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Alamo, presented to him by the State of Texas. The obverse bears an engraving of the Alamo, with the inscription: "To Captain Lewis C. Shilling: Presented by the State of Texas, 1846." The reverse is lettered: "In remembrance of Davy Crockett."

As Adjutant to General Phil Sheridan, Captain Shilling went to Europe during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, to make observations. At the end of the war, the two made the rounds of the European nations, which lasted for more than three years, gathering valuable information for Uncle Sam's benefit. So valuable was the assistance rendered General Sheridan that the Federal government later engaged Captain Shilling on several missions of importance.

world,

In his travels around the Captain Shilling learned to speak German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Hebrew as fluently as he had mastered the Italian dialect. It was this globe trotting propensity which prevented him, while in the West, from taking up six hundred and eighty acres of land where the city of Los Angeles now stands. At the time Fremont took up the Presidio, San Francisco, and Goat Island in San Francisco Bay as his portion, he informed Captain Shilling that he proposed to make the island a famous summer resort. Both places subsequently reverted to the Government, however, and a large sum of money was paid to the heirs.

In narrating his story, Captain Shilling said: "I first saw the light in 1832 on the peninsula of Spain, now called Galveston, Texas, where my father settled in 1807, whither he emigrated from Saxony, Germany, with fellow-townsmen. He was with Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1812. My father had been a major in the Saxon army. He afterward organized the First Texas Rangers in 1814, and when Sam Houston was President of the Republic of Texas, my father became his Secretary of State from 1836 until the "Lone Star Republic" was annexed to the United States.

"My first extraordinary adventure occurred in San Antonio, when I was a child four years of age. At that time there were less than fifty Americans in the town under Davy Crockett, and the dauntless Bowie, the main body of American troops being in another part of the Republic, my father, who was one of the generals, being with them. Crockett gave the women and the

children his first consideration by collecting them in the stronghold called the Alamo, where they stoutly defended themselves against the Mexican army till Crockett, Bowie and nearly every defender was killed. My mother and sister were among the slain. I escaped the frightful butchery by secreting myself in an old bacon crate piled high with gunny sacks. After some twenty hours, I ventured out of my hiding place. Thoroughly frightened and sick at heart, I scrambled over the dead and debris, and somehow reached my father's command on the Salinas River.

After wandering over the Western territories in quest of adventure, I finally found myself, in 1841, employed as a cabin boy on the "Little Cricket," the first stern wheel craft to ply the Missouri River. It was on board this little boat that I first met General Fremont, Kit Carson, Lieut. U. S. Grant, Albert Sidney Johnson and many men who afterwards became famous in the great pioneering movement then beginning to sweep through the West. A dispute had arisen over the boundaries of the American possessions in the Western Continent, and Fremont was despatched by the United States government to explore the then unknown territory west of the Missouri River. He was then on his way to Fort Benton, at the head of the Missouri, in the Territory of Montana. During that trip on the river of the stern wheeler, Kit Carson had taken a special interest in me after I had detailed my Alamo experience to him. Before the end of the trip he formally adopted me as his son, in the presence of the army

officers.

On reaching the frontier post, Gen

PIONEERING WITH FREMONT.

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he knew of trapping, hunting, trailing and Indians.

"When Fremont started on his expedition, I went along as a matter of course. Carson remained with the main detachment of men, mostly trailers, trappers and soldiers, numbering seven hundred. About this time, 'Little Dog," chief of the Blackfoot tribe, died from the effects of a poisoned arrow, and, owing to my foster-father's great popularity with the Indians, I was made their white chief, and as such was always in the van with a number of redskin warriors to reconnoiter the trail for the little array that followed in our wake.

"After many strenuous months of privations and hardships, we finally reached the waters of the Pacific, and I personally planted the first American flag on the banks of the Columbia River, where Vancouver Barracks, in the State of Washington, now stands. This honor was assigned me on account of my youth, and the fact of my

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Captain Lewis C. Shilling, of the having first sighted the great, rolling

old guard.

eral Fremont promptly set about organizing his expedition, an extremely difficult problem at that time, for it was necessary to bring some of the party from New York City, and other distant points, and traveling in those days was long and hazardous. It required nearly a year's time for the General to marshal his forces and get ready to start on that history-making trip, which ultimately shaped this great Western empire.

In the meanwhile, I was in the heart of the activities. At the old fort was a tribe of Blackfeet Indians; thousands of buffaloes roamed the plains thereabouts. Kit Carson and myself, together with a band of the Blackfeet Indians, hunted these buffaloes to supply meat to General Fremont and his men. I became a crack shot, and learned the Indian signs and oral dialect, and gathered a great deal of hunting lore from them and Kit Carson. Carson took great pains to teach me all

river.

