The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Volume I., Part 1 by Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891

MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T.
SHERMAN
By William T. Sherman
VOLUME I.
Part 1
MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN 1

MEMOIRS OF GENERAL SHERMAN, Volume I., Part 1
Part 1 2
Part 1 3
Part 1 4
Part 1 5
Part 1 6
Part 1 7
Part 1 8
VOLUME I.
Part 1
GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN
HIS COMRADES IN ARMS,
VOLUNTEERS AND REGULARS.
Nearly ten years have passed since the close of the civil war in America, and yet no satisfactory history
thereof is accessible to the public; nor should any be attempted until the Government has published, and
placed within the reach of students, the abundant materials that are buried in the War Department at
Washington. These are in process of compilation; but, at the rate of progress for the past ten years, it is
probable that a new century will come before they are published and circulated, with full indexes to enable the
historian to make a judicious selection of materials.
What is now offered is not designed as a history of the war, or even as a complete account of all the incidents
in which the writer bore a part, but merely his recollection of events, corrected by a reference to his own
memoranda, which may assist the future historian when he comes to describe the whole, and account for the
motives and reasons which influenced some of the actors in the grand drama of war.
I trust a perusal of these pages will prove interesting to the survivors, who have manifested so often their
intense love of the "cause" which moved a nation to vindicate its own authority; and, equally so, to the rising
generation, who therefrom may learn that a country and government such as ours are worth fighting for, and
dying for, if need be.
If successful in this, I shall feel amply repaid for departing from the usage of military men, who seldom
attempt to publish their own deeds, but rest content with simply contributing by their acts to the honor and
glory of their country.
WILLIAM T. SHERMAN,
General
St. Louis, Missouri, January 21, 1875.
VOLUME I. 9
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Another ten years have passed since I ventured to publish my Memoirs, and, being once more at leisure, I
have revised them in the light of the many criticisms public and private.
My habit has been to note in pencil the suggestions of critics, and to examine the substance of their
differences; for critics must differ from the author, to manifest their superiority.
Where I have found material error I have corrected; and I have added two chapters, one at the beginning,
another at the end, both of the most general character, and an appendix.
I wish my friends and enemies to understand that I disclaim the character of historian, but assume to be a
witness on the stand before the great tribunal of history, to assist some future Napier, Alison, or Hume to
comprehend the feelings and thoughts of the actors in the grand conflicts of the recent past, and thereby to
lessen his labors in the compilation necessary for the future benefit of mankind.
In this free country every man is at perfect liberty to publish his own thoughts and impressions, and any
witness who may differ from me should publish his own version of facts in the truthful narration of which he
is interested. I am publishing my own memoirs, not theirs, and we all know that no three honest witnesses of a
simple brawl can agree on all the details. How much more likely will be the difference in a great battle
covering a vast space of broken ground, when each division, brigade, regiment, and even company, naturally
and honestly believes that it was the focus of the whole affair! Each of them won the battle. None ever lost.
That was the fate of the old man who unhappily commanded.
In this edition I give the best maps which I believe have ever been prepared, compiled by General O. M. Poe,
from personal knowledge and official surveys, and what I chiefly aim to establish is the true cause of the
results which are already known to the whole world; and it may be a relief to many to know that I shall
publish no other, but, like the player at cards, will "stand;" not that I have accomplished perfection, but
because I can do no better with the cards in hand. Of omissions there are plenty, but of wilful perversion of
facts, none.
In the preface to the first edition, in 1875, I used these words: "Nearly ten years have passed since the close of
the civil war in America, and yet no satisfactory history thereof is accessible to the public; nor should any be
attempted until the Government has published, and placed within the reach of students, the abundant materials
that are buried in the War Department at Washington. These are in process of compilation; but, at the rate of
progress for the past ten years, it is probable that a new century will come before they are published and
circulated, with full indexes to enable the historian to make a judicious selection of materials"
Another decade is past, and I am in possession of all these publications, my last being Volume XI, Part 3,
Series 1, the last date in which is August 30, 1862. I am afraid that if I assume again the character of prophet,
I must extend the time deep into the next century, and pray meanwhile that the official records of the war,
Union and Confederate, may approach completion before the "next war," or rather that we, as a people, may
be spared another war until the last one is officially recorded. Meantime the rising generation must be content
with memoirs and histories compiled from the best sources available.
In this sense I offer mine as to the events of which I was an eye-witness and participant, or for which I was
responsible.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 10

WILLIAM T. SHERMAN,
General (retired).
St. Louis, Missouri, March 30, 1885.
CONTENTS
I. FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846
II. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—1846-1848
III. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(Continued)—1849-1850
IV. MISSOURI, LOUISIANA, AND CALIFORNIA—1850-1855
V. CALIFORNIA—1855-1857
VI. CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, AND KANSAS—1857-1859
VII. LOUISIANA—1859-1861
VIII. MISSOURI—APRIL AND MAY, 1861
ILLUSTRATIONS
Portrait of General Sherman.
CONTENTS 11
MEMOIRS OF
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN.
CHAPTER I.
FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR.
1820-1846.
According to Cothren, in his "History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut," the Sherman family came from
Dedham, Essex County, England. The first recorded name is of Edmond Sherman, with his three sons,
Edmond, Samuel, and John, who were at Boston before 1636; and farther it is distinctly recorded that Hon.
Samuel Sherman, Rev. John, his brother, and Captain John, his first cousin, arrived from Dedham, Essex
County, England, in 1634. Samuel afterward married Sarah Mitchell, who had come (in the same ship) from
England, and finally settled at Stratford, Connecticut. The other two (Johns) located at Watertown,
Massachusetts.
From Captain John Sherman are descended Roger Sherman, the signer of the Declaration of Independence,
Hon. William M. Evarts, the Messrs. Hoar, of Massachusetts, and many others of national fame. Our own
family are descended from the Hon. Samuel Sherman and his son; the Rev. John, who was born in 1650-'51;
then another John, born in 1687; then Judge Daniel, born in 1721; then Taylor Sherman, our grandfather, who
was born in 1758. Taylor Sherman was a lawyer and judge in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he resided until
his death, May 4, 1815; leaving a widow, Betsey Stoddard Sherman, and three children, Charles R. (our
father), Daniel, and Betsey.
When the State of Connecticut, in 1786, ceded to the United States her claim to the western part of her public
domain, as defined by her Royal Charter, she reserved a large district in what is now northern Ohio, a portion
of which (five hundred thousand acres) composed the "Fire-Land District," which was set apart to indemnify
the parties who had lost property in Connecticut by the raids of Generals Arnold, Tryon, and others during the
latter part of the Revolutionary War.
Our grandfather, Judge Taylor Sherman, was one of the commissioners appointed by the State of Connecticut
to quiet the Indian title, and to survey and subdivide this Fire-Land District, which includes the present
counties of Huron and Erie. In his capacity as commissioner he made several trips to Ohio in the early part of
this century, and it is supposed that he then contracted the disease which proved fatal. For his labor and losses
he received a title to two sections of land, which fact was probably the prime cause of the migration of our
family to the West. My father received a good education, and was admitted to the bar at Norwalk,
Connecticut, where, in 1810, he, at twenty years of age, married Mary Hoyt, also of Norwalk, and at once
migrated to Ohio, leaving his wife (my mother) for a time. His first purpose was to settle at Zanesville, Ohio,
MEMOIRS OF GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 12

but he finally chose Lancaster, Fairfield County, where he at once engaged in the, practice of his profession.
In 1811 he returned to Norwalk, where, meantime, was born Charles Taylor Sherman, the eldest of the family,
who with his mother was carried to Ohio on horseback.
Judge Taylor Sherman's family remained in Norwalk till 1815, when his death led to the emigration of the
remainder of the family, viz., of Uncle Daniel Sherman, who settled at Monroeville, Ohio, as a farmer, where
he lived and died quite recently, leaving children and grandchildren; and an aunt, Betsey, who married Judge
Parker, of Mansfield, and died in 1851, leaving children and grandchildren; also Grandmother Elizabeth
Stoddard Sherman, who resided with her daughter, Mrs: Betsey Parker, in Mansfield until her death, August
1,1848.
Thus my father, Charles R. Sherman, became finally established at Lancaster, Ohio, as a lawyer, with his own
family in the year 1811, and continued there till the time of his death, in 1829. I have no doubt that he was in
the first instance attracted to Lancaster by the natural beauty of its scenery, and the charms of its already
established society. He continued in the practice of his profession, which in those days was no sinecure, for
the ordinary circuit was made on horseback, and embraced Marietta, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Hardly was the
family established there when the War of 1812 caused great alarm and distress in all Ohio. The English
captured Detroit and the shores of Lake Erie down to the Maumee River; while the Indians still occupied the
greater part of the State. Nearly every man had to be somewhat of a soldier, but I think my father was only a
commissary; still, he seems to have caught a fancy for the great chief of the Shawnees, "Tecumseh."
Perry's victory on Lake Erie was the turning-point of the Western campaign, and General Harrison's victory
over the British and Indians at the river Thames in Canada ended the war in the West, and restored peace and
tranquillity to the exposed settlers of Ohio. My father at once resumed his practice at the bar, and was soon
recognized as an able and successful lawyer. When, in 1816, my brother James was born, he insisted on
engrafting the Indian name "Tecumseh" on the usual family list. My mother had already named her first son
after her own brother Charles; and insisted on the second son taking the name of her other brother James, and
when I came along, on the 8th of February, 1820, mother having no more brothers, my father succeeded in his
original purpose, and named me William Tecumseh.
The family rapidly increased till it embraced six boys and five girls, all of whom attained maturity and
married; of these six are still living.
In the year 1821 a vacancy occurred in the Supreme Court of Ohio, and I find this petition:
Somerset, Ohio, July 6, 1821.
May it please your Excellency:
We ask leave to recommend to your Excellency's favorable notice Charles R.

Sherman, Esq., of Lancaster, as a man possessing in an eminent degree those
qualifications so much to be desired in a Judge of the Supreme Court.
From a long acquaintance with Mr. Sherman, we are happy to be able to state
to your Excellency that our minds are led to the conclusion that that
gentleman possesses a disposition noble and generous, a mind discriminating,
comprehensive, and combining a heart pure, benevolent and humane.
Manners dignified, mild, and complaisant, and a firmness not to be shaken
and of unquestioned integrity.
FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 13

But Mr. Sherman's character cannot be unknown to your Excellency, and on

that acquaintance without further comment we might safely rest his
pretensions.
We think we hazard little in assuring your Excellency that his appointment

would give almost universal satisfaction to the citizens of Perry County.
With great consideration, we have the honor to be
Your Excellency's most obedient humble servants,
CHARLES A. HOOD,
GEORGE TREAT,
PETER DITTOR,
P. ODLIN,
J. B. ORTEN,
T. BECKWITH,
WILLIAM P. DORST,
JOHN MURRAY,
JACOB MOINS,
B. EATON,
DANIEL GRIGGS,
HENRY DITTOE,
NICHOLAS McCARTY.
His Excellency ETHAN A. BROWN,

Governor of Ohio, Columbus.
He was soon after appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, and served in that capacity to the day of his death.
My memory extends back to about 1827, and I recall him, returning home on horseback, when all the boys
used to run and contend for the privilege of riding his horse from the front door back to the stable. On one
occasion, I was the first, and being mounted rode to the stable; but "Old Dick" was impatient because the
stable-door was not opened promptly, so he started for the barn of our neighbor Mr. King; there, also, no one
was in waiting to open the gate, and, after a reasonable time, "Dick" started back for home somewhat in a
hurry, and threw me among a pile of stones, in front of preacher Wright's house, where I was picked up
apparently a dead boy; but my time was not yet, and I recovered, though the scars remain to this day.
The year 1829 was a sad one to our family. We were then ten children, my eldest brother Charles absent at the
State University, Athens, Ohio; my next brother, James, in a store at Cincinnati; and the rest were at home, at
school. Father was away on the circuit. One day Jane Sturgeon came to the school, called us out, and when we
reached home all was lamentation: news had come that father was ill unto death, at Lebanon, a hundred miles
away. Mother started at once, by coach, but met the news of his death about Washington, and returned home.
He had ridden on horseback from Cincinnati to Lebanon to hold court, during a hot day in June. On the next
day he took his seat on the bench, opened court in the forenoon, but in the afternoon, after recess, was seized
with a severe chill and had to adjourn the court. The best medical aid was called in, and for three days with

apparent success, but the fever then assumed a more dangerous type, and he gradually yielded to it, dying on
the sixth day, viz., June 24, 1829.
My brother James had been summoned from Cincinnati, and was present at his bedside, as was also Henry
Stoddard, Esq., of Dayton, Ohio, our cousin. Mr. Stoddard once told me that the cause of my father's death
was cholera; but at that time, 1829, there was no Asiatic cholera in the United States, and the family,
attributed his death to exposure to the hot sun of June, and a consequent fever, "typhoid."
From the resolutions of the bench, bar, and public generally, now in my possession, his death was universally
deplored; more especially by his neighbors in Lancaster, and by the Society of Freemasons, of which he was
the High-Priest of Arch Chapter No. 11.
His death left the family very poor, but friends rose up with proffers of generous care and assistance; for all
the neighbors knew that mother could not maintain so large a family without help. My eldest brother, Charles,
had nearly completed his education at the university at Athens, and concluded to go to his uncle, Judge
Parker, at Mansfield, Ohio, to study law. My, eldest sister, Elizabeth, soon after married William J. Reese,
Esq.; James was already in a store at Cincinnati; and, with the exception of the three youngest children, the
rest of us were scattered. I fell to the charge of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, who took me to his family, and ever
after treated me as his own son.
I continued at the Academy in Lancaster, which was the best in the place; indeed, as good a school as any in
Ohio. We studied all the common branches of knowledge, including Latin, Greek, and French. At first the
school was kept by Mr. Parsons; he was succeeded by Mr. Brown, and he by two brothers, Samuel and Mark
How. These were all excellent teachers, and we made good progress, first at the old academy and afterward at
a new school-house, built by Samuel How, in the orchard of Hugh Boyle, Esq.
Time passed with us as with boys generally. Mr. Ewing was in the United States Senate, and I was notified to
prepare for West Point, of which institution we had little knowledge, except that it was very strict, and that the
army was its natural consequence. In 1834 I was large for my age, and the construction of canals was the rage
in Ohio. A canal was projected to connect with the great Ohio Canal at Carroll (eight miles above Lancaster),
down the valley of the Hock Hocking to Athens (forty-four miles), and thence to the Ohio River by slack
water.
Preacher Carpenter, of Lancaster, was appointed to make the preliminary surveys, and selected the necessary
working party out of the boys of the town. From our school were chosen ____Wilson, Emanuel Geisy,
William King, and myself. Geisy and I were the rod-men. We worked during that fall and next spring,
marking two experimental lines, and for our work we each received a silver half-dollar for each day's actual
work, the first money any of us had ever earned.
In June, 1835, one of our school-fellows, William Irvin, was appointed a cadet to West Point, and, as it
required sixteen years of age for admission, I had to wait another year. During the autumn of 1835 and spring
of 1836 I devoted myself chiefly to mathematics and French, which were known to be the chief requisites for
admission to West Point.
Some time in the spring of 1836 I received through Mr. Ewing, then at Washington, from the Secretary of
War, Mr. Poinsett, the letter of appointment as a cadet, with a list of the articles of clothing necessary to be
taken along, all of which were liberally provided by Mrs. Ewing; and with orders to report to Mr. Ewing, at
Washington, by a certain date, I left Lancaster about the 20th of May in the stage-coach for Zanesville. There
we transferred to the coaches of the Great National Road, the highway of travel from the West to the East. The
stages generally travelled in gangs of from one to six coaches, each drawn by four good horses, carrying nine
passengers inside and three or four outside.

In about three days, travelling day and night, we reached Frederick, Maryland. There we were told that we
could take rail-cars to Baltimore, and thence to Washington; but there was also a two-horse hack ready to start
for Washington direct. Not having full faith in the novel and dangerous railroad, I stuck to the coach, and in
the night reached Gadsby's Hotel in Washington City.
The next morning I hunted up Mr. Ewing, and found him boarding with a mess of Senators at Mrs. Hill's,
corner of Third and C Streets, and transferred my trunk to the same place. I spent a week in Washington, and
think I saw more of the place in that time than I ever have since in the many years of residence there. General
Jackson was President, and was at the zenith of his fame. I recall looking at him a full hour, one morning,
through the wood railing on Pennsylvania Avenue, as he paced up and down the gravel walk on the north
front of the White House. He wore a cap and an overcoat so full that his form seemed smaller than I had
expected. I also recall the appearance of Postmaster-General Amos Kendall, of Vice-President Van Buren,
Messrs. Calhoun, Webster, Clay, Cass, Silas Wright, etc.
In due time I took my departure for West Point with Cadets Belt and Bronaugh. These were appointed cadets
as from Ohio, although neither had ever seen that State. But in those days there were fewer applicants from
Ohio than now, and near the close of the term the vacancies unasked for were usually filled from applicants on
the spot. Neither of these parties, however, graduated, so the State of Ohio lost nothing. We went to Baltimore
by rail, there took a boat up to Havre de Grace, then the rail to Wilmington, Delaware, and up the Delaware in
a boat to Philadelphia. I staid over in Philadelphia one day at the old Mansion House, to visit the family of my
brother-in-law, Mr. Reese. I found his father a fine sample of the old merchant gentleman, in a good house in
Arch Street, with his accomplished daughters, who had been to Ohio, and whom I had seen there. From
Philadelphia we took boat to Bordentown, rail to Amboy, and boat again to New York City, stopping at the
American Hotel. I staid a week in New York City, visiting my uncle, Charles Hoyt, at his beautiful place on
Brooklyn Heights, and my uncle James, then living in White Street. My friend William Scott was there, the
young husband of my cousin, Louise Hoyt; a neatly-dressed young fellow, who looked on me as an untamed
animal just caught in the far West—"fit food for gunpowder," and good for nothing else.
About June 12th I embarked in the steamer Cornelius Vanderbilt for West Point; registered in the office of
Lieutenant C. F. Smith, Adjutant of the Military Academy, as a new cadet of the class of 1836, and at once
became installed as the "plebe" of my fellow-townsman, William Irvin, then entering his Third Class.
Colonel R. E. De Russy was Superintendent; Major John Fowle, Sixth United States Infantry, Commandant.
The principal Professors were: Mahan, Engineering; Bartlett, Natural Philosophy; Bailey, Chemistry; Church,
Mathematics; Weir, Drawing; and Berard, French.
The routine of military training and of instruction was then fully established, and has remained almost the
same ever since. To give a mere outline would swell this to an inconvenient size, and I therefore merely state
that I went through the regular course of four years, graduating in June, 1840, number six in a class of
forty-three. These forty-three were all that remained of more than one hundred which originally constituted
the class. At the Academy I was not considered a good soldier, for at no time was I selected for any office, but
remained a private throughout the whole four years. Then, as now, neatness in dress and form, with a strict
conformity to the rules, were the qualifications required for office, and I suppose I was found not to excel in
any of these. In studies I always held a respectable reputation with the professors, and generally ranked among
the best, especially in drawing, chemistry, mathematics, and natural philosophy. My average demerits, per
annum, were about one hundred and fifty, which. reduced my final class standing from number four to six.
In June, 1840, after the final examination, the class graduated and we received our diplomas. Meantime,
Major Delafield, United States Engineers, had become Superintendent; Major C. F. Smith, Commandant of
Cadets; but the corps of professors and assistants remained almost unchanged during our whole term. We
were all granted the usual furlough of three months, and parted for our homes, there to await assignment to

our respective corps and regiments. In due season I was appointed and commissioned second-lieutenant, Third
Artillery, and ordered to report at Governor's Island, New York Harbor, at the end of September. I spent my
furlough mostly at Lancaster and Mansfield, Ohio; toward the close of September returned to New York,
reported to Major Justin Dimock, commanding the recruiting rendezvous at Governor's Island, and was
assigned to command a company of recruits preparing for service in Florida. Early in October this company
was detailed, as one of four, to embark in a sailing-vessel for Savannah, Georgia, under command of Captain
and Brevet Major Penrose. We embarked and sailed, reaching Savannah about the middle of October, where
we transferred to a small steamer and proceeded by the inland route to St. Augustine, Florida. We reached St.
Augustine at the same time with the Eighth Infantry, commanded by Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General
William J. Worth. At that time General Zachary Taylor was in chief command in Florida, and had his
headquarters at Tampa Bay. My regiment, the Third Artillery, occupied the posts along the Atlantic coast of
Florida, from St. Augustine south to Key Biscayne, and my own company, A, was at Fort Pierce, Indian
River. At St. Augustine I was detached from the company of recruits, which was designed for the Second
Infantry, and was ordered to join my proper company at Fort Pierce. Colonel William Gates commanded the
regiment, with Lieutenant William Austine Brown as adjutant of the regiment. Lieutenant Bragg commanded
the post of St. Augustine with his own company, E, and G (Garner's), then commanded by Lieutenant Judd.
In, a few days I embarked in the little steamer William Gaston down the coast, stopping one day at New
Smyrna, held by John R. Vinton's company (B), with which was serving Lieutenant William H. Shover.
In due season we arrived off the bar of Indian River and anchored. A whale-boat came off with a crew of four
men, steered by a character of some note, known as the Pilot Ashlock. I transferred self and baggage to this
boat, and, with the mails, was carried through the surf over the bar, into the mouth of Indian River Inlet. It was
then dark; we transferred to a smaller boat, and the same crew pulled us up through a channel in the middle of
Mangrove Islands, the roosting-place of thousands of pelicans and birds that rose in clouds and circled above
our heads. The water below was alive with fish, whose course through it could be seen by the phosphoric
wake; and Ashlock told me many a tale of the Indian war then in progress, and of his adventures in hunting
and fishing, which he described as the best in the world. About two miles from the bar, we emerged into the
lagoon, a broad expanse of shallow water that lies parallel with the coast, separated from it by a narrow strip
of sand, backed by a continuous series of islands and promontories, covered with a dense growth of mangrove
and saw-palmetto. Pulling across this lagoon, in about three more miles we approached the lights of Fort
Pierce. Reaching a small wharf, we landed, and were met by the officers of the post, Lieutenants George
Taylor and Edward J. Steptoe, and Assistant-Surgeon James Simons. Taking the mail-bag, we walked up a
steep sand-bluff on which the fort was situated, and across the parade-ground to the officers' quarters. These
were six or seven log-houses, thatched with palmetto-leaves, built on high posts, with a porch in front, facing
the water. The men's quarters were also of logs forming the two sides of a rectangle, open toward the water;
the intervals and flanks were closed with log stockades. I was assigned to one of these rooms, and at once
began service with my company, A, then commanded by Lieutenant Taylor.
The season was hardly yet come for active operations against the Indians, so that the officers were naturally
attracted to Ashlock, who was the best fisherman I ever saw. He soon initiated us into the mysteries of
shark-spearing, trolling for red-fish, and taking the sheep's-head and mullet. These abounded so that we could
at any time catch an unlimited quantity at pleasure. The companies also owned nets for catching green turtles.
These nets had meshes about a foot square, were set across channels in the lagoon, the ends secured to stakes
driven into the mad, the lower line sunk with lead or stone weights and the upper line floated with cork. We
usually visited these nets twice a day, and found from one to six green turtles entangled in the meshes.
Disengaging them, they were carried to pens, made with stakes stuck in the mud, where they were fed with
mangrove-leaves, and our cooks had at all times an ample supply of the best of green turtles. They were so
cheap and common that the soldiers regarded it as an imposition when compelled to eat green turtle steaks,
instead of poor Florida beef, or the usual barrelled mess-pork. I do not recall in my whole experience a spot on
earth where fish, oysters, and green turtles so abound as at Fort Pierce, Florida.

In November, Major Childs arrived with Lieutenant Van Vliet and a detachment of recruits to fill our two
companies, and preparations were at once begun for active operations in the field. At that time the Indians in
the Peninsula of Florida were scattered, and the war consisted in hunting up and securing the small fragments,
to be sent to join the others of their tribe of Seminoles already established in the Indian Territory west of
Arkansas. Our expeditions were mostly made in boats in the lagoons extending from the "Haul-over," near
two hundred miles above the fort, down to Jupiter Inlet, about fifty miles below, and in the many streams
which emptied therein. Many such expeditions were made during that winter, with more or less success, in
which we succeeded in picking up small parties of men, women, and children. On one occasion, near the
"Haul-over," when I was not present, the expedition was more successful. It struck a party of nearly fifty
Indians, killed several warriors, and captured others. In this expedition my classmate, lieutenant Van Vliet,
who was an excellent shot, killed a warrior who was running at full speed among trees, and one of the
sergeants of our company (Broderick) was said to have dispatched three warriors, and it was reported that he
took the scalp of one and brought it in to the fort as a trophy. Broderick was so elated that, on reaching the
post, he had to celebrate his victory by a big drunk.
There was at the time a poor, weakly soldier of our company whose wife cooked for our mess. She was
somewhat of a flirt, and rather fond of admiration. Sergeant Broderick was attracted to her, and hung around
the mess-house more than the husband fancied; so he reported the matter to Lieutenant Taylor, who reproved
Broderick for his behavior. A few days afterward the husband again appealed to his commanding officer
(Taylor), who exclaimed: "Haven't you got a musket? Can't you defend your own family?" Very soon after a
shot was heard down by the mess-house, and it transpired that the husband had actually shot Broderick,
inflicting a wound which proved mortal. The law and army regulations required that the man should be sent to
the nearest civil court, which was at St. Augustine; accordingly, the prisoner and necessary witnesses were
sent up by the next monthly steamer. Among the latter were lieutenant Taylor and the pilot Ashlock.
After they had been gone about a month, the sentinel on the roof-top of our quarters reported the smoke of a
steamer approaching the bar, and, as I was acting quartermaster, I took a boat and pulled down to get the mail.
I reached the log-but in which the pilots lived, and saw them start with their boat across the bar, board the
steamer, and then return. Ashlock was at his old post at the steering-oar, with two ladies, who soon came to
the landing, having passed through a very heavy surf, and I was presented to one as Mrs. Ashlock, and the
other as her sister, a very pretty little Minorcan girl of about fourteen years of age. Mrs. Ashlock herself was
probably eighteen or twenty years old, and a very handsome woman. I was hurriedly informed that the murder
trial was in progress at St. Augustine; that Ashlock had given his testimony, and had availed himself of the
chance to take a wife to share with him the solitude of his desolate hut on the beach at Indian River. He had
brought ashore his wife, her sister, and their chests, with the mail, and had orders to return immediately to the
steamer (Gaston or Harney) to bring ashore some soldiers belonging to another company, E (Braggs), which
had been ordered from St. Augustine to Fort Pierce. Ashlock left his wife and her sister standing on the beach
near the pilot-hut, and started back with his whale-boat across the bar. I also took the mail and started up to
the fort, and had hardly reached the wharf when I observed another boat following me. As soon as this
reached the wharf the men reported that Ashlock and all his crew, with the exception of one man, had been
drowned a few minutes after I had left the beach. They said his surf-boat had reached the steamer, had taken
on board a load of soldiers, some eight or ten, and had started back through the surf, when on the bar a heavy
breaker upset the boat, and all were lost except the boy who pulled the bow-oar, who clung to the rope or
painter, hauled himself to the upset boat, held on, drifted with it outside the breakers, and was finally beached
near a mile down the coast. They reported also that the steamer had got up anchor, run in as close to the bar as
she could, paused awhile, and then had started down the coast.
I instantly took a fresh crew of soldiers and returned to the bar; there sat poor Mrs. Ashlock on her chest of
clothes, a weeping widow, who had seen her husband perish amid sharks and waves; she clung to the hope
that the steamer had picked him up, but, strange to say, he could not swim, although he had been employed on
the water all his life.

Her sister was more demonstrative, and wailed as one lost to all hope and life. She appealed to us all to do
miracles to save the struggling men in the waves, though two hours had already passed, and to have gone out
then among those heavy breakers, with an inexperienced crew, would have been worse than suicide. All I
could do was to reorganize the guard at the beach, take the two desolate females up to the fort, and give them
the use of my own quarters. Very soon their anguish was quieted, and they began to look, for the return of
their steamer with Ashlock and his rescued crew. The next day I went again to the beach with Lieutenant Ord,
and we found that one or two bodies had been washed ashore, torn all to pieces by the sharks, which literally
swarmed the inlet at every new tide. In a few days the weather moderated, and the steamer returned from the
south, but the surf was so high that she anchored a mile off. I went out myself, in the whale or surf boat, over
that terrible bar with a crew of, soldiers, boarded the steamer, and learned that none other of Ashlock's crew
except the one before mentioned had been saved; but, on the contrary, the captain of the steamer had sent one
of his own boats to their rescue, which was likewise upset in the surf, and, out of the three men in her, one had
drifted back outside the breakers, clinging to the upturned boat, and was picked up. This sad and fatal
catastrophe made us all afraid of that bar, and in returning to the shore I adopted the more prudent course of
beaching the boat below the inlet, which insured us a good ducking, but was attended with less risk to life.
I had to return to the fort and bear to Mrs. Ashlock the absolute truth, that her husband was lost forever.
Meantime her sister had entirely recovered her equilibrium, and being the guest of the officers, who were
extremely courteous to her, she did not lament so loudly the calamity that saved them a long life of
banishment on the beach of Indian River. By the first opportunity they were sent back to St. Augustine, the
possessors of all of Ashlock's worldly goods and effects, consisting of a good rifle, several cast-nets,
hand-lines, etc., etc., besides some three hundred dollars in money, which was due him by the quartermaster
for his services as pilot. I afterward saw these ladies at St. Augustine, and years afterward the younger one
came to Charleston, South Carolina, the wife of the somewhat famous Captain Thistle, agent for the United
States for live-oak in Florida, who was noted as the first of the troublesome class of inventors of modern
artillery. He was the inventor of a gun that "did not recoil at all," or "if anything it recoiled a little forward."
One day, in the summer of 1841, the sentinel on the housetop at Fort Pierce called out, "Indians! Indians!"
Everybody sprang to his gun, the companies formed promptly on the parade-ground, and soon were reported
as approaching the post, from the pine-woods in rear, four Indians on horseback. They rode straight up to the
gateway, dismounted, and came in. They were conducted by the officer of the day to the commanding officer,
Major Childs, who sat on the porch in front of his own room. After the usual pause, one of them, a black man
named Joe, who spoke English, said they had been sent in by Coacoochee (Wild Cat), one of the most noted
of the Seminole chiefs, to see the big chief of the post. He gradually unwrapped a piece of paper, which was
passed over to Major Childs, who read it, and it was in the nature of a "Safe Guard" for "Wild Cat" to come
into Fort Pierce to receive provisions and assistance while collecting his tribe, with the purpose of emigrating
to their reservation west of Arkansas. The paper was signed by General Worth, who had succeeded General
Taylor, at Tampa Bay, in command of all the troops in Florida. Major Childs inquired, "Where is
Coacoochee?" and was answered, "Close by," when Joe explained that he had been sent in by his chief to see
if the paper was all right. Major Childs said it was "all right," and that Coacoochee ought to come in himself.
Joe offered to go out and bring him in, when Major Childs ordered me to take eight or ten mounted men and
go out to escort him in. Detailing ten men to saddle up, and taking Joe and one Indian boy along on their own
ponies, I started out under their guidance.
We continued to ride five or six miles, when I began to suspect treachery, of which I had heard so much in
former years, and had been specially cautioned against by the older officers; but Joe always answered, "Only a
little way." At last we approached one of those close hammocks, so well known in Florida, standing like an
island in the interminable pine-forest, with a pond of water near it. On its edge I noticed a few Indians
loitering, which Joe pointed out as the place. Apprehensive of treachery, I halted the guard, gave orders to the
sergeant to watch me closely, and rode forward alone with the two Indian guides. As we neared the hammock,

about a dozen Indian warriors rose up and waited for us. When in their midst I inquired for the chief,
Coacoochee. He approached my horse and, slapping his breast, said, "Me Coacoochee." He was a very
handsome young Indian warrior, not more than twenty-five years old, but in his then dress could hardly be
distinguished from the rest. I then explained to him, through Joe, that I had been sent by my "chief" to escort
him into the fort. He wanted me to get down and "talk" I told him that I had no "talk" in me, but that, on his
reaching the post, he could talk as much as he pleased with the "big chief," Major Childs. They all seemed to
be indifferent, and in no hurry; and I noticed that all their guns were leaning against a tree. I beckoned to the
sergeant, who advanced rapidly with his escort, and told him to secure the rifles, which he proceeded to do.
Coacoochee pretended to be very angry, but I explained to him that his warriors were tired and mine were not,
and that the soldiers would carry the guns on their horses. I told him I would provide him a horse to ride, and
the sooner he was ready the better for all. He then stripped, washed himself in the pond, and began to dress in
all his Indian finery, which consisted of buckskin leggins, moccasins, and several shirts. He then began to put
on vests, one after another, and one of them had the marks of a bullet, just above the pocket, with the stain of
blood. In the pocket was a one-dollar Tallahassee Bank note, and the rascal had the impudence to ask me to
give him silver coin for that dollar. He had evidently killed the wearer, and was disappointed because the
pocket contained a paper dollar instead of one in silver. In due time he was dressed with turban and
ostrich-feathers, and mounted the horse reserved for him, and thus we rode back together to Fort Pierce. Major
Childs and all the officers received him on the porch, and there we had a regular "talk." Coacoochee "was
tired of the war." "His people were scattered and it would take a 'moon' to collect them for emigration," and he
"wanted rations for that time," etc., etc.
All this was agreed to, and a month was allowed for him to get ready with his whole band (numbering some
one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty) to migrate. The "talk" then ceased, and Coacoochee and his
envoys proceeded to get regularly drunk, which was easily done by the agency of commissary whiskey. They
staid at Fort Pierce daring the night, and the next day departed. Several times during the month there came
into the post two or more of these same Indians, always to beg for something to eat or drink, and after a full
month Coacoochee and about twenty of his warriors came in with several ponies, but with none of their
women or children. Major Childs had not from the beginning the least faith in his sincerity; had made up his
mind to seize the whole party and compel them to emigrate. He arranged for the usual council, and instructed
Lieutenant Taylor to invite Coacoochee and his uncle (who was held to be a principal chief) to his room to
take some good brandy, instead of the common commissary whiskey. At a signal agreed on I was to go to the
quarters of Company A, to dispatch the first-sergeant and another man to Lieutenant Taylor's room, there to
seize the two chiefs and secure them; and with the company I was to enter Major Childs's room and secure the
remainder of the party. Meantime Lieutenant Van Vliet was ordered to go to the quarters of his company, F,
and at the same signal to march rapidly to the rear of the officers' quarters, so as to catch any who might
attempt to escape by the open windows to the rear.
All resulted exactly as prearranged, and in a few minutes the whole party was in irons. At first they claimed
that we had acted treacherously, but very soon they admitted that for a month Coacoochee had been quietly
removing his women and children toward Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades; and that this visit to our post
was to have been their last. It so happened that almost at the instant of our seizing these Indians a vessel
arrived off the bar with reenforcements from St. Augustine. These were brought up to Fort Pierce, and we
marched that night and next day rapidly, some fifty miles, to Lake Okeechobee, in hopes to capture the
balance of the tribe, especially the families, but they had taken the alarm and escaped. Coacoochee and his
warriors were sent by Major Childs in a schooner to New Orleans en route to their reservation, but General
Worth recalled them to Tampa Bay, and by sending out Coacoochee himself the women and children came in
voluntarily, and then all were shipped to their destination. This was a heavy loss to the Seminoles, but there
still remained in the Peninsula a few hundred warriors with their families scattered into very small parcels,
who were concealed in the most inaccessible hammocks and swamps. These had no difficulty in finding
plenty of food anywhere and everywhere. Deer and wild turkey were abundant, and as for fish there was no
end to them. Indeed, Florida was the Indian's paradise, was of little value to us, and it was a great pity to

remove the Seminoles at all, for we could have collected there all the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and
Chickasaws, in addition to the Seminoles. They would have thrived in the Peninsula, whereas they now
occupy lands that are very valuable, which are coveted by their white neighbors on all sides, while the
Peninsula, of Florida still remains with a population less than should make a good State.
During that and preceding years General W. S. Harney had penetrated and crossed through the Everglades,
capturing and hanging Chekika and his band, and had brought in many prisoners, who were also shipped
West. We at Fort Pierce made several other excursions to Jupiter, Lake Worth, Lauderdale, and into the
Everglades, picking up here and there a family, so that it was absurd any longer to call it a "war." These
excursions, however, possessed to us a peculiar charm, for the fragrance of the air, the abundance of game and
fish, and just enough of adventure, gave to life a relish. I had just returned to Lauderdale from one of these
scouts with Lieutenants Rankin, Ord, George H. Thomas, Field, Van Vliet, and others, when I received notice
of my promotion to be first lieutenant of Company G, which occurred November 30, 1841, and I was ordered
to return to Fort Pierce, turn over the public property for which I was accountable to Lieutenant H. S. Burton,
and then to join my new company at St. Augustine.
I reached St. Augustine before Christmas, and was assigned to command a detachment of twenty men
stationed at Picolata, on the St. John's River, eighteen miles distant. At St. Augustine were still the
headquarters of the regiment, Colonel William Gates, with Company E, Lieutenant Bragg, and Company G,
Lieutenant H. B. Judd. The only buildings at Picolata were the one occupied by my detachment, which had
been built for a hospital, and the dwelling of a family named Williams, with whom I boarded. On the other
hand, St. Augustine had many pleasant families, among whom was prominent that of United States Judge
Bronson. I was half my time in St. Augustine or on the road, and remember the old place with pleasure. In
February we received orders transferring the whole regiment to the Gulf posts, and our company, G, was
ordered to escort Colonel Gates and his family across to the Suwanee River, en route for Pensacola. The
company, with the colonel and his family, reached Picolata (where my detachment joined), and we embarked
in a steamboat for Pilatka. Here Lieutenant Judd discovered that he had forgotten something and had to return
to St. Augustine, so that I commanded the company on the march, having with me Second-Lieutenant George
B. Ayres. Our first march was to Fort Russell, then Micanopy, Wacahoota, and Wacasassee, all which posts
were garrisoned by the Second or Seventh Infantry. At Wacasassee we met General Worth and his staff, en
route for Pilatka. Lieutenant Judd overtook us about the Suwanee, where we embarked on a small boat for
Cedar Keys, and there took a larger one for Pensacola, where the colonel and his family landed, and our
company proceeded on in the same vessel to our post—Fort Morgan, Mobile Point.
This fort had not been occupied by troops for many years, was very dirty, and we found little or no stores
there. Major Ogden, of the engineers, occupied a house outside the fort. I was quartermaster and commissary,
and, taking advantage of one of the engineer schooners engaged in bringing materials for the fort, I went up to
Mobile city, and, through the agency of Messrs. Deshon, Taylor, and Myers, merchants, procured all
essentials for the troops, and returned to the post. In the course of a week or ten days arrived another
company, H, commanded by Lieutenant James Ketchum, with Lieutenants Rankin and Sewall L. Fish, and an
assistant surgeon (Wells.) Ketchum became the commanding officer, and Lieutenant Rankin quartermaster.
We proceeded to put the post in as good order as possible; had regular guard-mounting and parades, but little
drill. We found magnificent fishing with the seine on the outer beach, and sometimes in a single haul we
would take ten or fifteen barrels of the best kind of fish, embracing pompinos, red-fish, snappers, etc.
We remained there till June, when the regiment was ordered to exchange from the Gulf posts to those on the
Atlantic, extending from Savannah to North Carolina. The brig Wetumpka was chartered, and our company
(G) embarked and sailed to Pensacola, where we took on board another company (D) (Burke's), commanded
by Lieutenant H. S. Burton, with Colonel Gates, the regimental headquarters, and some families. From
Pensacola we sailed for Charleston, South Carolina. The weather was hot, the winds light, and we made a long
passage but at last reached Charleston Harbor, disembarked, and took post in Fort Moultrie.

