3d. Of the charter of Louis XIV. to Crozat in 1712.
4th. Of the historical authority of Du Pratz, Champigny and the Count de Vergennes.
5th. Of the authority of De Lisle"s map, and of the map published in 1762, by Don Thomas Lopez, Geographer to the king of Spain, as well as of various other maps, atlases, and geographical authorities.
By an article of the secret treaty of San Ildefonso in October, 1800, Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, but this treaty was not promulgated until the beginning of 1802. The paragraph of cession is as follows: "His Catholic majesty engages to retrocede to the French republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations above recited, relative to his royal highness the Duke of Parma, the colony and province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it already has in the hands of Spain, _and that it had when France possessed it_, and, such as it should be, after the treaties pa.s.sed subsequently between Spain and other powers." In 1803, Bonaparte, the first consul of the French republic, ceded Louisiana to the United States, as fully, and in the same manner, as it had been retroceded to France by Spain, under the treaty of San Ildefonso; and, by virtue of this grant, Messrs. Madison, Monroe, Adams, Clay, Van Buren, Jackson, and Polk, contended that the original limit of the new state had been the Rio Grande. However, by the third article of our treaty with Spain, in 1819, all our pretensions to extend the territory of Louisiana towards Mexico on the Rio Grande, were abandoned by adopting the river Sabine as our boundary in that quarter.
The Mexican authorities upon this subject are either silent or doubtful. No light is to be gathered from the geographical researches of Humboldt, whose elucidations of New Spain are in many respects the fullest and most satisfactory. In the year 1835, Stephen Austin published a map of Texas, representing the Nueces as the western confine,--and in 1836, General Almonte the former minister from Mexico to the United States, published a memoir upon Texas in which, whilst describing the Texan department of Bejar, he says--"That notwithstanding it has been hitherto believed that the Rio de las Nueces is the dividing line of Coahuila and Texas, inasmuch as it is always thus represented on maps, I am informed by the government of the state, that geographers have been in error upon this subject; and that the true line should commence at the mouth of the river Aransaso, and follow it to its source; thence, it should continue by a straight line until it strikes the junction of the rivers Medina and San Antonio, and then, pursuing the east bank of the Medina to its head waters, it should terminate on the confines of Chihuahua."[67]
The true origin of the Mexican war was not this march of Taylor and his troops from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, through the debatable land. The American and Mexican troops were brought face to face by the act, and _hostilities_ were the natural result after the exciting annoyances upon the part of the Mexican government which followed the union of Texas with our confederacy. Besides this, General Paredes, the usurping president, had already declared in Mexico, on the _18th of April, 1846_, in a letter addressed to the commanding officer on the northern frontier, that he supposed him at the head of a valiant army on the theatre of action;--and that it was indispensable to commence hostilities, _the Mexicans themselves taking the initiative_!
We believe that our nation and its rulers earnestly desired honorable peace, though they did not shun the alternative of war. It was impossible to permit a conterminous neighbor who owed us large sums of money, and was hostile to the newly adopted state, to select unopposed her mode and moment of attack. Mexico would neither resign her pretensions upon Texas, negotiate, receive our minister, nor remain at peace. She would neither declare war, nor cultivate friendship, and the result was, that when the armies approached each other, but little time was lost in resorting to the cannon and the sword.
As soon as General Taylor reached the Rio Grande he left a command at the mouth of the river, and taking post opposite Matamoros erected a fort, the guns of which bore directly upon the city. The Mexicans, whose artillery might have been brought to play upon the works, from the opposite side of the river, made no hostile demonstration against the left bank for some time, nor did they interrupt the construction of the fort. Reinforcements, however, were constantly arriving in the city. Ampudia and Arista were there. Interviews were held between the Mexican authorities and our officers, in which the latter were ordered to retire from the soil it was alleged they were usurping. But as this was a diplomatic, and not a military question, General Taylor resolved to continue in position, though his forces were perhaps inadequate to contend with the augmenting numbers of the foe. He examined the country thoroughly by his scouting parties and pushed his reconnoissances, on the left bank, from Point Isabel to some distance beyond his encampment opposite Matamoros. Whilst engaged in this service, some of his officers and men were captured or killed by the _ranchero_ cavalry of the enemy; and, on the 24th of April, Captain Thornton who had been sent to observe the country above the encampment with sixty-three dragoons, fell into an ambuscade, out of which they endeavored to cut their way, but were forced to surrender with a loss of sixteen killed and wounded. This was the first blood spilled in actual conflict.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MATAMOROS.]