"We lost ninety men on this first expedition from exposure and other misadventures, but considering the handicaps and obstacles encountered, we did remarkably well.

"After resting a few weeks, Fremont, his staff and the remnant of his escort pushed back to St. Louis, then the army headquarters. From there, through swift military couriers, they notified the authorities in Washington, D. C., of the success of the trip. Great credit is due the Blackfeet tribe in the conquest of the West. They were valuable guides, and contributed extraordinary service in breaking new trails. The development of the Western country would be delayed many years but for their assistance. Kit Carson's chief traits were kindness and good qualities of heart, determined perseverance, indomitable will, unflinching courage, great quickness and shrewdness of perception, and promptitude in execution. Among the Arrapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas and Comanches, Kit Carson and myself were always

honored guests whenever we chose to visit their lodges. Many a night, while seated at their watch fires, we recounted the most spectacular scenes of the day's adventures, to which they always listened with eager attention. When Kit was dressed in his rough hunting costume and mounted upon his favorite charger, 'Apache,' a splendid animal, he was a picture the Indians never failed to admire.

"After Fremont and his men had secured several weeks' recuperation, we started on the second lap of our hazardous pathfinding. Leaving St. Louis in the spring of 1845, we started southwest to reach the far distant adobe village on the far western shores of the Pacific, then under the dominion of Mexico, a village now called the city of San Francisco.

"We found our new route very difficult and perplexing, for we did not imagine the new and gigantic barriers in desert stretches and mountains. We failed also to carry along sufficient provisions, and for many months we were compelled to subsist upon chance game; in fact, anything palatable that we could find. We cut through what is now called the Santa Fe trail, and came by way of a blistering sunseared route near Tucson, and old Fort Yuma in Arizona.

"On entering California, we first halted at 'The Point,' now called San Pedro, in the southern part of the State, where we indulged in a few days' rest and fishing. As had always been our custom, we unfurled an American flag over our camp. The good old American sloop-of-war Constitution happened to be at anchor off shore. Some one on board soon caught sight of the Star Spangled Banner, a boat was lowered and a party of Yankee officers and sailors came ashore, bent on learning the identity of the American patriots. They were overjoyed when they found Fremont, Kit Carson and their motley band of valorous followers. From the ship's officers we learned for the first time that the United States was at war with Mexico. Of course we all promptly

offered Fremont our services, and under his command we proceeded at once to where San Bernardino now stands. There we encountered some pretty stiff fighting with the Mexicans, but we managed to scatter them, and they fled in disorder.

"At San Diego we captured a Spanish fort, and concluded to raise an American flag upon the parapet. Directly opposite, however, where the old San Diego Mission stood, a flagstaff was already erected for the Spanish flag. When we were in readiness to place Old Glory at its masthead, it was discovered that we had no rope. I quickly settled the dilemma by climbing the pole and nailing our flag to the top of it, and this is how I happened to raise the first American flag over a Spanish fort in California.

"A little later we marched north. We fraternized with the small garrison of American troops, called the United States Dragoons, at Monterey, and continued erecting wooden dwellings, thereby replacing the old adobe and sun-dried huts that dotted the country in the early forties.

"We reached San Francisco, which we then called 'The Bent,' owing to the geographical peculiarities of the bay, in the summer of 1846. The San Francisco of those bygone days consisted of a half dozen 'dobe houses with rawhide doors, along Montgomery and Jackson streets, and a few others about the Mission St. Francis, after which the city of San Francisco was named. Part of the old adobe Mission Dolores still stands. Montgomery street was the water front; at its end Telegraph Hill descended right into the bay. Between 'The Hill' and California street, to Montgomery, was a large inlet that was piled with driftwood, huge logs and trees that floated down from along the Coast and lodged there. We called it 'Swampdoodle.' It was packed with timber so solidly that one could not possibly find passageway even with a small rowboat; yet the Mexicans never thought of clearing it out and utilizing the wood, which was an extremely

PATHFINDING WITH FREMONT.

costly article those days on account of the inadequate transportation facilities. It was only after the American argonauts arrived during the first gold excitement, in the big rush of 1849 and 1850, that this accumulation of timber was removed, and the first San Francisco houses were built out of that driftwood.

"I was with General Fremont when the very first wooden building was put up in San Francisco. It was at Jackson and Montgomery street. I helped to build it, and it was the wonder of the day to the natives who had never attempted to live in anything but was

old

the

for The

adobe dwellings. That house built in 1846, and lasted many years. "Along about that time the transport Miandy came around Horn with government supplies General Fremont and his men. vessel ran ashore while trying to effect a landing where Sansome and California streets are now located. Fremont stripped the ship to the rigging, and transferred it back to the government, but sold the remains of the disabled boat to Hannibal Boone, who deftly whipsawed the lumber and subsequently converted the dismantled craft into the first saloon and gambling house in the city, a veritable Monte Carlo of the old days, when every man and his brother carried a gun.