Soon after two other companies arrived, Bragg's (B) and Keyes's (K). The two former companies were already
quartered inside of Fort Moultrie, and these latter were placed in gun-sheds, outside, which were altered into
barracks. We remained at Fort Moultrie nearly five years, until the Mexican War scattered us forever. Our life
there was of strict garrison duty, with plenty of leisure for hunting and social entertainments. We soon formed
many and most pleasant acquaintances in the city of Charleston; and it so happened that many of the families
resided at Sullivan's Island in the summer season, where we could reciprocate the hospitalities extended to us
in the winter.
During the summer of 1843, having been continuously on duty for three years, I applied for and received a
leave of absence for three months, which I spent mostly in Ohio. In November I started to return to my post at
Charleston by way of New Orleans; took the stage to Chillicothe, Ohio, November 16th, having Henry
Stanberry, Esq., and wife, as travelling companions, We continued by stage. next day to Portsmouth, Ohio.
At Portsmouth Mr. Stanberry took a boat up the river, and I one down to Cincinnati. There I found my
brothers Lampson and Hoyt employed in the "Gazette" printing-office, and spent much time with them and
Charles Anderson, Esq., visiting his brother Larz, Mr. Longworth, some of his artist friends, and especially
Miss Sallie Carneal, then quite a belle, and noted for her fine voice,
On the 20th I took passage on the steamboat Manhattan for St. Louis; reached Louisville, where Dr. Conrad,
of the army, joined me, and in the Manhattan we continued on to St. Louis, with a mixed crowd. We reached
the Mississippi at Cairo the 23d, and St. Louis, Friday, November 24, 1843. At St. Louis we called on Colonel
S. W. Kearney and Major Cooper, his adjutant-general, and found my classmate, Lieutenant McNutt, of the
ordnance, stationed at the arsenal; also Mr. Deas, an artist, and Pacificus Ord, who was studying law. I spent a
week at St. Louis, visiting the arsenal, Jefferson Barracks, and most places of interest, and then became
impressed with its great future. It then contained about forty thousand people, and my notes describe thirty-six
good steamboats receiving and discharging cargo at the levee.
I took passage December 4th in the steamer John Aull for New Orleans. As we passed Cairo the snow was
falling, and the country was wintery and devoid of verdure. Gradually, however, as we proceeded south, the
green color came; grass and trees showed the change of latitude, and when in the course of a week we had
reached New Orleans, the roses were in full bloom, the sugar-cane just ripe, and a tropical air prevalent. We
reached New Orleans December 11, 1843, where I spent about a week visiting the barracks, then occupied by
the Seventh Infantry; the theatres, hotels, and all the usual places of interest of that day.
On the 16th of December I continued on to Mobile in the steamer Fashion by way of Lake Pontchartrain; saw
there most of my personal friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bull, Judge Bragg and his brother Dunbar, Deshon, Taylor,
and Myers, etc., and on the 19th of December took passage in the steamboat Bourbon for Montgomery,
Alabama, by way of the Alabama River. We reached Montgomery at noon, December 23d, and took cars at 1
p. m. for Franklin, forty miles, which we reached at 7 p. m., thence stages for Griffin, Georgia, via La Grange
and Greenville. This took the whole night of the 23d and the day of the 24th. At Griffin we took cars for
Macon, and thence to Savannah, which we reached Christmas-night, finding Lieutenants Ridgley and
Ketchum at tea, where we were soon joined by Rankin and Beckwith.
On the 26th I took the boat for Charleston, reaching my post, and reported for duty Wednesday morning,
December 27, 1843.
I had hardly got back to my post when, on the 21st of January, 1844, I received from Lieutenant R. P.
Hammond, at Marietta, Georgia, an intimation that Colonel Churchill, Inspector-General of the Army, had
applied for me to assist him in taking depositions in upper Georgia and Alabama; concerning certain losses by
volunteers in Florida of horses and equipments by reason of the failure of the United States to provide
sufficient forage, and for which Congress had made an appropriation. On the 4th of February the order came

from the Adjutant-General in Washington for me to proceed to Marietta, Georgia, and report to
Inspector-General Churchill. I was delayed till the 14th of February by reason of being on a court-martial,
when I was duly relieved and started by rail to Augusta, Georgia, and as far as Madison, where I took the
mail-coach, reaching Marietta on the 17th. There I reported for duty to Colonel Churchill, who was already
engaged on his work, assisted by Lieutenant R. P. Hammond, Third Artillery, and a citizen named Stockton.
The colonel had his family with him, consisting of Mrs. Churchill, Mary, now Mrs. Professor Baird, and
Charles Churchill, then a boy of about fifteen years of age.
We all lived in a tavern, and had an office convenient. The duty consisted in taking individual depositions of
the officers and men who had composed two regiments and a battalion of mounted volunteers that had served
in Florida. An oath was administered to each man by Colonel Churchill, who then turned the claimant over to
one of us to take down and record his deposition according to certain forms, which enabled them to be
consolidated and tabulated. We remained in Marietta about six weeks, during which time I repeatedly rode to
Kenesaw Mountain, and over the very ground where afterward, in 1864, we had some hard battles.
After closing our business at Marietta the colonel ordered us to transfer our operations to Bellefonte,
Alabama. As he proposed to take his family and party by the stage, Hammond lent me his riding-horse, which
I rode to Allatoona and the Etowah River. Hearing of certain large Indian mounds near the way, I turned to
one side to visit them, stopping a couple of days with Colonel Lewis Tumlin, on whose plantation these
mounds were. We struck up such an acquaintance that we corresponded for some years, and as I passed his
plantation during the war, in 1864, I inquired for him, but he was not at home. From Tumlin's I rode to Rome,
and by way of Wills Valley over Sand Mountain and the Raccoon Range to the Tennessee River at Bellefonte,
Alabama. We all assembled there in March, and continued our work for nearly two months, when, having
completed the business, Colonel Churchill, with his family, went North by way of Nashville; Hammond,
Stockton, and I returning South on horseback, by Rome, Allatoona, Marietta, Atlanta, and Madison, Georgia.
Stockton stopped at Marietta, where he resided. Hammond took the cars at Madison, and I rode alone to
Augusta, Georgia, where I left the horse and returned to Charleston and Fort Moultrie by rail.
Thus by a mere accident I was enabled to traverse on horseback the very ground where in after-years I had to
conduct vast armies and fight great battles. That the knowledge thus acquired was of infinite use to me, and
consequently to the Government, I have always felt and stated.
During the autumn of 1844, a difficulty arose among the officers of Company B, Third Artillery (John R.
Yinton's), garrisoning Augusta Arsenal, and I was sent up from Fort Moultrie as a sort of peace-maker. After
staying there some months, certain transfers of officers were made, which reconciled the difficulty, and I
returned to my post, Fort Moultrie. During that winter, 1844-'45, I was visiting at the plantation of Mr. Poyas,
on the east branch of the Cooper, about fifty miles from Fort Moultrie, hunting deer with his son James, and
Lieutenant John F. Reynolds, Third Artillery. We had taken our stands, and a deer came out of the swamp
near that of Mr. James Poyas, who fired, broke the leg of the deer, which turned back into the swamp and
came out again above mine. I could follow his course by the cry of the hounds, which were in close pursuit.
Hastily mounting my horse, I struck across the pine-woods to head the deer off, and when at full career my
horse leaped a fallen log and his fore-foot caught one of those hard, unyielding pineknots that brought him
with violence to the ground. I got up as quick as possible, and found my right arm out of place at the shoulder,
caused by the weight of the double-barrelled gun.
Seeing Reynolds at some distance, I called out lustily and brought him to me. He soon mended the bridle and
saddle, which had been broken by the fall, helped me on my horse, and we followed the coarse of the hounds.
At first my arm did not pain me much, but it soon began to ache so that it was almost unendurable. In about
three miles we came to a negro hut, where I got off and rested till Reynolds could overtake Poyas and bring
him back. They came at last, but by that time the arm was so swollen and painful that I could not ride. They
rigged up an old gig belonging to the negro, in which I was carried six miles to the plantation of Mr. Poyas,

Sr. A neighboring physician was sent for, who tried the usual methods of setting the arm, but without success;
each time making the operation more painful. At last he sent off, got a set of double pulleys and cords, with
which he succeeded in extending the muscles and in getting the bone into place. I then returned to Fort
Moultrie, but being disabled, applied for a short leave and went North.
I started January 25,1845; went to Washington, Baltimore, and Lancaster, Ohio, whence I went to Mansfield,
and thence back by Newark to Wheeling, Cumberland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, whence I
sailed back for Charleston on the ship Sullivan, reaching Fort Moultrie March 9, 1845.
About that time (March 1, 1845) Congress had, by a joint resolution, provided for the annexation of Texas,
then an independent Republic, subject to certain conditions requiring the acceptance of the Republic of Texas
to be final and conclusive. We all expected war as a matter of course. At that time General Zachary Taylor
had assembled a couple of regiments of infantry and one of dragoons at Fort Jessup, Louisiana, and had orders
to extend military protection to Texas against the Indians, or a "foreign enemy," the moment the terms of
annexation were accepted. He received notice of such acceptance July 7th, and forthwith proceeded to remove
his troops to Corpus Christi, Texas, where, during the summer and fall of 1845, was assembled that force with
which, in the spring of 1846, was begun the Mexican War.
Some time during that summer came to Fort Moultrie orders for sending Company E, Third Artillery,
Lieutenant Bragg, to New Orleans, there to receive a battery of field-guns, and thence to the camp of General
Taylor at Corpus Christi. This was the first company of our regiment sent to the seat of war, and it embarked
on the brig Hayne. This was the only company that left Fort Moultrie till after I was detached for recruiting
service on the 1st of May, 1846.
Inasmuch as Charleston afterward became famous, as the spot where began our civil war, a general
description of it, as it was in 1846, will not be out of place.
The city lies on a long peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers—a low, level peninsula, of sand.
Meeting Street is its Broadway, with King Street, next west and parallel, the street of shops and small stores.
These streets are crossed at right angles by many others, of which Broad Street was the principal; and the
intersection of Meeting and Broad was the heart of the city, marked by the Guard-House and St. Michael's
Episcopal Church. The Custom-House, Post-Office, etc., were at the foot of Broad Street, near the wharves of
the Cooper River front. At the extremity of the peninsula was a drive, open to the bay, and faced by some of
the handsomest houses of the city, called the "Battery." Looking down the bay on the right, was James Island,
an irregular triangle of about seven miles, the whole island in cultivation with sea-island cotton. At the lower
end was Fort Johnson, then simply the station of Captain Bowman, United States Engineers, engaged in
building Fort Sumter. This fort (Sumter) was erected on an artificial island nearly in mid-channel, made by
dumping rocks, mostly brought as ballast in cotton-ships from the North. As the rock reached the surface it
was levelled, and made the foundation of Fort Sumter. In 1846 this fort was barely above the water. Still
farther out beyond James Island, and separated from it by a wide space of salt marsh with crooked channels,
was Morris Island, composed of the sand-dunes thrown up by the wind and the sea, backed with the salt
marsh. On this was the lighthouse, but no people.
On the left, looking down the bay from the Battery of Charleston, was, first, Castle Pinckney, a round brick
fort, of two tiers of guns, one in embrasure, the other in barbette, built on a marsh island, which was not
garrisoned. Farther down the bay a point of the mainland reached the bay, where there was a group of houses,
called Mount Pleasant; and at the extremity of the bay, distant six miles, was Sullivan's Island, presenting a
smooth sand-beach to the sea, with the line of sand-hills or dunes thrown up by the waves and winds, and the
usual backing of marsh and crooked salt-water channels.

At the shoulder of this island was Fort Moultrie, an irregular fort, without ditch or counterscarp, with a brick
scarp wall about twelve feet high, which could be scaled anywhere, and this was surmounted by an earth
parapet capable of mounting about forty twenty-four and thirty-two pounder smooth-bore iron guns. Inside the
fort were three two-story brick barracks, sufficient to quarter the officers and men of two companies of
artillery.
At sea was the usual "bar," changing slightly from year to year, but generally the main ship-channel came
from the south, parallel to Morris Island, till it was well up to Fort Moultrie, where it curved, passing close to
Fort Sumter and up to the wharves of the city, which were built mostly along the Cooper River front.
Charleston was then a proud, aristocratic city, and assumed a leadership in the public opinion of the South far
out of proportion to her population, wealth, or commerce. On more than one occasion previously, the
inhabitants had almost inaugurated civil war, by their assertion and professed belief that each State had, in the
original compact of government, reserved to itself the right to withdraw from the Union at its own option,
whenever the people supposed they had sufficient cause. We used to discuss these things at our own
mess-tables, vehemently and sometimes quite angrily; but I am sure that I never feared it would go further
than it had already gone in the winter of 1832-'33, when the attempt at "nullification" was promptly
suppressed by President Jackson's famous declaration, "The Union must and shall be preserved!" and by the
judicious management of General Scott.
Still, civil war was to be; and, now that it has come and gone, we can rest secure in the knowledge that as the
chief cause, slavery, has been eradicated forever, it is not likely to come again.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA.
1846-1848.
In the spring of 1846 I was a first lieutenant of Company C,1, Third Artillery, stationed at Fort Moultrie,
South Carolina. The company was commanded by Captain Robert Anderson; Henry B. Judd was the senior
first-lieutenant, and I was the junior first-lieutenant, and George B. Ayres the second-lieutenant. Colonel
William Gates commanded the post and regiment, with First-Lieutenant William Austine as his adjutant. Two
other companies were at the post, viz., Martin Burke's and E. D. Keyes's, and among the officers were T. W.
Sherman, Morris Miller, H. B. Field, William Churchill, Joseph Stewart, and Surgeon McLaren.
The country now known as Texas had been recently acquired, and war with Mexico was threatening. One of
our companies (Bragg's), with George H. Thomas, John F. Reynolds, and Frank Thomas, had gone the year
previous and was at that time with General Taylor's army at Corpus Christi, Texas.
CHAPTER II. 25
In that year (1846) I received the regular detail for recruiting service, with orders to report to the general
superintendent at Governor's Island, New York; and accordingly left Fort Moultrie in the latter part of April,
and reported to the superintendent, Colonel R. B. Mason, First Dragoons, at New York, on the 1st day of
May. I was assigned to the Pittsburg rendezvous, whither I proceeded and relieved Lieutenant Scott. Early in
May I took up my quarters at the St. Charles Hotel, and entered upon the discharge of my duties. There was a
regular recruiting-station already established, with a sergeant, corporal, and two or three men, with a citizen
physician, Dr. McDowell, to examine the recruits. The threatening war with Mexico made a demand for
recruits, and I received authority to open another sub-rendezvous at Zanesville, Ohio, whither I took the
sergeant and established him. This was very handy to me, as my home was at Lancaster, Ohio, only thirty-six
miles off, so that I was thus enabled to visit my friends there quite often.
In the latter part of May, when at Wheeling, Virginia, on my way back from Zanesville to Pittsburg, I heard
the first news of the battle of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, which occurred on the 8th and 9th of May,
and, in common with everybody else, felt intensely excited. That I should be on recruiting service, when my
comrades were actually fighting, was intolerable, and I hurried on to my post, Pittsburg. At that time the
railroad did not extend west of the Alleghanies, and all journeys were made by stage-coaches. In this instance
I traveled from Zanesville to Wheeling, thence to Washington (Pennsylvania), and thence to Pittsburg by
stage-coach. On reaching Pittsburg I found many private letters; one from Ord, then a first-lieutenant in
Company F, Third Artillery, at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, saying that his company had just received orders for
California, and asking me to apply for it. Without committing myself to that project, I wrote to the
Adjutant-General, R. Jones, at Washington, D. C., asking him to consider me as an applicant for any active
service, and saying that I would willingly forego the recruiting detail, which I well knew plenty of others
would jump at. Impatient to approach the scene of active operations, without authority (and I suppose
wrongfully), I left my corporal in charge of the rendezvous, and took all the recruits I had made, about
twenty-five, in a steamboat to Cincinnati, and turned them over to Major N. C. McCrea, commanding at
Newport Barracks. I then reported in Cincinnati, to the superintendent of the Western recruiting service,
Colonel Fanning, an old officer with one arm, who inquired by what authority I had come away from my post.
I argued that I took it for granted he wanted all the recruits he could get to forward to the army at Brownsville,
Texas; and did not know but that he might want me to go along. Instead of appreciating my volunteer zeal, he
cursed and swore at me for leaving my post without orders, and told me to go back to Pittsburg. I then asked
for an order that would entitle me to transportation back, which at first he emphatically refused, but at last he
gave the order, and I returned to Pittsburg, all the way by stage, stopping again at Lancaster, where I attended
the wedding of my schoolmate Mike Effinger, and also visited my sub-rendezvous at Zanesville. R. S. Ewell,
of my class, arrived to open a cavalry rendezvous, but, finding my depot there, he went on to Columbus, Ohio.
Tom Jordan afterward was ordered to Zanesville, to take charge of that rendezvous, under the general War
Department orders increasing the number of recruiting-stations. I reached Pittsburg late in June, and found the
order relieving me from recruiting service, and detailing my classmate H. B. Field to my place. I was assigned
to Company F, then under orders for California. By private letters from Lieutenant Ord, I heard that the
company had already started from Fort McHenry for Governor's Island, New York Harbor, to take passage for
California in a naval transport. I worked all that night, made up my accounts current, and turned over the
balance of cash to the citizen physician, Dr. McDowell; and also closed my clothing and property returns,
leaving blank receipts with the same gentleman for Field's signature, when he should get there, to be
forwarded to the Department at Washington, and the duplicates to me. These I did not receive for more than a
year. I remember that I got my orders about 8 p. m. one night, and took passage in the boat for Brownsville,
the next morning traveled by stage from Brownsville to Cumberland, Maryland, and thence by cars to
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, in a great hurry lest the ship might sail without me. I found Company
F at Governor's Island, Captain C. Q. Tompkins in command, Lieutenant E. O. C. Ord senior first-lieutenant,
myself junior first-lieutenant, Lucien Loeser and Charles Minor the second-lieutenants.
The company had been filled up to one hundred privates, twelve non-commissioned officers, and one
ordnance sergeant (Layton), making one hundred and thirteen enlisted men and five officers. Dr. James L. Ord
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 26

had been employed as acting assistant surgeon to accompany the expedition, and Lieutenant H. W. Halleck, of
the engineers, was also to go along. The United States store-ship Lexington was then preparing at the
Navy-Yard, Brooklyn, to carry us around Cape Horn to California. She was receiving on board the necessary
stores for the long voyage, and for service after our arrival there. Lieutenant-Commander Theodorus Bailey
was in command of the vessel, Lieutenant William H. Macomb executive officer, and Passed-Midshipmen
Muse, Spotts, and J. W. A. Nicholson, were the watch-officers; Wilson purser, and Abernethy surgeon. The
latter was caterer of the mess, and we all made an advance of cash for him to lay in the necessary mess-stores.
To enable us to prepare for so long a voyage and for an indefinite sojourn in that far-off country, the War
Department had authorized us to draw six months' pay in advance, which sum of money we invested in
surplus clothing and such other things as seemed to us necessary. At last the ship was ready, and was towed
down abreast of Fort Columbus, where we were conveyed on board, and on the 14th of July, 1846, we were
towed to sea by a steam-tug, and cast off: Colonel R. B. Mason, still superintendent of the general recruiting
service, accompanied us down the bay and out to sea, returning with the tug. A few other friends were of the
party, but at last they left us, and we were alone upon the sea, and the sailors were busy with the sails and
ropes. The Lexington was an old ship, changed from a sloop-of-war to a store-ship, with an after-cabin, a
"ward-room," and "between-decks." In the cabin were Captains Bailey and Tompkins, with whom messed the
purser, Wilson. In the ward-room were all the other officers, two in each state-room; and Minor, being an
extra lieutenant, had to sleep in a hammock slung in the ward-room. Ord and I roomed together; Halleck and
Loeser and the others were scattered about. The men were arranged in bunks "between-decks," one set along
the sides of the ship, and another, double tier, amidships. The crew were slung in hammocks well forward. Of
these there were about fifty. We at once subdivided the company into four squads, under the four lieutenants
of the company, and arranged with the naval officers that our men should serve on deck by squads, after the
manner of their watches; that the sailors should do all the work aloft, and the soldiers on deck.
On fair days we drilled our men at the manual, and generally kept them employed as much as possible, giving
great attention to the police and cleanliness of their dress and bunks; and so successful were we in this, that,
though the voyage lasted nearly two hundred days, every man was able to leave the ship and march up the hill
to the fort at Monterey, California, carrying his own knapsack and equipments.
The voyage from New York to Rio Janeiro was without accident or any thing to vary the usual monotony. We
soon settled down to the humdrum of a long voyage, reading some, not much; playing games, but never
gambling; and chiefly engaged in eating our meals regularly. In crossing the equator we had the usual visit of
Neptune and his wife, who, with a large razor and a bucket of soapsuds, came over the sides and shaved some
of the greenhorns; but naval etiquette exempted the officers, and Neptune was not permitted to come aft of the
mizzen-mast. At last, after sixty days of absolute monotony, the island of Raza, off Rio Janeiro, was descried,
and we slowly entered the harbor, passing a fort on our right hand, from which came a hail, in the Portuguese
language, from a huge speaking-trumpet, and our officer of the deck answered back in gibberish, according to
a well-understood custom of the place. Sugar-loaf Mountain, on the south of the entrance, is very remarkable
and well named; is almost conical, with a slight lean. The man-of-war anchorage is about five miles inside the
heads, directly in front of the city of Rio Janeiro. Words will not describe the beauty of this perfect harbor, nor
the delightful feeling after a long voyage of its fragrant airs, and the entire contrast between all things there
and what we had left in New York.
We found the United Staten frigate Columbia anchored there, and after the Lexington was properly moored,
nearly all the officers went on shore for sight-seeing and enjoyment. We landed at a wharf opposite which was
a famous French restaurant, Farroux, and after ordering supper we all proceeded to the Rua da Ouvador,
where most of the shops were, especially those for making feather flowers, as much to see the pretty girls as
the flowers which they so skillfully made; thence we went to the theatre, where, besides some opera, we
witnessed the audience and saw the Emperor Dom Pedro, and his Empress, the daughter of the King of Sicily.
After the theatre, we went back to the restaurant, where we had an excellent supper, with fruits of every
variety and excellence, such as we had never seen before, or even knew the names of. Supper being over, we

called for the bill, and it was rendered in French, with Brazilian currency. It footed up some twenty-six
thousand reis. The figures alarmed us, so we all put on the waiters' plate various coins in gold, which he took
to the counter and returned the change, making the total about sixteen dollars. The millreis is about a dollar,
but being a paper-money was at a discount, so as only to be worth about fifty-six cents in coin.
The Lexington remained in Rio about a week, during which we visited the Palace, a few miles in the country,
also the Botanic Gardens, a place of infinite interest, with its specimens of tropical fruits, spices; etc., etc., and
indeed every place of note. The thing I best recall is a visit Halleck and I made to the Corcovado, a high
mountain whence the water is conveyed for the supply of the city. We started to take a walk, and passed along
the aqueduct, which approaches the city by a aeries of arches; thence up the point of the hill to a place known
as the Madre, or fountain, to which all the water that drips from the leaves is conducted by tile gutters, and is
carried to the city by an open stone aqueduct.
Here we found Mr. Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, the United States minister to Brazil, and a Dr. Garnett, United
States Navy, his intended son-in-law. We had a very interesting conversation, in which Mr. Wise enlarged on
the fact that Rio was supplied from the "dews of heaven," for in the dry season the water comes from the mists
and fogs which hang around the Corcovado, drips from the leaves of the trees, and is conducted to the Madre
fountain by miles of tile gutters. Halleck and I continued our ascent of the mountain, catching from points of
the way magnificent views of the scenery round about Rio Janeiro. We reached near the summit what was
called the emperor's coffee-plantation, where we saw coffee-berries in their various stages, and the scaffolds
on which the berries were dried before being cleaned. The coffee-tree reminded me of the red haw-tree of
Ohio, and the berries were somewhat like those of the same tree, two grains of coffee being inclosed in one
berry. These were dried and cleaned of the husk by hand or by machinery. A short, steep ascent from this
place carried us to the summit, from which is beheld one of the most picturesque views on earth. The Organ
Mountains to the west and north, the ocean to the east, the city of Rio with its red-tiled houses at our feet, and
the entire harbor like a map spread out, with innumerable bright valleys, make up a landscape that cannot be
described by mere words. This spot is universally visited by strangers, and has often been described. After
enjoying it immeasurably, we returned to the city by another route, tired but amply repaid by our long walk.
In due time all had been done that was requisite, and the Lexington put to sea and resumed her voyage. In
October we approached Cape Horn, the first land descried was Staten Island, white with snow, and the ship
seemed to be aiming for the channel to its west, straits of Le Maire, but her course was changed and we
passed around to the east. In time we saw Cape Horn; an island rounded like an oven, after which it takes its
name (Ornos) oven. Here we experienced very rough weather, buffeting about under storm stay-sails, and
spending nearly a month before the wind favored our passage and enabled the course of the ship to be
changed for Valparaiso. One day we sailed parallel with a French sloop-of-war, and it was sublime to watch
the two ships rising and falling in those long deep swells of the ocean. All the time we were followed by the
usual large flocks of Cape-pigeons and albatrosses of every color. The former resembled the common
barn-pigeon exactly, but are in fact gulls of beautiful and varied colors, mostly dove-color. We caught many
with fishing-lines baited with pork. We also took in the same way many albatrosses. The white ones are very
large, and their down is equal to that of the swan. At last Cape Horn and its swelling seas were left behind,
and we reached Valparaiso in about sixty days from Rio. We anchored in the open roadstead, and spent there
about ten days, visiting all the usual places of interest, its foretop, main-top, mizzen-top, etc. Halleck and Ord
went up to Santiago, the capital of Chili, some sixty miles inland, but I did not go. Valparaiso did not impress
me favorably at all. Seen from the sea, it looked like a long string of houses along the narrow beach,
surmounted with red banks of earth, with little verdure, and no trees at all. Northward the space widened out
somewhat, and gave room for a plaza, but the mass of houses in that quarter were poor. We were there in
November, corresponding to our early spring, and we enjoyed the large strawberries which abounded. The
Independence frigate, Commodore Shubrick, came in while we were there, having overtaken us, bound also
for California. We met there also the sloop-of-war levant, from California, and from the officers heard of
many of the events that had transpired about the time the navy, under Commodore Sloat, had taken possession

of the country.
All the necessary supplies being renewed in Valparaiso, the voyage was resumed. For nearly forty days we
had uninterrupted favorable winds, being in the "trades," and, having settled down to sailor habits, time passed
without notice. We had brought with us all the books we could find in New York about California, and had
read them over and over again: Wilkes's "Exploring Expedition;" Dana's "Two Years before the Mast;" and
Forbes's "Account of the Missions." It was generally understood we were bound for Monterey, then the capital
of Upper California. We knew, of course, that General Kearney was enroute for the same country overland;
that Fremont was therewith his exploring party; that the navy had already taken possession, and that a
regiment of volunteers, Stevenson's, was to follow us from New York; but nevertheless we were impatient to
reach our destination. About the middle of January the ship began to approach the California coast, of which
the captain was duly cautious, because the English and Spanish charts differed some fifteen miles in the
longitude, and on all the charts a current of two miles an hour was indicated northward along the coast. At last
land was made one morning, and here occurred one of those accidents so provoking after a long and tedious
voyage. Macomb, the master and regular navigator, had made the correct observations, but Nicholson during
the night, by an observation on the north star, put the ship some twenty miles farther south than was the case
by the regular reckoning, so that Captain Bailey gave directions to alter the course of the ship more to the
north, and to follow the coast up, and to keep a good lookout for Point Pinos that marks the location of
Monterey Bay. The usual north wind slackened, so that when noon allowed Macomb to get a good
observation, it was found that we were north of Ano Nuevo, the northern headland of Monterey Bay. The ship
was put about, but little by little arose one of those southeast storms so common on the coast in winter, and we
buffeted about for several days, cursing that unfortunate observation on the north star, for, on first sighting the
coast, had we turned for Monterey, instead of away to the north, we would have been snugly anchored before
the storm. But the southeaster abated, and the usual northwest wind came out again, and we sailed steadily
down into the roadstead of Monterey Bay. This is shaped somewhat like a fish hook, the barb being the
harbor, the point being Point Pinos, the southern headland. Slowly the land came out of the water, the high
mountains about Santa Cruz, the low beach of the Saunas, and the strongly-marked ridge terminating in the
sea in a point of dark pine-trees. Then the line of whitewashed houses of adobe, backed by the groves of dark
oaks, resembling old apple-trees; and then we saw two vessels anchored close to the town. One was a small
merchant-brig and another a large ship apparently dismasted. At last we saw a boat coming out to meet us,
and when it came alongside, we were surprised to find Lieutenant Henry Wise, master of the Independence
frigate, that we had left at Valparaiso. Wise had come off to pilot us to our anchorage. While giving orders to
the man at the wheel, he, in his peculiar fluent style, told to us, gathered about him, that the Independence had
sailed from Valparaiso a week after us and had been in Monterey a week; that the Californians had broken out
into an insurrection; that the naval fleet under Commodore Stockton was all down the coast about San Diego;
that General Kearney had reached the country, but had had a severe battle at San Pascual, and had been
worsted, losing several officers and men, himself and others wounded; that war was then going on at Los
Angeles; that the whole country was full of guerrillas, and that recently at Yerba Buena the alcalde,
Lieutenant Bartlett, United States Navy, while out after cattle, had been lassoed, etc., etc. Indeed, in the short
space of time that Wise was piloting our ship in, he told us more news than we could have learned on shore in
a week, and, being unfamiliar with the great distances, we imagined that we should have to debark and begin
fighting at once. Swords were brought out, guns oiled and made ready, and every thing was in a bustle when
the old Lexington dropped her anchor on January 26, 1847, in Monterey Bay, after a voyage of one hundred
and ninety-eight days from New York. Every thing on shore looked bright and beautiful, the hills covered
with grass and flowers, the live-oaks so serene and homelike, and the low adobe houses, with red-tiled roofs
and whitened walls, contrasted well with the dark pine-trees behind, making a decidedly good impression
upon us who had come so far to spy out the land. Nothing could be more peaceful in its looks than Monterey
in January, 1847. We had already made the acquaintance of Commodore Shubrick and the officers of the
Independence in Valparaiso, so that we again met as old friends. Immediate preparations were made for
landing, and, as I was quartermaster and commissary, I had plenty to do. There was a small wharf and an
adobe custom-house in possession of the navy; also a barrack of two stories, occupied by some marines,

commanded by Lieutenant Maddox; and on a hill to the west of the town had been built a two-story
block-house of hewed logs occupied by a guard of sailors under command of Lieutenant Baldwin, United
States Navy. Not a single modern wagon or cart was to be had in Monterey, nothing but the old Mexican cart
with wooden wheels, drawn by two or three pairs of oxen, yoked by the horns. A man named Tom Cole had
two or more of these, and he came into immediate requisition. The United States consul, and most prominent
man there at the time, was Thomas O. Larkin, who had a store and a pretty good two-story house occupied by
his family. It was soon determined that our company was to land and encamp on the hill at the block-house,
and we were also to have possession of the warehouse, or custom-house, for storage. The company was
landed on the wharf, and we all marched in full dress with knapsacks and arms, to the hill and relieved the
guard under Lieutenant Baldwin. Tents and camp-equipage were hauled up, and soon the camp was
established. I remained in a room at the customhouse, where I could superintend the landing of the stores and
their proper distribution. I had brought out from New York twenty thousand dollars commissary funds, and
eight thousand dollars quartermaster funds, and as the ship contained about six months' supply of provisions,
also a saw-mill, grist-mill, and almost every thing needed, we were soon established comfortably. We found
the people of Monterey a mixed set of Americans, native Mexicans, and Indians, about one thousand all told.
They were kind and pleasant, and seemed to have nothing to do, except such as owned ranches in the country
for the rearing of horses and cattle. Horses could be bought at any price from four dollars up to sixteen, but no
horse was ever valued above a doubloon or Mexican ounce (sixteen dollars). Cattle cost eight dollars fifty
cents for the best, and this made beef net about two cents a pound, but at that time nobody bought beef by the
pound, but by the carcass.
Game of all kinds—elk, deer, wild geese, and ducks—was abundant; but coffee, sugar, and small stores, were
rare and costly.
There were some half-dozen shops or stores, but their shelves were empty. The people were very fond of
riding, dancing, and of shows of any kind. The young fellows took great delight in showing off their
horsemanship, and would dash along, picking up a half-dollar from the ground, stop their horses in full career
and turn about on the space of a bullock's hide, and their skill with the lasso was certainly wonderful. At full
speed they could cast their lasso about the horns of a bull, or so throw it as to catch any particular foot. These
fellows would work all day on horseback in driving cattle or catching wildhorses for a mere nothing, but all
the money offered would not have hired one of them to walk a mile. The girls were very fond of dancing, and
they did dance gracefully and well. Every Sunday, regularly, we had a baile, or dance, and sometimes
interspersed through the week.
I remember very well, soon after our arrival, that we were all invited to witness a play called "Adam and
Eve." Eve was personated by a pretty young girl known as Dolores Gomez, who, however, was dressed very
unlike Eve, for she was covered with a petticoat and spangles. Adam was personated by her brother—the
same who has since become somewhat famous as the person on whom is founded the McGarrahan claim. God
Almighty was personated, and heaven's occupants seemed very human. Yet the play was pretty, interesting,
and elicited universal applause. All the month of February we were by day preparing for our long stay in the
country, and at night making the most of the balls and parties of the most primitive kind, picking up a
smattering of Spanish, and extending our acquaintance with the people and the costumbrea del pais. I can well
recall that Ord and I, impatient to look inland, got permission and started for the Mission of San Juan Bautista.
Mounted on horses, and with our carbines, we took the road by El Toro, quite a prominent hill, around which
passes the road to the south, following the Saunas or Monterey River. After about twenty miles over a sandy
country covered with oak-bushes and scrub, we entered quite a pretty valley in which there was a ranch at the
foot of the Toro. Resting there a while and getting some information, we again started in the direction of a
mountain to the north of the Saunas, called the Gavillano. It was quite dark when we reached the Saunas
River, which we attempted to pass at several points, but found it full of water, and the quicksands were bad.
Hearing the bark of a dog, we changed our course in that direction, and, on hailing, were answered by voices
which directed us where to cross. Our knowledge of the language was limited, but we managed to understand,

and to founder through the sand and water, and reached a small adobe-house on the banks of the Salinas,
where we spent the night: The house was a single room, without floor or glass; only a rude door, and window
with bars. Not a particle of food but meat, yet the man and woman entertained us with the language of lords
put themselves, their house, and every thing, at our "disposition," and made little barefoot children dance for
our entertainment. We made our supper of beef, and slept on a bullock's hide on the dirt-floor. In the morning
we crossed the Salinas Plain, about fifteen miles of level ground, taking a shot occasionally at wild-geese,
which abounded there, and entering the well-wooded valley that comes out from the foot of the Gavillano. We
had cruised about all day, and it was almost dark when we reached the house of a Senor Gomez, father of
those who at Monterey had performed the parts of Adam and Eve. His house was a two-story adobe, and had a
fence in front. It was situated well up among the foot-hills of the Gavillano, and could not be seen until within
a few yards. We hitched our horses to the fence and went in just as Gomez was about to sit down to a
tempting supper of stewed hare and tortillas. We were officers and caballeros and could not be ignored. After
turning our horses to grass, at his invitation we joined him at supper. The allowance, though ample for one,
was rather short for three, and I thought the Spanish grandiloquent politeness of Gomez, who was fat and old,
was not over-cordial. However, down we sat, and I was helped to a dish of rabbit, with what I thought to be an
abundant sauce of tomato. Taking a good mouthful, I felt as though I had taken liquid fire; the tomato was
chile colorado, or red pepper, of the purest kind. It nearly killed me, and I saw Gomez's eyes twinkle, for he
saw that his share of supper was increased.—I contented myself with bits of the meat, and an abundant supply
of tortillas. Ord was better case-hardened, and stood it better. We staid at Gomez's that night, sleeping, as all
did, on the ground, and the next morning we crossed the hill by the bridle-path to the old Mission of San Juan
Bautista. The Mission was in a beautiful valley, very level, and bounded on all sides by hills. The plain was
covered with wild-grasses and mustard, and had abundant water. Cattle and horses were seen in all directions,
and it was manifest that the priests who first occupied the country were good judges of land. It was Sunday,
and all the people, about, a hundred, had come to church from the country round about. Ord was somewhat of
a Catholic, and entered the church with his clanking spars and kneeled down, attracting the attention of all, for
he had on the uniform of an American officer. As soon as church was out, all rushed to the various sports. I
saw the priest, with his gray robes tucked up, playing at billiards, others were cock fighting, and some at
horse-racing. My horse had become lame, and I resolved to buy another. As soon as it was known that I
wanted a horse, several came for me, and displayed their horses by dashing past and hauling them up short.
There was a fine black stallion that attracted my notice, and, after trying him myself, I concluded a purchase. I
left with the seller my own lame horse, which he was to bring to me at Monterey, when I was to pay him ten
dollars for the other. The Mission of San Juan bore the marks of high prosperity at a former period, and had a
good pear-orchard just under the plateau where stood the church. After spending the day, Ord and I returned
to Monterey, about thirty-five miles, by a shorter route, Thus passed the month of February, and, though there
were no mails or regular expresses, we heard occasionally from Yerba Buena and Sutter's Fort to the north,
and from the army and navy about Los Angeles at the south. We also knew that a quarrel had grown up at Los
Angeles, between General Kearney, Colonel Fremont, and Commodore Stockton, as to the right to control
affairs in California. Kearney had with him only the fragments of the two companies of dragoons, which had
come across from New Mexico with him, and had been handled very roughly by Don Andreas Pico, at San
Pascual, in which engagement Captains Moore and Johnson, and Lieutenant Hammond, were killed, and
Kearney himself wounded. There remained with him Colonel Swords, quartermaster; Captain H. S. Turner,
First Dragoons; Captains Emory and Warner, Topographical Engineers; Assistant Surgeon Griffin, and
Lieutenant J. W. Davidson. Fremont had marched down from the north with a battalion of volunteers;
Commodore Stockton had marched up from San Diego to Los Angeles, with General Kearney, his dragoons,
and a battalion of sailors and marines, and was soon joined there by Fremont, and they jointly received the
surrender of the insurgents under Andreas Pico. We also knew that General R. B. Mason had been ordered to
California; that Colonel John D. Stevenson was coming out to California with a regiment of New York
Volunteers; that Commodore Shubrick had orders also from the Navy Department to control matters afloat;
that General Kearney, by virtue of his rank, had the right to control all the land-forces in the service of the
United States; and that Fremont claimed the same right by virtue of a letter he had received from Colonel
Benton, then a Senator, and a man of great influence with Polk's Administration. So that among the younger