Meanwhile, in the United States, the news of Taylor"s supposed danger, greatly exaggerated by rumor, was spread far and wide. An actual war had, perhaps, not been seriously apprehended. Taylor had been expressly commanded to refrain from aggression. It was supposed that the mere presence of our troops on the frontier would preserve Texas from invasion, and that negotiations would ultimately terminate the dispute. This is the only ground upon which we can reasonably account for the apparent carelessness of our government in not placing a force upon the Rio Grande, adequate to encounter all the opposing array.
Congress was in session when the news reached Washington. The president immediately announced the fact, and, on the 13th of May, 1846, ten millions of dollars were appropriated to carry on the war, and fifty thousand volunteers were ordered to be raised. An "ARMY OF THE WEST" was directed to be formed under the command of Kearney, at fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, which was to cross the country to the Pacific, after capturing New Mexico. An "ARMY OF THE CENTRE,"
under General Wool, was to a.s.semble at San Antonio de Bejar whence it was to march upon Coahuila and Chihuahua, and, whilst the heart and the west of Mexico were penetrated by these officers, it was designed that Taylor should make war on the northern and eastern states of the Mexican republic. In addition to these orders to the army, the naval forces, under Commodores Stockton and Sloat in the Pacific, and Commodore Conner, in the Gulf of Mexico, were commanded to co-operate with our land forces, to hara.s.s the enemy, and to aid, with all their power, in the subjugation and capture of Mexican property and territory.
Immediately after Thornton"s surrender, General Taylor, availing himself of authority with which he had been invested to call upon the governors of Louisiana and Texas for military aid, demanded four regiments of volunteers from each state, for the country in the neighborhood of the Rio Grande was alive with belligerant Mexicans. He then visited the fortifications opposite Matamoros, and finding the garrison but scantly supplied with provisions, hastened back to Point Isabel with a formidable escort, and obtaining the requisite rations, commenced his march back to Matamoros and the fort on the 7th of May.
But, in the interval, General Arista, had crossed the Rio Grande with his forces, and on the 8th, our General encountered him, drawn up in battle array at Palo Alto and ready to dispute his pa.s.sage along the road. A sharp engagement ensued between the two armies from two o"clock in the afternoon until nearly dark, when the Mexicans withdrew from the action for the night. Our total force in this affair, according to official reports, was two thousand two hundred and eighty-eight, while that of Mexico, according to the admission of the officers, amounted to six thousand regulars with a large and probably undisciplined force drawn, at random, from the country.
The night of the 8th was pa.s.sed with some anxiety in the American camp, for the fierce conflict of the day induced many prudent officers to believe it best either to return to Point Isabel or await reinforcements before again giving battle to the enemy. General Taylor heard and weighed the opinions of his most reliable officers, but, after due reflection, determined to advance. The condition of the fort opposite Matamoros demanded his urgent aid. The moral effect of a retreat would be great, at the commencement of a war, both on Mexico and our own troops; and, moreover, he had perfect confidence in the disciplined regulars who sustained so n.o.bly the brunt of the first battle.
Accordingly the troops were advanced early on the 9th, for they found, at day dawn, that the Mexicans had abandoned Palo Alto for a stronger position nearer the centre of action and interest at Matamoros. After advancing cautiously, in readiness for immediate battle, our men came up with the Mexicans, in the Resaca de la Palma, or as it is properly called La Resaca del Guerrero,--the "Ravine of the Warrior," which afforded them a natural defence against our approach along the road.
The ravine, curved across the highway and was flanked by ma.s.ses of p.r.i.c.kly plants aloes, and undergrowth, matted into impenetrable thickets, known in Mexico as _chapparal_. The action was begun by the infantry in skirmishes with the foe, and after the centre of the position on the road had been severely hara.s.sed and damaged by our flying artillery, a gallant charge of the dragoons broke the Mexican lines and opened a pathway to Matamoros. The engagement lasted a short time after this combined movement of artillery and cavalry, but, before night fall the enemy was in full flight to the river and our garrison at the fort joyously relieved. In the interval, this position had been bombarded and cannonaded by the Mexicans from the opposite side of the river, and its commanding officer slain. In memory of his valiant defence, the place has been honored with the name of Fort Brown.
