with the force of a tornado. up This fierce strife of the elements continued without abatement the entire afternoon, and until two o'clock at night. Driving our horses before us, we were compelled to slide down the steep and slippery rocks, or wade through deep gullies and ravines filled with mud and foaming torrents of water, that rushed downward with such force as to carry along the loose rock, and tear the trees and shrubbery by the roots. Many of the horses, falling into the ravines, refused to make an effort to extricate themselves, and were swept downward and drowned. Others, bewildered by the fierceness and terrors of the storm, rushed or fell headlong over the steep precipices and were killed. Others obstinately refused to proceed, but stood quaking with fear or shivering with cold; and many of these perished in the night from the severity of the storm. The advance party did not reach the foot of the mountain, and find a place to encamp, until night—and a night of more impenetrable and terrific darkness I never witnessed. The ground upon which our camp was made, although sloping from the hills to a small stream, was so saturated with water that men as well as horses sank deep at every step. The rain fell in such quantities that fires with great difficulty could be lighted, and most of them were immediately extinguished. "The officers and men belonging to the company having the cannon in charge, labored until nine or ten o'clock to bring them down the mountain, but they were finally compelled to leave them. Much of the baggage, also, remained on the side of the mountain, with the pack-mules and horses conveying them, all efforts to force the animals down being fruitless. The men continued to straggle into the camp until a late hour of the night; some crept under the shelving rocks, and did not come in until the next morning. We were so fortunate as to find our tent, and after much difficulty pitched it under an oak tree. All efforts to light a fire and keep it blazing proving abortive. we spread our blankets upon the ground and endeavored to sleep, although we could feel the cold streams of water running through the tent, and between and around our bodies. In this condition we remained until about two o'clock in the morning, when, the storm having abated, I rose, and shaking from my garments the dripping water, after many unsuccessful efforts succeeded in kindling a fire. Near our tent I found three soldiers who had reached camp at a late hour. 66 'They were fast asleep on the ground, the water around them being two to three inches deep; but they had taken the care to keep their head above water by using a log of wood for a pillow. The fire beginning to blaze freely, I dug a ditch with my hands and a sharp stick of wood, which drained off the pool surrounding the tent. One of the men, when he felt the sensation consequent upon being 'high and dry,' roused himself, and sitting upright, looked around for some time with an expression of bewildered amazement. At length he seemed to realize the true state of the case, and exclaimed in a tone of energetic soliloquy : 66 6 : 'Well, who wouldn't be a soldier and fight for California?' "You are mistaken,' I replied. “Rubbing his eyes, he gazed at me with astonishment, as if having been entirely unconscious of my presence; but, reassuring himself, he said: ""Texas be d-d; but hurrah for Gen'l Jackson!' and with this exclamation he threw himself back again upon his wooden pillow, and was soon snoring in a profound slumber. "DECEMBER 26TH.-Parties were detailed early this morning, and despatched up the mountain to bring down the cannon and collect the living horses and baggage. The destruction of horseflesh, by those who witnessed the scene by daylight, is described as frightful. In some places large numbers of dead horses were piled together. In others, horses half buried in the mud of the ravines, or among the rocks, were gasping in the agonies of death. The number of dead animals is variously estimated at from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty by different persons. The cannon, most of the missing baggage and the living horses were all brought in by noon. The day was busily employed in cleaning our rifles and pistols, and drying our drenched baggage." On the third of January, 1847, Fremont resumed his march for Los Angeles, approaching it from the north, while Commodore Stockton, who had started from San Diego on the twenty-ninth of December, was approaching that place from the south, neither of those commanders knowing what the other was doing. Leaving them on the march, let us return to the north and see what had transpired there after the removal of so many Americans, who had gone to the south by sea and land with the two armies. At the time Fremont left Gilroy, the first of December, Capt. C. M. Weber had started from San José to join him with a company of men he had recruited for that purpose, and there were but ten men left in San José and Santa Clara to protect the families of those who had joined the armies from those places. The captain and his lieutenant, James Williams, became so strongly impressed with the fact that danger and duty both demanded of them to turn back and protect the families and homes of those who were away, that both left their command, which continued on its way and joined Fremont, and immediately set about recruiting another company for that purpose. With the assistance of John M. Murphy, Weber was so far successful as to enlist thirty-three men, some of whom were from Yerba Buena. He was at that place with his company when Lieut. Washington A. Bartlett was captured in the outskirts of that town by Francisco Sanches, who had raised the standard of revolt as soon as the California battalion had reached in its march a point sufficiently far south to make it (as he supposed) safe for him to do so. Bartlett was a friend of Weber, and the latter immediately tendered his services and that of his company of mounted men to Captain Montgomery, for immediate service in going to his rescue. Montgomery at once accepted the offer, and promptly fitted out a party under Capt. Ward Marston to pursue Sanches. That expedition marched, one hundred and one strong, from Yerba Buena on the twenty-ninth of December, 1846, the same day that Commodore Stockton started from San Diego for Los Angeles, Fremont being then with the California battalion in Santa Barbara. The following is a list of the force constituting the command that marched from Yerba Buena in pursuit of Francisco Sanches : On the second of January, 1847, they came up with Sanches, who, with one hundred men and one piece of artillery, was about to attack the Santa Clara mission, where some thirty immigrant families had congregated, with only fifteen men under Capt. Joseph Aram to protect them. All night the campfires of Sanches' forces had been seen within a half-mile of the mission. The fifteen riflemen were out as skirmishers and in the