officers the query was very natural, "Who the devil is Governor of California?" One day I was on board the
Independence frigate, dining with the ward-room officers, when a war-vessel was reported in the offing,
which in due time was made out to be the Cyane, Captain DuPont. After dinner, we were all on deck, to watch
the new arrival, the ships meanwhile exchanging signals, which were interpreted that General Kearney was on
board. As the Cyane approached, a boat was sent to meet her, with Commodore Shubrick's flag-officer,
Lieutenant Lewis, to carry the usual messages, and to invite General Kearney to come on board the
Independence as the guest of Commodore Shubrick. Quite a number of officers were on deck, among them
Lieutenants Wise, Montgomery Lewis, William Chapman, and others, noted wits and wags of the navy. In
due time the Cyane anchored close by, and our boat was seen returning with a stranger in the stern-sheets,
clothed in army blue. As the boat came nearer, we saw that it was General Kearney with an old dragoon coat
on, and an army-cap, to which the general had added the broad vizor, cut from a full-dress hat, to shade his
face and eyes against the glaring sun of the Gila region. Chapman exclaimed: "Fellows, the problem is solved;
there is the grand-vizier (visor) by G-d! He is Governor of California."
All hands received the general with great heartiness, and he soon passed out of our sight into the commodore's
cabin. Between Commodore Shubrick and General Kearney existed from that time forward the greatest
harmony and good feeling, and no further trouble existed as to the controlling power on the Pacific coast.
General Kearney had dispatched from San Diego his quartermaster, Colonel Swords, to the Sandwich Islands,
to purchase clothing and stores for his men, and had come up to Monterey, bringing with him Turner and
Warner, leaving Emory and the company of dragoons below. He was delighted to find a full strong company
of artillery, subject to his orders, well supplied with clothing and money in all respects, and, much to the
disgust of our Captain Tompkins, he took half of his company clothing and part of the money held by me for
the relief of his worn-out and almost naked dragoons left behind at Los Angeles. In a few days he moved on
shore, took up his quarters at Larkin's house, and established his headquarters, with Captain Turner as his
adjutant general. One day Turner and Warner were at my tent, and, seeing a store-bag full of socks, drawers,
and calico shirts, of which I had laid in a three years' supply, and of which they had none, made known to me
their wants, and I told them to help themselves, which Turner and Warner did. The latter, however, insisted on
paying me the cost, and from that date to this Turner and I have been close friends. Warner, poor fellow, was
afterward killed by Indians. Things gradually came into shape, a semi-monthly courier line was established
from Yerba Buena to San Diego, and we were thus enabled to keep pace with events throughout the country.
In March Stevenson's regiment arrived. Colonel Mason also arrived by sea from Callao in the store-ship Erie,
and P. St. George Cooke's battalion of Mormons reached San Luis Rey. A. J. Smith and George Stoneman
were with him, and were assigned to the company of dragoons at Los Angeles. All these troops and the navy
regarded General Kearney as the rightful commander, though Fremont still remained at Los Angeles, styling
himself as Governor, issuing orders and holding his battalion of California Volunteers in apparent defiance of
General Kearney. Colonel Mason and Major Turner were sent down by sea with a paymaster, with
muster-rolls and orders to muster this battalion into the service of the United States, to pay and then to muster
them out; but on their reaching Los Angeles Fremont would not consent to it, and the controversy became so
angry that a challenge was believed to have passed between Mason and Fremont, but the duel never came
about. Turner rode up by land in four or five days, and Fremont, becoming alarmed, followed him, as we
supposed, to overtake him, but he did not succeed. On Fremont's arrival at Monterey, he camped in a tent
about a mile out of town and called on General Kearney, and it was reported that the latter threatened him
very severely and ordered him back to Los Angeles immediately, to disband his volunteers, and to cease the
exercise of authority of any kind in the country. Feeling a natural curiosity to see Fremont, who was then quite
famous by reason of his recent explorations and the still more recent conflicts with Kearney and Mason, I rode
out to his camp, and found him in a conical tent with one Captain Owens, who was a mountaineer, trapper,
etc., but originally from Zanesville, Ohio. I spent an hour or so with Fremont in his tent, took some tea with
him, and left, without being much impressed with him. In due time Colonel Swords returned from the
Sandwich Islands and relieved me as quartermaster. Captain William G. Marcy, son of the Secretary of War,
had also come out in one of Stevenson's ships as an assistant commissary of subsistence, and was stationed at
Monterey and relieved me as commissary, so that I reverted to the condition of a company-officer. While

acting as a staff officer I had lived at the custom-house in Monterey, but when relieved I took a tent in line
with the other company-officers on the hill, where we had a mess.
Stevenson'a regiment reached San Francisco Bay early in March, 1847. Three companies were stationed at the
Presidio under Major James A. Hardier one company (Brackett's) at Sonoma; three, under Colonel Stevenson,
at Monterey; and three, under Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, at Santa Barbara. One day I was down at the
headquarters at Larkin's horse, when General Kearney remarked to me that he was going down to Los
Angeles in the ship Lexington, and wanted me to go along as his aide. Of course this was most agreeable to
me. Two of Stevenson's companies, with the headquarters and the colonel, were to go also. They embarked,
and early in May we sailed for San Pedro. Before embarking, the United States line-of-battle-ship Columbus
had reached the coast from China with Commodore Biddle, whose rank gave him the supreme command of
the navy on the coast. He was busy in calling in—"lassooing "—from the land-service the various naval
officers who under Stockton had been doing all sorts of military and civil service on shore. Knowing that I
was to go down the coast with General Kearney, he sent for me and handed me two unsealed parcels
addressed to Lieutenant Wilson, United States Navy, and Major Gillespie, United States Marines, at Los
Angeles. These were written orders pretty much in these words: "On receipt of this order you will repair at
once on board the United States ship Lexington at San Pedro, and on reaching Monterey you will report to the
undersigned.-JAMES BIDDLE." Of course, I executed my part to the letter, and these officers were duly
"lassooed." We sailed down the coast with a fair wind, and anchored inside the kelp, abreast of Johnson's
house. Messages were forthwith dispatched up to Los Angeles, twenty miles off, and preparations for horses
made for us to ride up. We landed, and, as Kearney held to my arm in ascending the steep path up the bluff, he
remarked to himself, rather than to me, that it was strange that Fremont did not want to return north by the
Lexington on account of sea-sickness, but preferred to go by land over five hundred miles. The younger
officers had been discussing what the general would do with Fremont, who was supposed to be in a state of
mutiny. Some, thought he would be tried and shot, some that he would be carried back in irons; and all agreed
that if any one else than Fremont had put on such airs, and had acted as he had done, Kearney would have
shown him no mercy, for he was regarded as the strictest sort of a disciplinarian. We had a pleasant ride
across the plain which lies between the seashore and Los Angeles, which we reached in about three hours, the
infantry following on foot. We found Colonel P. St. George Cooke living at the house of a Mr. Pryor, and the
company of dragoons, with A. J. Smith, Davidson, Stoneman, and Dr. Griffin, quartered in an adobe-house
close by. Fremont held his court in the only two-story frame-house in the place. After sometime spent at
Pryor's house, General Kearney ordered me to call on Fremont to notify him of his arrival, and that he desired
to see him. I walked round to the house which had been pointed out to me as his, inquired of a man at the door
if the colonel was in, was answered "Yea," and was conducted to a large room on the second floor, where very
soon Fremont came in, and I delivered my message. As I was on the point of leaving, he inquired where I was
going to, and I answered that I was going back to Pryor's house, where the general was, when he remarked
that if I would wait a moment he would go along. Of course I waited, and he soon joined me, dressed much as
a Californian, with the peculiar high, broad-brimmed hat, with a fancy cord, and we walked together back to
Pryor's, where I left him with General Kearney. We spent several days very pleasantly at Los Angeles, then,
as now, the chief pueblo of the south, famous for its grapes, fruits, and wines. There was a hill close to the
town, from which we had a perfect view of the place. The surrounding country is level, utterly devoid of trees,
except the willows and cotton-woods that line the Los Angeles Creek and the acequias, or ditches, which lead
from it. The space of ground cultivated in vineyards seemed about five miles by one, embracing the town.
Every house had its inclosure of vineyard, which resembled a miniature orchard, the vines being very old,
ranged in rows, trimmed very close, with irrigating ditches so arranged that a stream of water could be
diverted between each row of vines. The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers are fed by melting snows from a
range of mountains to the east, and the quantity of cultivated land depends upon the amount of water. This did
not seem to be very large; but the San Gabriel River, close by, was represented to contain a larger volume of
water, affording the means of greatly enlarging the space for cultivation. The climate was so moderate that
oranges, figs, pomegranates, etc.... were generally to be found in every yard or inclosure.

At the time of our visit, General Kearney was making his preparations to return overland to the United States,
and he arranged to secure a volunteer escort out of the battalion of Mormons that was then stationed at San
Luis Rey, under Colonel Cooke and a Major Hunt. This battalion was only enlisted for one year, and the time
for their discharge was approaching, and it was generally understood that the majority of the men wanted to
be discharged so as to join the Mormons who had halted at Salt Lake, but a lieutenant and about forty men
volunteered to return to Missouri as the escort of General Kearney. These were mounted on mules and horses,
and I was appointed to conduct them to Monterey by land. Leaving the party at Los Angeles to follow by sea
in the Lexington, I started with the Mormon detachment and traveled by land. We averaged about thirty miles
a day, stopped one day at Santa Barbara, where I saw Colonel Burton, and so on by the usually traveled road
to Monterey, reaching it in about fifteen days, arriving some days in advance of the Lexington. This gave me
the best kind of an opportunity for seeing the country, which was very sparsely populated indeed, except by a
few families at the various Missions. We had no wheeled vehicles, but packed our food and clothing on mules
driven ahead, and we slept on the ground in the open air, the rainy season having passed. Fremont followed
me by land in a few days, and, by the end of May, General Kearney was all ready at Monterey to take his
departure, leaving to succeed him in command Colonel R. B. Mason, First Dragoons. Our Captain
(Tompkins), too, had become discontented at his separation from his family, tendered his resignation to
General Kearney, and availed himself of a sailing-vessel bound for Callao to reach the East. Colonel Mason
selected me as his adjutant-general; and on the very last day of May General Kearney, with his Mormon
escort, with Colonel Cooke, Colonel Swords (quartermaster), Captain Turner, and a naval officer, Captain
Radford, took his departure for the East overland, leaving us in full possession of California and its fate.
Fremont also left California with General Kearney, and with him departed all cause of confusion and disorder
in the country. From that time forth no one could dispute the authority of Colonel Mason as in command of all
the United States forces on shore, while the senior naval officer had a like control afloat. This was
Commodore James Biddle, who had reached the station from China in the Columbus, and he in turn was
succeeded by Commodore T. Ap Catesby Jones in the line-of-battle-ship Ohio. At that time Monterey was our
headquarters, and the naval commander for a time remained there, but subsequently San Francisco Bay
became the chief naval rendezvous.
Colonel R. B. Mason, First Dragoons, was an officer of great experience, of stern character, deemed by some
harsh and severe, but in all my intercourse with him he was kind and agreeable. He had a large fund of good
sense, and, during our long period of service together, I enjoyed his unlimited confidence. He had been in his
day a splendid shot and hunter, and often entertained me with characteristic anecdotes of Taylor, Twiggs,
Worth, Harvey, Martin Scott, etc., etc, who were then in Mexico, gaining a national fame. California had
settled down to a condition of absolute repose, and we naturally repined at our fate in being so remote from
the war in Mexico, where our comrades were reaping large honors. Mason dwelt in a house not far from the
Custom-House, with Captain Lanman, United States Navy; I had a small adobe-house back of Larkin's.
Halleck and Dr. Murray had a small log-house not far off. The company of artillery was still on the hill, under
the command of Lieutenant Ord, engaged in building a fort whereon to mount the guns we had brought out in
the Lexington, and also in constructing quarters out of hewn pine-logs for the men. Lieutenant Minor, a very
clever young officer, had taken violently sick and died about the time I got back from Los Angeles, leaving
Lieutenants Ord and Loeser alone with the company, with Assistant-Surgeon Robert Murray. Captain William
G. Marcy was the quartermaster and commissary. Naglee's company of Stevenson's regiment had been
mounted and was sent out against the Indians in the San Joaquin Valley, and Shannon's company occupied the
barracks. Shortly after General Kearney had gone East, we found an order of his on record, removing one Mr.
Nash, the Alcalde of Sonoma, and appointing to his place ex-Governor L. W. Boggs. A letter came to Colonel
and Governor Mason from Boggs, whom he had personally known in Missouri, complaining that, though he
had been appointed alcalde, the then incumbent (Nash) utterly denied Kearney's right to remove him, because
he had been elected by the people under the proclamation of Commodore Sloat, and refused to surrender his
office or to account for his acts as alcalde. Such a proclamation had been made by Commodore Sloat shortly
after the first occupation of California, announcing that the people were free and enlightened American
citizens, entitled to all the rights and privileges as such, and among them the right to elect their own officers,

etc. The people of Sonoma town and valley, some forty or fifty immigrants from the United States, and very
few native Californians, had elected Mr. Nash, and, as stated, he refused to recognize the right of a mere
military commander to eject him and to appoint another to his place. Neither General Kearney nor Mason had
much respect for this land of "buncombe," but assumed the true doctrine that California was yet a Mexican
province, held by right of conquest, that the military commander was held responsible to the country, and that
the province should be held in statu quo until a treaty of peace. This letter of Boggs was therefore referred to
Captain Brackett, whose company was stationed at Sonoma, with orders to notify Nash that Boggs was the
rightful alcalde; that he must quietly surrender his office, with the books and records thereof, and that he must
account for any moneys received from the sale of town-lots, etc., etc.; and in the event of refusal he (Captain
Brackett) must compel him by the use of force. In due time we got Brackett's answer, saying that the little
community of Sonoma was in a dangerous state of effervescence caused by his orders; that Nash was backed
by most of the Americans there who had come across from Missouri with American ideas; that as he
(Brackett) was a volunteer officer, likely to be soon discharged, and as he designed to settle there, he asked in
consequence to be excused from the execution of this (to him) unpleasant duty. Such a request, coming to an
old soldier like Colonel Mason, aroused his wrath, and he would have proceeded rough-shod against Brackett,
who, by-the-way, was a West Point graduate, and ought to have known better; but I suggested to the colonel
that, the case being a test one, he had better send me up to Sonoma, and I would settle it quick enough. He
then gave me an order to go to Sonoma to carry out the instructions already given to Brackett.
I took one soldier with me, Private Barnes, with four horses, two of which we rode, and the other two we
drove ahead. The first day we reached Gilroy's and camped by a stream near three or four adobe-huts known
as Gilroy's ranch. The next day we passed Murphy's, San Jose, and Santa Clara Mission, camping some four
miles beyond, where a kind of hole had been dug in the ground for water. The whole of this distance, now so
beautifully improved and settled, was then scarcely occupied, except by poor ranches producing horses and
cattle. The pueblo of San Jose was a string of low adobe-houses festooned with red peppers and garlic; and the
Mission of Santa Clara was a dilapidated concern, with its church and orchard. The long line of poplar-trees
lining the road from San Jose to Santa Clara bespoke a former period when the priests had ruled the land. Just
about dark I was lying on the ground near the well, and my soldier Barnes had watered our horses and
picketed them to grass, when we heard a horse crushing his way through the high mustard-bushes which filled
the plain, and soon a man came to us to inquire if we had seen a saddle-horse pass up the road. We explained
to him what we had heard, and he went off in pursuit of his horse. Before dark he came back unsuccessful,
and gave his name as Bidwell, the same gentleman who has since been a member of Congress, who is married
to Miss Kennedy, of Washington City, and now lives in princely style at Chico, California.
He explained that he was a surveyor, and had been in the lower country engaged in surveying land; that the
horse had escaped him with his saddle-bags containing all his notes and papers, and some six hundred dollars
in money, all the money he had earned. He spent the night with us on the ground, and the next morning we
left him there to continue the search for his horse, and I afterward heard that he had found his saddle-bags all
right, but never recovered the horse. The next day toward night we approached the Mission of San Francisco,
and the village of Yerba Buena, tired and weary—the wind as usual blowing a perfect hurricane, and a more
desolate region it was impossible to conceive of. Leaving Barnes to work his way into the town as best he
could with the tired animals, I took the freshest horse and rode forward. I fell in with Lieutenant Fabius
Stanley, United States Navy, and we rode into Yerba Buena together about an hour before sundown, there
being nothing but a path from the Mission into the town, deep and heavy with drift-sand. My horse could
hardly drag one foot after the other when we reached the old Hudson Bay Company's house, which was then
the store of Howard and Mellus. There I learned where Captain Folsom, the quartermaster, was to be found.
He was staying with a family of the name of Grimes, who had a small horse back of Howard's store, which
must have been near where Sacramento Street now crosses Kearney. Folsom was a classmate of mine, had
come out with Stevenson's regiment as quartermaster, and was at the time the chief-quartermaster of the
department. His office was in the old custom-horse standing at the northwest corner of the Plaza. He had hired
two warehouses, the only ones there at the time, of one Liedsdorff, the principal man of Yerba Buena, who

also owned the only public-house, or tavern, called the City Hotel, on Kearney Street, at the southeast corner
of the Plaza. I stopped with Folsom at Mrs. Grimes's, and he sent my horse, as also the other three when
Barnes had got in after dark, to a coral where he had a little barley, but no hay. At that time nobody fed a
horse, but he was usually turned out to pick such scanty grass as he could find on the side-hills. The few
government horses used in town were usually sent out to the Presidio, where the grass was somewhat better.
At that time (July, 1847), what is now called San Francisco was called Yerba Buena. A naval officer,
Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett, its first alcalde, had caused it to be surveyed and laid out into blocks and
lots, which were being sold at sixteen dollars a lot of fifty vuras square; the understanding being that no single
person could purchase of the alcalde more than one in-lot of fifty varas, and one out-lot of a hundred varas.
Folsom, however, had got his clerks, orderlies, etc., to buy lots, and they, for a small consideration, conveyed
them to him, so that he was nominally the owner of a good many lots. Lieutenant Halleck had bought one of
each kind, and so had Warner. Many naval officers had also invested, and Captain Folsom advised me to buy
some, but I felt actually insulted that he should think me such a fool as to pay money for property in such a
horrid place as Yerba Buena, especially ridiculing his quarter of the city, then called Happy Valley. At that
day Montgomery Street was, as now, the business street, extending from Jackson to Sacramento, the water of
the bay leaving barely room for a few houses on its east side, and the public warehouses were on a sandy
beach about where the Bank of California now stands, viz., near the intersection of Sansome and California,
Streets. Along Montgomery Street were the stores of Howard & Mellus, Frank Ward, Sherman & Ruckel,
Ross & Co., and it may be one or two others. Around the Plaza were a few houses, among them the City Hotel
and the Custom-House, single-story adobes with tiled roofs, and they were by far the most substantial and best
houses in the place. The population was estimated at about four hundred, of whom Kanakas (natives of the
Sandwich Islands) formed the bulk.
At the foot of Clay Street was a small wharf which small boats could reach at high tide; but the principal
landing-place was where some stones had fallen into the water, about where Broadway now intersects Battery
Street. On the steep bluff above had been excavated, by the navy, during the year before, a bench, wherein
were mounted a couple of navy-guns, styled the battery, which, I suppose, gave name to the street. I explained
to Folsom the object of my visit, and learned from him that he had no boat in which to send me to Sonoma,
and that the only, chance to get there was to borrow a boat from the navy. The line-of-battle-ship Columbus
was then lying at anchor off the town, and he said if I would get up early the next morning I could go off to
her in one of the market-boats.
Accordingly, I was up bright and early, down at the wharf, found a boat, and went off to the Columbus to see
Commodore Biddle. On reaching the ship and stating to the officer of the deck my business, I was shown into
the commodore's cabin, and soon made known to him my object. Biddle was a small-sized man, but vivacious
in the extreme. He had a perfect contempt for all humbug, and at once entered into the business with extreme
alacrity. I was somewhat amused at the importance he attached to the step. He had a chaplain, and a private
secretary, in a small room latticed off from his cabin, and he first called on them to go out, and, when we were
alone, he enlarged on the folly of Sloat's proclamation, giving the people the right to elect their own officers,
and commended Kearney and Mason for nipping that idea in the bud, and keeping the power in their own
hands. He then sent for the first lieutenant (Drayton), and inquired if there were among the officers on board
any who had ever been in the Upper Bay, and learning that there was a midshipman (Whittaker) he was sent
for. It so happened that this midshipman had been on a frolic on shore a few nights before, and was
accordingly much frightened when summoned into the commodore's presence, but as soon as he was
questioned as to his knowledge of the bay, he was sensibly relieved, and professed to know every thing about
it.
Accordingly, the long boat was ordered with this midshipman and eight sailors, prepared with water and
provisions for several days absence. Biddle then asked me if I knew any of his own officers, and which one of
them I would prefer to accompany me. I knew most of them, and we settled down on Louis McLane. He was
sent for, and it was settled that McLane and I were to conduct this important mission, and the commodore

enjoined on us complete secrecy, so as to insure success, and he especially cautioned us against being pumped
by his ward-room officers, Chapman, Lewis, Wise, etc., while on board his ship. With this injunction I was
dismissed to the wardroom, where I found Chapman, Lewis, and Wise, dreadfully exercised at our profound
secrecy. The fact that McLane and I had been closeted with the commodore for an hour, that orders for the
boat and stores had been made, that the chaplain and clerk had been sent out of the cabin, etc., etc., all excited
their curiosity; but McLane and I kept our secret well. The general impression was, that we had some
knowledge about the fate of Captain Montgomery's two sons and the crew that had been lost the year before.
In 1846 Captain Montgomery commanded at Yerba Buena, on board the St. Mary sloop-of-war, and he had a
detachment of men stationed up at Sonoma. Occasionally a boat was sent up with provisions or intelligence to
them. Montgomery had two sons on board his ship, one a midshipman, the other his secretary. Having
occasion to send some money up to Sonoma, he sent his two sons with a good boat and crew. The boat started
with a strong breeze and a very large sail, was watched from the deck until she was out of sight, and has never
been heard of since. There was, of coarse, much speculation as to their fate, some contending that the boat
must have been capsized in San Pablo Bay, and that all were lost; others contending that the crew had
murdered the officers for the money, and then escaped; but, so far as I know, not a man of that crew has ever
been seen or heard of since. When at last the boat was ready for us, we started, leaving all hands, save the
commodore, impressed with the belief that we were going on some errand connected with the loss of the
missing boat and crew of the St. Mary. We sailed directly north, up the bay and across San Pablo, reached the
month of Sonoma Creek about dark, and during the night worked up the creek some twelve miles by means of
the tide, to a landing called the Embarcadero. To maintain the secrecy which the commodore had enjoined on
us, McLane and I agreed to keep up the delusion by pretending to be on a marketing expedition to pick up
chickens, pigs, etc., for the mess of the Columbus, soon to depart for home.
Leaving the midshipman and four sailors to guard the boat, we started on foot with the other four for Sonoma
Town, which we soon reached. It was a simple open square, around which were some adobe-houses, that of
General Vallejo occupying one side. On another was an unfinished two-story adobe building, occupied as a
barrack by Bracken's company. We soon found Captain Brackett, and I told him that I intended to take Nash a
prisoner and convey him back to Monterey to answer for his mutinous behavior. I got an old sergeant of his
company, whom I had known in the Third Artillery, quietly to ascertain the whereabouts of Nash, who was a
bachelor, stopping with the family of a lawyer named Green. The sergeant soon returned, saying that Nash
had gone over to Napa, but would be back that evening; so McLane and I went up to a farm of some
pretensions, occupied by one Andreas Hoepner, with a pretty Sitka wife, who lived a couple of miles above
Sonoma, and we bought of him some chickens, pigs, etc. We then visited Governor Boggs's family and that of
General Vallejo, who was then, as now, one of the most prominent and influential natives of California. About
dark I learned that Nash had come back, and then, giving Brackett orders to have a cart ready at the corner of
the plaza, McLane and I went to the house of Green. Posting an armed sailor on each side of the house, we
knocked at the door and walked in. We found Green, Nash, and two women, at supper. I inquired if Nash
were in, and was first answered "No," but one of the women soon pointed to him, and he rose. We were armed
with pistols, and the family was evidently alarmed. I walked up to him and took his arm, and told him to come
along with me. He asked me, "Where?" and I said, "Monterey." "Why?" I would explain that more at leisure.
Green put himself between me and the door, and demanded, in theatrical style, why I dared arrest a peaceable
citizen in his house. I simply pointed to my pistol, and told him to get out of the way, which he did. Nash
asked to get some clothing, but I told him he should want for nothing. We passed out, Green following us with
loud words, which brought the four sailors to the front-door, when I told him to hush up or I would take him
prisoner also. About that time one of the sailors, handling his pistol carelessly, discharged it, and Green
disappeared very suddenly. We took Nash to the cart, put him in, and proceeded back to our boat. The next
morning we were gone.
Nash being out of the way, Boggs entered on his office, and the right to appoint or remove from civil office
was never again questioned in California during the military regime. Nash was an old man, and was very
much alarmed for his personal safety. He had come across the Plains, and had never yet seen the sea. While

on our way down the bay, I explained fully to him the state of things in California, and he admitted he had
never looked on it in that light before, and professed a willingness to surrender his office; but, having gone so
far, I thought it best to take him to Monterey. On our way down the bay the wind was so strong, as we
approached the Columbus, that we had to take refuge behind Yerba Buena Island, then called Goat Island,
where we landed, and I killed a gray seal. The next morning, the wind being comparatively light, we got out
and worked our way up to the Columbus, where I left my prisoner on board, and went on shore to find
Commodore Biddle, who had gone to dine with Frank Ward. I found him there, and committed Nash to his
charge, with the request that he would send him down to Monterey, which he did in the sloop-of-war Dale,
Captain Selfridge commanding. I then returned to Monterey by land, and, when the Dale arrived, Colonel
Mason and I went on board, found poor old Mr. Nash half dead with sea-sickness and fear, lest Colonel
Mason would treat him with extreme military rigor. But, on the contrary, the colonel spoke to him kindly,
released him as a prisoner on his promise to go back to Sonoma. surrender his office to Boggs, and account to
him for his acts while in office. He afterward came on shore, was provided with clothing and a horse, returned
to Sonoma, and I never have seen him since.
Matters and things settled down in Upper California, and all moved along with peace and harmony. The war
still continued in Mexico, and the navy authorities resolved to employ their time with the capture of Mazatlan
and Guaymas. Lower California had already been occupied by two companies of Stevenson's regiment, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, who had taken post at La Paz, and a small party of sailors was on shore at San
Josef, near Cape San Lucas, detached from the Lexington, Lieutenant-Commander Bailey. The orders for this
occupation were made by General Kearney before he left, in pursuance of instructions from the War
Department, merely to subserve a political end, for there were few or no people in Lower California, which is
a miserable, wretched, dried-up peninsula. I remember the proclamation made by Burton and Captain Bailey,
in taking possession, which was in the usual florid style. Bailey signed his name as the senior naval officer at
the station, but, as it was necessary to put it into Spanish to reach the inhabitants of the newly-acquired
country, it was interpreted, "El mas antiguo de todos los oficiales de la marina," etc., which, literally, is "the
most ancient of all the naval officers," etc., a translation at which we made some fun.
The expedition to Mazatlan was, however, for a different purpose, viz., to get possession of the ports of
Mazatlan and Guaymas, as a part of the war against Mexico, and not for permanent conquest.
Commodore Shubrick commanded this expedition, and took Halleck along as his engineer-officer. They
captured Mazatlan and Guaymas, and then called on Colonel Mason to send soldiers down to hold possession,
but he had none to spare, and it was found impossible to raise other volunteers either in California or Oregon,
and the navy held these places by detachments of sailors and marines till the end of the war. Burton also
called for reenforcements, and Naglee'a company was sent to him from Monterey, and these three companies
occupied Lower California at the end of the Mexican War. Major Hardie still commanded at San Francisco
and above; Company F, Third Artillery, and Shannon's company of volunteers, were at Monterey; Lippett's
company at Santa Barbara; Colonel Stevenson, with one company of his regiment, and the company of the
First Dragoons, was at Los Angeles; and a company of Mormons, reenlisted out of the Mormon Battalion,
garrisoned San Diego—and thus matters went along throughout 1847 into 1848. I had occasion to make
several trips to Yerba Buena and back, and in the spring of 1848 Colonel Mason and I went down to Santa
Barbara in the sloop-of-war Dale.
I spent much time in hunting deer and bear in the mountains back of the Carmel Mission, and ducks and geese
in the plains of the Salinas. As soon as the fall rains set in, the young oats would sprout up, and myriads of
ducks, brant, and geese, made their appearance. In a single day, or rather in the evening of one day and the
morning of the next, I could load a pack-mule with geese and ducks. They had grown somewhat wild from the
increased number of hunters, yet, by marking well the place where a flock lighted, I could, by taking
advantage of gullies or the shape of the ground, creep up within range; and, giving one barrel on the ground,
and the other as they rose, I have secured as many as nine at one discharge. Colonel Mason on one occasion

killed eleven geese by one discharge of small shot. The seasons in California are well marked. About October
and November the rains begin, and the whole country, plains and mountains, becomes covered with a
bright-green grass, with endless flowers. The intervals between the rains give the finest weather possible.
These rains are less frequent in March, and cease altogether in April and May, when gradually the grass dies
and the whole aspect of things changes, first to yellow, then to brown, and by midsummer all is burnt up and
dry as an ashheap.
When General Kearney first departed we took his office at Larkin's; but shortly afterward we had a broad
stairway constructed to lead from the outside to the upper front porch of the barracks. By cutting a large door
through the adobe-wall, we made the upper room in the centre our office; and another side-room, connected
with it by a door, was Colonel Mason's private office.
I had a single clerk, a soldier named Baden; and William E. P. Hartnell, citizen, also had a table in the same
room. He was the government interpreter, and had charge of the civil archives. After Halleck's return from
Mazatlan, he was, by Colonel Mason, made Secretary of State; and he then had charge of the civil archives,
including the land-titles, of which Fremont first had possession, but which had reverted to us when he left the
country.
I remember one day, in the spring of 1848, that two men, Americans, came into the office and inquired for the
Governor. I asked their business, and one answered that they had just come down from Captain Sutter on
special business, and they wanted to see Governor Mason in person. I took them in to the colonel, and left
them together. After some time the colonel came to his door and called to me. I went in, and my attention was
directed to a series of papers unfolded on his table, in which lay about half an ounce of placer gold. Mason
said to me, "What is that?" I touched it and examined one or two of the larger pieces, and asked, "Is it gold?"
Mason asked me if I had ever seen native gold. I answered that, in 1844, I was in Upper Georgia, and there
saw some native gold, but it was much finer than this, and that it was in phials, or in transparent quills; but I
said that, if this were gold, it could be easily tested, first, by its malleability, and next by acids. I took a piece
in my teeth, and the metallic lustre was perfect. I then called to the clerk, Baden, to bring an axe and hatchet
from the backyard. When these were brought, I took the largest piece and beat it out flat, and beyond doubt it
was metal, and a pure metal. Still, we attached little importance to the fact, for gold was known to exist at San
Fernando, at the south, and yet was not considered of much value. Colonel Mason then handed me a letter
from Captain Sutter, addressed to him, stating that he (Sutter) was engaged in erecting a saw-mill at Coloma,
about forty miles up the American Fork, above his fort at New Helvetia, for the general benefit of the settlers
in that vicinity; that he had incurred considerable expense, and wanted a "preemption" to the quarter-section
of land on which the mill was located, embracing the tail-race in which this particular gold had been found.
Mason instructed me to prepare a letter, in answer, for his signature. I wrote off a letter, reciting that
California was yet a Mexican province, simply held by us as a conquest; that no laws of the United States yet
applied to it, much less the land laws or preemption laws, which could only apply after a public survey.
Therefore it was impossible for the Governor to promise him (Sutter) a title to the land; yet, as there were no
settlements within forty miles, he was not likely to be disturbed by trespassers. Colonel Mason signed the
letter, handed it to one of the gentlemen who had brought the sample of gold, and they departed. That gold
was the first discovered in the Sierra Nevada, which soon revolutionized the whole country, and actually
moved the whole civilized world. About this time (May and June, 1848), far more importance was attached to
quicksilver. One mine, the New Almaden, twelve miles south of San Jose, was well known, and was in
possession of the agent of a Scotch gentleman named Forties, who at the time was British consul at Tepic,
Mexico. Mr. Forties came up from San Blas in a small brig, which proved to be a Mexican vessel; the vessel
was seized, condemned, and actually sold, but Forties was wealthy, and bought her in. His title to the
quicksilver-mine was, however, never disputed, as he had bought it regularly, before our conquest of the
country, from another British subject, also named Forties, a resident of Santa Clara Mission, who had
purchased it of the discoverer, a priest; but the boundaries of the land attached to the mine were even then in
dispute. Other men were in search of quicksilver; and the whole range of mountains near the New Almaden

mine was stained with the brilliant red of the sulphuret of mercury (cinnabar). A company composed of T. O.
Larkin, J. R. Snyder, and others, among them one John Ricord (who was quite a character), also claimed a
valuable mine near by. Ricord was a lawyer from about Buffalo, and by some means had got to the Sandwich
Islands, where he became a great favorite of the king, Kamehameha; was his attorney-general, and got into a
difficulty with the Rev. Mr. Judd, who was a kind of prime-minister to his majesty. One or the other had to
go, and Ricord left for San Francisco, where he arrived while Colonel Mason and I were there on some
business connected with the customs. Ricord at once made a dead set at Mason with flattery, and all sorts of
spurious arguments, to convince him that our military government was too simple in its forms for the new
state of facts, and that he was the man to remodel it. I had heard a good deal to his prejudice, and did all I
could to prevent Mason taking him, into his confidence. We then started back for Monterey. Ricord was
along, and night and day he was harping on his scheme; but he disgusted Colonel Mason with his flattery,
and, on reaching Monterey, he opened what he called a law-office, but there were neither courts nor clients, so
necessity forced him to turn his thoughts to something else, and quicksilver became his hobby. In the spring
of 1848 an appeal came to our office from San Jose, which compelled the Governor to go up in person.
Lieutenant Loeser and I, with a couple of soldiers, went along. At San Jose the Governor held some kind of a
court, in which Ricord and the alcalde had a warm dispute about a certain mine which Ricord, as a member of
the Larkin Company, had opened within the limits claimed by the New Almaden Company. On our way up
we had visited the ground, and were therefore better prepared to understand the controversy. We had found at
New Almaden Mr. Walkinshaw, a fine Scotch gentleman, the resident agent of Mr. Forbes. He had built in the
valley, near a small stream, a few board-houses, and some four or five furnaces for the distillation of the
mercury. These were very simple in their structure, being composed of whalers' kettles, set in masonry. These
kettles were filled with broken ore about the size of McAdam-stone, mingled with lime. Another kettle,
reversed, formed the lid, and the seam was luted with clay. On applying heat, the mercury was volatilized and
carried into a chimney-stack, where it condensed and flowed back into a reservoir, and then was led in pipes
into another kettle outside. After witnessing this process, we visited the mine itself, which outcropped near the
apex of the hill, about a thousand feet above the furnaces. We found wagons hauling the mineral down the hill
and returning empty, and in the mines quite a number of Sonora miners were blasting and driving for the
beautiful ore (cinnabar). It was then, and is now, a most valuable mine. The adit of the mine was at the apex of
the hill, which drooped off to the north. We rode along this hill, and saw where many openings had been
begun, but these, proving of little or no value, had been abandoned. Three miles beyond, on the west face of
the bill, we came to the opening of the "Larkin Company." There was evidence of a good deal of work, but the
mine itself was filled up by what seemed a land-slide. The question involved in the lawsuit before the alcalde
at San Jose was, first, whether the mine was or was not on the land belonging to the New Almaden property;
and, next, whether the company had complied with all the conditions of the mite laws of Mexico, which were
construed to be still in force in California.
These laws required that any one who discovered a valuable mine on private land should first file with the
alcalde, or judge of the district, a notice and claim for the benefits of such discovery; then the mine was to be
opened and followed for a distance of at least one hundred feet within a specified time, and the claimants must
take out samples of the mineral and deposit the same with the alcalde, who was then required to inspect
personally the mine, to see that it fulfilled all the conditions of the law, before he could give a written title. In
this case the alcalde had been to the mine and had possession of samples of the ore; but, as the mouth of the
mine was closed up, as alleged, from the act of God, by a land-slide, it was contended by Ricord and his
associates that it was competent to prove by good witnesses that the mine had been opened into the hill one
hundred feet, and that, by no negligence of theirs, it had caved in. It was generally understood that Robert J.
Walker, United States Secretary of the Treasury, was then a partner in this mining company; and a vessel, the
bark Gray Eagle, was ready at San Francisco to sail for New York with the title-papers on which to base a
joint-stock company for speculative uses. I think the alcalde was satisfied that the law had been complied
with, that he had given the necessary papers, and, as at that time there was nothing developed to show fraud,
the Governor (Mason) did not interfere. At that date there was no public house or tavern in San Jose where we
could stop, so we started toward Santa Cruz and encamped about ten miles out, to the west of the town, where

we fell in with another party of explorers, of whom Ruckel, of San Francisco, was the head; and after supper,
as we sat around the camp-fire, the conversation turned on quicksilver in general, and the result of the contest
in San Jose in particular. Mason was relating to Ruckel the points and the arguments of Ricord, that the
company should not suffer from an act of God, viz., the caving in of the mouth of the mine, when a man
named Cash, a fellow who had once been in the quartermaster's employ as a teamster, spoke up: "Governor
Mason, did Judge Ricord say that?" "Yes," said the Governor; and then Cash related how he and another man,
whose name he gave, had been employed by Ricord to undermine a heavy rock that rested above the mouth of
the mine, so that it tumbled down, carrying with it a large quantity of earth, and completely filled it up, as we
had seen; "and," said Cash, "it took us three days of the hardest kind of work." This was the act of God, and
on the papers procured from the alcalde at that time, I understand, was built a huge speculation, by which
thousands of dollars changed hands in the United States and were lost. This happened long before the
celebrated McGarrahan claim, which has produced so much noise, and which still is being prosecuted in the
courts and in Congress.
On the next day we crossed over the Santa Cruz Mountains, from which we had sublime views of the scenery,
first looking east toward the lower Bay of San Francisco, with the bright plains of Santa Clara and San Jose,
and then to the west upon the ocean, the town of Monterey being visible sixty miles off. If my memory is
correct, we beheld from that mountain the firing of a salute from the battery at Monterey, and counted the
number of guns from the white puffs of smoke, but could not hear the sound. That night we slept on piles of
wheat in a mill at Soquel, near Santa Cruz, and, our supplies being short, I advised that we should make an
early start next morning, so as to reach the ranch of Don Juan Antonio Vallejo, a particular friend, who had a
large and valuable cattle-ranch on the Pajaro River, about twenty miles on our way to Monterey. Accordingly,
we were off by the first light of day, and by nine o'clock we had reached the ranch. It was on a high point of
the plateau, overlooking the plain of the Pajaro, on which were grazing numbers of horses and cattle. The
house was of adobe, with a long range of adobe-huts occupied by the semi-civilized Indians, who at that time
did all the labor of a ranch, the herding and marking of cattle, breaking of horses, and cultivating the little
patches of wheat and vegetables which constituted all the farming of that day. Every thing about the house
looked deserted, and, seeing a small Indian boy leaning up against a post, I approached him and asked him in
Spanish, "Where is the master?" "Gone to the Presidio" (Monterey). "Is anybody in the house?" "No." "Is it
locked up?" "Yes." "Is no one about who can get in?" "No." "Have you any meat?" "No." "Any flour or
grain?" "No." "Any chickens?" "No." "Any eggs?" "No." "What do you live on?" "Nada" (nothing). The utter
indifference of this boy, and the tone of his answer "Nada," attracted the attention of Colonel Mason, who had
been listening to our conversation, and who knew enough of Spanish to catch the meaning, and he exclaimed
with some feeling, "So we get nada for our breakfast." I felt mortified, for I had held out the prospect of a
splendid breakfast of meat and tortillas with rice, chickens, eggs, etc., at the ranch of my friend Josh Antonio,
as a justification for taking the Governor, a man of sixty years of age, more than twenty miles at a full canter
for his breakfast. But there was no help for it, and we accordingly went a short distance to a pond, where we
unpacked our mules and made a slim breakfast; on some scraps of hard bread and a bone of pork that
remained in our alforjas. This was no uncommon thing in those days, when many a ranchero with his eleven
leagues of land, his hundreds of horses and thousands of cattle, would receive us with all the grandiloquence
of a Spanish lord, and confess that he had nothing in his house to eat except the carcass of a beef hung up,
from which the stranger might cut and cook, without money or price, what he needed. That night we slept on
Salinas Plain, and the next morning reached Monterey. All the missions and houses at that period were alive
with fleas, which the natives looked on as pleasant titillators, but they so tortured me that I always gave them
a wide berth, and slept on a saddle-blanket, with the saddle for a pillow and the serape, or blanket, for a cover.
We never feared rain except in winter. As the spring and summer of 1848 advanced, the reports came faster
and faster from the gold-mines at Sutter's saw-mill. Stories reached us of fabulous discoveries, and spread
throughout the land. Everybody was talking of "Gold! gold!" until it assumed the character of a fever. Some
of our soldiers began to desert; citizens were fitting out trains of wagons and packmules to go to the mines.
We heard of men earning fifty, five hundred, and thousands of dollars per day, and for a time it seemed as
though somebody would reach solid gold. Some of this gold began to come to Yerba Buena in trade, and to