After General Taylor had occupied Matamoros on the 18th of May,--and he was only prevented from capturing it and all the Mexican forces and ammunition on the night of the 9th by the want of a ponton train, which he had vainly demanded,--he established his base line for future operations in the interior, along the Rio Grande, extending several hundred miles near that stream. His task of organizing, accepting, or rejecting the mult.i.tudes of recruits who flocked to his standard, was not only oppressive but difficult, for he found it hard to disappoint the patriotic fervor of hundreds who were anxious to engage in the war. The Quatermaster"s department, too, was one of incessant toil and anxiety; because, called unexpectedly and for the first time into active service in the field, it was comparatively unprepared to answer the mult.i.tude of requisitions that were daily made upon it by the government, the general officers, and the recruits. The whole material of a campaign was to be rapidly created. Money was to be raised; steamers bought; ships chartered; wagons built and transported; levies brought to the field of action; munitions of war and provisions distributed over the whole vast territory which it was designed to occupy! Whilst these things were going on, the country, at home, was ripe, and most eager for action.
Nor was our government inattentive to the internal politics of Mexico.
It perceived at once that there was no hope of effecting a peace with the administration of Paredes, whose bitter hostility was of course, not mitigated by the first successes of our arms. Santa Anna, it will be recollected had left Mexico after the amnesty in 1845, and it was known there was open hostility between him and Paredes who had contributed so greatly to his downfall. Information was, moreover, received from reliable sources in Washington, that a desire prevailed in the republic to recall the banished chief and to seat him once more in the presidential chair; and, at the same time, there was cause to believe that if he again obtained supreme power he would not be averse to accommodate matters upon a satisfactory basis between the countries. Orders were, accordingly issued to Commodore Conner, who commanded the home squadron in the gulf, to offer no impediment if Santa Anna approached the coast with a design of entering Mexico. The exiled president was duly apprised of these facts, and when the revolution actually occurred in his favor in the following summer and his rival fell from power, he availed himself of the order to pa.s.s the lines of the blockading squadron at Vera Cruz.
After General Taylor had completely made his preparations to advance into the interior along his base on the Rio Grande, he moved forward gradually, capturing and garrisoning all the important posts along the river. At length the main body of the army, under Worth and Taylor reached the neighborhood of Monterey, the capital of the state of New Leon, situated at the foot of the Sierra Madre on a plain, but in a position which would enable it to make a stout resistance, especially as it was understood that the Mexican army had gathered itself up in this stronghold, which was the key of the northern provinces and on the main highway to the interior, in order to strike a death blow at the invaders. On the 5th of September, the divisions concentrated at Marin, and on the 9th they advanced to the Walnut Springs, which afterwards became, for so long a period, the headquarters of the gallant "ARMY OF OCCUPATION."
Reconnoissances of the adjacent country were immediately made and it was resolved to attack the city by a bold movement towards its southern side that would cut off its communications through the gap in the mountains by which the road led to Saltillo. Accordingly General Worth was detached on this difficult but honorable service with a strong and reliable corps, and, after excessive toil, hard fighting and wonderful endurance upon the part of our men, the desired object was successfully gained. An unfinished and fortified edifice called the Bishop"s Palace, on the summit of a steep hill was stormed and taken, and thus an important vantage ground, commanding the city by a plunging shot, was secured.
Meanwhile, General Taylor seeking to withdraw or distract the enemy from his designs on the southern and western sides of the city, made a movement under General Butler, of Kentucky, upon its northern front.