belfry of the church, watching for the enemy with feelings better imagined than described. They knew of the fate of the Americans at the Alamo. As the morning came, with a heavy fog obscuring everything from view, there suddenly broke upon the ear of the sentinel in the tower, the report of a rifle-shot, then another, followed by an uneven rumbling detonation that led the watchers to believe that Sanches was driving back into town the weak little line of skirmishers, who had no force to support them. There were others beside the sentinel listening-helpless women and children, whose paled faces marked the agony of fear, as they waited with bated breath and white lips a something that should tell if there was hope for them out yonder in the gloom and fog. Suddenly there came a sound like the falling of a distant tree, then another and another, when the watchman quickly comprehended the cause, and shouted from the tower to the listeners below:- 'It's volleys of musketry—they are firing by platoons. It's Weber come to our rescue with the marines." Elmer Brown, who was that sentinel, in speaking of the event says:-"It caused many a big tear to trickle down the faces of the poor immigrants," as they realized the glad message borne to them on the air from over the plains, like a Scottish slogan, telling them that friends were coming through the smoke of battle to their relief. The fog was soon dispelled, and the people at the mission could see the contending forces from the house-tops. An old Californian, at the mission, whose feelings were hostile to the Americans, kept saying of his friends as he watched the strife :-"Oh! they can't shoot? The enemy were finally driven away, and our forces entered Santa Clara, about second of January. They can't fight!!" eleven A. M., on the The following extract we take from The California Star, of Feb. 6, 1847, a paper published by Samuel Brannan and edited by E. P. Jones, at Yerba Buena :— "The following particulars of the recent expedition from this place we have received from an authentic source. We believe it to be * * the most correct account of the movement of our troops and of the enemy, and of the final settlement of the difficulties, yet given to the public." The article, in speaking of the battle on the plains of Santa Clara, after bringing the two forces together, says:-"An attack was immediately ordered, the enemy was forced to retire, which they were able to do in safety, after some resistance, in consequence of their superior horses. "The affair lasted about one hour, during which time we had one marine slightly wounded in the head, and one volunteer of Capt. Weber's company in the leg, and the enemy had one horse killed and some of their force supposed to be killed or wounded. In the evening the enemy sent in a flag-of-truce, with a communication requesting an interview with the commanding officer of the expedition the next day, which was granted, when an armistice was entered into preparatory to a settlement of the difficulties. "On the third of January the expedition was reinforced by fifty-nine mounted Monterey volunteers, under command of Capt. Wm. A. T. Maddox, and on the seventh of the same month, by the arrival of Lieut. Grayson with fifteen men. On the eighth a treaty was concluded by which the enemy surrendered Lieut. Bartlett and the other prisoners, as well as all their arms, including a small field-piece, their ammunition and accoutrements, and in return were permitted to go peaceably to their homes and the expedition returned to their respective ports. Since the above was put in type, we have learned from persons from Santa Clara that it has been ascertained that four Californians were killed and five badly wounded." With the capitulation of Sanches there was nothing left of the rebellion except the force under General Flores, possibly 1,000 strong, camped at Los Angeles, that was being rapidly approached from both north and south by our little armies. Stockton's forces had moved from San Diego on the twenty-ninth of December, and consisted of : As Stockton advanced, propositions were received from Flores, asking negotiations, but his messengers were informed that no communication would be held with him; on the contrary, that if he or any of his coadjutors who had forfeited their paroles were taken, they would be unceremoniously shot. On the evening of the seventh of January, they arrived near the south bank of the San Gabriel river, and on the following morning found the enemy on the north bank of that stream, ready to dispute their passage. The guns were all discharged and freshly loaded. The command formed in a hollow the baggage and cattle in the centre, and moved towards the ford. square, with On the opposite side, on an elevation of about fifty feet, the enemy's artillery was placed some fifty yards from the crossing. The Americans were thrown into line as they approached the stream, and were ordered to refrain from firing a gun until the river was crossed. General Kearny, with the advance, sent word to Stockton that the bed of the stream was quicksand and the artillery could not cross, though the water was only about four feet deep. Stockton immediately repaired to the front, and seizing the rope himself helped to land the guns on the opposite side. The line of battle was again formed, and the artillery, trained by the commodore, so effectually silenced the enemy's guns that they were deserted, and General Kearny started to bring them in, but the Californians rallied and carried them off before he could reach the point where they were abandoned. Stockton's left was then violently assailed, but the attack was repulsed. Again they formed on the high ground, and the artillery being brought into play, the commodore sighted his own guns, and the enemy's lines were again broken. They made a charge and were repulsed, when a detachment crossed the stream and attempted to capture the stores and baggage and stampede the cattle, but were driven back again in confusion by Captain Gillespie. They then retreated from the field, carrying their dead and wounded with them. Our loss was trifling, only two having been killed and nine wounded. What the Californians lost was never known. On the following day, Stockton marched about six miles towards Los Angeles, finally coming upon the enemy, posted upon the plains of the Mesa. He again formed in a hollow square, with the cattle, horses and baggage in the center, and awaited the result. The charge made by the Californians and their gallant and repeated effort to penetrate that square is thus described in the Annals of San Francisco : : (3) Bryant places these two companies with Fremont; Commodore Stockton names them in his marching orders as being at San Diego on December 23, 1846, and unless there were at that time two A and B companies recognized as belonging to the California Battalion of Mounted Rifles, then Bryant is in error, and they were with Stockton and not with Fremont. |