disturb the value of merchandise, particularly of mules, horses, tin pans, and articles used in mining: I of
course could not escape the infection, and at last convinced Colonel Mason that it was our duty to go up and
see with our own eyes, that we might report the truth to our Government. As yet we had no regular mail to any
part of the United States, but mails had come to us at long intervals, around Cape Horn, and one or two
overland. I well remember the first overland mail. It was brought by Kit Carson in saddle-bags from Taos in
New Mexico. We heard of his arrival at Los Angeles, and waited patiently for his arrival at headquarters. His
fame then was at its height, from the publication of Fremont's books, and I was very anxious to see a man who
had achieved such feats of daring among the wild animals of the Rocky Mountains, and still wilder Indians of
the Plains. At last his arrival was reported at the tavern at Monterey, and I hurried to hunt him up. I cannot
express my surprise at beholding a small, stoop-shouldered man, with reddish hair, freckled face, soft blue
eyes, and nothing to indicate extraordinary courage or daring. He spoke but little, and answered questions in
monosyllables. I asked for his mail, and he picked up his light saddle-bags containing the great overland mail,
and we walked together to headquarters, where he delivered his parcel into Colonel Mason's own hands. He
spent some days in Monterey, during which time we extracted with difficulty some items of his personal
history. He was then by commission a lieutenant in the regiment of Mounted Rifles serving in Mexico under
Colonel Sumner, and, as he could not reach his regiment from California, Colonel Mason ordered that for a
time he should be assigned to duty with A. J. Smith's company, First Dragoons, at Los Angeles. He remained
at Los Angeles some months, and was then sent back to the United Staten with dispatches, traveling two
thousand miles almost alone, in preference to being encumbered by a large party.
Toward the close of June, 1848, the gold-fever being at its height, by Colonel Mason's orders I made
preparations for his trip to the newly-discovered gold-mines at Sutter's Fort. I selected four good soldiers, with
Aaron, Colonel Mason's black servant, and a good outfit of horses and pack-mules, we started by the usually
traveled route for Yerba Buena. There Captain Fulsom and two citizens joined our party. The first difficulty
was to cross the bay to Saucelito. Folsom, as quartermaster, had a sort of scow with a large sail, with which to
discharge the cargoes of ships, that could not come within a mile of the shore. It took nearly the whole day to
get the old scow up to the only wharf there, and then the water was so shallow that the scow, with its load of
horses, would not float at the first high tide, but by infinite labor on the next tide she was got off and safely
crossed over to Saucelito. We followed in a more comfortable schooner. Having safely landed our horses and
mules, we picked up and rode to San Rafael Mission, stopping with Don Timoteo Murphy. The next day's
journey took us to Bodega, where lived a man named Stephen Smith, who had the only steam saw-mill in
California. He had a Peruvian wife, and employed a number of absolutely naked Indians in making adobes.
We spent a day very pleasantly with him, and learned that he had come to California some years before, at the
personal advice of Daniel Webster, who had informed him that sooner or later the United States would be in
possession of California, and that in consequence it would become a great country. From Bodega we traveled
to Sonoma, by way of Petaluma, and spent a day with General Vallejo. I had been there before, as related, in
the business of the alcalde Nash. From Sonoma we crossed over by way of Napa, Suisun, and Vaca's ranch, to
the Puta. In the rainy season, the plain between the Puta and Sacramento Rivers is impassable, but in July the
waters dry up; and we passed without trouble, by the trail for Sutter's Embarcadero. We reached the
Sacramento River, then full of water, with a deep, clear current. The only means of crossing over was by an
Indian dugout canoe. We began by carrying across our packs and saddles, and then our people. When all
things were ready, the horses were driven into the water, one being guided ahead by a man in the canoe. Of
course, the horses and mules at first refused to take to the water, and it was nearly a day's work to get them
across, and even then some of our animals after crossing escaped into the woods and undergrowth that lined
the river, but we secured enough of them to reach Sutter's Fort, three miles back from the embcarcadero,
where we encamped at the old slough, or pond, near the fort. On application, Captain Butter sent some Indians
back into the bushes, who recovered and brought in all our animals. At that time there was not the sign of a
habitation there or thereabouts, except the fort, and an old adobe-house, east of the fort, known as the hospital.
The fort itself was one of adobe-walls, about twenty feet high, rectangular in form, with two-story block
houses at diagonal corners. The entrance was by a large gate, open by day and closed at night, with two iron
ship's guns near at hand. Inside there was a large house, with a good shingle-roof, used as a storehouse, and all

round the walls were ranged rooms, the fort wall being the outer wall of the house. The inner wall also was of
adobe. These rooms were used by Captain Sutter himself and by his people. He had a blacksmith's shop,
carpenter's shop, etc., and other rooms where the women made blankets. Sutter was monarch of all he
surveyed, and had authority to inflict punishment even unto death, a power he did not fail to use. He had
horses, cattle, and sheep, and of these he gave liberally and without price to all in need. He caused to be
driven into our camp a beef and some sheep, which were slaughtered for our use. Already the goldmines were
beginning to be felt. Many people were then encamped, some going and some coming, all full of gold-stories,
and each surpassing the other. We found preparations in progress for celebrating the Fourth of July, then close
at hand, and we agreed to remain over to assist on the occasion; of course, being the high officials, we were
the honored guests. People came from a great distance to attend this celebration of the Fourth of July, and the
tables were laid in the large room inside the storehouse of the fort. A man of some note, named Sinclair,
presided, and after a substantial meal and a reasonable supply of aguardiente we began the toasts. All that I
remember is that Folsom and I spoke for our party; others, Captain Sutter included, made speeches, and before
the celebration was over Sutter was enthusiastic, and many others showed the effects of the aguardiente. The
next day (namely, July 5, 1848) we resumed our journey toward the mines, and, in twenty-five miles of as hot
and dusty a ride as possible, we reached Mormon Island. I have heretofore stated that the gold was first found
in the tail-race of the stew-mill at Coloma, forty miles above Sutter's Fort, or fifteen above Mormon Island, in
the bed of the American Fork of the Sacramento River. It seems that Sutter had employed an American named
Marshall, a sort of millwright, to do this work for him, but Marshall afterward claimed that in the matter of the
saw-mill they were copartners. At all events, Marshall and the family of Mr. Wimmer were living at Coloma,
where the pine-trees afforded the best material for lumber. He had under him four white men, Mormons, who
had been discharged from Cooke's battalion, and some Indians. These were engaged in hewing logs, building
a mill-dam, and putting up a saw-mill. Marshall, as the architect, had made the "tub-wheel," and had set it in
motion, and had also furnished some of the rude parts of machinery necessary for an ordinary up-and-down
saw-mill.
Labor was very scarce, expensive, and had to be economized. The mill was built over a dry channel of the
river which was calculated to be the tail-race. After arranging his head-race, dam and tub-wheel, he let on the
water to test the goodness of his machinery. It worked very well until it was found that the tail-race did not
carry off the water fast enough, so he put his men to work in a rude way to clear out the tail-race. They
scratched a kind of ditch down the middle of the dry channel, throwing the coarser stones to one side; then,
letting on the water again, it would run with velocity down the channel, washing away the dirt, thus saving
labor. This course of action was repeated several times, acting exactly like the long Tom afterward resorted to
by the miners. As Marshall himself was working in this ditch, he observed particles of yellow metal which he
gathered up in his hand, when it seemed to have suddenly flashed across his mind that it was gold. After
picking up about an ounce, he hurried down to the fort to report to Captain Sutter his discovery. Captain
Sutter himself related to me Marshall's account, saying that, as he sat in his room at the fort one day in
February or March, 1848, a knock was heard at his door, and he called out, "Come in." In walked Marshall,
who was a half-crazy man at best, but then looked strangely wild. "What is the matter, Marshall!" Marshall
inquired if any one was within hearing, and began to peer about the room, and look under the bed, when
Sutter, fearing that some calamity had befallen the party up at the saw-mill, and that Marshall was really
crazy, began to make his way to the door, demanding of Marshall to explain what was the matter. At last he
revealed his discovery, and laid before Captain Sutter the pellicles of gold he had picked up in the ditch. At
first, Sutter attached little or no importance to the discovery, and told Marshall to go back to the mill, and say
nothing of what he had seen to Mr. Wimmer, or any one else. Yet, as it might add value to the location, he
dispatched to our headquarters at Monterey, as I have already related, the two men with a written application
for a preemption to the quarter-section of land at Coloma. Marshall returned to the mill, but could not keep
out of his wonderful ditch, and by some means the other men employed there learned his secret. They then
wanted to gather the gold, and Marshall threatened to shoot them if they attempted it; but these men had sense
enough to know that if "placer"-gold existed at Coloma, it would also be found farther down-stream, and they
gradually "prospected" until they reached Mormon Island, fifteen miles below, where they discovered one of

the richest placers on earth. These men revealed the fact to some other Mormons who were employed by
Captain Sutter at a grist-mill he was building still lower down the American Fork, and six miles above his
fort. All of them struck for higher wages, to which Sutter yielded, until they asked ten dollars a day, which he
refused, and the two mills on which he had spent so much money were never built, and fell into decay.
In my opinion, when the Mormons were driven from Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844, they cast about for a land
where they would not be disturbed again, and fixed on California. In the year 1845 a ship, the Brooklyn,
sailed from New York for California, with a colony of Mormons, of which Sam Brannan was the leader, and
we found them there on our arrival in January, 1847. When General Kearney, at Fort Leavenworth, was
collecting volunteers early in 1846, for the Mexican War, he, through the instrumentality of Captain James
Allen, brother to our quartermaster, General Robert Allen, raised the battalion of Mormons at Kanesville,
Iowa, now Council Bluffs, on the express understanding that it would facilitate their migration to California.
But when the Mormons reached Salt Lake, in 1846, they learned that they had been forestalled by the United
States forces in California, and they then determined to settle down where they were. Therefore, when this
battalion of five companies of Mormons (raised by Allen, who died on the way, and was succeeded by Cooke)
was discharged at Los Angeles, California, in the early summer of 1847, most of the men went to their people
at Salt Lake, with all the money received, as pay from the United States, invested in cattle and
breeding-horses; one company reenlisted for another year, and the remainder sought work in the country. As
soon as the fame of the gold discovery spread through California, the Mormons naturally turned to Mormon
Island, so that in July, 1848, we found about three hundred of them there at work. Sam Brannan was on hand
as the high-priest, collecting the tithes. Clark, of Clark's Point, an early pioneer, was there also, and nearly all
the Mormons who had come out in the Brooklyn, or who had staid in California after the discharge of their
battalion, had collected there. I recall the scene as perfectly to-day as though it were yesterday. In the midst of
a broken country, all parched and dried by the hot sun of July, sparsely wooded with live-oaks and straggling
pines, lay the valley of the American River, with its bold mountain-stream coming out of the Snowy
Mountains to the east. In this valley is a fiat, or gravel-bed, which in high water is an island, or is overflown,
but at the time of our visit was simply a level gravel-bed of the river. On its edges men were digging, and
filling buckets with the finer earth and gravel, which was carried to a machine made like a baby's cradle, open
at the foot, and at the head a plate of sheet-iron or zinc, punctured full of holes. On this metallic plate was
emptied the earth, and water was then poured on it from buckets, while one man shook the cradle with violent
rocking by a handle. On the bottom were nailed cleats of wood. With this rude machine four men could earn
from forty to one hundred dollars a day, averaging sixteen dollars, or a gold ounce, per man per day. While
the' sun blazed down on the heads of the miners with tropical heat, the water was bitter cold, and all hands
were either standing in the water or had their clothes wet all the time; yet there were no complaints of
rheumatism or cold. We made our camp on a small knoll, a little below the island, and from it could overlook
the busy scene. A few bush-huts near by served as stores, boardinghouses, and for sleeping; but all hands slept
on the ground, with pine-leaves and blankets for bedding. As soon as the news spread that the Governor was
there, persons came to see us, and volunteered all kinds of information, illustrating it by samples of the gold,
which was of a uniform kind, "scale-gold," bright and beautiful. A large variety, of every conceivable shape
and form, was found in the smaller gulches round about, but the gold in the river-bed was uniformly
"scale-gold." I remember that Mr. Clark was in camp, talking to Colonel Mason about matters and things
generally, when he inquired, "Governor, what business has Sam Brannan to collect the tithes here?" Clark
admitted that Brannan was the head of the Mormon church in California, and he was simply questioning as to
Brannan's right, as high-priest, to compel the Mormons to pay him the regular tithes. Colonel Mason
answered, "Brannan has a perfect right to collect the tax, if you Mormons are fools enough to pay it." "Then,"
said Clark, "I for one won't pay it any longer." Colonel Mason added: "This is public land, and the gold is the
property of the United States; all of you here are trespassers, but, as the Government is benefited by your
getting out the gold, I do not intend to interfere." I understood, afterward, that from that time the payment of
the tithes ceased, but Brannan had already collected enough money wherewith to hire Sutter's hospital, and to
open a store there, in which he made more money than any merchant in California, during that summer and
fall. The understanding was, that the money collected by him as tithes was the foundation of his fortune,

which is still very large in San Francisco. That evening we all mingled freely with the miners, and witnessed
the process of cleaning up and "panning" out, which is the last process for separating the pure gold from the
fine dirt and black sand.
The next day we continued our journey up the valley of the American Fork, stopping at various camps, where
mining was in progress; and about noon we reached Coloma, the place where gold had been first discovered.
The hills were higher, and the timber of better quality. The river was narrower and bolder, and but few miners
were at work there, by reason of Marshall's and Sutter's claim to the site. There stood the sawmill unfinished,
the dam and tail-race just as they were left when the Mormons ceased work. Marshall and Wimmer's family of
wife and half a dozen children were there, guarding their supposed treasure; living in a house made of
clapboards. Here also we were shown many specimens of gold, of a coarser grain than that found at Mormon
Island. The next day we crossed the American River to its north side, and visited many small camps of men,
in what were called the "dry diggings." Little pools of water stood in the beds of the streams, and these were
used to wash the dirt; and there the gold was in every conceivable shape and size, some of the specimens
weighing several ounces. Some of these "diggings" were extremely rich, but as a whole they were more
precarious in results than at the river. Sometimes a lucky fellow would hit on a "pocket," and collect several
thousand dollars in a few days, and then again he would be shifting about from place to place, "prospecting,"
and spending all he had made. Little stores were being opened at every point, where flour, bacon, etc., were
sold; every thing being a dollar a pound, and a meal usually costing three dollars. Nobody paid for a bed, for
he slept on the ground, without fear of cold or rain. We spent nearly a week in that region, and were quite
bewildered by the fabulous tales of recent discoveries, which at the time were confined to the several forks of
the American and Yuba Rivers.' All this time our horses had nothing to eat but the sparse grass in that region,
and we were forced to work our way down toward the Sacramento Valley, or to see our animals perish. Still
we contemplated a visit to the Yuba and Feather Rivers, from which we had heard of more wonderful
"diggings;" but met a courier, who announced the arrival of a ship at Monterey, with dispatches of great
importance from Mazatlan. We accordingly turned our horses back to Sutter's Fort. Crossing the Sacramento
again by swimming our horses, and ferrying their loads in that solitary canoe, we took our back track as far as
the Napa, and then turned to Benicia, on Carquinez Straits. We found there a solitary adobe-house, occupied
by Mr. Hastings and his family, embracing Dr. Semple, the proprietor of the ferry. This ferry was a
ship's-boat, with a latteen-sail, which could carry across at one time six or eight horses.
It took us several days to cross over, and during that time we got well acquainted with the doctor, who was
quite a character. He had come to California from Illinois, and was brother to Senator Semple. He was about
seven feet high, and very intelligent. When we first reached Monterey, he had a printing-press, which
belonged to the United States, having been captured at the custom-house, and had been used to print
custom-house blanks. With this Dr. Semple, as editor, published the Californian, a small sheet of news, once a
week; and it was a curiosity in its line, using two v's for a w, and other combinations of letters, made
necessary by want of type. After some time he removed to Yerba Buena with his paper, and it grew up to be
the Alta California of today. Foreseeing, as he thought, the growth of a great city somewhere on the Bay of
San Francisco, he selected Carquinez Straits as its location, and obtained from General Vallejo a title to a
league of land, on condition of building up a city thereon to bear the name of Vallejo's wife. This was
Francisca Benicia; accordingly, the new city was named "Francisca." At this time, the town near the mouth of
the bay was known universally as Yerba Buena; but that name was not known abroad, although San Francisco
was familiar to the whole civilized world. Now, some of the chief men of Yerba Buena, Folsom, Howard,
Leidesdorf, and others, knowing the importance of a name, saw their danger, and, by some action of the
ayuntamiento, or town council, changed the name of Yerba Buena to "San Francisco." Dr. Semple was
outraged at their changing the name to one so like his of Francisca, and he in turn changed his town to the
other name of Mrs. Vallejo, viz., "Benicia;" and Benicia it has remained to this day. I am convinced that this
little circumstance was big with consequences. That Benicia has the best natural site for a commercial city, I
am, satisfied; and had half the money and half the labor since bestowed upon San Francisco been expended at
Benicia, we should have at this day a city of palaces on the Carquinez Straits. The name of "San Francisco,"

however, fixed the city where it now is; for every ship in 1848-'49, which cleared from any part of the world,
knew the name of San Francisco, but not Yerba Buena or Benicia; and, accordingly, ships consigned to
California came pouring in with their contents, and were anchored in front of Yerba Buena, the first town.
Captains and crews deserted for the gold-mines, and now half the city in front of Montgomery Street is built
over the hulks thus abandoned. But Dr. Semple, at that time, was all there was of Benicia; he was captain and
crew of his ferry boat, and managed to pass our party to the south side of Carquinez Straits in about two days.
Thence we proceeded up Amador Valley to Alameda Creek, and so on to the old mission of San Jose; thence
to the pueblo of San Jose, where Folsom and those belonging in Yerba Buena went in that direction, and we
continued on to Monterey, our party all the way giving official sanction to the news from the gold-mines, and
adding new force to the "fever."
On reaching Monterey, we found dispatches from Commodore Shubrick, at Mazatlan, which gave almost
positive assurance that the war with Mexico was over; that hostilities had ceased, and commissioners were
arranging the terms of peace at Guadalupe Hidalgo. It was well that this news reached California at that
critical time; for so contagious had become the "gold-fever" that everybody was bound to go and try his
fortune, and the volunteer regiment of Stevenson's would have deserted en masse, had the men not been
assured that they would very soon be entitled to an honorable discharge.
Many of our regulars did desert, among them the very men who had escorted us faithfully to the mines and
back. Our servants also left us, and nothing less than three hundred dollars a month would hire a man in
California; Colonel Mason's black boy, Aaron, alone of all our then servants proving faithful. We were forced
to resort to all manner of shifts to live. First, we had a mess with a black fellow we called Bustamente as cook;
but he got the fever, and had to go. We next took a soldier, but he deserted, and carried off my
double-barreled shot-gun, which I prized very highly. To meet this condition of facts, Colonel Mason ordered
that liberal furloughs should be given to the soldiers, and promises to all in turn, and he allowed all the
officers to draw their rations in kind. As the actual valve of the ration was very large, this enabled us to live.
Halleck, Murray, Ord, and I, boarded with Dona Augustias, and turned in our rations as pay for our board.
Some time in September, 1848, the official news of the treaty of peace reached us, and the Mexican War was
over. This treaty was signed in May, and came to us all the way by land by a courier from Lower California,
sent from La Paz by Lieutenant-Colonel Burton. On its receipt, orders were at once made for the muster-out of
all of Stevenson's regiment, and our military forces were thus reduced to the single company of dragoons at
Los Angeles, and the one company of artillery at Monterey. Nearly all business had ceased, except that
connected with gold; and, during that fall, Colonel Mason, Captain Warner, and I, made another trip up to
Sutter's Fort, going also to the newly-discovered mines on the Stanislaus, called "Sonora," named from the
miners of Sonora, Mexico, who had first discovered them. We found there pretty much the same state of facts
as before existed at Mormon Island and Coloma, and we daily received intelligence of the opening of still
other mines north and south.
But I have passed over a very interesting fact. As soon as we had returned from our first visit to the
gold-mines, it became important to send home positive knowledge of this valuable discovery. The means of
communication with the United States were very precarious, and I suggested to Colonel Mason that a special
courier ought to be sent; that Second-Lieutenant Loeser had been promoted to first-lieutenant, and was
entitled to go home. He was accordingly detailed to carry the news. I prepared with great care the letter to the
adjutant-general of August 17, 1848, which Colonel Mason modified in a few Particulars; and, as it was
important to send not only the specimens which had been presented to us along our route of travel, I advised
the colonel to allow Captain Folsom to purchase and send to Washington a large sample of the commercial
gold in general use, and to pay for the same out of the money in his hands known as the "civil fund," arising
from duties collected at the several ports in California. He consented to this, and Captain Folsom bought an
oyster-can full at ten dollars the ounce, which was the rate of value at which it was then received at the custom

house. Folsom was instructed further to contract with some vessel to carry the messenger to South America,
where he could take the English steamers as far east as Jamaica, with a conditional charter giving increased
payment if the vessel could catch the October steamer. Folsom chartered the bark La Lambayecana, owned
and navigated by Henry D. Cooke, who has since been the Governor of the District of Columbia. In due time
this vessel reached Monterey, and Lieutenant Loeser, with his report and specimens of gold, embarked and
sailed. He reached the South American Continent at Payta, Peru, in time; took the English steamer of October
to Panama, and thence went on to Kingston, Jamaica, where he found a sailing vessel bound for New Orleans.
On reaching New Orleans, he telegraphed to the War Department his arrival; but so many delays had occurred
that he did not reach Washington in time to have the matter embraced in the President's regular message of
1848, as we had calculated. Still, the President made it the subject of a special message, and thus became
"official" what had before only reached the world in a very indefinite shape. Then began that wonderful
development, and the great emigration to California, by land and by sea, of 1849 and 1850.
As before narrated, Mason, Warner, and I, made a second visit to the mines in September and October, 1848.
As the winter season approached, Colonel Mason returned to Monterey, and I remained for a time at Sutter's
Fort. In order to share somewhat in the riches of the land, we formed a partnership in a store at Coloma, in
charge of Norman S. Bestor, who had been Warner's clerk. We supplied the necessary money, fifteen hundred
dollars (five hundred dollars each), and Bestor carried on the store at Coloma for his share. Out of this
investment, each of us realized a profit of about fifteen hundred dollars. Warner also got a regular leave of
absence, and contracted with Captain Sutter for surveying and locating the town of Sacramento. He received
for this sixteen dollars per day for his services as surveyor; and Sutter paid all the hands engaged in the work.
The town was laid off mostly up about the fort, but a few streets were staked off along the river bank, and one
or two leading to it. Captain Sutter always contended, however, that no town could possibly exist on the
immediate bank of the river, because the spring freshets rose over the bank, and frequently it was necessary to
swim a horse to reach the boat-landing. Nevertheless, from the very beginning the town began to be built on
the very river-bank, viz., First, Second, and Third Streets, with J and K Streets leading back. Among the
principal merchants and traders of that winter, at Sacramento, were Sam Brannan and Hensley, Reading & Co.
For several years the site was annually flooded; but the people have persevered in building the levees, and
afterward in raising all the streets, so that Sacramento is now a fine city, the capital of the State, and stands
where, in 1848, was nothing but a dense mass of bushes, vines, and submerged land. The old fort has
disappeared altogether.
During the fall of 1848, Warner, Ord, and I, camped on the bank of the American River, abreast of the fort, at
what was known as the "Old Tan-Yard." I was cook, Ord cleaned up the dishes, and Warner looked after the
horses; but Ord was deposed as scullion because he would only wipe the tin plates with a tuft of grass,
according to the custom of the country, whereas Warner insisted on having them washed after each meal with
hot water. Warner was in consequence promoted to scullion, and Ord became the hostler. We drew our rations
in kind from the commissary at San Francisco, who sent them up to us by a boat; and we were thus enabled to
dispense a generous hospitality to many a poor devil who otherwise would have had nothing to eat.
The winter of 1848 '49 was a period of intense activity throughout California. The rainy season was
unfavorable to the operations of gold-mining, and was very hard upon the thousands of houseless men and
women who dwelt in the mountains, and even in the towns. Most of the natives and old inhabitants had
returned to their ranches and houses; yet there were not roofs enough in the country to shelter the thousands
who had arrived by sea and by land. The news had gone forth to the whole civilized world that gold in
fabulous quantities was to be had for the mere digging, and adventurers came pouring in blindly to seek their
fortunes, without a thought of house or food. Yerba Buena had been converted into San Francisco.
Sacramento City had been laid out, lots were being rapidly sold, and the town was being built up as an
entrepot to the mines. Stockton also had been chosen as a convenient point for trading with the lower or
southern mines. Captain Sutter was the sole proprietor of the former, and Captain Charles Weber was the
owner of the site of Stockton, which was as yet known as "French Camp."

CHAPTER III.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED).
1849-1850.
The department headquarters still remained at Monterey, but, with the few soldiers, we had next to nothing to
do. In midwinter we heard of the approach of a battalion of the Second Dragoons, under Major Lawrence Pike
Graham, with Captains Rucker, Coutts, Campbell, and others, along. So exhausted were they by their long
march from Upper Mexico that we had to send relief to meet them as they approached. When this command
reached Los Angeles, it was left there as the garrison, and Captain A. J. Smith's company of the First
Dragoons was brought up to San Francisco. We were also advised that the Second Infantry, Colonel B. Riley,
would be sent out around Cape Horn in sailing-ships; that the Mounted Rifles, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Loring, would march overland to Oregon; and that Brigadier-General Persifer F. Smith would come out in
chief command on the Pacific coast. It was also known that a contract had been entered into with parties in
New York and New Orleans for a monthly line of steamers from those cities to California, via Panama.
Lieutenant-Colonel Burton had come up from Lower California, and, as captain of the Third Artillery, he was
assigned to command Company F, Third Artillery, at Monterey. Captain Warner remained at Sacramento,
surveying; and Halleck, Murray, Ord, and I, boarded with Dona Augustias. The season was unusually rainy
and severe, but we passed the time with the usual round of dances and parties. The time fixed for the arrival of
the mail-steamer was understood to be about January 1, 1849, but the day came and went without any tidings
of her. Orders were given to Captain Burton to announce her arrival by firing a national salute, and each
morning we listened for the guns from the fort. The month of January passed, and the greater part of February,
too. As was usual, the army officers celebrated the 22d of February with a grand ball, given in the new stone
school-house, which Alcalde Walter Colton had built. It was the largest and best hall then in California. The
ball was really a handsome affair, and we kept it up nearly all night. The next morning we were at breakfast:
present, Dona Augustias, and Manuelita, Halleck, Murray, and myself. We were dull and stupid enough until
a gun from the fort aroused us, then another and another. "The steamer" exclaimed all, and, without waiting
for hats or any thing, off we dashed. I reached the wharf hatless, but the dona sent my cap after me by a
servant. The white puffs of smoke hung around the fort, mingled with the dense fog, which hid all the water of
the bay, and well out to sea could be seen the black spars of some unknown vessel. At the wharf I found a
group of soldiers and a small row-boat, which belonged to a brig at anchor in the bay. Hastily ordering a
couple of willing soldiers to get in and take the oars, and Mr. Larkin and Mr. Hartnell asking to go along, we
jumped in and pushed off. Steering our boat toward the spars, which loomed up above the fog clear and
distinct, in about a mile we came to the black hull of the strange monster, the long-expected and most
welcome steamer California. Her wheels were barely moving, for her pilot could not see the shore-line
distinctly, though the hills and Point of Pines could be clearly made out over the fog, and occasionally a
glimpse of some white walls showed where the town lay. A "Jacob's ladder" was lowered for us from the
steamer, and in a minute I scrambled up on deck, followed by Larkin and Hartnell, and we found ourselves in
CHAPTER III. 48
the midst of many old friends. There was Canby, the adjutant-general, who was to take my place; Charley
Hoyt, my cousin; General Persifer F. Smith and wife; Gibbs, his aide-de-camp; Major Ogden, of the
Engineers, and wife; and, indeed, many old Californians, among them Alfred Robinson, and Frank Ward with
his pretty bride. By the time the ship was fairly at anchor we had answered a million of questions about gold
and the state of the country; and, learning that the ship was out of fuel, had informed the captain (Marshall)
that there was abundance of pine-wood, but no willing hands to cut it; that no man could be hired at less than
an ounce of gold a day, unless the soldiers would volunteer to do it for some agreed-upon price. As for coal,
there was not a pound in Monterey, or anywhere else in California. Vessels with coal were known to be en
route around Cape Horn, but none had yet reached California.
The arrival of this steamer was the beginning of a new epoch on the Pacific coast; yet there she lay, helpless,
without coal or fuel. The native Californians, who had never seen a steamship, stood for days on the beach
looking at her, with the universal exclamation, "Tan feo!"—how ugly!—and she was truly ugly when
compared with the clean, well-sparred frigates and sloops-of-war that had hitherto been seen on the North
Pacific coast. It was first supposed it would take ten days to get wood enough to prosecute her voyage, and
therefore all the passengers who could took up their quarters on shore. Major Canby relieved me, and took the
place I had held so long as adjutant-general of the Department of California. The time seemed most opportune
for me to leave the service, as I had several splendid offers of employment and of partnership, and,
accordingly, I made my written resignation; but General Smith put his veto upon it, saying that he was to
command the Division of the Pacific, while General Riley was to have the Department of California, and
Colonel Loring that of Oregon. He wanted me as his adjutant-general, because of my familiarity with the
country, and knowledge of its then condition: At the time, he had on his staff Gibbs as aide-de-camp, and
Fitzgerald as quartermaster. He also had along with him quite a retinue of servants, hired with a clear contract
to serve him for a whole year after reaching California, every one of whom deserted, except a young black
fellow named Isaac. Mrs. Smith, a pleasant but delicate Louisiana lady, had a white maid-servant, in whose
fidelity she had unbounded confidence; but this girl was married to a perfect stranger, and off before she had
even landed in San Francisco. It was, therefore, finally arranged that, on the California, I was to accompany
General Smith to San Francisco as his adjutant-general. I accordingly sold some of my horses, and arranged
for others to go up by land; and from that time I became fairly enlisted in the military family of General
Persifer F. Smith.
I parted with my old commander, Colonel Mason, with sincere regret. To me he had ever been kind and
considerate, and, while stern, honest to a fault, he was the very embodiment of the principle of fidelity to the
interests of the General Government. He possessed a native strong intellect, and far more knowledge of the
principles of civil government and law than he got credit for. In private and public expenditures he was
extremely economical, but not penurious. In cases where the officers had to contribute money for parties and
entertainments, he always gave a double share, because of his allowance of double rations. During our
frequent journeys, I was always caterer, and paid all the bills. In settling with him he required a written
statement of the items of account, but never disputed one of them. During our time, California was, as now,
full of a bold, enterprising, and speculative set of men, who were engaged in every sort of game to make
money. I know that Colonel Mason was beset by them to use his position to make a fortune for himself and
his friends; but he never bought land or town-lots, because, he said, it was his place to hold the public estate
for the Government as free and unencumbered by claims as possible; and when I wanted him to stop the
public-land sales in San Francisco, San Jose, etc., he would not; for, although he did not believe the titles
given by the alcaldes worth a cent, yet they aided to settle the towns and public lands, and he thought, on the
whole, the Government would be benefited thereby. The same thing occurred as to the gold-mines. He never
took a title to a town lot, unless it was one, of no real value, from Alcalde Colton, in Monterey, of which I
have never heard since. He did take a share in the store which Warner, Beator, and I, opened at Coloma, paid
his share of the capital, five hundred dollars, and received his share of the profits, fifteen hundred dollars. I
think also he took a share in a venture to China with Larkin and others; but, on leaving California, he was glad
to sell out without profit or loss. In the stern discharge of his duty he made some bitter enemies, among them
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED). 49

Henry M. Naglee, who, in the newspapers of the day, endeavored to damage his fair name. But, knowing him
intimately, I am certain that he is entitled to all praise for having so controlled the affairs of the country that,
when his successor arrived, all things were so disposed that a civil form of government was an easy matter of
adjustment. Colonel Mason was relieved by General Riley some time in April, and left California in the
steamer of the 1st May for Washington and St. Louis, where he died of cholera in the summer of 1850, and his
body is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery. His widow afterward married Major (since General) Don Carlos
Buell, and is now living in Kentucky.
In overhauling the hold of the steamer California, as she lay at anchor in Monterey Bay, a considerable
amount of coal was found under some heavy duplicate machinery. With this, and such wood as had been
gathered, she was able to renew her voyage. The usual signal was made, and we all went on board. About the
1st of March we entered the Heads, and anchored off San Francisco, near the United States line-of-battle-ship
Ohio, Commodore T. Catesby Jones. As was the universal custom of the day, the crew of the California
deserted her; and she lay for months unable to make a trip back to Panama, as was expected of her. As soon as
we reached San Francisco, the first thing was to secure an office and a house to live in. The weather was rainy
and stormy, and snow even lay on the hills back of the Mission. Captain Folsom, the quartermaster, agreed to
surrender for our office the old adobe custom house, on the upper corner of the plaza, as soon as he could
remove his papers and effects down to one of his warehouses on the beach; and he also rented for us as
quarters the old Hudson Bay Company house on Montgomery Street, which had been used by Howard &
Mellua as a store, and at that very time they were moving their goods into a larger brick building just
completed for them. As these changes would take some time, General Smith and Colonel Ogden, with their
wives, accepted the hospitality offered by Commodore Jones on board the Ohio. I opened the office at the
custom house, and Gibbs, Fitzgerald, and some others of us, slept in the loft of the Hudson Bay Company
house until the lower part was cleared of Howard's store, after which General Smith and the ladies moved in.
There we had a general mess, and the efforts at house-keeping were simply ludicrous. One servant after
another, whom General Smith had brought from New Orleans, with a solemn promise to stand by him for one
whole year, deserted without a word of notice or explanation, and in a few days none remained but little Isaac.
The ladies had no maid or attendants; and the general, commanding all the mighty forces of the United States
on the Pacific coast, had to scratch to get one good meal a day for his family! He was a gentleman of fine
social qualities, genial and gentle, and joked at every thing. Poor Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Ogden did not bear it
so philosophically. Gibbs, Fitzgerald, and I, could cruise around and find a meal, which cost three dollars, at
some of the many restaurants which had sprung up out of red-wood boards and cotton lining; but the general
and ladies could not go out, for ladies were rara aves at that day in California. Isaac was cook, chamber-maid,
and everything, thoughtless of himself, and struggling, out of the slimmest means, to compound a breakfast
for a large and hungry family. Breakfast would be announced any time between ten and twelve, and dinner
according to circumstances. Many a time have I seen General Smith, with a can of preserved meat in his
hands, going toward the house, take off his hat on meeting a negro, and, on being asked the reason of his
politeness, he would answer that they were the only real gentlemen in California. I confess that the fidelity of
Colonel Mason's boy "Aaron," and of General Smith's boy "Isaac," at a time when every white man laughed at
promises as something made to be broken, has given me a kindly feeling of respect for the negroes, and makes
me hope that they will find an honorable "status" in the jumble of affairs in which we now live.
That was a dull hard winter in San Francisco; the rains were heavy, and the mud fearful. I have seen mules
stumble in the street, and drown in the liquid mud! Montgomery Street had been filled up with brush and clay,
and I always dreaded to ride on horseback along it, because the mud was so deep that a horse's legs would
become entangled in the bushes below, and the rider was likely to be thrown and drowned in the mud. The
only sidewalks were made of stepping-stones of empty boxes, and here and there a few planks with
barrel-staves nailed on. All the town lay along Montgomery Street, from Sacramento to Jackson, and about
the plaza. Gambling was the chief occupation of the people. While they were waiting for the cessation of the
rainy season, and for the beginning of spring, all sorts of houses were being put up, but of the most flimsy
kind, and all were stores, restaurants, or gambling -saloons. Any room twenty by sixty feet would rent for a

thousand dollars a month. I had, as my pay, seventy dollars a month, and no one would even try to hire a
servant under three hundred dollars. Had it not been for the fifteen hundred dollars I had made in the store at
Coloma, I could not have lived through the winter. About the 1st of April arrived the steamer Oregon; but her
captain (Pearson) knew what was the state of affairs on shore, and ran his steamer alongside the
line-of-battle-ship Ohio at Saucelito, and obtained the privilege of leaving his crew on board as "prisoners"
until he was ready to return to sea. Then, discharging his passengers and getting coal out of some of the ships
which had arrived, he retook his crew out of limbo and carried the first regular mail back to Panama early in
April. In regular order arrived the third steamer, the Panama; and, as the vessels were arriving with coal, The
California was enabled to hire a crew and get off. From that time forward these three ships constituted the
regular line of mail-steamers, which has been kept up ever since. By the steamer Oregon arrived out Major R.
P. Hammond, J. M. Williams, James Blair, and others; also the gentlemen who, with Major Ogden, were to
compose a joint commission to select the sites for the permanent forts and navyyard of California. This
commission was composed of Majors Ogden, Smith, and Leadbetter, of, the army, and Captains
Goldsborough, Van Brunt, and Blunt, of the navy. These officers, after a most careful study of the whole
subject, selected Mare Island for the navy-yard, and "Benicia" for the storehouses and arsenals of the army.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company also selected Benicia as their depot. Thus was again revived the old
struggle for supremacy of these two points as the site of the future city of the Pacific. Meantime, however, San
Francisco had secured the name. About six hundred ships were anchored there without crews, and could not
get away; and there the city was, and had to be.
Nevertheless, General Smith, being disinterested and unprejudiced, decided on Benicia as the point where the
city ought to be, and where the army headquarters should be. By the Oregon there arrived at San Francisco a
man who deserves mention here—Baron Steinberger. He had been a great cattle-dealer in the United States,
and boasted that he had helped to break the United States Bank, by being indebted to it five million dollars! At
all events, he was a splendid looking fellow, and brought with him from Washington a letter to General Smith
and another for Commodore Jones, to the effect that he was a man of enlarged experience in beef; that the
authorities in Washington knew that there existed in California large herds of cattle, which were only valuable
for their hides and tallow; that it was of great importance to the Government that this beef should be cured and
salted so as to be of use to the army and navy, obviating the necessity of shipping salt-beef around Cape Horn.
I know he had such a letter from the Secretary of War, Marcy, to General Smith, for it passed into my
custody, and I happened to be in Commodore Jones's cabin when the baron presented the one for him from the
Secretary of the Navy. The baron was anxious to pitch in at once, and said that all he needed to start with were
salt and barrels. After some inquiries of his purser, the commodore promised to let him have the barrels with
their salt, as fast as they were emptied by the crew. Then the baron explained that he could get a nice lot of
cattle from Don Timoteo Murphy, at the Mission of San Rafael, on the north aide of the bay, but he could not
get a boat and crew to handle them. Under the authority from the Secretary of the Navy, the commodore then
promised him the use of a boat and crew, until he (the baron) could find and purchase a suitable one for
himself. Then the baron opened the first regular butcher-shop in San Francisco, on the wharf about the foot of
Broadway or Pacific Street, where we could buy at twenty-five or fifty cents a pound the best roasts, steaks,
and cuts of beef, which had cost him nothing, for he never paid anybody if he could help it, and he soon
cleaned poor Don Timoteo out. At first, every boat of his, in coming down from the San Rafael, touched at the
Ohio, and left the best beefsteaks and roasts for the commodore, but soon the baron had enough money to
dispense with the borrowed boat, and set up for himself, and from this small beginning, step by step, he rose
in a few months to be one of the richest and most influential men in San Francisco; but in his wild
speculations he was at last caught, and became helplessly bankrupt. He followed General Fremont to St. Louis
in 1861, where I saw him, but soon afterward he died a pauper in one of the hospitals. When General Smith
had his headquarters in San Francisco, in the spring of 1849, Steinberger gave dinners worthy any baron of
old; and when, in after-years, I was a banker there, he used to borrow of me small sums of money in
repayment for my share of these feasts; and somewhere among my old packages I hold one of his confidential
notes for two hundred dollars, but on the whole I got off easily. I have no doubt that, if this man's history
could be written out, it would present phases as wonderful as any of romance; but in my judgment he was a