"One episode that occurred in those halcyon days, the days before the gold seekers cut into the territory, and you could count the entire population of San Francisco in forty minutes' time, will always linger in my memory. It happened in this way: General Vallejo commanded the Spaniards and Mexican troops in this section of the State. I heard that he had been circulating altogether uncalled for remarks directed against Carson, Fremont and myself, implying that we were a band of marauding Americans, and threatening to bring his cannon down from the Presidio and turn them on our camp. In the small pueblo of San Francisco, of those days, news traveled rapidly, and it was soon the

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talk of the village. That evening, without consulting General Fremont or Kit Carson, I gathered a dozen of my trusted Indians together, and under cover of darkness, we repaired to the old Spanish fort, where Black Point now stands. The Indians played 'hog' by stealthily crawling on all-fours upon the unsuspecting Spanish outposts, and binding them. Then we spiked the three cannon. One of these iron pot metal guns now adorns the entrance of the Museum in Golden Gate Park.

"Mrs. Fremont and the children were now with General Fremont. She was a lovely and estimable lady, ever thoughtful of the comfort and welfare of the men under the General's command. She was the daughter of a prominent United States Senator.

"For seventeen years I lived among the Indians, fought their battles and hunted with them. I enlisted in the war of the Rebellion, and was made captain of Company A, Twenty-third Ohio Infantry. By a strange coincidence, two members of that regiment became President of the United States, and met an untimely death by an assassin's bullet; namely, James A. Garfield and William McKinley. McKinley was a corporal in my own company, and always displayed distinguished gallantry and conspicuous bravery in battles. I was in Shiloh, Stone River, Charlotteville, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Vicksburg and that titanic combat of Gettysburg, where

'The tattered standards of the South Were shriveled at the cannon's mouth. Above the the bayonets, mixed and

crossed,

Men saw a gray, gigantic ghost,
Receding through the battle cloud."

"McKinley made a splendid soldier and comrade, our intimate acquaintanceship continuing until he met his tragic death. He wrote me many letters, which I still preserve.

"In 1867 and 1868 I was captain of the Texas Rangers, that excellent body of border fighters. The Mexican horse

thieves and cutthroats gave us plenty of excitement and annoyance in those days. I finally corralled enough of the marauders to tax our jails along the Rio Grande from El Paso to Brownsville, Texas. I got in touch with Adjutant-General McCormack in Austin, and after explaining the conditions, asked what I should do. 'Use your own judgment,' was his laconic reply. And I did so. I was at once called to Austin for an explanation. General McCormack merely handed me paper for my perusal. I informed him that the rangers complained that they were very short of stake rope, but I guessed they made good use of it. He merely smiled, and suggested I make a requisition for more stake rope.

a

"In the early seventies I sailed for Europe, with General Sheridan, as his adjutant, to make observations during

In 1874 I

the Franco-Prussian war. learned that my foster father, Kit Carson, was critically ill in Carson City, Nevada. I hurried to the Sage Brush State, and found my old father of the trails, and life-long friend, in the gentle hands of Eveline, a faithful Indian girl, whom he had befriended in years. gone by. He passed away peacefully the following day, and was interred in Carson, temporarily, until I had brought about, through an Act of Congress, its removal to the military cemetery at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where it now rests.

"It is not generally known, nor is it recorded in history, that had we not preceded the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Coast in 1842, England would probably now control Washington, Oregon and California. The Hudson Bay Fur Company attempted to claim the coveted prize. I was General Fremont's personal guide. when we surveyed the 'Parallel 49' in the Northwest territory and running to the Canadian line. England claimed it, and a militant controversy arose between the two countries, which caused President Polk to send his famous ultimatum, '49-51' or fight, meaning that we get the forty-ninth parallel in 1851, or we go to war. Af

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"If I should at any time require information on this subject, I will simply refer to you, and wish to thank you at the present time for your kind offer in that respect.

"Believe me, yours very sincerely,

(Signed "J. C. FREMONT.'

"The digging of the Maricopa wells on the Arizona desert by the Blackfeet Indians under my command saved hundreds of General Fremont's brave band, and I think this work, under my direction, gave me more comfort than anything I now recall. Those hardy pioneers were dying for want of water. Fifty of them had already expired. from thirst and the remainder were verging on insanity. General Fremont't tongue was an inch thick; he almost despaired and actually prayed. My knowledge of the desert and and the friendship of the Blackfeet tribe saved. the lives of the great Pathfinder and his valiant men. The Maricopa wells. were dug by a primitive method by the faithful redskins, and ended the drought. But for the digging of those water holes on a sun-baked desert, General Fremont would never have been Governor of Arizona, or a candidate for President of the United States."

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