After the men had sent their pay checks back to their families, the
expedition started from Santa Fe, 448 strong. It had rations for only
sixty days. The commander wrote on November 19 that he was determined to
take along his wagons, though the mules were nearly broken down at the
outset, and added a delicate criticism of Fremont's self-centered
character, "The only good mules were taken for the express for Fremont's
mail, the General's order requiring the 21 best in, Santa Fe."
Colonel Cooke soon proved an officer who would enforce discipline. He had
secured an able quartermaster in Lieut. George Stoneman, First Dragoons.
Lieutenant Smith took office as acting commissary. Three mounted dragoons
were taken along, one a trumpeter. An additional mounted company of New
Mexican volunteers, planned at Santa Fe, could not be raised.
Before the command got out of the Rio Grande Valley, the condition of the
commissary best is to be illustrated by the following extract from verses
written by Levi Hancock:
"We sometimes now lack for bread,
Are less than quarter rations fed,
And soon expect, for all of meat,
Nought less than broke-down mules to eat."
The trip over the Continental Divide was one of hardship, at places
tracks for the wagons being made by marching files of men ahead, to tramp
down ruts wherein the wheels might run. The command for 48 hours at one
time was without water. From the top of the Divide the wagons had to be
taken down by hand, with men behind with ropes, the horses driven below.
Finally a more level country was reached, December 2, at the old, ruined
ranch of San Bernardino, near the south-eastern corner of the present
Arizona. The principal interest of the trip, till the Mexican forces at
Tucson were encountered, then lay in an attack upon the marching column
by a number of wild bulls in the San Pedro Valley. It had been assumed
that Cooke would follow down the San Pedro to the Gila, but, on learning
that the better and shorter route was by way of Tucson, he determined
upon a more southerly course.