dangerous man, without any true-sense of honor or honesty.
Little by little the rains of that season grew less and less, and the hills once more became green and covered
with flowers. It became perfectly evident that no family could live in San Francisco on such a salary as Uncle
Sam allowed his most favored officials; so General Smith and Major Ogden concluded to send their families
back to the United States, and afterward we men-folks could take to camp and live on our rations. The Second
Infantry had arrived, and had been distributed, four companies to Monterey, and the rest somewhat as
Stevenson's regiment had been. A. J. Smith's company of dragoons was sent up to Sonoma, whither General
Smith had resolved to move our headquarters. On the steamer which sailed about May 1st (I think the
California), we embarked, the ladies for home and we for Monterey. At Monterey we went on shore, and
Colonel Mason, who meantime had been relieved by General Riley, went on board, and the steamer departed
for Panama. Of all that party I alone am alive.
General Riley had, with his family, taken the house which Colonel Mason had formerly used, and Major
Canby and wife had secured rooms at Alvarado's. Captain Bane was quartermaster, and had his family in the
house of a man named Garner, near the redoubt. Burton and Company F were still at the fort; the four
companies of the Second Infantry were quartered in the barracks, the same building in which we had had our
headquarters; and the company officers were quartered in hired buildings near by. General Smith and his aide,
Captain Gibbs, went to Larkin's house, and I was at my old rooms at Dona Augustias. As we intended to go
back to San Francisco by land and afterward to travel a good deal, General Smith gave me the necessary
authority to fit out the party. There happened to be several trains of horses and mules in town, so I purchased
about a dozen horses and mules at two hundred dollars a head, on account of the Quartermaster's Department,
and we had them kept under guard in the quartermaster's corral.
I remember one night being in the quarters of Lieutenant Alfred Sully, where nearly all the officers of the
garrison were assembled, listening to Sully's stories. Lieutenant Derby, "Squibob," was one of the number, as
also Fred Steele, "Neighbor" Jones, and others, when, just after "tattoo," the orderly-sergeants came to report
the result of "tattoo" roll-call; one reported five men absent, another eight, and so on, until it became certain
that twenty-eight men had deserted; and they were so bold and open in their behavior that it amounted to
defiance. They had deliberately slung their knapsacks and started for the gold-mines. Dr. Murray and I were
the only ones present who were familiar with the country, and I explained how easy they could all be taken by
a party going out at once to Salinas Plain, where the country was so open and level that a rabbit could not
cross without being seen; that the deserters could not go to the mines without crossing that plain, and could
not reach it before daylight. All agreed that the whole regiment would desert if these men were not brought
back. Several officers volunteered on the spot to go after them; and, as the soldiers could not be trusted, it was
useless to send any but officers in pursuit. Some one went to report the affair to the adjutant-general, Canby,
and he to General Riley. I waited some time, and, as the thing grew cold, I thought it was given up, and went
to my room and to bed.
About midnight I was called up and informed that there were seven officers willing to go, but the difficulty
was to get horses and saddles. I went down to Larkin's house and got General Smith to consent that we might
take the horses I had bought for our trip. It was nearly three o'clock a.m. before we were all mounted and
ready. I had a musket which I used for hunting. With this I led off at a canter, followed by the others. About
six miles out, by the faint moon, I saw ahead of us in the sandy road some blue coats, and, fearing lest they
might resist or escape into the dense bushes which lined the road, I halted and found with me Paymaster Hill,
Captain N. H. Davis, and Lieutenant John Hamilton. We waited some time for the others, viz., Canby,
Murray, Gibbs, and Sully, to come up, but as they were not in sight we made a dash up the road and captured
six of the deserters, who were Germans, with heavy knapsacks on, trudging along the deep, sandy road. They
had not expected pursuit, had not heard our horses, and were accordingly easily taken. Finding myself the
senior officer present, I ordered Lieutenant Hamilton to search the men and then to march them back to
Monterey, suspecting, as was the fact, that the rest of our party had taken a road that branched off a couple of

miles back. Daylight broke as we reached the Saunas River, twelve miles out, and there the trail was broad
and fresh leading directly out on the Saunas Plain. This plain is about five miles wide, and then the ground
becomes somewhat broken. The trail continued very plain, and I rode on at a gallop to where there was an old
adobe-ranch on the left of the road, with the head of a lagoon, or pond, close by. I saw one or two of the
soldiers getting water at the pond, and others up near the house. I had the best horse and was considerably
ahead, but on looking back could see Hill and Davis coming up behind at a gallop. I motioned to them to
hurry forward, and turned my horse across the head of the pond, knowing the ground well, as it was a favorite
place for shooting geese and ducks. Approaching the house, I ordered the men who were outside to go in.
They did not know me personally, and exchanged glances, but I had my musket cocked, and, as the two had
seen Davis and Hill coming up pretty fast, they obeyed. Dismounting, I found the house full of deserters, and
there was no escape for them. They naturally supposed that I had a strong party with me, and when I ordered
them to "fall in" they obeyed from habit. By the time Hill and Davis came up I had them formed in two ranks,
the front rank facing about, and I was taking away their bayonets, pistols, etc. We disarmed them, destroying a
musket and several pistols, and, on counting them, we found that we three had taken eighteen, which, added to
the six first captured, made twenty-four. We made them sling their knapsacks and begin their homeward
march. It was near night when we got back, so that these deserters had traveled nearly forty miles since
"tattoo" of the night before. The other party had captured three, so that only one man had escaped. I doubt not
this prevented the desertion of the bulk of the Second Infantry that spring, for at that time so demoralizing was
the effect of the gold-mines that everybody not in the military service justified desertion, because a soldier, if
free, could earn more money in a day than he received per month. Not only did soldiers and sailors desert, but
captains and masters of ships actually abandoned their vessels and cargoes to try their luck at the mines.
Preachers and professors forgot their creeds and took to trade, and even to keeping gambling-houses. I
remember that one of our regular soldiers, named Reese, in deserting stole a favorite double-barreled gun of
mine, and when the orderly-sergeant of the company, Carson, was going on furlough, I asked him when he
came across Reese to try and get my gun back. When he returned he told me that he had found Reese and
offered him a hundred dollars for my gun, but Reese sent me word that he liked the gun, and would not take a
hundred dollars for it. Soldiers or sailors who could reach the mines were universally shielded by the miners,
so that it was next to useless to attempt their recapture. In due season General Persifer Smith, Gibbs, and I,
with some hired packers, started back for San Francisco, and soon after we transferred our headquarters to
Sonoma. About this time Major Joseph Hooker arrived from the East—the regular adjutant-general of the
division—relieved me, and I became thereafter one of General Smith's regular aides-de-camp.
As there was very little to do, General Smith encouraged us to go into any business that would enable us to
make money. R. P. Hammond, James Blair, and I, made a contract to survey for Colonel J. D. Stevenson his
newly-projected city of "New York of the Pacific," situated at the month of the San Joaquin River. The
contract embraced, also, the making of soundings and the marking out of a channel through Suisun Bay. We
hired, in San Francisco, a small metallic boat, with a sail, laid in some stores, and proceeded to the United
States ship Ohio, anchored at Saucelito, where we borrowed a sailor-boy and lead-lines with which to sound
the channel. We sailed up to Benicia, and, at General Smith's request, we surveyed and marked the line
dividing the city of Benicia from the government reserve. We then sounded the bay back and forth, and staked
out the best channel up Suisun Bay, from which Blair made out sailing directions. We then made the
preliminary surveys of the city of "New York of the Pacific," all of which were duly plotted; and for this work
we each received from Stevenson five hundred dollars and ten or fifteen lots. I sold enough lots to make up
another five hundred dollars, and let the balance go; for the city of "New York of the Pacific" never came to
any thing. Indeed, cities at the time were being projected by speculators all round the bay and all over the
country.
While we were surveying at "New York of the Pacific," occurred one of those little events that showed the
force of the gold-fever. We had a sailor-boy with us, about seventeen years old, who cooked our meals and
helped work the boat. Onshore, we had the sail spread so as to shelter us against the wind and dew. One
morning I awoke about daylight, and looked out to see if our sailor-boy was at work getting breakfast; but he

was not at the fire at all. Getting up, I discovered that he had converted a tule-bolsa into a sail boat, and was
sailing for the gold-mines. He was astride this bolsa, with a small parcel of bread and meat done up in a piece
of cloth; another piece of cloth, such as we used for making our signal-stations, he had fixed into a sail; and
with a paddle he was directing his precarious craft right out into the broad bay, to follow the general direction
of the schooners and boats that he knew were ascending the Sacramento River. He was about a hundred yards
from the shore. I jerked up my gun, and hailed him to come back. After a moment's hesitation, he let go his
sheet and began to paddle back. This bolsa was nothing but a bundle of tule, or bullrush, bound together with
grass-ropes in the shape of a cigar, about ten feet long and about two feet through the butt. With these the
California Indiana cross streams of considerable size. When he came ashore, I gave him a good overhauling
for attempting to desert, and put him to work getting breakfast. In due time we returned him to his ship, the
Ohio. Subsequently, I made a bargain with Mr. Hartnell to survey his ranch at Cosnmnes River, Sacramento
Valley. Ord and a young citizen, named Seton, were associated with me in this. I bought of Rodman M. Price
a surveyor's compass, chain, etc., and, in San Francisco, a small wagon and harness. Availing ourselves of a
schooner, chartered to carry Major Miller and two companies of the Second Infantry from San Francisco to
Stockton, we got up to our destination at little cost. I recall an occurrence that happened when the schooner
was anchored in Carquinez Straits, opposite the soldiers' camp on shore. We were waiting for daylight and a
fair wind; the schooner lay anchored at an ebb-tide, and about daylight Ord and I had gone ashore for
something. Just as we were pulling off from shore, we heard the loud shouts of the men, and saw them all
running down toward the water. Our attention thus drawn, we saw something swimming in the water, and
pulled toward it, thinking it a coyote; but we soon recognized a large grizzly bear, swimming directly across
the channel. Not having any weapon, we hurriedly pulled for the schooner, calling out, as we neared it, "A
bear! a bear!" It so happened that Major Miller was on deck, washing his face and hands. He ran rapidly to the
bow of the vessel, took the musket from the hands of the sentinel, and fired at the bear, as he passed but a
short distance ahead of the schooner. The bear rose, made a growl or howl, but continued his course. As we
scrambled up the port-aide to get our guns, the mate, with a crew, happened to have a boat on the
starboard-aide, and, armed only with a hatchet, they pulled up alongside the bear, and the mate struck him in
the head with the hatchet. The bear turned, tried to get into the boat, but the mate struck his claws with
repeated blows, and made him let go. After several passes with him, the mate actually killed the bear, got a
rope round him, and towed him alongside the schooner, where he was hoisted on deck. The carcass weighed
over six hundred pounds. It was found that Major Miller's shot had struck the bear in the lower jaw, and thus
disabled him. Had it not been for this, the bear would certainly have upset the boat and drowned all in it. As it
was, however, his meat served us a good turn in our trip up to Stockton. At Stockton we disembarked our
wagon, provisions, and instruments. There I bought two fine mules at three hundred dollars each, and we
hitched up and started for the Coaumnes River. About twelve miles off was the Mokelumne, a wide, bold
stream, with a canoe as a ferry-boat. We took our wagon to pieces, and ferried it and its contents across, and
then drove our mules into the water. In crossing, one mule became entangled in the rope of the other, and for a
time we thought he was a gone mule; but at last he revived and we hitched up. The mules were both
pack-animals; neither had ever before seen a wagon. Young Seton also was about as green, and had never
handled a mule. We put on the harness, and began to hitch them in, when one of the mules turned his head,
saw the wagon, and started. We held on tight, but the beast did not stop until he had shivered the tongue-pole
into a dozen fragments. The fact was, that Seton had hitched the traces before he had put on the blind-bridle.
There was considerable swearing done, but that would not mend the pole. There was no place nearer than
Sutter's Fort to repair damages, so we were put to our wits' end. We first sent back a mile or so, and bought a
raw-hide. Gathering up the fragments of the pole and cutting the hide into strips, we finished it in the rudest
manner. As long as the hide was green, the pole was very shaky; but gradually the sun dried the hide,
tightened it, and the pole actually held for about a month. This cost us nearly a day of delay; but, when
damages were repaired, we harnessed up again, and reached the crossing of the Cosumnes, where our survey
was to begin. The expediente, or title-papers, of the ranch described it as containing nine or eleven leagues on
the Cosumnes, south side, and between the San Joaquin River and Sierra Nevada Mountains. We began at the
place where the road crosses the Cosumnes, and laid down a line four miles south, perpendicular to the
general direction of the stream; then, surveying up the stream, we marked each mile so as to admit of a

subdivision of one mile by four. The land was dry and very poor, with the exception of here and there some
small pieces of bottom land, the great bulk of the bottom-land occurring on the north side of the stream. We
continued the survey up some twenty miles into the hills above the mill of Dailor and Sheldon. It took about a
month to make this survey, which, when finished, was duly plotted; and for it we received one-tenth of the
land, or two subdivisions. Ord and I took the land, and we paid Seton for his labor in cash. By the sale of my
share of the land, subsequently, I realized three thousand dollars. After finishing Hartnell's survey, we crossed
over to Dailor's, and did some work for him at five hundred dollars a day for the party. Having finished our
work on the Cosumnes, we proceeded to Sacramento, where Captain Sutter employed us to connect the survey
of Sacramento City, made by Lieutenant Warner, and that of Sutterville, three miles below, which was then
being surveyed by Lieutenant J. W. Davidson, of the First Dragoons. At Sutterville, the plateau of the
Sacramento approached quite near the river, and it would have made a better site for a town than the low,
submerged land where the city now stands; but it seems to be a law of growth that all natural advantages are
disregarded wherever once business chooses a location. Old Sutter's embarcadero became Sacramento City,
simply because it was the first point used for unloading boats for Sutter's Fort, just as the site for San
Francisco was fixed by the use of Yerba Buena as the hide-landing for the Mission of "San Francisco de
Asis."
I invested my earnings in this survey in three lots in Sacramento City, on which I made a fair profit by a sale
to one McNulty, of Mansfield, Ohio. I only had a two months' leave of absence, during which General Smith,
his staff, and a retinue of civil friends, were making a tour of the gold-mines, and hearing that he was en route
back to his headquarters at Sonoma, I knocked off my work, sold my instruments, and left my wagon and
mules with my cousin Charley Hoyt, who had a store in Sacramento, and was on the point of moving up to a
ranch, for which he had bargained, on Bear Creek, on which was afterward established Camp "Far West." He
afterward sold the mules, wagon, etc., for me, and on the whole I think I cleared, by those two months' work,
about six thousand dollars. I then returned to headquarters at Sonoma, in time to attend my fellow
aide-de-camp Gibbs through a long and dangerous sickness, during which he was on board a store-ship,
guarded by Captain George Johnson, who now resides in San Francisco. General Smith had agreed that on the
first good opportunity he would send me to the United States as a bearer of dispatches, but this he could not
do until he had made the examination of Oregon, which was also in his command. During the summer of 1849
there continued to pour into California a perfect stream of people. Steamers came, and a line was established
from San Francisco to Sacramento, of which the Senator was the pioneer, charging sixteen dollars a passage,
and actually coining money. Other boats were built, out of materials which had either come around Cape Horn
or were brought from the Sandwich Islands. Wharves were built, houses were springing up as if by magic, and
the Bay of San Francisco presented as busy a scene of life as any part of the world. Major Allen, of the
Quartermaster's Department, who had come out as chief-quartermaster of the division, was building a large
warehouse at Benicia, with a row of quarters, out of lumber at one hundred dollars per thousand feet, and the
work was done by men at sixteen dollars a day. I have seen a detailed soldier, who got only his monthly pay
of eight dollars a month, and twenty cents a day for extra duty, nailing on weather-boards and shingles,
alongside a citizen who was paid sixteen dollars a day. This was a real injustice, made the soldiers
discontented, and it was hardly to be wondered at that so many deserted.
While the mass of people were busy at gold and in mammoth speculations, a set of busy politicians were at
work to secure the prizes of civil government. Gwin and Fremont were there, and T. Butler King, of Georgia,
had come out from the East, scheming for office. He staid with us at Sonoma, and was generally regarded as
the Government candidate for United States Senator. General Riley as Governor, and Captain Halleck as
Secretary of State, had issued a proclamation for the election of a convention to frame a State constitution. In
due time the elections were held, and the convention was assembled at Monterey. Dr. Semple was elected
president; and Gwin, Sutter, Halleck, Butler King, Sherwood, Gilbert, Shannon, and others, were members.
General Smith took no part in this convention, but sent me down to watch the proceedings, and report to him.
The only subject of interest was the slavery question. There were no slaves then in California, save a few who
had come out as servants, but the Southern people at that time claimed their share of territory, out of that

acquired by the common labors of all sections of the Union in the war with Mexico. Still, in California there
was little feeling on the subject. I never heard General Smith, who was a Louisianian, express any opinion
about it. Nor did Butler King, of Georgia, ever manifest any particular interest in the matter. A committee was
named to draft a constitution, which in due time was reported, with the usual clause, then known as the
Wilmot Proviso, excluding slavery; and during the debate which ensued very little opposition was made to
this clause, which was finally adopted by a large majority, although the convention was made up in large part
of men from our Southern States. This matter of California being a free State, afterward, in the national
Congress, gave rise to angry debates, which at one time threatened civil war. The result of the convention was
the election of State officers, and of the Legislature which sat in San Jose in October and November, 1849,
and which elected Fremont and Gwin as the first United States Senators in Congress from the Pacific coast.
Shortly after returning from Monterey, I was sent by General Smith up to Sacramento City to instruct
Lieutenants Warner and Williamson, of the Engineers, to push their surveys of the Sierra Nevada Mountains,
for the purpose of ascertaining the possibility of passing that range by a railroad, a subject that then elicited
universal interest. It was generally assumed that such a road could not be made along any of the immigrant
roads then in use, and Warner's orders were to look farther north up the Feather River, or some one of its
tributaries. Warner was engaged in this survey during the summer and fall of 1849, and had explored, to the
very end of Goose Lake, the source of Feather River. Then, leaving Williamson with the baggage and part of
the men, he took about ten men and a first-rate guide, crossed the summit to the east, and had turned south,
having the range of mountains on his right hand, with the intention of regaining his camp by another pass in
the mountain. The party was strung out, single file, with wide spaces between, Warner ahead. He had just
crossed a small valley and ascended one of the spurs covered with sage-brush and rocks, when a band of
Indians rose up and poured in a shower of arrows. The mule turned and ran back to the valley, where Warner
fell off dead, punctured by five arrows. The mule also died. The guide, who was near to Warner, was mortally
wounded; and one or two men had arrows in their bodies, but recovered. The party gathered about Warner's
body, in sight of the Indians, who whooped and yelled, but did not venture away from their cover of rocks.
This party of men remained there all day without burying the bodies, and at night, by a wide circuit, passed
the mountain, and reached Williamson's camp. The news of Warner's death cast a gloom over all the old
Californians, who knew him well. He was a careful, prudent, and honest officer, well qualified for his
business, and extremely accurate in all his work. He and I had been intimately associated during our four
years together in California, and I felt his loss deeply. The season was then too far advanced to attempt to
avenge his death, and it was not until the next spring that a party was sent out to gather up and bury his
scattered bones.
As winter approached, the immigrants overland came pouring into California, dusty and worn with their two
thousand miles of weary travel across the plains and mountains. Those who arrived in October and November
reported thousands still behind them, with oxen perishing, and short of food. Appeals were made for help, and
General Smith resolved to attempt relief. Major Rucker, who had come across with Pike. Graham's Battalion
of Dragoons, had exchanged with Major Fitzgerald, of the Quartermaster's Department, and was detailed to
conduct this relief. General Smith ordered him to be supplied with one hundred thousand dollars out of the
civil fund, subject to his control, and with this to purchase at Sacramento flour, bacon, etc., and to hire men
and mules to send out and meet the immigrants. Major Rucker fulfilled this duty perfectly, sending out
pack-trains loaded with food by the many routes by which the immigrants were known to be approaching,
went out himself with one of these trains, and remained in the mountains until the last immigrant had got in.
No doubt this expedition saved many a life which has since been most useful to the country. I remained at
Sacramento a good part of the fall of 1849, recognizing among the immigrants many of my old personal
friends—John C. Fall, William King, Sam Stambaugh, Hugh Ewing, Hampton Denman, etc. I got Rucker to
give these last two employment along with the train for the relief of the immigrants. They had proposed to
begin a ranch on my land on the Cosumnes, but afterward changed their minds, and went out with Rucker.

While I was at Sacramento General Smith had gone on his contemplated trip to Oregon, and promised that he
would be back in December, when he would send me home with dispatches. Accordingly, as the winter and
rainy season was at hand, I went to San Francisco, and spent some time at the Presidio, waiting patiently for
General Smith's return. About Christmas a vessel arrived from Oregon with the dispatches, and an order for
me to deliver them in person to General Winfield Scott, in New York City. General Smith had sent them
down, remaining in Oregon for a time. Of course I was all ready, and others of our set were going home by
the same conveyance, viz., Rucker, Ord, A. J. Smith—some under orders, and the others on leave. Wanting to
see my old friends in Monterey, I arranged for my passage in the steamer of January 1, 1850, paying six
hundred dollars for passage to New York, and went down to Monterey by land, Rucker accompanying me.
The weather was unusually rainy, and all the plain about Santa Clara was under water; but we reached
Monterey in time. I again was welcomed by my friends, Dona Augustias, Manuelita, and the family, and it
was resolved that I should take two of the boys home with me and put them at Georgetown College for
education, viz., Antonio and Porfirio, thirteen and eleven years old. The dona gave me a bag of gold-dust to
pay for their passage and to deposit at the college. On the 2d day of January punctually appeared the steamer
Oregon.
We were all soon on board and off for home. At that time the steamers touched at San Diego, Acapulco, and
Panama. Our passage down the coast was unusually pleasant. Arrived at Panama, we hired mules and rode
across to Gorgona, on the Cruces River, where we hired a boat and paddled down to the mouth of the river,
off which lay the steamer Crescent City. It usually took four days to cross the isthmus, every passenger taking
care of himself, and it was really funny to watch the efforts of women and men unaccustomed to mules. It was
an old song to us, and the trip across was easy and interesting. In due time we were rowed off to the Crescent
City, rolling back and forth in the swell, and we scrambled aboard by a "Jacob's ladder" from the stern. Some
of the women had to be hoisted aboard by lowering a tub from the end of a boom; fun to us who looked on,
but awkward enough to the poor women, especially to a very fat one, who attracted much notice. General
Fremont, wife and child (Lillie) were passengers with us down from San Francisco; but Mrs. Fremont not
being well, they remained over one trip at Panama.
Senator Gwin was one of our passengers, and went through to New York. We reached New York about the
close of January, after a safe and pleasant trip. Our party, composed of Ord, A. J. Smith, and Rucker, with the
two boys, Antonio and Porfirio, put up at Delmonico's, on Bowling Green; and, as soon as we had cleaned up
somewhat, I took a carriage, went to General Scott's office in Ninth Street, delivered my dispatches, was
ordered to dine with him next day, and then went forth to hunt up my old friends and relations, the Scotts,
Hoyts, etc., etc.
On reaching New York, most of us had rough soldier's clothing, but we soon got a new outfit, and I dined
with General Scott's family, Mrs. Scott being present, and also their son-in-law and daughter (Colonel and
Mrs. H. L. Scott). The general questioned me pretty closely in regard to things on the Pacific coast, especially
the politics, and startled me with the assertion that "our country was on the eve of a terrible civil war." He
interested me by anecdotes of my old army comrades in his recent battles around the city of Mexico, and I felt
deeply the fact that our country had passed through a foreign war, that my comrades had fought great battles,
and yet I had not heard a hostile shot. Of course, I thought it the last and only chance in my day, and that my
career as a soldier was at an end. After some four or five days spent in New York, I was, by an order of
General Scott, sent to Washington, to lay before the Secretary of War (Crawford, of Georgia) the dispatches
which I had brought from California. On reaching Washington, I found that Mr. Ewing was Secretary of the
Interior, and I at once became a member of his family. The family occupied the house of Mr. Blair, on
Pennsylvania Avenue, directly in front of the War Department. I immediately repaired to the War Department,
and placed my dispatches in the hands of Mr. Crawford, who questioned me somewhat about California, but
seemed little interested in the subject, except so far as it related to slavery and the routes through Texas. I then
went to call on the President at the White House. I found Major Bliss, who had been my teacher in
mathematics at West Point, and was then General Taylor's son-in-law and private secretary. He took me into

the room, now used by the President's private secretaries, where President Taylor was. I had never seen him
before, though I had served under him in Florida in 1840-'41, and was most agreeably surprised at his fine
personal appearance, and his pleasant, easy manners. He received me with great kindness, told me that
Colonel Mason had mentioned my name with praise, and that he would be pleased to do me any act of favor.
We were with him nearly an hour, talking about California generally, and of his personal friends, Persifer
Smith, Riley, Canby, and others: Although General Scott was generally regarded by the army as the most
accomplished soldier of the Mexican War, yet General Taylor had that blunt, honest, and stern character, that
endeared him to the masses of the people, and made him President. Bliss, too, had gained a large fame by his
marked skill and intelligence as an adjutant-general and military adviser. His manner was very unmilitary, and
in his talk he stammered and hesitated, so as to make an unfavorable impression on a stranger; but he was
wonderfully accurate and skillful with his pen, and his orders and letters form a model of military precision
and clearness.
CHAPTER IV.
MISSOURI, LOUISIANA, AND CALIFORNIA
1850-1855.
Having returned from California in January, 1850, with dispatches for the War Department, and having
delivered them in person first to General Scott in New York City, and afterward to the Secretary of War
(Crawford) in Washington City, I applied for and received a leave of absence for six months. I first visited my
mother, then living at Mansfield, Ohio, and returned to Washington, where, on the 1st day of May, 1850, I
was married to Miss Ellen Boyle Ewing, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Interior. The
marriage ceremony was attended by a large and distinguished company, embracing Daniel Webster, Henry
Clay, T. H. Benton, President Taylor, and all his cabinet. This occurred at the house of Mr. Ewing, the same
now owned and occupied by Mr. F. P. Blair, senior, on Pennsylvania Avenue, opposite the War Department.
We made a wedding tour to Baltimore, New York, Niagara, and Ohio, and returned to Washington by the 1st
of July. General Taylor participated in the celebration of the Fourth of July, a very hot day, by hearing a long
speech from the Hon. Henry S. Foote, at the base of the Washington Monument. Returning from the
celebration much heated and fatigued, he partook too freely of his favorite iced milk with cherries, and during
that night was seized with a severe colic, which by morning had quite prostrated him. It was said that he sent
for his son-in-law, Surgeon Wood, United States Army, stationed in Baltimore, and declined medical
assistance from anybody else. Mr. Ewing visited him several times, and was manifestly uneasy and anxious,
as was also his son-in-law, Major Bliss, then of the army, and his confidential secretary. He rapidly grew
worse, and died in about four days.
At that time there was a high state of political feeling pervading the country, on account of the questions
growing out of the new Territories just acquired from Mexico by the war. Congress was in session, and
CHAPTER IV. 58
General Taylor's sudden death evidently created great alarm. I was present in the Senate-gallery, and saw the
oath of office administered to the Vice-President, Mr. Fillmore, a man of splendid physical proportions and
commanding appearance; but on the faces of Senators and people could easily be read the feelings of doubt
and uncertainty that prevailed. All knew that a change in the cabinet and general policy was likely to result,
but at the time it was supposed that Mr. Fillmore, whose home was in Buffalo, would be less liberal than
General Taylor to the politicians of the South, who feared, or pretended to fear, a crusade against slavery; or,
as was the political cry of the day, that slavery would be prohibited in the Territories and in the places
exclusively under the jurisdiction of the United States. Events, however, proved the contrary.
I attended General Taylor's funeral as a sort of aide-decamp, at the request of the Adjutant-General of the
army, Roger Jones, whose brother, a militia-general, commanded the escort, composed of militia and some
regulars. Among the regulars I recall the names of Captains John Sedgwick and W. F. Barry.
Hardly was General Taylor decently buried in the Congressional Cemetery when the political struggle
recommenced, and it became manifest that Mr. Fillmore favored the general compromise then known as
Henry Clay's "Omnibus Bill," and that a general change of cabinet would at once occur: Webster was to
succeed Mr. Clayton as Secretary of State, Corwin to succeed Mr. Meredith as Secretary of the Treasury, and
A. H. H. Stuart to succeed Mr. Ewing as Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Ewing, however, was immediately
appointed by the Governor of the State to succeed Corwin in the Senate. These changes made it necessary for
Mr. Ewing to discontinue house-keeping, and Mr. Corwin took his home and furniture off his hands. I
escorted the family out to their home in Lancaster, Ohio; but, before this had occurred, some most interesting
debates took place in the Senate, which I regularly attended, and heard Clay, Benton, Foots, King of Alabama,
Dayton, and the many real orators of that day. Mr. Calhoun was in his seat, but he was evidently approaching
his end, for he was pale and feeble in the extreme. I heard Mr. Webster's last speech on the floor of the Senate,
under circumstances that warrant a description. It was publicly known that he was to leave the Senate, and
enter the new cabinet of Mr. Fillmore, as his Secretary of State, and that prior to leaving he was to make a
great speech on the "Omnibus Bill." Resolved to hear it, I went up to the Capitol on the day named, an hour or
so earlier than usual. The speech was to be delivered in the old Senate-chamber, now used by the Supreme
Court. The galleries were much smaller than at present, and I found them full to overflowing, with a dense
crowd about the door, struggling to reach the stairs. I could not get near, and then tried the reporters' gallery,
but found it equally crowded; so I feared I should lose the only possible opportunity to hear Mr. Webster.
I had only a limited personal acquaintance with any of the Senators, but had met Mr. Corwin quite often at
Mr. Ewing's house, and I also knew that he had been extremely friendly to my father in his lifetime; so I
ventured to send in to him my card, "W. T. S., First-Lieutenant, Third Artillery." He came to the door
promptly, when I said, "Mr. Corwin, I believe Mr. Webster is to speak to-day." His answer was, "Yes, he has
the floor at one o'clock." I then added that I was extremely anxious to hear him. "Well," said he, "why don't
you go into the gallery?" I explained that it was full, and I had tried every access, but found all jammed with
people. "Well," said he, "what do you want of me?" I explained that I would like him to take me on the floor
of the Senate; that I had often seen from the gallery persons on the floor, no better entitled to it than I. He then
asked in his quizzical way, "Are you a foreign embassador?" "No." "Are you the Governor of a State?" "No."
"Are you a member of the other House?" "Certainly not" "Have you ever had a vote of thanks by name?"
"No!" "Well, these are the only privileged members." I then told him he knew well enough who I was, and
that if he chose he could take me in. He then said, "Have you any impudence?" I told him, "A reasonable
amount if occasion called for it." "Do you think you could become so interested in my conversation as not to
notice the door-keeper?" (pointing to him). I told him that there was not the least doubt of it, if he would tell
me one of his funny stories. He then took my arm, and led me a turn in the vestibule, talking about some
indifferent matter, but all the time directing my looks to his left hand, toward which he was gesticulating with
his right; and thus we approached the door-keeper, who began asking me, "Foreign ambassador? Governor of
a State? Member of Congress?" etc.; but I caught Corwin's eye, which said plainly, "Don't mind him, pay
attention to me," and in this way we entered the Senate-chamber by a side-door. Once in, Corwin said, "Now
MISSOURI, LOUISIANA, AND CALIFORNIA 59

you can take care of yourself," and I thanked him cordially.
I found a seat close behind Mr. Webster, and near General Scott, and heard the whole of the speech. It was
heavy in the extreme, and I confess that I was disappointed and tired long before it was finished. No doubt the
speech was full of fact and argument, but it had none of the fire of oratory, or intensity of feeling, that marked
all of Mr. Clay's efforts.
Toward the end of July, as before stated, all the family went home to Lancaster. Congress was still in session,
and the bill adding four captains to the Commissary Department had not passed, but was reasonably certain to,
and I was equally sure of being one of them. At that time my name was on the muster-roll of (Light) Company
C, Third Artillery (Bragg's), stationed at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis. But, as there was cholera at St.
Louis, on application, I was permitted to delay joining my company until September. Early in that month, I
proceeded to Cincinnati, and thence by steamboat to St. Louis, and then to Jefferson Barracks, where I
reported for duty to Captain and Brevet-Colonel Braxton Bragg, commanding (Light) Company C, Third
Artillery. The other officers of the company were First-Lieutenant James A. Hardie, and afterward Haekaliah
Brown. New horses had just been purchased for the battery, and we were preparing for work, when the mail
brought the orders announcing the passage of the bill increasing the Commissary Department by four captains,
to which were promoted Captains Shiras, Blair, Sherman, and Bowen. I was ordered to take post at St. Louis,
and to relieve Captain A. J. Smith, First Dragoons, who had been acting in that capacity for some months. My
commission bore date September 27,1850. I proceeded forthwith to the city, relieved Captain Smith, and
entered on the discharge of the duties of the office.
Colonel N. S. Clarke, Sixth Infantry, commanded the department; Major D. C. Buell was adjutant-general,
and Captain W. S. Hancock was regimental quartermaster; Colonel Thomas Swords was the depot
quartermaster, and we had our offices in the same building, on the corner of Washington Avenue and Second.
Subsequently Major S. Van Vliet relieved Colonel Swords. I remained at the Planters' House until my family
arrived, when we occupied a house on Chouteau Avenue, near Twelfth.
During the spring and summer of 1851, Mr. Ewing and Mr. Henry Stoddard, of Dayton, Ohio, a cousin of my
father, were much in St. Louis, on business connected with the estate of Major Amos Stoddard, who was of
the old army, as early as the beginning of this century. He was stationed at the village of St. Louis at the time
of the Louisiana purchase, and when Lewis and Clarke made their famous expedition across the continent to
the Columbia River. Major Stoddard at that early day had purchased a small farm back of the village, of some
Spaniard or Frenchman, but, as he was a bachelor, and was killed at Fort Meigs, Ohio, during the War of
1812, the title was for many years lost sight of, and the farm was covered over by other claims and by
occupants. As St. Louis began to grow, his brothers and sisters, and their descendants, concluded to look up
the property. After much and fruitless litigation, they at last retained Mr. Stoddard, of Dayton, who in turn
employed Mr. Ewing, and these, after many years of labor, established the title, and in the summer of 1851
they were put in possession by the United States marshal. The ground was laid off, the city survey extended
over it, and the whole was sold in partition. I made some purchases, and acquired an interest, which I have
retained more or less ever since.
We continued to reside in St. Louis throughout the year 1851, and in the spring of 1852 I had occasion to visit
Fort Leavenworth on duty, partly to inspect a lot of cattle which a Mr. Gordon, of Cass County, had
contracted to deliver in New Mexico, to enable Colonel Sumner to attempt his scheme of making the soldiers
in New Mexico self-supporting, by raising their own meat, and in a measure their own vegetables. I found
Fort Leavenworth then, as now, a most beautiful spot, but in the midst of a wild Indian country. There were no
whites settled in what is now the State of Kansas. Weston, in Missouri, was the great town, and speculation in
town-lots there and thereabout burnt the fingers of some of the army-officers, who wanted to plant their scanty
dollars in a fruitful soil. I rode on horseback over to Gordon's farm, saw the cattle, concluded the bargain, and
returned by way of Independence, Missouri. At Independence I found F. X. Aubrey, a noted man of that day,

who had just made a celebrated ride of six hundred miles in six days. That spring the United States
quartermaster, Major L. C. Easton, at Fort Union, New Mexico, had occasion to send some message east by a
certain date, and contracted with Aubrey to carry it to the nearest post-office (then Independence, Missouri),
making his compensation conditional on the time consumed. He was supplied with a good horse, and an order
on the outgoing trains for an exchange. Though the whole route was infested with hostile Indians, and not a
house on it, Aubrey started alone with his rifle. He was fortunate in meeting several outward-bound trains, and
there, by made frequent changes of horses, some four or five, and reached Independence in six days, having
hardly rested or slept the whole way. Of course, he was extremely fatigued, and said there was an opinion
among the wild Indians that if a man "sleeps out his sleep," after such extreme exhaustion, he will never
awake; and, accordingly, he instructed his landlord to wake him up after eight hours of sleep. When aroused at
last, he saw by the clock that he had been asleep twenty hours, and he was dreadfully angry, threatened to
murder his landlord, who protested he had tried in every way to get him up, but found it impossible, and had
let him "sleep it out" Aubrey, in describing his sensations to me, said he took it for granted he was a dead
man; but in fact he sustained no ill effects, and was off again in a few days. I met him afterward often in
California, and always esteemed him one of the best samples of that bold race of men who had grown up on
the Plains, along with the Indians, in the service of the fur companies. He was afterward, in 1856, killed by R.
C. Weightman, in a bar-room row, at Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he had just arrived from California.
In going from Independence to Fort Leavenworth, I had to swim Milk Creek, and sleep all night in a Shawnee
camp. The next day I crossed the Kaw or Kansas River in a ferry boat, maintained by the blacksmith of the
tribe, and reached the fort in the evening. At that day the whole region was unsettled, where now exist many
rich counties, highly cultivated, embracing several cities of from ten to forty thousand inhabitants. From Fort
Leavenworth I returned by steamboat to St. Louis.
In the summer of 1852, my family went to Lancaster, Ohio; but I remained at my post. Late in the season, it
was rumored that I was to be transferred to New Orleans, and in due time I learned the cause. During a part of
the Mexican War, Major Seawell, of the Seventh Infantry, had been acting commissary of subsistence at New
Orleans, then the great depot of supplies for the troops in Texas, and of those operating beyond the Rio
Grande. Commissaries at that time were allowed to purchase in open market, and were not restricted to
advertising and awarding contracts to the lowest bidders. It was reported that Major Seawell had purchased
largely of the house of Perry Seawell & Co., Mr. Seawell being a relative of his. When he was relieved in his
duties by Major Waggman, of the regular Commissary Department, the latter found Perry Seawell & Co. so
prompt and satisfactory that he continued the patronage; for which there was a good reason, because stores for
the use of the troops at remote posts had to be packed in a particular way, to bear transportation in wagons, or
even on pack-mules; and this firm had made extraordinary preparations for this exclusive purpose. Some time
about 1849, a brother of Major Waggaman, who had been clerk to Captain Casey, commissary of subsistence,
at Tampa Bay, Florida, was thrown out of office by the death of the captain, and he naturally applied to his
brother in New Orleans for employment; and he, in turn, referred him to his friends, Messrs. Perry Seawell &
Co. These first employed him as a clerk, and afterward admitted him as a partner. Thus it resulted, in fact, that
Major Waggaman was dealing largely, if not exclusively, with a firm of which his brother was a partner.
One day, as General Twiggs was coming across Lake Pontchartrain, he fell in with one of his old cronies, who
was an extensive grocer. This gentleman gradually led the conversation to the downward tendency of the
times since he and Twiggs were young, saying that, in former years, all the merchants of New Orleans had a
chance at government patronage; but now, in order to sell to the army commissary, one had to take a brother
in as a partner. General Twiggs resented this, but the merchant again affirmed it, and gave names. As soon as
General Twiggs reached his office, he instructed his adjutant-general, Colonel Bliss—who told me this—to
address a categorical note of inquiry to Major Waggaman. The major very frankly stated the facts as they had
arisen, and insisted that the firm of Perry Seawell & Co. had enjoyed a large patronage, but deserved it richly
by reason of their promptness, fairness, and fidelity. The correspondence was sent to Washington, and the
result was, that Major Waggaman was ordered to St. Louis, and I was ordered to New Orleans.

