment on the active fields of
Mexico. When General Kearney turned his face homewards, towards the
close of the spring of 1847, Frémont was ordered to follow in his
train across the mountains, and was finally arrested at Fort
Leavenworth, on the borders of civilization. During the next winter he
was tried by a Court Martial on charges of mutiny, disobedience, and
conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, and
being found guilty was sentenced to be dismissed the service. A
majority of the court, however, considering all the circumstances of
the case, recommended him to the lenient judgment of the President,
who not being satisfied that the facts proved the military crime of
mutiny--though he sustained the court's opinion otherwise--and
recognizing Frémont's previous meritorious and valuable services,
released him from arrest, restored his sword and ordered him to report
for duty. But Frémont, feeling unconscious, as he declared, of having
done any thing to merit the finding of the court, declined the offered
restoration to the service, as he could not, "by accepting the
clemency of the President, admit the justice of the decision against
him."