What was probably designed only as a feint soon became a severe and deadly conflict. Our men,--especially the volunteers,--eager to flesh their swords in the first conflict with which the war indulged them, rushed into the city, which seems to have been amply prepared, in that quarter, with barricades, forts, loop-holes, and every means of defence suitable for the narrow streets and flat roofed and parapeted houses of a Spanish town. After the first deadly onset there was, of course, no intention or desire to abandon the conflict, fatal as its prosecution might ultimately become. On they fought from street to street, and house to house, and yard to yard, until night closed over the dying and the dead. On the second day a different system of approach was adopted. Instead of risking life in the street which was raked from end to end by artillery, or rendered untenable by the hidden marksmen who shot our men from behind the walls of the house tops, our forces were thrown into the dwellings, and breaking onward through walls and enclosures, gradually mined their way towards the plaza or great square of Monterey.
Thus, both divisions under the eyes of Worth, Butler and Taylor, successfully performed their a.s.signed tasks, until it became evident to the Mexicans that their town must fall, and, that if finally taken by the sword, it would be given up to utter destruction and pillage. A capitulation was therefore proposed by Ampudia who stipulated for the withdrawal of his forces and an armistice. Our force was in no condition to seize, hold, and support a large body of prisoners of war, nor was it prepared immediately to follow up the victory by penetrating the interior. General Taylor, who was resolved not to shed a single drop of needless blood in the campaign, granted the terms; and, thus, this strong position, garrisoned by nearly ten thousand troops, sustained by more than forty pieces of artillery, yielded to our army of seven thousand, unsupported by a battering train and winning the day by hard fighting alone. The attack began on the 21st of September, continued during the two following days, and the garrison capitulated on the 24th. This capitulation and armistice were a.s.sented to by our commander after mature consultation and approval of his princ.i.p.al officers. The Mexicans informed him, that Paredes had been deposed,--that Santa Anna was in power, and that peace would soon be made; but the authorities, at home, eager for fresh victories, or pandering to public and political taste, did not approve and confirm an act, for which General Taylor has, nevertheless received, as he truly merits, the just applause of impartial history.
[Footnote 67: Memorias para la historia de la Guerra de Tejas, vol.
ii, p. 543.]
CHAPTER IX.
1846-1847.
GENERAL WOOL INSPECTS AND MUSTERS THE WESTERN TROOPS.--ARMY OF THE CENTRE.--NEW MEXICO--KEARNEY--MACNAMARA--CALIFORNIA.--FReMONT-- 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.--FReMONT"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"armee_, 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 pa.s.sed onwards through Presidio, Nava, and across the Sierra of San Jose 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 Fe, 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 sh.o.r.es of the Pacific.
After organizing the new government of Santa Fe, 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 inst.i.tutions of Mexico. "Within a year, he declared, California would become a part of the American nation; and, inundated by cruel invaders, their Catholic inst.i.tutions 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 Fremont 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, Fremont 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. Fremont"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, Fremont, 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 Fremont was the chief, they raised the standard of the Bear and Star.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MONTEREY.]
Fremont, 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 subst.i.tuted 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, Fremont joined Commodore Sloat at Monterey.
Sloat, who had in reality acted upon the faith of Fremont"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 pa.s.senger sailed from the coast.
Commodore Stockton arrived at Monterey during this summer and Sloat returned to the United States, leaving the Commodore in command.
Fremont and Gillespie, who were at the head of forces on sh.o.r.e 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 a.s.sembled six hundred men. Fremont 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 inst.i.tuted a government, directed elections, and required an oath of allegiance from the military. He appointed Fremont, 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 Fe 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 sh.o.r.es 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. Fremont, 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 Fremont, 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, Fremont and his brave battalion pa.s.sed the mountain of Santa Barbara. Skirting the coast through the long maritime pa.s.s at Punto Gordo,--protected on one flank by one of the vessels of the navy, and a.s.sailed, 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. Fremont 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 Fe, 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 Fe 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 pa.s.sage 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 hors.e.m.e.n 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 pa.s.s the dangerous lines of the enemy to seek a.s.sistance 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 Fe, 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 pa.s.sage 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 hors.e.m.e.n, 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 Fremont, 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 Fremont, 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 ent.i.tle 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 circ.u.mstances, but for this, we have no s.p.a.ce, in the present history. Strict military etiquette appears to have demanded of Kearney, immediately upon his arrival, the a.s.sertion 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 Fremont, 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 a.s.sumed 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 "embarra.s.s the mind, and to excite the doubts of officers of greater experience" than the Colonel.