I went down to New Orleans in a steamboat in the month of September, 1852, taking with me a clerk, and, on
arrival, assumed the office, in a bank-building facing Lafayette Square, in which were the offices of all the
army departments. General D. Twiggs was in command of the department, with Colonel W. W. S. Bliss
(son-in-law of General Taylor) as his adjutant-general. Colonel A. C. Myers was quartermaster, Captain John
F. Reynolds aide-de-camp, and Colonel A. J. Coffee paymaster. I took rooms at the St. Louis Hotel, kept by a
most excellent gentleman, Colonel Mudge.
Mr. Perry Seawell came to me in person, soliciting a continuance of the custom which he had theretofore
enjoyed; but I told him frankly that a change was necessary, and I never saw or heard of him afterward. I
simply purchased in open market, arranged for the proper packing of the stores, and had not the least difficulty
in supplying the troops and satisfying the head of the department in Washington.
About Christmas, I had notice that my family, consisting of Mrs. Sherman, two children, and nurse, with my
sister Fanny (now Mrs. Moulton, of Cincinnati, Ohio), were en route for New Orleans by steam-packet; so I
hired a house on Magazine Street, and furnished it. Almost at the moment of their arrival, also came from St.
Louis my personal friend Major Turner, with a parcel of documents, which, on examination, proved to be
articles of copartnership for a bank in California under the title of "Lucas, Turner & Co.," in which my name
was embraced as a partner. Major Turner was, at the time, actually en route for New York, to embark for San
Francisco, to inaugurate the bank, in the nature of a branch of the firm already existing at St. Louis under the
name of "Lucas & Symonds." We discussed the matter very fully, and he left with me the papers for
reflection, and went on to New York and California.
Shortly after arrived James H. Lucas, Esq., the principal of the banking-firm in St. Louis, a most honorable
and wealthy gentleman. He further explained the full programme of the branch in California; that my name
had been included at the insistence of Major Turner, who was a man of family and property in St. Louis,
unwilling to remain long in San Francisco, and who wanted me to succeed him there. He offered me a very
tempting income, with an interest that would accumulate and grow. He also disclosed to me that, in
establishing a branch in California, he was influenced by the apparent prosperity of Page, Bacon & Co., and
further that he had received the principal data, on which he had founded the scheme, from B. R. Nisbet, who
was then a teller in the firm of Page, Bacon & Co., of San Francisco; that he also was to be taken in as a
partner, and was fully competent to manage all the details of the business; but, as Nisbet was comparatively
young, Mr. Lucas wanted me to reside in San Francisco permanently, as the head of the firm. All these
matters were fully discussed, and I agreed to apply for a six months' leave of absence, go to San Francisco, see
for myself, and be governed by appearances there. I accordingly, with General Twiggs's approval, applied to
the adjutant-general for a six months' leave, which was granted; and Captain John F. Reynolds was named to
perform my duties during my absence.
During the stay of my family in New Orleans, we enjoyed the society of the families of General Twiggs,
Colonel Myers, and Colonel Bliss, as also of many citizens, among whom was the wife of Mr. Day, sister to
my brother-in-law, Judge Bartley. General Twiggs was then one of the oldest officers of the army. His history
extended back to the War of 1812, and he had served in early days with General Jackson in Florida and in the
Creek campaigns. He had fine powers of description, and often entertained us, at his office, with accounts of
his experiences in the earlier settlements of the Southwest. Colonel Bliss had been General Taylor's adjutant
in the Mexican War, and was universally regarded as one of the most finished and accomplished scholars in
the army, and his wife was a most agreeable and accomplished lady.
Late in February, I dispatched my family up to Ohio in the steamboat Tecumseh (Captain Pearce); disposed of
my house and furniture; turned over to Major Reynolds the funds, property, and records of the office; and took
passage in a small steamer for Nicaragua,, en route for California. We embarked early in March, and in seven
days reached Greytown, where we united with the passengers from New York, and proceeded, by the
Nicaragua River and Lake, for the Pacific Ocean. The river was low, and the little steam canal-boats, four in

number, grounded often, so that the passengers had to get into the water, to help them over the bare. In all
there were about six hundred passengers, of whom about sixty were women and children. In four days we
reached Castillo, where there is a decided fall, passed by a short railway, and above this fall we were
transferred to a larger boat, which carried us up the rest of the river, and across the beautiful lake Nicaragua,
studded with volcanic islands. Landing at Virgin Bay, we rode on mules across to San Juan del Sur, where lay
at anchor the propeller S. S. Lewis (Captain Partridge, I think). Passengers were carried through the surf by
natives to small boats, and rowed off to the Lewis. The weather was very hot, and quite a scramble followed
for state-rooms, especially for those on deck. I succeeded in reaching the purser's office, got my ticket for a
berth in one of the best state-rooms on deck, and, just as I was turning from the window, a lady who was a
fellow-passenger from New Orleans, a Mrs. D-, called to me to secure her and her lady friend berths on deck,
saying that those below were unendurable. I spoke to the purser, who, at the moment perplexed by the crowd
and clamor, answered: "I must put their names down for the other two berths of your state-room; but, as soon
as the confusion is over, I will make some change whereby you shall not suffer." As soon as these two women
were assigned to a state-room, they took possession, and I was left out. Their names were recorded as
"Captain Sherman and ladies." As soon as things were quieted down I remonstrated with the purser, who at
last gave me a lower berth in another and larger state-room on deck, with five others, so that my two ladies
had the state-room all to themselves. At every meal the steward would come to me, and say, "Captain
Sherman, will you bring your ladies to the table?" and we had the best seats in the ship.
This continued throughout the voyage, and I assert that "my ladies" were of the most modest and best-behaved
in the ship; but some time after we had reached San Francisco one of our fellow-passengers came to me and
inquired if I personally knew Mrs. D—-, with flaxen tresses, who sang so sweetly for us, and who had come
out under my especial escort. I replied I did not, more than the chance acquaintance of the voyage, and what
she herself had told me, viz., that she expected to meet her husband, who lived about Mokelumne Hill. He
then informed me that she was a woman of the town. Society in California was then decidedly mixed. In due
season the steamship Lewis got under weigh. She was a wooden ship, long and narrow, bark-rigged, and a
propeller; very slow, moving not over eight miles an hour. We stopped at Acapulco, and, in eighteen days,
passed in sight of Point Pinoa at Monterey, and at the speed we were traveling expected to reach San
Francisco at 4 A. M. the next day. The cabin passengers, as was usual, bought of the steward some champagne
and cigars, and we had a sort of ovation for the captain, purser, and surgeon of the ship, who were all very
clever fellows, though they had a slow and poor ship. Late at night all the passengers went to bed, expecting
to enter the port at daylight. I did not undress, as I thought the captain could and would run in at night, and I
lay down with my clothes on. About 4 A. M. I was awakened by a bump and sort of grating of the vessel,
which I thought was our arrival at the wharf in San Francisco; but instantly the ship struck heavily; the
engines stopped, and the running to and fro on deck showed that something was wrong. In a moment I was out
of my state-room, at the bulwark, holding fast to a stanchion, and looking over the side at the white and
seething water caused by her sudden and violent stoppage. The sea was comparatively smooth, the night
pitch-dark, and the fog deep and impenetrable; the ship would rise with the swell, and come down with a
bump and quiver that was decidedly unpleasant. Soon the passengers were out of their rooms, undressed,
calling for help, and praying as though the ship were going to sink immediately. Of course she could not sink,
being already on the bottom, and the only question was as to the strength of hull to stand the bumping and
straining. Great confusion for a time prevailed, but soon I realized that the captain had taken all proper
precautions to secure his boats, of which there were six at the davits. These are the first things that
steerage-passengers make for in case of shipwreck, and right over my head I heard the captain's voice say in a
low tone, but quite decided: "Let go that falls, or, damn you, I'll blow your head off!" This seemingly harsh
language gave me great comfort at the time, and on saying so to the captain afterward, he explained that it was
addressed to a passenger who attempted to lower one of the boats. Guards, composed of the crew, were soon
posted to prevent any interference with the boats, and the officers circulated among the passengers the report
that there was no immediate danger; that, fortunately, the sea was smooth; that we were simply aground, and
must quietly await daylight.

They advised the passengers to keep quiet, and the ladies and children to dress and sit at the doors of their
state-rooms, there to await the advice and action of the officers of the ship, who were perfectly cool and
self-possessed. Meantime the ship was working over a reef-for a time I feared she would break in two; but, as
the water gradually rose inside to a level with the sea outside, the ship swung broadside to the swell, and all
her keel seemed to rest on the rock or sand. At no time did the sea break over the deck—but the water below
drove all the people up to the main-deck and to the promenade-deck, and thus we remained for about three
hours, when daylight came; but there was a fog so thick that nothing but water could be seen. The captain
caused a boat to be carefully lowered, put in her a trustworthy officer with a boat-compass, and we saw her
depart into the fog. During her absence the ship's bell was kept tolling. Then the fires were all out, the ship
full of water, and gradually breaking up, wriggling with every swell like a willow basket—the sea all round us
full of the floating fragments of her sheeting, twisted and torn into a spongy condition. In less than an hour the
boat returned, saying that the beach was quite near, not more than a mile away, and had a good place for
landing. All the boats were then carefully lowered, and manned by crews belonging to the ship; a piece of the
gangway, on the leeward side, was cut away, and all the women, and a few of the worst-scared men, were
lowered into the boats, which pulled for shore. In a comparatively short time the boats returned, took new
loads, and the debarkation was afterward carried on quietly and systematically. No baggage was allowed to go
on shore except bags or parcels carried in the hands of passengers. At times the fog lifted so that we could see
from the wreck the tops of the hills, and the outline of the shore; and I remember sitting on, the upper or
hurricane deck with the captain, who had his maps and compass before him, and was trying to make out
where the ship was. I thought I recognized the outline of the hills below the mission of Dolores, and so stated
to him; but he called my attention to the fact that the general line of hills bore northwest, whereas the coast
south of San Francisco bears due north and south. He therefore concluded that the ship had overrun her
reckoning, and was then to the north of San Francisco. He also explained that, the passage up being longer
than usual, viz., eighteen days, the coal was short; that at the time the firemen were using some cut-up spars
along with the slack of coal, and that this fuel had made more than usual steam, so that the ship must have
glided along faster than reckoned. This proved to be the actual case, for, in fact, the steamship Lewis was
wrecked April 9, 1853, on "Duckworth Reef," Baulinas Bay, about eighteen miles above the entrance to San
Francisco.
The captain had sent ashore the purser in the first boat, with orders to work his way to the city as soon as
possible, to report the loss of his vessel, and to bring back help. I remained on the wreck till among the last of
the passengers, managing to get a can of crackers and some sardines out of the submerged pantry, a thing the
rest of the passengers did not have, and then I went quietly ashore in one of the boats. The passengers were all
on the beach, under a steep bluff; had built fires to dry their clothes, but had seen no human being, and had no
idea where they were. Taking along with me a fellow-passenger, a young chap about eighteen years old, I
scrambled up the bluff, and walked back toward the hills, in hopes to get a good view of some known object.
It was then the month of April, and the hills were covered with the beautiful grasses and flowers of that season
of the year. We soon found horse paths and tracks, and following them we came upon a drove of horses
grazing at large, some of which had saddle-marks. At about two miles from the beach we found a corral; and
thence, following one of the strongest-marked paths, in about a mile more we descended into a valley, and, on
turning a sharp point, reached a board shanty, with a horse picketed near by. Four men were inside eating a
meal. I inquired if any of the Lewis's people had been there; they did not seem to understand what I meant
when I explained to them that about three miles from them, and beyond the old corral, the steamer Lewis was
wrecked, and her passengers were on the beach. I inquired where we were, and they answered, "At Baulinas
Creek;" that they were employed at a saw-mill just above, and were engaged in shipping lumber to San
Francisco; that a schooner loaded with lumber was then about two miles down the creek, waiting for the tide
to get out, and doubtless if we would walk down they would take us on board.
I wrote a few words back to the captain, telling him where he was, and that I would hurry to the city to send
him help. My companion and I their went on down the creek, and soon descried the schooner anchored out in
the stream. On being hailed, a small boat came in and took us on board. The "captain" willingly agreed for a

small sum to carry us down to San Francisco; and, as his whole crew consisted of a small boy about twelve
years old, we helped him to get up his anchor and pole the schooner down the creek and out over the bar on a
high tide. This must have been about 2 P.M. Once over the bar, the sails were hoisted, and we glided along
rapidly with a strong, fair, northwest wind. The fog had lifted, so we could see the shores plainly, and the
entrance to the bay. In a couple of hours we were entering the bay, and running "wing-and-wing." Outside the
wind was simply the usual strong breeze; but, as it passes through the head of the Golden Gate, it increases,
and there, too, we met a strong ebb-tide.
The schooner was loaded with lumber, much of which was on deck, lashed down to ring bolts with raw-hide
thongs. The captain was steering, and I was reclining on the lumber, looking at the familiar shore, as we
approached Fort Point, when I heard a sort of cry, and felt the schooner going over. As we got into the throat
of the "Heads," the force of the wind, meeting a strong ebb-tide, drove the nose of the schooner under water;
she dove like a duck, went over on her side, and began, to drift out with the tide. I found myself in the water,
mixed up with pieces of plank and ropes; struck out, swam round to the stern, got on the keel, and clambered
up on the side. Satisfied that she could not sink, by reason of her cargo, I was not in the least alarmed, but
thought two shipwrecks in one day not a good beginning for a new, peaceful career. Nobody was drowned,
however; the captain and crew were busy in securing such articles as were liable to float off, and I looked out
for some passing boat or vessel to pick us up. We were drifting steadily out to sea, while I was signaling to a
boat about three miles off, toward Saucelito, and saw her tack and stand toward us. I was busy watching this
sail-boat, when I heard a Yankee's voice, close behind, saying, "This is a nice mess you've got yourselves
into," and looking about I saw a man in a small boat, who had seen us upset, and had rowed out to us from a
schooner anchored close under the fort. Some explanations were made, and when the sail-boat coming from
Saucelito was near enough to be spoken to, and the captain had engaged her to help his schooner, we bade him
good by, and got the man in the small boat-to carry us ashore, and land us at the foot of the bluff, just below
the fort. Once there, I was at home, and we footed it up to the Presidio. Of the sentinel I inquired who was in
command of the post, and was answered, "Major Merchant." He was not then in, but his adjutant, Lieutenant
Gardner, was. I sent my card to him; he came out, and was much surprised to find me covered with sand, and
dripping with water, a good specimen of a shipwrecked mariner. A few words of explanation sufficed; horses
were provided, and we rode hastily into the city, reaching the office of the Nicaragua Steamship Company (C.
K. Garrison, agent) about dark, just as the purser had arrived; by a totally different route. It was too late to
send relief that night, but by daylight next morning two steamers were en route for and reached the place of
wreck in time to relieve the passengers and bring them, and most of the baggage. I lost my carpet-bag, but
saved my trunk. The Lewis went to pieces the night after we got off, and, had there been an average sea
during the night of our shipwreck, none of us probably would have escaped. That evening in San Francisco I
hunted up Major Turner, whom I found boarding, in company with General E. A. Hitchcock, at a Mrs. Ross's,
on Clay Street, near Powell. I took quarters with them, and began to make my studies, with a view to a
decision whether it was best to undertake this new and untried scheme of banking, or to return to New Orleans
and hold on to what I then had, a good army commission.
At the time of my arrival, San Francisco was an the top wave of speculation and prosperity. Major Turner had
rented at six hundred dollars a month the office formerly used and then owned by Adams & Co., on the east
side of Montgomery Street, between Sacramento and California Streets. B. R. Nisbet was the active partner,
and James Reilly the teller. Already the bank of Lucas, Turner & Co. was established, and was engaged in
selling bills of exchange, receiving deposits, and loaning money at three per cent. a month.
Page, Bacon & Co., and Adams & Co., were in full blast across the street, in Parrott's new granite building,
and other bankers were doing seemingly a prosperous business, among them Wells, Fargo & Co.; Drexel,
Sather & Church; Burgoyne & Co.; James King of Win.; Sanders & Brenham; Davidson & Co.; Palmer, Cook
& Co., and others. Turner and I had rooms at Mrs. Ross's, and took our meals at restaurants down-town,
mostly at a Frenchman's named Martin, on the southwest corner of Montgomery and California Streets.
General Hitchcock, of the army, commanding the Department of California, usually messed with us; also a

Captain Mason, and Lieutenant Whiting, of the Engineer Corps. We soon secured a small share of business,
and became satisfied there was room for profit. Everybody seemed to be making money fast; the city was
being rapidly extended and improved; people paid their three per cent. a month interest without fail, and
without deeming it excessive. Turner, Nisbet, and I, daily discussed the prospects, and gradually settled down
to the conviction that with two hundred thousand dollars capital, and a credit of fifty thousand dollars in New
York, we could build up a business that would help the St. Louis house, and at the same time pay expenses in
California, with a reasonable profit. Of course, Turner never designed to remain long in California, and I
consented to go back to St. Louis, confer with Mr. Lucas and Captain Simonds, agree upon further details, and
then return permanently.
I have no memoranda by me now by which to determine the fact, but think I returned to New York in July,
1853, by the Nicaragua route, and thence to St. Louis by way of Lancaster, Ohio, where my family still was.
Mr. Lucas promptly agreed to the terms proposed, and further consented, on the expiration of the lease of the
Adams & Co. office, to erect a new banking-house in San Francisco, to cost fifty thousand dollars. I then
returned to Lancaster, explained to Mr. Ewing and Mrs. Sherman all the details of our agreement, and,
meeting their approval, I sent to the Adjutant-General of the army my letter of resignation, to take effect at the
end of the six months' leave, and the resignation was accepted, to take effect September 6, 1853. Being then a
citizen, I engaged a passage out to California by the Nicaragua route, in the steamer leaving New York
September 20th, for myself and family, and accordingly proceeded to New York, where I had a conference
with Mr. Meigs, cashier of the American Exchange Bank, and with Messrs. Wadsworth & Sheldon, bankers,
who were our New York correspondents; and on the 20th embarked for San Juan del Norte, with the family,
composed of Mrs. Sherman, Lizzie, then less than a year old, and her nurse, Mary Lynch. Our passage down
was uneventful, and, on the boats up the Nicaragua River, pretty much the same as before. On reaching Virgin
Bay, I engaged a native with three mules to carry us across to the Pacific, and as usual the trip partook of the
ludicrous—Mrs. Sherman mounted on a donkey about as large as a Newfoundland dog; Mary Lynch on
another, trying to carry Lizzie on a pillow before her, but her mule had a fashion of lying down, which scared
her, till I exchanged mules, and my California spurs kept that mule on his legs. I carried Lizzie some time till
she was fast asleep, when I got our native man to carry her awhile. The child woke up, and, finding herself in
the hands of a dark-visaged man, she yelled most lustily till I got her away. At the summit of the pass, there
was a clear-running brook, where we rested an hour, and bathed Lizzie in its sweet waters. We then continued
to the end of our journey, and, without going to the tavern at San Juan del Sur, we passed directly to the
vessel, then at anchor about two miles out. To reach her we engaged a native boat, which had to be kept
outside the surf. Mrs. Sherman was first taken in the arms of two stout natives; Mary Lynch, carrying Lizzie,
was carried by two others; and I followed, mounted on the back of a strapping fellow, while fifty or a hundred
others were running to and fro, cackling like geese.
Mary Lynch got scared at the surf, and began screaming like a fool, when Lizzie became convulsed with fear,
and one of the natives rushed to her, caught her out of Mary's arms, and carried her swiftly to Mrs. Sherman,
who, by that time, was in the boat, but Lizzie had fainted with fear, and for a long time sobbed as though
permanently injured. For years she showed symptoms that made us believe she had never entirely recovered
from the effects of the scare. In due time we reached the steamer Sierra Nevada, and got a good state-room.
Our passage up the coast was pleasant enough; we reached San Francisco; on the 15th of October, and took
quarters at an hotel on Stockton Street, near Broadway.
Major Turner remained till some time in November, when he also departed for the East, leaving me and
Nisbet to manage the bank. I endeavored to make myself familiar with the business, but of course Nisbet kept
the books, and gave his personal attention to the loans, discounts, and drafts, which yielded the profits. I soon
saw, however, that the three per cent. charged as premium on bills of exchange was not all profit, but out of
this had to come one and a fourth to one and a half for freight, one and a third for insurance, with some
indefinite promise of a return premium; then, the, cost of blanks, boxing of the bullion, etc., etc. Indeed, I saw
no margin for profit at all. Nisbet, however, who had long been familiar with the business, insisted there was a

profit, in the fact that the gold-dust or bullion shipped was more valuable than its cost to us. We, of course,
had to remit bullion to meet our bills on New York, and bought crude gold-dust, or bars refined by Kellogg &
Humbert or E. Justh & Co., for at that time the United States Mint was not in operation. But, as the reports of
our shipments came back from New York, I discovered that I was right, and Nisbet was wrong; and, although
we could not help selling our checks on New York and St. Louis at the same price as other bankers, I
discovered that, at all events, the exchange business in San Francisco was rather a losing business than
profitable. The same as to loans. We could loan, at three per cent. a month, all our own money, say two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and a part of our deposit account. This latter account in California was
decidedly uncertain. The balance due depositors would run down to a mere nominal sum on steamer-days,
which were the 1st and 15th of each month, and then would increase till the next steamer-day, so that we
could not make use of any reasonable part of this balance for loans beyond the next steamer-day; or, in other
words, we had an expensive bank, with expensive clerks, and all the machinery for taking care of other
people's money for their benefit, without corresponding profit. I also saw that loans were attended with risk
commensurate with the rate; nevertheless, I could not attempt to reform the rules and customs established by
others before me, and had to drift along with the rest toward that Niagara that none foresaw at the time.
Shortly after arriving out in 1853, we looked around for a site for the new bank, and the only place then
available on Montgomery Street, the Wall Street of San Francisco, was a lot at the corner of Jackson Street,
facing Montgomery, with an alley on the north, belonging to James Lick. The ground was sixty by sixty-two
feet, and I had to pay for it thirty-two thousand dollars. I then made a contract with the builders, Keyser, &
Brown, to erect a three-story brick building, with finished basement, for about fifty thousand dollars. This
made eighty-two thousand instead of fifty thousand dollars, but I thought Mr. Lucas could stand it and would
approve, which he did, though it resulted in loss to him. After the civil war, he told me he had sold the
building for forty thousand dollars, about half its cost, but luckily gold was then at 250, so that he could use
the forty thousand dollars gold as the equivalent of one hundred thousand dollars currency. The building was
erected; I gave it my personal supervision, and it was strongly and thoroughly built, for I saw it two years ago,
when several earthquakes had made no impression on it; still, the choice of site was unfortunate, for the city
drifted in the opposite direction, viz., toward Market Street. I then thought that all the heavy business would
remain toward the foot of Broadway and Jackson Street, because there were the deepest water and best
wharves, but in this I made a mistake. Nevertheless, in the spring of 1854, the new bank was finished, and we
removed to it, paying rents thereafter to our Mr. Lucas instead of to Adams & Co. A man named Wright,
during the same season, built a still finer building just across the street from us; Pioche, Bayerque & Co. were
already established on another corner of Jackson Street, and the new Metropolitan Theatre was in progress
diagonally opposite us. During the whole of 1854 our business steadily grew, our average deposits going up to
half a million, and our sales of exchange and consequent shipment of bullion averaging two hundred thousand
dollars per steamer. I signed all bills of exchange, and insisted on Nisbet consulting me on loans and
discounts. Spite of every caution, however, we lost occasionally by bad loans, and worse by the steady
depreciation of real estate. The city of San Francisco was then extending her streets, sewering them, and
planking them, with three-inch lumber. In payment for the lumber and the work of contractors, the city
authorities paid scrip in even sums of one hundred, five hundred, one thousand, and five thousand dollars.
These formed a favorite collateral for loans at from fifty to sixty cents on the dollar, and no one doubted their
ultimate value, either by redemption or by being converted into city bonds. The notes also of H. Meiggs,
Neeley Thompson & Co., etc., lumber-dealers, were favorite notes, for they paid their interest promptly, and
lodged large margins of these street-improvement warrants as collateral. At that time, Meiggs was a
prominent man, lived in style in a large house on Broadway, was a member of the City Council, and owned
large saw-mills up the coast about Mendocino. In him Nisbet had unbounded faith, but, for some reason, I
feared or mistrusted him, and remember that I cautioned Nisbet not to extend his credit, but to gradually
contract his loans. On looking over our bills receivable, then about six hundred thousand dollars, I found
Meiggs, as principal or indorser, owed us about eighty thousand dollars—all, however, secured by city
warrants; still, he kept bank accounts elsewhere, and was generally a borrower. I instructed Nisbet to insist on
his reducing his line as the notes matured, and, as he found it indelicate to speak to Meiggs, I instructed him to

refer him to me; accordingly, when, on the next steamer-day, Meiggs appealed at the counter for a draft on
Philadelphia, of about twenty thousand dollars, for which he offered his note and collateral, he was referred to
me, and I explained to him that our draft was the same as money; that he could have it for cash, but that we
were already in advance to him some seventy-five or eighty thousand dollars, and that instead of increasing
the amount I must insist on its reduction. He inquired if I mistrusted his ability, etc. I explained, certainly not,
but that our duty was to assist those who did all their business with us, and, as our means were necessarily
limited, I must restrict him to some reasonable sum, say, twenty-five thousand dollars. Meiggs invited me to
go with him to a rich mercantile house on Clay Street, whose partners belonged in Hamburg, and there, in the
presence of the principals of the house, he demonstrated, as clearly as a proposition in mathematics, that his
business at Mendocino was based on calculations that could not fail. The bill of exchange which he wanted,
he said would make the last payment on a propeller already built in Philadelphia, which would be sent to San
Francisco, to tow into and out of port the schooners and brigs that were bringing his lumber down the coast. I
admitted all he said, but renewed my determination to limit his credit to twenty-five thousand dollars. The
Hamburg firm then agreed to accept for him the payment of all his debt to us, except the twenty-five thousand
dollars, payable in equal parts for the next three steamer-days. Accordingly, Meiggs went back with me to our
bank, wrote his note for twenty-five thousand dollars, and secured it by mortgage on real estate and city
warrants, and substituted the three acceptances of the Hamburg firm for the overplus. I surrendered to him all
his former notes, except one for which he was indorser. The three acceptances duly matured and were paid;
one morning Meiggs and family were missing, and it was discovered they had embarked in a sailing-vessel for
South America. This was the beginning of a series of failures in San Francisco, that extended through the next
two years. As soon as it was known that Meiggs had fled, the town was full of rumors, and everybody was
running to and fro to secure his money. His debts amounted to nearly a million dollars. The Hamburg house
which, had been humbugged, were heavy losers and failed, I think. I took possession of Meiggs's
dwelling-house and other property for which I held his mortgage, and in the city warrants thought I had an
overplus; but it transpired that Meiggs, being in the City Council, had issued various quantities of street scrip,
which was adjudged a forgery, though, beyond doubt, most of it, if not all, was properly signed, but
fraudulently issued. On this city scrip our bank must have lost about ten thousand dollars. Meiggs
subsequently turned up in Chili, where again he rose to wealth and has paid much of his San Francisco debts,
but none to us. He is now in Peru, living like a prince. With Meiggs fell all the lumber-dealers, and many
persons dealing in city scrip. Compared with others, our loss was a trifle. In a short time things in San
Francisco resumed their wonted course, and we generally laughed at the escapade of Meiggs, and the cursing
of his deluded creditors.
Shortly after our arrival in San Francisco, I rented of a Mr. Marryat, son of the English Captain Marryat, the
author, a small frame-house on Stockton Street, near Green, buying of him his furniture, and we removed to it
about December 1,1853. Close by, around on Green Street, a man named Dickey was building two small
brick-houses, on ground which he had leased of Nicholson. I bought one of these houses, subject to the
ground-rent, and moved into it as soon as finished. Lieutenant T. H. Stevens, of the United States Navy, with
his family, rented the other; we lived in this house throughout the year 1854, and up to April 17, 1855.

CHAPTER V.
CALIFORNIA
1855-1857.
During the winter of 1854-'55, I received frequent intimations in my letters from the St. Louis house, that the
bank of Page, Bacon & Co. was in trouble, growing out of their relations to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad,
to the contractors for building which they had made large advances, to secure which they had been compelled
to take, as it were, an assignment of the contract itself, and finally to assume all the liabilities of the
contractors. Then they had to borrow money in New York, and raise other money from time to time, in the
purchase of iron and materials for the road, and to pay the hands. The firm in St. Louis and that in San
Francisco were different, having different partners, and the St. Louis house naturally pressed the San
Francisco firm to ship largely of "gold-dust," which gave them a great name; also to keep as large a balance as
possible in New York to sustain their credit. Mr. Page was a very wealthy man, but his wealth consisted
mostly of land and property in St. Louis. He was an old man, and a good one; had been a baker, and knew
little of banking as a business. This part of his general business was managed exclusively by his son-in-law,
Henry D. Bacon, who was young, handsome, and generally popular. How he was drawn into that affair of the
Ohio & Mississippi road I have no means of knowing, except by hearsay. Their business in New York was
done through the American Exchange Bank, and through Duncan, Sherman & Co. As we were rival houses,
the St. Louis partners removed our account from the American Exchange Bank to the Metropolitan Bank; and,
as Wadsworth & Sheldon had failed, I was instructed to deal in time bills, and in European exchange, with
Schnchardt & Gebhard, bankers in Nassau Street.
In California the house of Page, Bacon & Co. was composed of the same partners as in St. Louis, with the
addition of Henry Haight, Judge Chambers, and young Frank Page. The latter had charge of the "branch" in
Sacramento. Haight was the real head-man, but he was too fond of lager-beer to be in trusted with so large a
business. Beyond all comparison, Page, Bacon & Co. were the most prominent bankers in California in
1853-'55. Though I had notice of danger in that quarter, from our partners in St. Louis, nobody in California
doubted their wealth and stability. They must have had, during that winter, an average deposit account of
nearly two million dollars, of which seven hundred thousand dollars was in "certificates of deposit," the most
stable of all accounts in a bank. Thousands of miners invested their earnings in such certificates, which they
converted into drafts on New York, when they were ready to go home or wanted to send their "pile" to their
families. Adams & Co. were next in order, because of their numerous offices scattered throughout the mining
country. A gentleman named Haskell had been in charge of Adams & Co. in San Francisco, but in the winter
of 1854-'55 some changes were made, and the banking department had been transferred to a magnificent
office in Halleck's new Metropolitan Block. James King of Wm. had discontinued business on his own
account, and been employed by Adams & Co. as their cashier and banker, and Isaiah C. Wood had succeeded
Haskell in chief control of the express department. Wells, Fargo & Co. were also bankers as well as
expressmen, and William J. Pardee was the resident partner.
As the mail-steamer came in on February 17, 1855, according to her custom, she ran close to the Long Wharf
(Meiggs's) on North Beach, to throw ashore the express-parcels of news for speedy delivery. Some passenger
on deck called to a man of his acquaintance standing on the wharf, that Page & Bacon had failed in New
York. The news spread like wild-fire, but soon it was met by the newspaper accounts to the effect that some
particular acceptances of Page & Bacon, of St. Louis, in the hands of Duncan, Sherman & Co., in New York,
CHAPTER V. 69
had gone to protest. All who had balances at Page, Bacon & Co.'s, or held certificates of deposit, were more or
less alarmed, wanted to secure their money, and a general excitement pervaded the whole community. Word
was soon passed round that the matter admitted of explanation, viz., that the two houses were distinct and
separate concerns, that every draft of the California house had been paid in New York, and would continue to
be paid. It was expected that this assertion would quiet the fears of the California creditors, but for the next
three days there was a steady "run" on that bank. Page, Bacon & Co. stood the first day's run very well, and,
as I afterward learned, paid out about six hundred thousand dollars in gold coin. On the 20th of February
Henry Height came to our bank, to see what help we were willing to give him; but I was out, and Nisbet could
not answer positively for the firm. Our condition was then very strong. The deposit account was about six
hundred thousand dollars, and we had in our vault about five hundred thousand dollars in coin and bullion,
besides an equal amount of good bills receivable. Still I did not like to weaken ourselves to help others; but in
a most friendly spirit, that night after bank-hours, I went down to Page, Bacon & Co., and entered their office
from the rear. I found in the cashier's room Folsom, Parrott, Dewey and Payne, Captain Ritchie, Donohue, and
others, citizens and friends of the house, who had been called in for consultation. Passing into the main office,
where all the book-keepers, tellers, etc., with gas-lights, were busy writing up the day's work, I found Mr.
Page, Henry Height, and Judge Chambers. I spoke to Height, saying that I was sorry I had been out when he
called at our bank, and had now come to see him in the most friendly spirit. Height had evidently been
drinking, and said abruptly that "all the banks would break," that "no bank could instantly pay all its
obligations," etc. I answered he could speak for himself, but not for me; that I had come to offer to buy with
cash a fair proportion of his bullion, notes, and bills; but, if they were going to fail, I would not be drawn in.
Height's manner was extremely offensive, but Mr. Page tried to smooth it over, saying they had had a bad
day's run, and could not answer for the result till their books were written up.
I passed back again into the room where the before-named gentlemen were discussing some paper which lay
before them, and was going to pass out, when Captain Folsom, who was an officer of the army, a class-mate
and intimate friend of mine, handed me the paper the contents of which they were discussing. It was very
short, and in Henry Haight's handwriting, pretty much in these terms: "We, the undersigned property-holders
of San Francisco, having personally examined the books, papers, etc., of Page, Bacon & Co., do hereby certify
that the house is solvent and able to pay all its debts," etc. Height had drawn up and asked them to sign this
paper, with the intention to publish it in the next morning's papers, for effect. While I was talking with
Captain Folsom, Height came into the room to listen. I admitted that the effect of such a publication would
surely be good, and would probably stave off immediate demand till their assets could be in part converted or
realized; but I naturally inquired of Folsom, "Have you personally examined the accounts, as herein recited,
and the assets, enough to warrant your signature to this paper?" for, "thereby you in effect become indorsers."
Folsom said they had not, when Height turned on me rudely and said, "Do you think the affairs of such a
house as Page, Bacon & Co. can be critically examined in an hour?" I answered: "These gentlemen can do
what they please, but they have twelve hours before the bank will open on the morrow, and if the ledger is
written up" (as I believed it was or could be by midnight), "they can (by counting the coin, bullion on hand,
and notes or stocks of immediate realization) approximate near enough for them to indorse for the remainder."
But Height pooh-poohed me, and I left. Folsom followed me out, told me he could not afford to imperil all he
had, and asked my advice. I explained to him that my partner Nisbet had been educated and trained in that
very house of Page, Bacon & Co.; that we kept our books exactly as they did; that every day the ledger was
written up, so that from it one could see exactly how much actual money was due the depositors and
certificates; and then by counting the money in the vault, estimating the bullion on hand, which, though not
actual money, could easily be converted into coin, and supplementing these amounts by "bills receivable,"
they ought to arrive at an approximate-result. After Folsom had left me, John Parrott also stopped and talked
with me to the same effect. Next morning I looked out for the notice, but no such notice appeared in the
morning papers, and I afterward learned that, on Parrott and Folsom demanding an actual count of the money
in the vault, Haight angrily refused unless they would accept his word for it, when one after the other declined
to sign his paper.
CALIFORNIA 70
The run on Page, Bacon & Co. therefore continued throughout the 21st, and I expected all day to get an
invitation to close our bank for the next day, February 22, which we could have made a holiday by concerted
action; but each banker waited for Page, Bacon & Co. to ask for it, and, no such circular coming, in the then
state of feeling no other banker was willing to take the initiative. On the morning of February 22, 1855,
everybody was startled by receiving a small slip of paper, delivered at all the houses, on which was printed a
short notice that, for "want of coin," Page, Bacon & Co. found it necessary to close their bank for a short time.
Of course, we all knew the consequences, and that every other bank in San Francisco would be tried. During
the 22d we all kept open, and watched our depositors closely; but the day was generally observed by the
people as a holiday, and the firemen paraded the streets of San Francisco in unusual strength. But, on writing
up our books that night, we found that our deposit account had diminished about sixty-five thousand dollars.
Still, there was no run on us, or any other of the banks, that day; yet, observing little knots of men on the
street, discussing the state of the banks generally, and overhearing Haight's expression quoted, that, in case of
the failure of Page, Bacon & Co., "all the other banks would break," I deemed it prudent to make ready. For
some days we had refused all loans and renewals, and we tried, without, success, some of our call-loans; but,
like Hotspur's spirits, they would not come.
Our financial condition on that day (February 22, 1855) was: Due depositors and demand certificates, five
hundred and twenty thousand dollars; to meet which, we had in the vault: coin, three hundred and eighty
thousand dollars; bullion, seventy-five thousand dollars; and bills receivable, about six hundred thousand
dollars. Of these, at least one hundred thousand dollars were on demand, with stock collaterals. Therefore, for
the extent of our business, we were stronger than the Bank of England, or any bank in New York City.
Before daylight next morning, our door-bell was rung, and I was called down-stairs by E. Casserly, Esq. (an
eminent lawyer of the day, since United States Senator), who informed me he had just come up from the
office of Adams & Co., to tell me that their affairs were in such condition that they would not open that
morning at all; and that this, added to the suspension of Page, Bacon & Co., announced the day before, would
surely cause a general run on all the banks. I informed him that I expected as much, and was prepared for it.
In going down to the bank that morning, I found Montgomery Street full; but, punctually to the minute, the
bank opened, and in rushed the crowd. As usual, the most noisy and clamorous were men and women who
held small certificates; still, others with larger accounts were in the crowd, pushing forward for their balances.
All were promptly met and paid. Several gentlemen of my personal acquaintance merely asked my word of
honor that their money was safe, and went away; others, who had large balances, and no immediate use for
coin, gladly accepted gold-bars, whereby we paid out the seventy-five thousand dollars of bullion, relieving
the coin to that amount.
Meantime, rumors from the street came pouring in that Wright & Co. had failed; then Wells, Fargo & Co.;
then Palmer, Cook & Co., and indeed all, or nearly all, the banks of the city; and I was told that parties on the
street were betting high, first, that we would close our doors at eleven o'clock; then twelve, and so on; but we
did not, till the usual hour that night. We had paid every demand, and still had a respectable amount left.
This run on the bank (the only one I ever experienced) presented all the features, serious and comical, usual to
such occasions. At our counter happened that identical case, narrated of others, of the Frenchman, who was
nearly squeezed to death in getting to the counter, and, when he received his money, did not know what to do
with it. "If you got the money, I no want him; but if you no got him, I want it like the devil!"
Toward the close of the day, some of our customers deposited, rather ostentatiously, small amounts, not
aggregating more than eight or ten thousand dollars. Book-keepers and tellers were kept at work to write up
the books; and these showed:
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Due depositors and certificates, about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, for which remained of coin
about fifty thousand dollars. I resolved not to sleep until I had collected from those owing the bank a part of
their debts; for I was angry with them that they had stood back and allowed the panic to fall on the banks
alone. Among these were Captain Folsom, who owed us twenty-five thousand dollars, secured by a mortgage
on the American Theatre and Tehama Hotel; James Smiley, contractor for building the Custom-House, who
owed us two notes of twenty thousand and sixteen thousand dollars, for which we held, as collateral, two
acceptances of the collector of the port, Major R. P. Hammond, for twenty thousand dollars each; besides
other private parties that I need not name. The acceptances given to Smiley were for work done on the
Custom-House, but could not be paid until the work was actually laid in the walls, and certified by Major
Tower, United States Engineers; but Smiley had an immense amount of granite, brick, iron, etc., on the
ground, in advance of construction, and these acceptances were given him expressly that he might raise
money thereon for the payment of such materials.
Therefore, as soon as I got my dinner, I took my saddle-horse, and rode to Captain Folsom's house, where I
found him in great pain and distress, mental and physical. He was sitting in a chair, and bathing his head with
a sponge. I explained to him the object of my visit, and he said he had expected it, and had already sent his
agent, Van Winkle, down-town, with instructions to raise what money he could at any cost; but he did not
succeed in raising a cent. So great was the shock to public confidence, that men slept on their money, and
would not loan it for ten per cent. a week, on any security whatever—even on mint certificates, which
were as good as gold, and only required about ten days to be paid in coin by the United States Mint. I then
rode up to Hammond's house, on Rincon Hill, and found him there. I explained to him exactly Smiley's
affairs, and only asked him to pay one of his acceptances. He inquired, "Why not both?" I answered that was
so much the better; it would put me under still greater obligations. He then agreed to meet me at our bank at
10 P.M. I sent word to others that I demanded them to pay what they could on their paper, and then returned
to the bank, to meet Hammond. In due time, he came down with Palmer (of Palmer, Cook & Co.), and there
he met Smiley, who was, of course, very anxious to retire his notes. We there discussed the matter fully, when
Hammond said, "Sherman, give me up my two acceptances, and I will substitute therefor my check of forty
thousand dollars," with "the distinct understanding that, if the money is not needed by you, it shall be returned
to me, and the transaction then to remain statu quo." To this there was a general assent. Nisbet handed him his
two acceptances, and he handed me his check, signed as collector of the port, on Major J. R. Snyder, United
States Treasurer, for forty thousand dollars. I afterward rode out, that night, to Major Snyder's house on North
Beach, saw him, and he agreed to meet me at 8 a.m. next day, at the United States Mint, and to pay the check,
so that I could have the money before the bank opened. The next morning, as agreed on, we met, and he paid
me the check in two sealed bags of gold-coin, each marked twenty thousand dollars, which I had carried to the
bank, but never opened them, or even broke the seals.
That morning our bank opened as usual, but there was no appearance of a continuation of the "run;" on the
contrary, money began to come back on deposit, so that by night we had a considerable increase, and this
went on from day to day, till nearly the old condition of things returned. After about three days, finding I had
no use for the money obtained on Hammond's check, I took the identical two bags back to the cashier of the
Custom-House, and recovered the two acceptances which had been surrendered as described; and Smiley's
two notes were afterward paid in their due course, out of the cash received on those identical acceptances.
But, years afterward, on settling with Hammond for the Custom-House contract when completed, there was a
difference, and Smiley sued Lucas, Turner & Co. for money had and received for his benefit, being the
identical forty thousand dollars herein explained, but he lost his case. Hammond, too, was afterward removed
from office, and indicted in part for this transaction. He was tried before the United States Circuit Court,
Judge McAlister presiding, for a violation of the sub-Treasury Act, but was acquitted. Our bank, having thus
passed so well through the crisis, took at once a first rank; but these bank failures had caused so many
mercantile losses, and had led to such an utter downfall in the value of real estate, that everybody lost more or
less money by bad debts, by depreciation of stocks and collaterals, that became unsalable, if not worthless.
CALIFORNIA 72
About this time (viz., February, 1855) I had exchanged my house on Green, street, with Mr. Sloat, for the half
of a fifty-vara lot on Harrison Street, between Fremont and First, on which there was a small cottage, and I
had contracted for the building of a new frame-house thereon, at six thousand dollars. This house was finished
on the 9th of April, and my family moved into it at once.
For some time Mrs. Sherman had been anxious to go home to Lancaster, Ohio, where we had left our daughter
Minnie, with her grandparents, and we arranged that S. M. Bowman, Esq., and wife, should move into our
new house and board us, viz., Lizzie, Willie with the nurse Biddy, and myself, for a fair consideration. It so
happened that two of my personal friends, Messrs. Winters and Cunningham of Marysville, and a young
fellow named Eagan, now a captain in the Commissary Department, were going East in the steamer of the
middle of April, and that Mr.. William H. Aspinwall, of New York, and Mr. Chauncey, of Philadelphia, were
also going back; and they all offered to look to the personal comfort of Mrs. Sherman on the voyage. They
took passage in the steamer Golden Age (Commodore Watkins), which sailed on April 17, 1855. Their
passage down the coast was very pleasant till within a day's distance of Panama, when one bright moonlit
night, April 29th, the ship, running at full speed, between the Islands Quibo and Quicara, struck on a sunken
reef, tore out a streak in her bottom, and at once began to fill with water. Fortunately she did not sink fast, but
swung off into deep water, and Commodore Watkins happening to be on deck at the moment, walking with
Mr. Aspinwall, learning that the water was rushing in with great rapidity, gave orders for a full head of steam,
and turned the vessel's bow straight for the Island Quicara. The water rose rapidly in the hold, the passengers
were all assembled, fearful of going down, the fires were out, and the last revolution of the wheels made,
when her bow touched gently on the beach, and the vessel's stern sank in deep water. Lines were got out, and
the ship held in an upright position, so that the passengers were safe, and but little incommoded. I have often
heard Mrs. Sherman tell of the boy Eagan, then about fourteen years old, coming to her state-room, and telling
to her not to be afraid, as he was a good swimmer; but on coming out into the cabin, partially dressed, she felt
more confidence in the cool manner, bearing, and greater strength of Mr. Winters. There must have been
nearly a thousand souls on board at the time, few of whom could have been saved had the steamer gone down
in mid-channel, which surely would have resulted, had not Commodore Watkins been on deck, or had he been
less prompt in his determination to beach his ship. A sailboat was dispatched toward Panama, which luckily
met the steamer John T. Stephens, just coming out of the bay, loaded with about a thousand passengers bound
for San Francisco, and she at once proceeded to the relief of the Golden Age. Her passengers were transferred
in small boats to the Stephens, which vessel, with her two thousand people crowded together with hardly
standing-room, returned to Panama, whence the passengers for the East proceeded to their destination without
further delay. Luckily for Mrs. Sherman, Purser Goddard, an old Ohio friend of ours, was on the Stephens,
and most kindly gave up his own room to her, and such lady friends as she included in her party. The Golden
Age was afterward partially repaired at Quicara, pumped out, and steamed to Panama, when, after further
repairs, she resumed her place in the line. I think she is still in existence, but Commodore Watkins afterward
lost his life in China, by falling down a hatchway.
Mrs. Sherman returned in the latter part of November of the same year, when Mr. and Mrs. Bowman, who
meantime had bought a lot next to us and erected a house thereon, removed to it, and we thus continued close
neighbors and friends until we left the country for good in 1857.
During the summer of 1856, in San Francisco, occurred one of those unhappy events, too common to new
countries, in which I became involved in spite of myself.
William Neely Johnson was Governor of California, and resided at Sacramento City; General John E. Wool
commanded the Department of California, having succeeded General Hitchcock, and had his headquarters at
Benicia; and a Mr. Van Ness was mayor of the city. Politics had become a regular and profitable business, and
politicians were more than suspected of being corrupt. It was reported and currently believed that the sheriff
(Scannell) had been required to pay the Democratic Central Committee a hundred thousand dollars for his
nomination, which was equivalent to an election, for an office of the nominal salary of twelve thousand
CALIFORNIA 73
dollars a year for four years. In the election all sorts of dishonesty were charged and believed, especially of
"ballot-box stuffing," and too generally the better classes avoided the elections and dodged jury-duty, so that
the affairs of the city government necessarily passed into the hands of a low set of professional politicians.
Among them was a man named James Casey, who edited a small paper, the printing office of which was in a
room on the third floor of our banking office. I hardly knew him by sight, and rarely if ever saw his paper; but
one day Mr. Sather, of the excellent banking firm of Drexel, Sather & Church, came to me, and called my
attention to an article in Casey's paper so full of falsehood and malice, that we construed it as an effort to
black-mail the banks generally. At that time we were all laboring to restore confidence, which had been so
rudely shaken by the panic, and I went up-stairs, found Casey, and pointed out to him the objectionable nature
of his article, told him plainly that I could not tolerate his attempt to print and circulate slanders in our
building, and, if he repeated it, I would cause him and his press to be thrown out of the windows. He took the
hint and moved to more friendly quarters. I mention this fact, to show my estimate of the man, who became a
figure in the drama I am about to describe. James King of Wm., as before explained, was in 1853 a banker on
his own account, but some time in 1854 he had closed out his business, and engaged with Adams & Co. as
cashier. When this firm failed, he, in common with all the employees, was thrown out of employment, and
had to look around for something else. He settled down to the publication of an evening paper, called the
Bulletin, and, being a man of fine manners and address, he at once constituted himself the champion of
society against the public and private characters whom he saw fit to arraign.
As might have been expected, this soon brought him into the usual newspaper war with other editors, and
especially with Casey, and epithets a la "Eatanswill" were soon bandying back and forth between them. One
evening of May, 1856, King published, in the Bulletin, copies of papers procured from New York, to show
that Casey had once been sentenced to the State penitentiary at Sing Sing. Casey took mortal offense, and
called at the Bulletin office, on the corner of Montgomery and Merchant Streets, where he found King, and
violent words passed between them, resulting in Casey giving King notice that he would shoot him on sight.
King remained in his office till about 5 or 6 p.m., when he started toward his home on Stockton Street, and, as
he neared the corner of Washington, Casey approached him from the opposite direction, called to him, and
began firing. King had on a short cloak, and in his breast-pocket a small pistol, which he did not use. One of
Casey's shots struck him high up in the breast, from which he reeled, was caught by some passing friend, and
carried into the express-office on the corner, where he was laid on the counter; and a surgeon sent for. Casey
escaped up Washington Street, went to the City Hall, and delivered himself to the sheriff (Scannell), who
conveyed him to jail and locked him in a cell. Meantime, the news spread like wildfire, and all the city was in
commotion, for grog was very popular. Nisbet, who boarded with us on Harrison Street, had been delayed at
the bank later than usual, so that he happened to be near at the time, and, when he came out to dinner, he
brought me the news of this affair, and said that there was every appearance of a riot down-town that night.
This occurred toward the evening of May 14, 1856.
It so happened that, on the urgent solicitation of Van Winkle and of Governor Johnson; I had only a few days
before agreed to accept the commission of major-general of the Second Division of Militia, embracing San
Francisco. I had received the commission, but had not as yet formally accepted it, or even put myself in
communication with the volunteer companies of the city. Of these, at that moment of time, there was a
company of artillery with four guns, commanded by a Captain Johns, formerly of the army, and two or three
uniformed companies of infantry. After dinner I went down town to see what was going on; found that King
had been removed to a room in the Metropolitan Block; that his life was in great peril; that Casey was safe in
jail, and the sheriff had called to his assistance a posse of the city police, some citizens, and one of the militia
companies. The people were gathered in groups on the streets, and the words "Vigilance Committee" were
freely spoken, but I saw no signs of immediate violence. The next morning, I again went to the jail, and found
all things quiet, but the militia had withdrawn. I then went to the City Hall, saw the mayor, Van Ness, and
some of the city officials, agreed to do what I could to maintain order with such militia as were on hand, and
then formally accepted the commission, and took the "oath."
CALIFORNIA 74
In 1851 (when I was not in California) there had been a Vigilance Committee, and it was understood that its
organization still existed. All the newspapers took ground in favor of the Vigilance Committee, except the
Herald (John Nugent, editor), and nearly all the best people favored that means of redress. I could see they
were organizing, hiring rendezvous, collecting arms, etc., without concealment. It was soon manifest that the
companies of volunteers would go with the "committee," and that the public authorities could not rely on them
for aid or defense. Still, there were a good many citizens who contended that, if the civil authorities were
properly sustained by the people at large, they could and would execute the law. But the papers inflamed the
public mind, and the controversy spread to the country. About the third day after the shooting of King,
Governor Johnson telegraphed me that he would be down in the evening boat, and asked me to meet him on
arrival for consultation. I got C. H. Garrison to go with me, and we met the Governor and his brother on the
wharf, and walked up to the International Hotel on Jackson Street, above Montgomery. We discussed the state
of affairs fully; and Johnson, on learning that his particular friend, William T. Coleman, was the president of
the Vigilance Committee, proposed to go and see him. En route we stopped at King's room, ascertained that
he was slowly sinking, and could not live long; and then near midnight we walked to the Turnverein Hall,
where the committee was known to be sitting in consultation. This hall was on Bush Street, at about the
intersection of Stockton. It was all lighted up within, but the door was locked. The Governor knocked at the
door, and on inquiry from inside "Who's there?"—gave his name. After some delay we were admitted
into a sort of vestibule, beyond which was a large hall, and we could hear the suppressed voices of a
multitude. We were shown into a bar-room to the right, when the Governor asked to see Coleman. The man
left us, went into the main hall, and soon returned with Coleman, who was pale and agitated. After shaking
hands all round, the Governor said, "Coleman, what the devil is the matter here?" Coleman said, "Governor, it
is time this shooting on our streets should stop." The Governor replied, "I agree with you perfectly, and have
come down, from Sacramento to assist." Coleman rejoined that "the people were tired of it, and had no faith in
the officers of the law." A general conversation then followed, in which it was admitted that King would die,
and that Casey must be executed; but the manner of execution was the thing to be settled, Coleman
contending that the people would do it without trusting the courts or the sheriff. It so happened that at that
time Judge Norton was on the bench of the court having jurisdiction, and he was universally recognized as an
able and upright man, whom no one could or did mistrust; and it also happened that a grand-jury was then in
session. Johnson argued that the time had passed in California for mobs and vigilance committees, and said if
Coleman and associates would use their influence to support the law, he (the Governor) would undertake that,
as soon as King died, the grand-jury should indict, that Judge Norton would try the murderer, and the whole
proceeding should be as speedy as decency would allow. Then Coleman said "the people had no confidence in
Scannell, the sheriff," who was, he said, in collusion with the rowdy element of San Francisco. Johnson then
offered to be personally responsible that Casey should be safely guarded, and should be forthcoming for trial
and execution at the proper time. I remember very well Johnson's assertion that he had no right to make these
stipulations, and maybe no power to fulfill them; but he did it to save the city and state from the disgrace of a
mob. Coleman disclaimed that the vigilance organization was a "mob," admitted that the proposition of the
Governor was fair, and all he or any one should ask; and added, if we would wait awhile, he would submit it
to the council, and bring back an answer.
We waited nearly an hour, and could hear the hum of voices in the hall, but no words, when Coleman came
back, accompanied by a committee, of which I think the two brothers Arrington, Thomas Smiley the
auctioneer, Seymour, Truett, and others, were members. The whole conversation was gone over again, and the
Governor's proposition was positively agreed to, with this further condition, that the Vigilance Committee
should send into the jail a small force of their own men, to make certain that Casey should not be carried off
or allowed to escape.
The Governor, his brother William, Garrison, and I, then went up to the jail, where we found the sheriff and
his posse comitatus of police and citizens. These were styled the "Law-and-Order party," and some of them
took offense that the Governor should have held communication with the "damned rebels," and several of
them left the jail; but the sheriff seemed to agree with the Governor that what he had done was right and best;
CALIFORNIA 75
and, while we were there, some eight or ten armed men arrived from the Vigilance Committee, and were
received by the sheriff (Scannell) as a part of his regular posse.
The Governor then, near daylight, went to his hotel, and I to my house for a short sleep. Next day I was at the
bank, as usual, when, about noon the Governor called, and asked me to walk with him down-street He said he
had just received a message from the Vigilance Committee to the effect that they were not bound by
Coleman's promise not to do any thing till the regular trial by jury should be had, etc. He was with reason
furious, and asked me to go with him to Truett's store, over which the Executive Committee was said to be in
session. We were admitted to a front-room up-stairs, and heard voices in the back-room. The Governor
inquired for Coleman, but he was not forthcoming. Another of the committee, Seymour, met us, denied in toto
the promise of the night before, and the Governor openly accused him of treachery and falsehood.
The quarrel became public, and the newspapers took it up, both parties turning on the Governor; one, the
Vigilantes, denying the promise made by Coleman, their president; and the other, the "Law-and-Order party,"
refusing any farther assistance, because Johnson had stooped to make terms with rebels. At all events, he was
powerless, and had to let matters drift to a conclusion.
King died about Friday, May 20th, and the funeral was appointed for the next Sunday. Early on that day the
Governor sent for me at my house. I found him on the roof of the International, from which we looked down
on the whole city, and more especially the face of Telegraph Hill, which was already covered with a crowd of
people, while others were moving toward the jail on Broadway. Parties of armed men, in good order, were
marching by platoons in the same direction; and formed in line along Broadway, facing the jail-door. Soon a
small party was seen to advance to this door, and knock; a parley ensued, the doors were opened, and Casey
was led out. In a few minutes another prisoner was brought out, who, proved to be Cora, a man who had once
been tried for killing Richardson, the United States Marshal, when the jury disagreed, and he was awaiting a
new trial. These prisoners were placed in carriages, and escorted by the armed force down to the rooms of the
Vigilance Committee, through the principal streets of the city. The day was exceedingly beautiful, and the
whole proceeding was orderly in the extreme. I was under the impression that Casey and Cora were hanged
that same Sunday, but was probably in error; but in a very few days they were hanged by the
neck—dead—suspended from beams projecting from the windows of the committee's rooms,
without other trial than could be given in secret, and by night.
We all thought the matter had ended there, and accordingly the Governor returned to Sacramento in disgust,
and I went about my business. But it soon became manifest that the Vigilance Committee had no intention to
surrender the power thus usurped. They took a building on Clay Street, near Front, fortified it, employed
guards and armed sentinels, sat in midnight council, issued writs of arrest and banishment, and utterly ignored
all authority but their own. A good many men were banished and forced to leave the country, but they were of
that class we could well spare. Yankee Sullivan, a prisoner in their custody, committed suicide, and a feeling
of general insecurity pervaded the city. Business was deranged; and the Bulletin, then under control of Tom
King, a brother of James, poured out its abuse on some of our best men, as well as the worst. Governor
Johnson, being again appealed to, concluded to go to work regularly, and telegraphed me about the 1st of June
to meet him at General Wool's headquarters at Benicia that night. I went up, and we met at the hotel where
General Wool was boarding. Johnson had with him his Secretary of State. We discussed the state of the
country generally, and I had agreed that if Wool would give us arms and ammunition out of the United States
Arsenal at Benicia, and if Commodore Farragat, of the navy, commanding the navy-yard on Mare Island,
would give us a ship, I would call out volunteers, and, when a sufficient number had responded, I would have
the arms come down from Benicia in the ship, arm my men, take possession of a thirty-two-pound-gun battery
at the Marine Hospital on Rincon Point, thence command a dispersion of the unlawfully-armed force of the
Vigilance Committee, and arrest some of the leaders.
CALIFORNIA 76
We played cards that night, carrying on a conversation, in which Wool insisted on a proclamation
commanding the Vigilance Committee to disperse, etc., and he told us how he had on some occasion, as far
back as 1814, suppressed a mutiny on the Northern frontier. I did not understand him to make any distinct
promise of assistance that night, but he invited us to accompany him on an inspection of the arsenal the next
day, which we did. On handling some rifled muskets in the arsenal storehouse he asked me how they would
answer our purpose. I said they were the very things, and that we did not want cartridge boxes or belts, but
that I would have the cartridges carried in the breeches-pockets, and the caps in the vestpockets. I knew that
there were stored in that arsenal four thousand muskets, for I recognized the boxes which we had carried out
in the Lexington around Cape Horn in 1846. Afterward we all met at the quarters of Captain D. R. Jones of
the army, and I saw the Secretary of State, D. F. Douglass, Esq., walk out with General Wool in earnest
conversation, and this Secretary of State afterward asserted that Wool there and then promised us the arms and
ammunition, provided the Governor would make his proclamation for the committee to disperse, and that I
should afterward call out the militia, etc. On the way back to the hotel at Benicia, General Wool, Captain
Callendar of the arsenal, and I, were walking side by side, and I was telling him (General Wool) that I would
also need some ammunition for the thirty-two-pound guns then in position at Rineon Point, when Wool turned
to Callendar and inquired, "Did I not order those guns to be brought away?" Callendar said "Yes, general. I
made a requisition on the quartermaster for transportation, but his schooner has been so busy that the guns are
still there." Then said Wool: "Let them remain; we may have use for them." I therefrom inferred, of course,
that it was all agreed to so far as he was concerned.
Soon after we had reached the hotel, we ordered a buggy, and Governor Johnson and I drove to Vallejo, six
miles, crossed over to Mare Island, and walked up to the commandant's house, where we found Commodore
Farragut and his family. We stated our business fairly, but the commodore answered very frankly that he had
no authority, without orders from his department, to take any part in civil broils; he doubted the wisdom of the
attempt; said he had no ship available except the John Adams, Captain Boutwell, and that she needed repairs.
But he assented at last, to the proposition to let the sloop John Adams drop down abreast of the city after
certain repairs, to lie off there for moral effect, which afterward actually occurred.
We then returned to Benicia, and Wool's first question was, "What luck?" We answered, "Not much," and
explained what Commodore Farragut could and would do, and that, instead of having a naval vessel, we
would seize and use one of the Pacific Mail Company's steamers, lying at their dock in Benicia, to carry down
to San Francisco the arms and munitions when the time came.
As the time was then near at hand for the arrival of the evening boats, we all walked down to the wharf
together, where I told Johnson that he could not be too careful; that I had not heard General Wool make a
positive promise of assistance.
Upon this, Johnson called General Wool to one side, and we three drew together. Johnson said: "General
Wool, General Sherman is very particular, and wants to know exactly what you propose to do." Wool
answered: "I understand, Governor, that in the first place a writ of Habeas corpus will be issued commanding
the jailers of the Vigilance Committee to produce the body of some one of the prisoners held by them (which,
of course, will be refused); that you then issue your proclamation commanding them to disperse, and, failing
this, you will call out the militia, and command General Sherman with it to suppress the Vigilance Committee
as an unlawful body;" to which the Governor responded, "Yes." "Then," said Wool, "on General Sherman's
making his requisition, approved by you, I will order the issue of the necessary arms and ammunition." I
remember well that I said, emphatically: "That is all I want. —Now, Governor, you may go ahead." We
soon parted; Johnson and Douglas taking the boat to Sacramento, and I to San Francisco.
The Chief-Justice, Terry, came to San Francisco the next day, issued a writ of habeas corpus for the body of
one Maloney, which writ was resisted, as we expected. The Governor then issued his proclamation, and I
published my orders, dated June 4, 1855. The Quartermaster-General of the State, General Kibbe, also came
CALIFORNIA 77
to San Francisco, took an office in the City Hall, engaged several rooms for armories, and soon the men began
to enroll into companies. In my general orders calling out the militia, I used the expression, "When a sufficient
number of men are enrolled, arms and ammunition will be supplied." Some of the best men of the
"Vigilantes" came to me and remonstrated, saying that collision would surely result; that it would be terrible,
etc. All I could say in reply was, that it was for them to get out of the way. "Remove your fort; cease your
midnight councils; and prevent your armed bodies from patrolling the streets." They inquired where I was to
get arms, and I answered that I had them certain. But personally I went right along with my business at the
bank, conscious that at any moment we might have trouble. Another committee of citizens, a conciliatory
body, was formed to prevent collision if possible, and the newspapers boiled over with vehement vituperation.
This second committee was composed of such men as Crockett, Ritchie, Thornton, Bailey Peyton, Foote,
Donohue, Kelly, and others, a class of the most intelligent and wealthy men of the city, who earnestly and
honestly desired to prevent bloodshed. They also came to me, and I told them that our men were enrolling
very fast, and that, when I deemed the right moment had come, the Vigilance Committee must disperse, else
bloodshed and destruction of property would inevitably follow. They also had discovered that the better men
of the Vigilance Committee itself were getting tired of the business, and thought that in the execution of
Casey and Cora, and the banishment of a dozen or more rowdies, they had done enough, and were then
willing to stop. It was suggested that, if our Law-and-Order party would not arm, by a certain day near at hand
the committee would disperse, and some of their leaders would submit to an indictment and trial by a jury of
citizens, which they knew would acquit them of crime. One day in the bank a man called me to the counter
and said, "If you expect to get arms of General Wool, you will be mistaken, for I was at Benicia yesterday,
and heard him say he would not give them." This person was known to me to be a man of truth, and I
immediately wrote to General Wool a letter telling him what I had heard, and how any hesitation on his part
would compromise me as a man of truth and honor; adding that I did not believe we should ever need the
arms, but only the promise of them, for "the committee was letting down, and would soon disperse and submit
to the law," etc. I further asked him to answer me categorically that very night, by the Stockton boat, which
would pass Benicia on its way down about midnight, and I would sit up and wait for his answer. I did wait for
his letter, but it did not come, and the next day I got a telegraphic dispatch from Governor Johnson, who, at
Sacramento, had also heard of General Wool's "back-down," asking me to meet him again at Benicia that
night.
I went up in the evening boat, and found General Wool's aide-de-camp, Captain Arnold, of the army, on the
wharf, with a letter in his hand, which he said was for me. I asked for it, but he said he knew its importance,
and preferred we should go to General Wool's room together, and the general could hand it to me in person.
We did go right up to General Wool's, who took the sealed parcel and laid it aside, saying that it was literally
a copy of one he had sent to Governor Johnson, who would doubtless give me a copy; but I insisted that I had
made a written communication, and was entitled to a written answer.
At that moment several gentlemen of the "Conciliation party," who had come up in the same steamer with me,
asked for admission and came in. I recall the names of Crockett, Foote, Bailey Peyton, Judge Thornton,
Donohue, etc., and the conversation became general, Wool trying to explain away the effect of our
misunderstanding, taking good pains not to deny his promise made to me personally on the wharf. I renewed
my application for the letter addressed to me, then lying on his table. On my statement of the case, Bailey
Peyton said, "General Wool, I think General Sherman has a right to a written answer from you, for he is surely
compromised." Upon this Wool handed me the letter. I opened and read it, and it denied any promise of arms,
but otherwise was extremely evasive and non-committal. I had heard of the arrival at the wharf of the
Governor and party, and was expecting them at Wool's room, but, instead of stopping at the hotel where we
were, they passed to another hotel on the block above. I went up and found there, in a room on the second
floor over the bar-room, Governor Johnson, Chief-Justice Terry, Jones, of Palmer, Cooke & Co., E. D. Baker,
Volney E. Howard, and one or two others. All were talking furiously against Wool, denouncing him as a
d—-d liar, and not sparing the severest terms. I showed the Governor General Wool's letter to me,
which he said was in effect the same as the one addressed to and received by him at Sacramento. He was so
CALIFORNIA 78
offended that he would not even call on General Wool, and said he would never again recognize him as an
officer or gentleman. We discussed matters generally, and Judge Terry said that the Vigilance Committee
were a set of d—-d pork-merchants; that they were getting scared, and that General Wool was in
collusion with them to bring the State into contempt, etc. I explained that there were no arms in the State
except what General Wool had, or what were in the hands of the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, and
that the part of wisdom for us was to be patient and cautious. About that time Crockett and his associates sent
up their cards, but Terry and the more violent of the Governor's followers denounced them as no better than
"Vigilantes," and wanted the Governor to refuse even to receive them. I explained that they were not
"Vigilantes," that Judge Thornton was a "Law-and-Order" man, was one of the first to respond to the call of
the sheriff, and that he went actually to the jail with his one arm the night we expected the first attempt at
rescue, etc. Johnson then sent word for them to reduce their business to writing. They simply sent in a written
request for an audience, and they were then promptly admitted. After some general conversation, the
Governor said he was prepared to hear them, when Mr. Crockett rose and made a prepared speech embracing
a clear and fair statement of the condition of things in San Francisco, concluding with the assertion of the
willingness of the committee to disband and submit to trial after a certain date not very remote. All the time
Crockett was speaking, Terry sat with his hat on, drawn over his eyes, and with his feet on a table. As soon as
Crockett was through, they were dismissed, and Johnson began to prepare a written answer. This was
scratched, altered, and amended, to suit the notions of his counselors, and at last was copied and sent. This
answer amounted to little or nothing. Seeing that we were powerless for good, and that violent counsels would
prevail under the influence of Terry and others, I sat down at the table, and wrote my resignation, which
Johnson accepted in a complimentary note on the spot, and at the same time he appointed to my place General
Volney E. Howard, then present, a lawyer who had once been a member of Congress from Texas, and who
was expected to drive the d—-d pork-merchants into the bay at short notice. I went soon after to
General Wool's room, where I found Crockett and the rest of his party; told them that I was out of the fight,
having resigned my commission; that I had neglected business that had been intrusted to me by my St. Louis
partners; and that I would thenceforward mind my own business, and leave public affairs severely alone. We
all returned to San Francisco that night by the Stockton boat, and I never after-ward had any thing to do with
politics in California, perfectly satisfied with that short experience. Johnson and Wool fought out their quarrel
of veracity in the newspapers and on paper. But, in my opinion, there is not a shadow of doubt that General
Wool did deliberately deceive us; that he had authority to issue arms, and that, had he adhered to his promise,
we could have checked the committee before it became a fixed institution, and a part of the common law of
California. Major-General Volney E. Howard came to San Francisco soon after; continued the organization of
militia which I had begun; succeeded in getting a few arms from the country; but one day the Vigilance
Committee sallied from their armories, captured the arms of the "Law-and-Order party," put some of their
men into prison, while General Howard, with others, escaped to the country; after which the Vigilance
Committee had it all their own way. Subsequently, in July, 1856, they arrested Chief-Justice Terry, and tried
him for stabbing one of their constables, but he managed to escape at night, and took refuge on the John
Adams. In August, they hanged Hetherington and Brace in broad daylight, without any jury-trial; and, soon
after, they quietly disbanded. As they controlled the press, they wrote their own history, and the world
generally gives them the credit of having purged San Francisco of rowdies and roughs; but their success has
given great stimulus to a dangerous principle, that would at any time justify the mob in seizing all the power
of government; and who is to say that the Vigilance Committee may not be composed of the worst, instead of
the best, elements of a community? Indeed, in San Francisco, as soon as it was demonstrated that the real
power had passed from the City Hall to the committee room, the same set of bailiffs, constables, and rowdies
that had infested the City Hall were found in the employment of the "Vigilantes;" and, after three months
experience, the better class of people became tired of the midnight sessions and left the business and power of
the committee in the hands of a court, of which a Sydney man was reported to be the head or chief-justice.
During the winter of 1855-'56, and indeed throughout the year 1856, all kinds of business became unsettled in
California. The mines continued to yield about fifty millions of gold a year; but little attention was paid to
agriculture or to any business other than that of "mining," and, as the placer-gold was becoming worked out,
CALIFORNIA 79
the miners were restless and uneasy, and were shifting about from place to place, impelled by rumors put
afloat for speculative purposes. A great many extensive enterprises by joint-stock companies had been begun,
in the way of water-ditches, to bring water from the head of the mountain-streams down to the richer alluvial
deposits, and nearly all of these companies became embarrassed or bankrupt. Foreign capital, also, which had
been attracted to California by reason of the high rates of interest, was being withdrawn, or was tied up in
property which could not be sold; and, although our bank's having withstood the panic gave us great credit,
still the community itself was shaken, and loans of money were risky in the extreme. A great many merchants,
of the highest name, availed themselves of the extremely liberal bankrupt law to get discharged of their old
debts, without sacrificing much, if any, of their stocks of goods on hand, except a lawyer's fee; thus realizing
Martin Burke's saying that "many a clever fellow had been ruined by paying his debts." The merchants and
business-men of San Francisco did not intend to be ruined by such a course. I raised the rate of exchange from
three to three and a half, while others kept on at the old rate; and I labored hard to collect old debts, and
strove, in making new loans, to be on the safe side. The State and city both denied much of their public debt;
in fact, repudiated it; and real estate, which the year before had been first-class security, became utterly
unsalable.
The office labor and confinement, and the anxiety attending the business, aggravated my asthma to such an
extent that at times it deprived me of sleep, and threatened to become chronic and serious; and I was also
conscious that the first and original cause which had induced Mr. Lucas to establish the bank in California had
ceased. I so reported to him, and that I really believed that he could use his money more safely and to better
advantage in St. Louis. This met his prompt approval, and he instructed me gradually to draw out, preparatory
to a removal to New York City. Accordingly, early in April, 1857, I published an advertisement in the San
Francisco papers, notifying our customers that, on the 1st day of May, we would discontinue business and
remove East, requiring all to withdraw their accounts, and declaring that, if any remained on that day of May,
their balances would be transferred to the banking-house of Parrott & Co. Punctually to the day, this was
done, and the business of Lucas, Turner & Co., of San Francisco, was discontinued, except the more difficult
and disagreeable part of collecting their own moneys and selling the real estate, to which the firm had
succeeded by purchase or foreclosure. One of the partners, B. R. Nisbet, assisted by our attorney, S. M.
Bowman, Esq., remained behind to close up the business of the bank.
CHAPTER VI.
CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, AND KANSAS.
1857-1859.
CHAPTER VI. 80
Having closed the bank at San Francisco on the 1st day of May, 1857, accompanied by my family I embarked
in the steamer Sonora for Panama, crossed the isthmus, and sailed to New York, whence we proceeded to
Lancaster, Ohio, where Mrs. Sherman and the family stopped, and I went on to St. Louis. I found there that
some changes had been made in the parent, house, that Mr. Lucas had bought out his partner, Captain
Symonds, and that the firm's name had been changed to that of James H. Lucas & Co.
It had also been arranged that an office or branch was to be established in New York City, of which I was to
have charge, on pretty much the same terms and conditions as in the previous San Francisco firm.
Mr. Lucas, Major Turner, and I, agreed to meet in New York, soon after the 4th of July. We met accordingly
at the Metropolitan Hotel, selected an office, No. 12 Pall Street, purchased the necessary furniture, and
engaged a teller, bookkeeper, and porter. The new firm was to bear the same title of Lucas, Turner & Co.,
with about the same partners in interest, but the nature of the business was totally different. We opened our
office on the 21st of July, 1857, and at once began to receive accounts from the West and from California, but
our chief business was as the resident agents of the St. Louis firm of James H. Lucas & Co. Personally I took
rooms at No. 100 Prince Street, in which house were also quartered Major J. G. Barnard, and Lieutenant J. B.
McPherson, United States Engineers, both of whom afterward attained great fame in the civil war.
My business relations in New York were with the Metropolitan Bank and Bank of America; and with the very
wealthy and most respectable firm of Schuchhardt & Gebhard, of Nassau Street. Every thing went along
swimmingly till the 21st of August, when all Wall Street was thrown into a spasm by the failure of the Ohio
Life and Trust Company, and the panic so resembled that in San Francisco, that, having nothing seemingly at
stake, I felt amused. But it soon became a serious matter even to me. Western stocks and securities tumbled to
such a figure, that all Western banks that held such securities, and had procured advances thereon, were
compelled to pay up or substitute increased collaterals. Our own house was not a borrower in New York at all,
but many of our Western correspondents were, and it taxed my tune to watch their interests. In September, the
panic extended so as to threaten the safety of even some of the New York banks not connected with the West;
and the alarm became general, and at last universal.
In the very midst of this panic came the news that the steamer Central America, formerly the George Law,
with six hundred passengers and about sixteen hundred thousand dollars of treasure, coming from Aspinwall,
had foundered at sea, off the coast of Georgia, and that about sixty of the passengers had been providentially
picked up by a Swedish bark, and brought into Savannah. The absolute loss of this treasure went to swell the
confusion and panic of the day.
A few days after, I was standing in the vestibule of the Metropolitan Hotel, and heard the captain of the
Swedish bark tell his singular story of the rescue of these passengers. He was a short, sailor-like-looking man,
with a strong German or Swedish accent. He said that he was sailing from some port in Honduras for Sweden,
running down the Gulf Stream off Savannah. The weather had been heavy for some days, and, about nightfall,
as he paced his deck, he observed a man-of-war hawk circle about his vessel, gradually lowering, until the
bird was as it were aiming at him. He jerked out a belaying-pin, struck at the bird, missed it, when the hawk
again rose high in the air, and a second time began to descend, contract his circle, and make at him again. The
second time he hit the bird, and struck it to the deck.... This strange fact made him uneasy, and he thought it
betokened danger; he went to the binnacle, saw the course he was steering, and without any particular reason
he ordered the steersman to alter the course one point to the east.
After this it became quite dark, and he continued to promenade the deck, and had settled into a drowsy state,
when as in a dream he thought he heard voices all round his ship. Waking up, he ran to the side of the ship,
saw something struggling in the water, and heard clearly cries for help. Instantly heaving his ship to, and
lowering all his boats, he managed to pick up sixty or more persons who were floating about on skylights,
doors, spare, and whatever fragments remained of the Central America. Had he not changed the course of his
CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, AND KANSAS. 81

vessel by reason of the mysterious conduct of that man-of-war hawk, not a soul would probably have survived
the night. It was stated by the rescued passengers, among whom was Billy Birch, that the Central America had
sailed from Aspinwall with the passengers and freight which left San Francisco on the 1st of September, and
encountered the gale in the Gulf Stream somewhere off Savannah, in which she sprung a leak, filled rapidly,
and went down. The passengers who were saved had clung to doors, skylights, and such floating objects as
they could reach, and were thus rescued; all the rest, some five hundred in number, had gone down with the
ship.
The panic grew worse and worse, and about the end of September there was a general suspension of the banks
of New York, and a money crisis extended all over the country. In New York, Lucas, Turner & Co. had
nothing at risk. We had large cash balances in the Metropolitan Bank and in the Bank of America, all safe,
and we held, for the account of the St. Louis house, at least two hundred thousand dollars, of St. Louis city
and county bonds, and of acceptances falling due right along, none extending beyond ninety days. I was
advised from St. Louis that money matters were extremely tight; but I did not dream of any danger in that
quarter. I knew well that Mr. Lucas was worth two or three million dollars in the best real estate, and inferred
from the large balances to their credit with me that no mere panic could shake his credit; but, early on the
morning of October 7th, my cousin, James M. Hoyt, came to me in bed, and read me a paragraph in the
morning paper, to the effect that James H. Lucas & Co., of St. Louis, had suspended. I was, of course,
surprised, but not sorry; for I had always contended that a man of so much visible wealth as Mr. Lucas should
not be engaged in a business subject to such vicissitudes. I hurried down to the office, where I received the
same information officially, by telegraph, with instructions to make proper disposition of the affairs of the
bank, and to come out to St. Louis, with such assets as would be available there. I transferred the funds
belonging to all our correspondents, with lists of outstanding checks, to one or other of our bankers, and with
the cash balance of the St. Louis house and their available assets started for St. Louis. I may say with
confidence that no man lost a cent by either of the banking firms of Lucas, Turner & Co., of San Francisco or
New York; but, as usual, those who owed us were not always as just. I reached St. Louis October 17th, and
found the partners engaged in liquidating the balances due depositors as fast as collections could be forced;
and, as the panic began to subside, this process became quite rapid, and Mr. Lucas, by making a loan in
Philadelphia, was enabled to close out all accounts without having made any serious sacrifices, Of course, no
person ever lost a cent by him: he has recently died, leaving an estate of eight million dollars. During his
lifetime, I had opportunities to know him well, and take much pleasure in bearing testimony to his great worth
and personal kindness. On the failure of his bank, he assumed personally all the liabilities, released his
partners of all responsibility, and offered to assist me to engage in business, which he supposed was due to me
because I had resigned my army commission. I remained in St. Louis till the 17th of December, 1857,
assisting in collecting for the bank, and in controlling all matters which came from the New York and San
Francisco branches. B. R. Nisbet was still in San Francisco, but had married a Miss Thornton, and was
coming home. There still remained in California a good deal of real estate, and notes, valued at about two
hundred thousand dollars in the aggregate; so that, at Mr. Lucas's request, I agreed to go out again, to bring
matters, if possible, nearer a final settlement. I accordingly left St. Louis, reached Lancaster, where my family
was, on the 10th, staid there till after Christmas, and then went to New York, where I remained till January
5th, when I embarked on the steamer Moles Taylor (Captain McGowan) for Aspinwall; caught the Golden
Gate (Captain Whiting) at Panama, January 15, 1858; and reached San Francisco on the 28th of January. I
found that Nisbet and wife had gone to St. Louis, and that we had passed each other at sea. He had carried the
ledger and books to St. Louis, but left a schedule, notes, etc., in the hands of S. M. Bowman, Esq., who passed
them over to me.
On the 30th of January I published a notice of the dissolution of the partnership, and called on all who were
still indebted to the firm of Lucas, Turner & Co. to pay up, or the notes would be sold at auction. I also
advertised that all the real property, was for sale.

Business had somewhat changed since 1857. Parrott & Co.; Garrison, Fritz & Ralston; Wells, Fargo & Co.;
Drexel, Sather & Church, and Tallant & Wilde, were the principal bankers. Property continued almost
unsalable, and prices were less than a half of what they had been in 1853-'54. William Blending, Esq., had
rented my house on Harrison Street; so I occupied a room in the bank, No. 11, and boarded at the Meiggs
House, corner of Broadway and Montgomery, which we owned. Having reduced expenses to a minimum, I
proceeded, with all possible dispatch, to collect outstanding debts, in some instances making sacrifices and
compromises. I made some few sales, and generally aimed to put matters in such a shape that time would
bring the best result. Some of our heaviest creditors were John M. Rhodes & Co., of Sacramento and Shasta;
Langton & Co., of Downieville; and E. M. Stranger of Murphy's. In trying to put these debts in course of
settlement, I made some arrangement in Downieville with the law-firm of Spears & Thornton, to collect, by
suit, a certain note of Green & Purdy for twelve thousand dollars. Early in April, I learned that Spears had
collected three thousand seven hundred dollars in money, had appropriated it to his own use, and had pledged
another good note taken in part payment of three thousand and fifty-three dollars. He pretended to be insane. I
had to make two visits to Downieville on this business, and there, made the acquaintance of Mr. Stewart, now
a Senator from Nevada. He was married to a daughter of Governor Foote; was living in a small frame house
on the bar just below the town; and his little daughter was playing about the door in the sand. Stewart was
then a lawyer in Downieville, in good practice; afterward, by some lucky stroke, became part owner of a
valuable silver-mine in Nevada, and is now accounted a millionaire. I managed to save something out of
Spears, and more out of his partner Thornton. This affair of Spears ruined him, because his insanity was
manifestly feigned.
I remained in San Francisco till July 3d, when, having collected and remitted every cent that I could raise, and
got all the property in the best shape possible, hearing from St. Louis that business had revived, and that there
was no need of further sacrifice; I put all the papers, with a full letter of instructions, and power of attorney, in
the hands of William Blending, Esq., and took passage on the good steamer Golden Gate, Captain Whiting,
for Panama and home. I reached Lancaster on July 28, 1858, and found all the family well. I was then
perfectly unhampered, but the serious and greater question remained, what was I to do to support my family,
consisting of a wife and four children, all accustomed to more than the average comforts of life?
I remained at Lancaster all of August, 1858, during which time I was discussing with Mr. Ewing and others
what to do next. Major Turner and Mr. Lucas, in St. Louis, were willing to do any thing to aid me, but I
thought best to keep independent. Mr. Ewing had property at Chauncey, consisting of salt-wells and
coal-mines, but for that part of Ohio I had no fancy. Two of his sons, Hugh and T. E., Jr., had established
themselves at Leavenworth, Kansas, where they and their father had bought a good deal of land, some near
the town, and some back in the country. Mr. Ewing offered to confide to me the general management of his
share of interest, and Hugh and T. E., Jr., offered me an equal copartnership in their law-firm.
Accordingly, about the 1st of September, I started for Kansas, stopping a couple of weeks in St. Louis, and
reached Leavenworth. I found about two miles below the fort, on the river-bank, where in 1851 was a tangled
thicket, quite a handsome and thriving city, growing rapidly in rivalry with Kansas City, and St. Joseph,
Missouri. After looking about and consulting with friends, among them my classmate Major Stewart Van
Vliet, quartermaster at the fort, I concluded to accept the proposition of Mr. Ewing, and accordingly the firm
of Sherman & Ewing was duly announced, and our services to the public offered as attorneys-at-law. We had
an office on Main Street, between Shawnee and Delaware, on the second floor, over the office of Hampton
Denman, Esq., mayor of the city. This building was a mere shell, and our office was reached by a stairway on
the outside. Although in the course of my military reading I had studied a few of the ordinary law-books, such
as Blackstone, Kent, Starkie, etc., I did not presume to be a lawyer; but our agreement was that Thomas
Ewing, Jr., a good and thorough lawyer, should manage all business in the courts, while I gave attention to
collections, agencies for houses and lands, and such business as my experience in banking had qualified me
for. Yet, as my name was embraced in a law-firm, it seemed to me proper to take out a license. Accordingly,
one day when United States Judge Lecompte was in our office, I mentioned the matter to him; he told me to

go down to the clerk of his court, and he would give me the license. I inquired what examination I would have
to submit to, and he replied, "None at all;" he would admit me on the ground of general intelligence.
During that summer we got our share of the business of the profession, then represented by several eminent
law-firms, embracing names that have since flourished in the Senate, and in the higher courts of the country.
But the most lucrative single case was given me by my friend Major Van Vliet, who employed me to go to
Fort Riley, one hundred and thirty-six miles west of Fort Leavenworth, to superintend the repairs to the
military road. For this purpose he supplied me with a four-mule ambulance and driver. The country was then
sparsely settled, and quite as many Indians were along the road as white people; still there were embryo towns
all along the route, and a few farms sprinkled over the beautiful prairies. On reaching Indianola, near Topeka,
I found everybody down with the chills and fever. My own driver became so shaky that I had to act as driver
and cook. But in due season I reconnoitred the road, and made contracts for repairing some bridges, and for
cutting such parts of the road as needed it. I then returned to Fort Leavenworth, and reported, receiving a fair
compensation. On my way up I met Colonel Sumner's column, returning from their summer scout on the
plains, and spent the night with the officers, among whom were Captains Sackett, Sturgis, etc. Also at Fort
Riley I was cordially received and entertained by some old army-friends, among them Major Sedgwick,
Captains Totted, Eli Long, etc.
Mrs. Sherman and children arrived out in November, and we spent the winter very comfortably in the house
of Thomas Ewing, Jr., on the corner of Third and Pottawottamie Streets. On the 1st of January, 1859, Daniel
McCook, Esq., was admitted to membership in our firm, which became Sherman, Ewing & McCook. Our
business continued to grow, but, as the income hardly sufficed for three such expensive personages, I
continued to look about for something more certain and profitable, and during that spring undertook for the
Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, to open a farm on a large tract of land he owned on Indian Creek, forty miles
west of Leavenworth, for the benefit of his grand-nephew, Henry Clark, and his grand-niece, Mrs. Walker.
These arrived out in the spring, by which time I had caused to be erected a small frame dwelling-house, a
barn, and fencing for a hundred acres. This helped to pass away time, but afforded little profit; and on the 11th
of June, 1859, I wrote to Major D. C. Buel, assistant adjutant-general, on duty in the War Department with
Secretary of War Floyd, inquiring if there was a vacancy among the army paymasters, or any thing in his line
that I could obtain. He replied promptly, and sent me the printed programme for a military college about to be
organized in Louisiana, and advised me to apply for the superintendent's place, saying that General G. Mason
Graham, the half-brother of my old commanding-general, R. B. Mason, was very influential in this matter,
and would doubtless befriend me on account of the relations that had existed between General Mason and
myself in California. Accordingly, I addressed a letter of application to the Hon. R. C. Wickliffe, Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, asking the answer to be sent to me at Lancaster, Ohio, where I proposed to leave my
family. But, before leaving this branch of the subject, I must explain a little matter of which I have seen an
account in print, complimentary or otherwise of the firm of Sherman, Ewing & McCook, more especially of
the senior partner.
One day, as I sat in our office, an Irishman came in and said he had a case and wanted a lawyer. I asked him to
sit down and give me the points of his case, all the other members of the firm being out. Our client stated that
he had rented a lot of an Irish landlord for five dollars a month; that he had erected thereon a small frame
shanty, which was occupied by his family; that he had, paid his rent regularly up to a recent period, but to his
house he had appended a shed which extended over a part of an adjoining vacant lot belonging to the same
landlord, for which he was charged two and a half dollars a month, which he refused to pay. The consequence
was, that his landlord had for a few months declined even his five dollars monthly rent until the arrears
amounted to about seventeen dollars, for which he was sued. I told him we would undertake his case, of which
I took notes, and a fee of five dollars in advance, and in due order I placed the notes in the hands of McCook,
and thought no more of it.

A month or so after, our client rushed into the office and said his case had been called at Judge Gardner's (I
think), and he wanted his lawyer right away. I sent him up to the Circuit Court, Judge Pettit's, for McCook,
but he soon returned, saying he could not find McCook, and accordingly I hurried with him up to Judge
Gardner's office, intending to ask a continuance, but I found our antagonist there, with his lawyer and
witnesses, and Judge Gardner would not grant a continuance, so of necessity I had to act, hoping that at every
minute McCook would come. But the trial proceeded regularly to its end; we were beaten, and judgment was
entered against our client for the amount claimed, and costs. As soon as the matter was explained to McCook,
he said "execution" could not be taken for ten days, and, as our client was poor, and had nothing on which the
landlord could levy but his house, McCook advised him to get his neighbors together, to pick up the house,
and carry it on to another vacant lot, belonging to a non-resident, so that even the house could not be taken in
execution. Thus the grasping landlord, though successful in his judgment, failed in the execution, and our
client was abundantly satisfied.
In due time I closed up my business at Leavenworth, and went to Lancaster, Ohio, where, in July, 1859, I
received notice from Governor Wickliffe that I had been elected superintendent of the proposed college, and
inviting me to come down to Louisiana as early as possible, because they were anxious to put the college into
operation by the 1st of January following. For this honorable position I was indebted to Major D. C. Buell and
General G. Mason Graham, to whom I have made full and due acknowledgment. During the civil war, it was
reported and charged that I owed my position to the personal friendship of Generals Bragg and Beauregard,
and that, in taking up arms against the South, I had been guilty of a breach of hospitality and friendship. I was
not indebted to General Bragg, because he himself told me that he was not even aware that I was an applicant,
and had favored the selection of Major Jenkins, another West Point graduate. General Beauregard had nothing
whatever to do with the matter. .
CHAPTER VII.
LOUISIANA
1859-1861.
In the autumn of 1859, having made arrangements for my family to remain in Lancaster, I proceeded, via
Columbus, Cincinnati, and Louisville, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I reported for duty to Governor
Wickliffe, who, by virtue of his office, was the president of the Board of Supervisors of the new institution
over which I was called to preside. He explained to me the act of the Legislature under which the institution
was founded; told me that the building was situated near Alexandria, in the parish of Rapides, and was
substantially finished; that the future management would rest with a Board of Supervisors, mostly citizens of
Rapides Parish, where also resided the Governor-elect, T. O. Moore, who would soon succeed him in his
CHAPTER VII. 85
office as Governor and president ex officio; and advised me to go at once to Alexandria, and put myself in
communication with Moore and the supervisors. Accordingly I took a boat at Baton Rouge, for the mouth of
Red River.
The river being low, and its navigation precarious, I there took the regular mail-coach, as the more certain
conveyance, and continued on toward Alexandria. I found, as a fellow-passenger in the coach, Judge Henry
Boyce, of the United States District Court, with whom I had made acquaintance years before, at St. Louis,
and, as we neared Alexandria, he proposed that we should stop at Governor Moore's and spend the night.
Moore's house and plantation were on Bayou Robert, about eight miles from Alexandria. We found him at
home, with his wife and a married daughter, and spent the night there. He sent us forward to Alexandria the
next morning, in his own carriage. On arriving at Alexandria, I put up at an inn, or boarding-house, and almost
immediately thereafter went about ten miles farther up Bayou Rapides, to the plantation and house of General
G. Mason Graham, to whom I looked as the principal man with whom I had to deal. He was a high-toned
gentleman, and his whole heart was in the enterprise. He at once put me at ease. We acted together most
cordially from that time forth, and it was at his house that all the details of the seminary were arranged. We
first visited the college-building together. It was located on an old country place of four hundred acres of
pineland, with numerous springs, and the building was very large and handsome. A carpenter, named James,
resided there, and had the general charge of the property; but, as there was not a table, chair, black-board, or
any thing on hand, necessary for a beginning, I concluded to quarter myself in one of the rooms of the
seminary, and board with an old black woman who cooked for James, so that I might personally push forward
the necessary preparations. There was an old rail-fence about the place, and a large pile of boards in front. I
immediately engaged four carpenters, and set them at work to make out of these boards mess-tables, benches,
black-boards, etc. I also opened a correspondence with the professors-elect, and with all parties of influence in
the State, who were interested in our work: At the meeting of the Board of Supervisors, held at Alexandria,
August 2, 1859, five professors had been elected: 1. W. T. Sherman, Superintendent, and Professor of
Engineering, etc.; 2. Anthony Vallas, Professor of Mathematics, Philosophy, etc.; 3. Francis W. Smith,
Professor of Chemistry, etc.; 4. David F. Boyd, Professor of Languages, English and Ancient; 5. E. Berti St.
Ange, Professor of French and Modern Languages.
These constituted the Academic Board, while the general supervision remained in the Board of Supervisors,
composed of the Governor of the State, the Superintendent of Public Education, and twelve members,
nominated by the Governor, and confirmed by the Senate. The institution was bound to educate sixteen
beneficiary students, free of any charge for tuition. These had only to pay for their clothing and books, while
all others had to pay their entire expenses, including tuition.
Early in November, Profs. Smith, Yallas, St. Ange, and I, met a committee of the Board of Supervisors,
composed of T. C. Manning, G. Mason Graham, and W. W. Whittington, at General Graham's house, and
resolved to open the institution to pupils on the 1st day of January, 1860. We adopted a series of bylaws for
the government of the institution, which was styled the "Louisiana Seminary of Learning and Military
Academy." This title grew out of the original grant, by the Congress of the United States, of a certain
township of public land, to be sold by the State, and dedicated to the use of a "seminary of learning." I do not
suppose that Congress designed thereby to fix the name or title; but the subject had so long been debated in
Louisiana that the name, though awkward, had become familiar. We appended to it "Military Academy," as
explanatory of its general design.
On the 17th of November, 1859, the Governor of the State, Wickliffe, issued officially a general circular,
prepared by us, giving public notice that the "Seminary of Learning" would open on the 1st day of January,
1860; containing a description of the locality, and the general regulations for the proposed institution; and
authorizing parties to apply for further information to the "Superintendent," at Alexandria, Louisiana.
LOUISIANA 86
The Legislature had appropriated for the sixteen beneficiaries at the rate of two hundred and eighty-three
dollars per annum, to which we added sixty dollars as tuition for pay cadets; and, though the price was low,
we undertook to manage for the first year on that basis.
Promptly to the day, we opened, with about sixty cadets present. Major Smith was the commandant of cadets,
and I the superintendent. I had been to New Orleans, where I had bought a supply of mattresses, books, and
every thing requisite, and we started very much on the basis of West Point and of the Virginia Military
Institute, but without uniforms or muskets; yet with roll-calls, sections, and recitations, we kept as near the
standard of West Point as possible. I kept all the money accounts, and gave general directions to the steward,
professors, and cadets. The other professors had their regular classes and recitations. We all lived in rooms in
the college building, except Vallas, who had a family, and rented a house near by. A Creole gentleman, B.
Jarrean, Esq., had been elected steward, and he also had his family in a house not far off. The other professors
had a mess in a room adjoining the mess-hall. A few more cadets joined in the course of the winter, so that we
had in all, during the first term, seventy-three cadets, of whom fifty-nine passed the examination on the 30th
of July, 1860. During our first term many defects in the original act of the Legislature were demonstrated, and,
by the advice of the Board of Supervisors, I went down to Baton Rouge during the session of the Legislature,
to advocate and urge the passage of a new bill, putting the institution on a better footing. Thomas O. Moors
was then Governor, Bragg was a member of the Board of Public Works, and Richard Taylor was a Senator. I
got well acquainted with all of these, and with some of the leading men of the State, and was always treated
with the greatest courtesy and kindness. In conjunction with the proper committee of the Legislature, we
prepared a new bill, which was passed and approved on the 7th of March, 1860, by which we were to have a
beneficiary cadet for each parish, in all fifty-six, and fifteen thousand dollars annually for their maintenance;
also twenty thousand dollars for the general use of the college. During that session we got an appropriation of
fifteen thousand dollars for building two professors' houses, for the purchase of philosophical and chemical
apparatus, and for the beginning of a college library. The seminary was made a State Arsenal, under the title
of State Central Arsenal, and I was allowed five hundred dollars a year as its superintendent. These matters
took me several times to Baton Rouge that winter, and I recall an event of some interest, which most have
happened in February. At that time my brother, John Sherman, was a candidate, in the national House of
Representatives, for Speaker, against Bocock, of Virginia. In the South he was regarded as an "abolitionist,"
the most horrible of all monsters; and many people of Louisiana looked at me with suspicion, as the brother of
the abolitionist, John Sherman, and doubted the propriety of having me at the head of an important State
institution. By this time I was pretty well acquainted with many of their prominent men, was generally
esteemed by all in authority, and by the people of Rapides Parish especially, who saw that I was devoted to
my particular business, and that I gave no heed to the political excitement of the day. But the members of the
State Senate and House did not know me so well, and it was natural that they should be suspicions of a
Northern man, and the brother of him who was the "abolition" candidate for Speaker of the House.
One evening, at a large dinner-party at Governor Moore's, at which were present several members of the
Louisiana Legislature, Taylor, Bragg, and the Attorney-General Hyams, after the ladies had left the table, I
noticed at Governor Moore's end quite a lively discussion going on, in which my name was frequently used; at
length the Governor called to me, saying: "Colonel Sherman, you can readily understand that, with your
brother the abolitionist candidate for Speaker, some of our people wonder that you should be here at the head
of an important State institution. Now, you are at my table, and I assure you of my confidence. Won't you
speak your mind freely on this question of slavery, that so agitates the land? You are under my roof, and,
whatever you say, you have my protection."
I answered: "Governor Moors, you mistake in calling my brother, John Sherman, an abolitionist. We have
been separated since childhood—I in the army, and he pursuing his profession of law in Northern Ohio;
and it is possible we may differ in general sentiment, but I deny that he is considered at home an abolitionist;
and, although he prefers the free institutions under which he lives to those of slavery which prevail here, he
would not of himself take from you by law or force any property whatever, even slaves."
LOUISIANA 87
Then said Moore: "Give us your own views of slavery as you see it here and throughout the South."
I answered in effect that "the people of Louisiana were hardly responsible for slavery, as they had inherited it;
that I found two distinct conditions of slavery, domestic and field hands. The domestic slaves, employed by
the families, were probably better treated than any slaves on earth; but the condition of the field-hands was
different, depending more on the temper and disposition of their masters and overseers than were those
employed about the house;" and I went on to say that, "were I a citizen of Louisiana, and a member of the
Legislature, I would deem it wise to bring the legal condition of the slaves more near the status of human
beings under all Christian and civilized governments. In the first place, I argued that, in sales of slaves made
by the State, I would forbid the separation of families, letting the father, mother, and children, be sold together
to one person, instead of each to the highest bidder. And, again, I would advise the repeal of the statute which
enacted a severe penalty for even the owner to teach his slave to read and write, because that actually qualified
property and took away a part of its value; illustrating the assertion by the case of Henry Sampson, who had
been the slave of Colonel Chambers, of Rapides Parish, who had gone to California as the servant of an
officer of the army, and who was afterward employed by me in the bank at San Francisco. At first he could
not write or read, and I could only afford to pay him one hundred dollars a month; but he was taught to read
and write by Reilley, our bank-teller, when his services became worth two hundred and fifty dollars a month,
which enabled him to buy his own freedom and that of his brother and his family."
What I said was listened to by all with the most profound attention; and, when I was through, some one (I
think it was Mr. Hyams) struck the table with his fist, making the glasses jingle, and said, "By God, he is
right!" and at once he took up the debate, which went on, for an hour or more, on both sides with ability and
fairness. Of course, I was glad to be thus relieved, because at the time all men in Louisiana were dreadfully
excited on questions affecting their slaves, who constituted the bulk of their wealth, and without whom they
honestly believed that sugar, cotton, and rice, could not possibly be cultivated.
On the 30th and 31st of July, 1860, we had an examination at the seminary, winding up with a ball, and as
much publicity as possible to attract general notice; and immediately thereafter we all scattered—the
cadets to their homes, and the professors wherever they pleased—all to meet again on the 1st day of the
next November. Major Smith and I agreed to meet in New York on a certain day in August, to purchase
books, models, etc. I went directly to my family in Lancaster, and after a few days proceeded to Washington,
to endeavor to procure from the General Government the necessary muskets and equipments for our cadets by
the beginning of the next term. I was in Washington on the 17th day of August, and hunted up my friend
Major Buell, of the Adjutant-General's Department, who was on duty with the Secretary of War, Floyd. I had
with me a letter of Governor Moore's, authorizing me to act in his name. Major Buell took me into Floyd's
room at the War Department, to whom I explained my business, and I was agreeably surprised to meet with
such easy success. Although the State of Louisiana had already drawn her full quota of arms, Floyd promptly
promised to order my requisition to be filled, and I procured the necessary blanks at the Ordnance-Office,
filled them with two hundred cadet muskets, and all equipments complete, and was assured that all these
articles would be shipped to Louisiana in season for our use that fall. These assurances were faithfully carried
out.
I then went on to New York, there met Major Smith according to appointment, and together we selected and
purchased a good supply of uniforms, clothing, and text books, as well as a fair number of books of history
and fiction, to commence a library.
When this business was completed, I returned to Lancaster, and remained with my family till the time
approached for me to return to Louisiana. I again left my family at Lancaster, until assured of the completion
of the two buildings designed for the married professors for which I had contracted that spring with Mr. Mills,
of Alexandria, and which were well under progress when I left in August. One of these was designed for me
and the other for Vallas. Mr. Ewing presented me with a horse, which I took down the river with me, and en
LOUISIANA 88
route I ordered from Grimsley & Co. a full equipment of saddle, bridle, etc., the same that I used in the war,
and which I lost with my horse, shot under me at Shiloh.
Reaching Alexandria early in October, I pushed forward the construction of the two buildings, some fences,
gates, and all other work, with the object of a more perfect start at the opening of the regular term November
1, 1860.
About this time Dr. Powhatan Clark was elected Assistant Professor of Chemistry, etc., and acted as secretary
of the Board of Supervisors, but no other changes were made in our small circle of professors.
November came, and with it nearly if not quite all our first set of cadets, and others, to the number of about
one hundred and thirty. We divided them into two companies, issued arms and clothing, and began a regular
system of drills and instruction, as well as the regular recitations. I had moved into my new house, but
prudently had not sent for my family, nominally on the ground of waiting until the season was further
advanced, but really because of the storm that was lowering heavy on the political horizon. The presidential
election was to occur in November, and the nominations had already been made in stormy debates by the
usual conventions. Lincoln and Hamlin (to the South utterly unknown) were the nominees of the Republican
party, and for the first time both these candidates were from Northern States. The Democratic party
divided—one set nominating a ticket at Charleston, and the other at Baltimore. Breckenridge and Lane
were the nominees of the Southern or Democratic party; and Bell and Everett, a kind of compromise, mostly
in favor in Louisiana. Political excitement was at its very height, and it was constantly asserted that Mr.
Lincoln's election would imperil the Union. I purposely kept aloof from politics, would take no part, and
remember that on the day of the election in November I was notified that it would be advisable for me to vote
for Bell and Everett, but I openly said I would not, and I did not. The election of Mr. Lincoln fell upon us all
like a clap of thunder. People saw and felt that the South had threatened so long that, if she quietly submitted,
the question of slavery in the Territories was at an end forever. I mingled freely with the members of the
Board of Supervisors, and with the people of Rapides Parish generally, keeping aloof from all cliques and
parties, and I certainly hoped that the threatened storm would blow over, as had so often occurred before, after
similar threats. At our seminary the order of exercises went along with the regularity of the seasons. Once a
week, I had the older cadets to practise reading, reciting, and elocution, and noticed that their selections were
from Calhoun, Yancey, and other Southern speakers, all treating of the defense of their slaves and their home
institutions as the very highest duty of the patriot. Among boys this was to be expected; and among the
members of our board, though most of them declaimed against politicians generally, and especially
abolitionists, as pests, yet there was a growing feeling that danger was in the wind. I recall the visit of a young
gentleman who had been sent from Jackson, by the Governor of Mississippi, to confer with Governor Moore,
then on his plantation at Bayou Robert, and who had come over to see our college. He spoke to me openly of
secession as a fixed fact, and that its details were only left open for discussion. I also recall the visit of some
man who was said to be a high officer in the order of "Knights of the Golden Circle," of the existence of
which order I was even ignorant, until explained to me by Major Smith and Dr. Clark. But in November,
1860, no man ever approached me offensively, to ascertain my views, or my proposed course of action in case
of secession, and no man in or out of authority ever tried to induce me to take part in steps designed to lead
toward disunion. I think my general opinions were well known and understood, viz., that "secession was
treason, was war;" and that in no event would the North and West permit the Mississippi River to pass out of
their control. But some men at the South actually supposed at the time that the Northwestern States, in case of
a disruption of the General Government, would be drawn in self-interest to an alliance with the South. What I
now write I do not offer as any thing like a history of the important events of that time, but rather as my
memory of them, the effect they had on me personally, and to what extent they influenced my personal
conduct.
South Carolina seceded December 20, 1860, and Mississippi soon after. Emissaries came to Louisiana to
influence the Governor, Legislature, and people, and it was the common assertion that, if all the Cotton States
LOUISIANA 89
would follow the lead of South Carolina, it would diminish the chances of civil war, because a bold and
determined front would deter the General Government from any measures of coercion. About this time also,
viz., early in December, we received Mr. Buchanan's annual message to Congress, in which he publicly
announced that the General Government had no constitutional power to "coerce a State." I confess this
staggered me, and I feared that the prophecies and assertions of Alison and other European commentators on
our form of government were right, and that our Constitution was a mere rope of sand, that would break with
the first pressure.
The Legislature of Louisiana met on the 10th of December, and passed an act calling a convention of
delegates from the people, to meet at Baton Rouge, on the 8th of January, to take into consideration the state
of the Union; and, although it was universally admitted that a large majority of the voters of the State were
opposed to secession, disunion, and all the steps of the South Carolinians, yet we saw that they were
powerless, and that the politicians would sweep them along rapidly to the end, prearranged by their leaders in
Washington. Before the ordinance of secession was passed, or the convention had assembled, on the faith of a
telegraphic dispatch sent by the two Senators, Benjamin and Slidell, from their seats in the United States
Senate at Washington, Governor Moore ordered the seizure of all the United States forts at the mouth of the
Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain, and of the United States arsenal at Baton Rouge. The forts had no
garrisons, but the arsenal was held by a small company of artillery, commanded by Major Haskins, a most
worthy and excellent officer, who had lost an arm in Mexico. I remember well that I was strongly and bitterly
impressed by the seizure of the arsenal, which occurred on January 10, 1861.
When I went first to Baton Rouge, in 1859, en route to Alexandria, I found Captain Rickett's company of
artillery stationed in the arsenal, but soon after there was somewhat of a clamor on the Texas frontier about
Brownsville, which induced the War Department to order Rickett's company to that frontier. I remember that
Governor Moore remonstrated with the Secretary of War because so much dangerous property, composed of
muskets, powder, etc., had been left by the United States unguarded, in a parish where the slave population
was as five or six to one of whites; and it was on his official demand that the United States Government
ordered Haskinss company to replace Rickett's. This company did not number forty men. In the night of
January 9th, about five hundred New Orleans militia, under command of a Colonel Wheat, went up from New
Orleans by boat, landed, surrounded the arsenal, and demanded its surrender. Haskins was of course
unprepared for such a step, yet he at first resolved to defend the post as he best could with his small force. But
Bragg, who was an old army acquaintance of his, had a parley with him, exhibited to him the vastly superior
force of his assailants, embracing two field-batteries, and offered to procure for him honorable terms, to
march out with drums and colors, and to take unmolested passage in a boat up to St. Louis; alleging, further,
that the old Union was at an end, and that a just settlement would be made between the two new fragments for
all the property stored in the arsenal. Of course it was Haskins's duty to have defended his post to the death;
but up to that time the national authorities in Washington had shown such pusillanimity, that the officers of
the army knew not what to do. The result, anyhow, was that Haskins surrendered his post, and at once
embarked for St. Louis. The arms and munitions stored in the arsenal were scattered—some to
Mississippi, some to New Orleans, some to Shreveport; and to me, at the Central Arsenal, were consigned two
thousand muskets, three hundred Jager rifles, and a large amount of cartridges and ammunition. The invoices
were signed by the former ordnance-sergeant, Olodowski, as a captain of ordnance, and I think he continued
such on General Bragg's staff through the whole of the subsequent civil war. These arms, etc., came up to me
at Alexandria, with orders from Governor Moore to receipt for and account for them. Thus I was made the
receiver of stolen goods, and these goods the property of the United States. This grated hard on my feelings as
an ex-army-officer, and on counting the arms I noticed that they were packed in the old familiar boxes, with
the "U. S." simply scratched off. General G. Mason Graham had resigned as the chairman of the Executive
Committee, and Dr. S. A. Smith, of Alexandria, then a member of the State Senate, had succeeded him as
chairman, and acted as head of the Board of Supervisors. At the time I was in most intimate correspondence
with all of these parties, and our letters must have been full of politics, but I have only retained copies of a few
of the letters, which I will embody in this connection, as they will show, better than by any thing I can now
LOUISIANA 90
recall, the feelings of parties at that critical period. The seizure of the arsenal at Baton Rouge occurred January
10, 1861, and the secession ordinance was not passed until about the 25th or 26th of the same month. At all
events, after the seizure of the arsenal, and before the passage of the ordinance of secession, viz., on the 18th
of January, I wrote as follows:
Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy

January 18, 1861
Governor THOMAS O. MOORE, Baton, Rouge, Louisiana.
Sir: As I occupy a quasi-military position under the laws of the State, I deem
it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position when Louisiana was a
State in the Union, and when the motto of this seminary was inserted in
marble over the main door: "By the liberality of the General Government of
the United States. The Union—esto perpetua."
Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose.
If Louisiana withdraw from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my
allegiance to the Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives; and my
longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word.
In that event, I beg you will send or appoint some authorized agent to take
charge of the arms and munitions of war belonging to the State, or advise me
what disposition to make of them.
And furthermore, as president of the Board of Supervisors, I beg you to take

immediate steps to relieve me as superintendent, the moment the State
determines to secede, for on no earthly account will I do any act or think any
thought hostile to or in defiance of the old Government of the United States.
With great respect, your obedient servant,
W. T. SHERMAN, Superintendent.
[PRIVATE.]
January 18, 1861.
To Governor Moore:
My Dear Sir: I take it for granted that you have been expecting for some days
the accompanying paper from me (the above official letter). I have repeatedly
and again made known to General Graham and Dr. Smith that, in the event of
a severance of the relations hitherto existing between the Confederated States
of this Union, I would be forced to choose the old Union. It is barely possible
all the States may secede, South and North, that new combinations may
result, but this process will be one of time and uncertainty, and I cannot with
LOUISIANA 91
my opinions await the subsequent development.
I have never been a politician, and therefore undervalue the excited feelings
and opinions of present rulers, but I do think, if this people cannot execute a
form of government like the present, that a worse one will result.
I will keep the cadets as quiet as possible. They are nervous, but I think the
interest of the State requires them here, guarding this property, and acquiring
a knowledge which will be useful to your State in after-times.
When I leave, which I now regard as certain, the present professors can
manage well enough, to afford you leisure time to find a suitable successor to
me. You might order Major Smith to receipt for the arms, and to exercise
military command, while the academic exercises could go on under the
board. In time, some gentleman will turn up, better qualified than I am, to
carry on the seminary to its ultimate point of success. I entertain the kindest
feelings toward all, and would leave the State with much regret; only in great
events we must choose, one way or the other.
Truly, your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN
January 19, 1881—Saturday.
Dr. S. A. Smith, President Board of Supervisors, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Dear Sir: I have just finished my quarterly reports to the parents of all the
cadets here, or who have been here. All my books of account are written up
to date. All bills for the houses, fences, etc., are settled, and nothing now
remains but the daily tontine of recitations and drills. I have written officially
and unofficially to Governor Moore, that with my opinions of the claimed
right of accession, of the seizure of public forts, arsenals, etc., and the
ignominious capture of a United States garrison, stationed in your midst, as a
guard to the arsenal and for the protection of your own people, it would be
highly improper for me longer to remain. No great inconvenience can result
to the seminary. I will be the chief loser. I came down two months before my
pay commenced. I made sacrifices in Kansas to enable me thus to obey the
call of Governor Wickliffe, and you know that last winter I declined a most
advantageous offer of employment abroad; and thus far I have received
nothing as superintendent of the arsenal, though I went to Washington and
New York (at my own expense) on the faith of the five hundred dollars salary
promised.
These are all small matters in comparison with those involved in the present
state of the country, which will cause sacrifices by millions, instead of by
hundreds. The more I think of it, the more I think I should be away, the
sooner the better; and therefore I hope you will join with Governor Moors in
authorizing me to turn over to Major Smith the military command here, and
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to the academic board the control of the daily exercises and recitations.
There will be no necessity of your coming up. You can let Major Smith
receive the few hundreds of cash I have on hand, and I can meet you on a day
certain in New Orleans, when we can settle the bank account. Before I leave,
I can pay the steward Jarrean his account for the month, and there would be
no necessity for other payments till about the close of March, by which time
the board can meet, and elect a treasurer and superintendent also.
At present I have no class, and there will be none ready till about the month
of May, when there will be a class in "surveying." Even if you do not elect a
superintendent in the mean time, Major Smith could easily teach this class, as
he is very familiar with the subject-matter: Indeed, I think you will do well to
leave the subject of a new superintendent until one perfectly satisfactory
turns up.
There is only one favor I would ask. The seminary has plenty of money in
bank. The Legislature will surely appropriate for my salary as superintendent
of this arsenal. Would you not let me make my drafts on the State Treasury,
send them to you, let the Treasurer note them for payment when the
appropriation is made, and then pay them out of the seminary fund? The
drafts will be paid in March, and the seminary will lose nothing. This would
be just to me; for I actually spent two hundred dollars and more in going to
Washington and New York, thereby securing from the United States, in
advance, three thousand dollars' worth of the very best arms; and clothing
and books, at a clear profit to the seminary of over eight hundred dollars. I
may be some time in finding new employment, and will stand in need of this
money (five hundred dollars); otherwise I would abandon it.
I will not ask you to put the Board of Supervisors to the trouble of meeting,
unless you can get a quorum at Baton Rouge.
With great respect, your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN.
By course of mail, I received the following answer from Governor Moore, the original of which I still possess.
It is all in General Braggs handwriting, with which I am familiar.
Executive Office,
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA, January 23, 1861
MY DEAR SIR: It is with the deepest regret I acknowledge receipt of your
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communication of the 18th inst. In the pressure of official business, I can

now only request you to transfer to Prof. Smith the arms, munitions, and
funds in your hands, whenever you conclude to withdraw from the position
you have filled with so much distinction. You cannot regret more than I do
the necessity which deprives us of your services, and you will bear with you
the respect, confidence, and admiration, of all who have been associated with
you. Very truly, your friend,
Thomas O. Moore.
Colonel W. T. SHERMAN, Superintendent Military Academy, Alexandria.
I must have received several letters from Bragg, about this time, which have not been preserved; for I find
that, on the 1st of February, 1861, I wrote him thus:
Seminary of Learning Alexandria, LOUISIANA, February 1, 1881.
Colonel Braxton BRAGG, Baton, Rouge, Louisiana.
Dear Sir: Yours of January 23d and 27th are received. I thank you most
kindly, and Governor Moors through you, for the kind manner in which you
have met my wishes.
Now that I cannot be compromised by political events, I will so shape my

course as best to serve the institution, which has a strong hold on my
affections and respect.
The Board of Supervisors will be called for the 9th instant, and I will
cooperate with them in their measures to place matters here on a safe and
secure basis. I expect to be here two weeks, and will make you full returns of
money and property belonging to the State Central Arsenal. All the arms and
ammunition are safely stored here. Then I will write you more at length. With
sincere respect, your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN.
Major Smith's receipt to me, for the arms and property belonging both to the seminary and to the arsenal, is
dated February 19, 1861. I subjoin also, in this connection, copies of one or two papers that may prove of
interest
BATON ROUGE, January 28, 1881.
LOUISIANA 94
To Major SHERMAN, Superintendent, Alexandria.
My DEAR SIR: Your letter was duly receive, and would have been answered
ere this time could I have arranged sooner the matter of the five hundred
dollars. I shall go from here to New Orleans to-day or tomorrow, and will
remain there till Saturday after next, perhaps. I shall expect to meet you there,
as indicated in your note to me.
I need not tell you that it is with no ordinary regret that I view your
determination to leave us, for really I believe that the success of our
institution, now almost assured, is jeopardized thereby. I am sore that we will
never have a superintendent with whom I shall have more pleasant relations
than those which have existed between yourself and me.
I fully appreciate the motives which have induced you to give up a position
presenting so many advantages to yourself, and sincerely hope that you may,
in any future enterprise, enjoy the success which your character and ability
merit and deserve.
Should you come down on the Rapides (steamer), please look after my wife,
who will, I hope, accompany you on said boat, or some other good one.
Colonel Bragg informs me that the necessary orders have been given for the
transfer and receipt by Major Smith of the public property.
I herewith transmit a request to the secretary to convene the Board of

Supervisors, that they may act as seems best to them in the premises.
In the mean time, Major Smith will command by seniority the cadets, and the
Academic Board will be able to conduct the scientific exercises of the
institution until the Board of Supervisors can have time to act. Hoping to
meet you soon at the St. Charles, I am,
Most truly, your friend and servant, S. A. Smith
P. S. Governor Moors desires me to express his profound regret that the State
is about to lose one who we all fondly hoped had cast his destinies for weal
or for woe among us; and that he is sensible that we lose thereby an officer
whom it will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace.
S. A. S.
BATON ROUGE, February 11, 1881.

To Major Sherman, Alexandria.
Dear Sir: I have been in New Orleans for ten days, and on returning here find
two letters from you, also your prompt answer to the resolution of the House
of Representatives, for which I am much obliged.
LOUISIANA 95
The resolution passed the last day before adjournment. I was purposing to
respond, when your welcome reports came to hand. I have arranged to pay
you your five hundred dollars.
I will say nothing of general politics, except to give my opinion that there is
not to be any war.
In that event, would it not be possible for you to become a citizen of our
State? Everyone deplores your determination to leave us. At the same time,
your friends feel that you are abandoning a position that might become an
object of desire to any one.
I will try to meet you in New Orleans at any time you may indicate; but it
would be best for you to stop here, when, if possible, I will accompany you.
Should you do so, you will find me just above the State-House, and facing it.
Bring with you a few copies of the "Rules of the Seminary."
Yours truly,
S. A. Smith
Colonel W. T. SHERMAN.
Sir: I am instructed by the Board of Supervisors of this institution to present a

copy of the resolutions adopted by them at their last meeting.
"Resolved, That the thanks of the Board of Supervisors are due, and are
hereby tendered, to Colonel William T. Sherman for the able and efficient
manner in which he has conducted the affairs of the seminary during the time
the institution has been under his control—a period attended with
unusual difficulties, requiring on the part of the superintendent to
successfully overcome them a high order of administrative talent. And the
board further bear willing testimony to the valuable services that Colonel
Sherman has rendered them in their efforts to establish an institution of
learning in accordance with the beneficent design of the State and Federal
Governments; evincing at all times a readiness to adapt himself to the
ever-varying requirements of an institution of learning in its infancy,
struggling to attain a position of honor and usefulness.
"Resolved, further, That, in accepting the resignation of Colonel Sherman as

Superintendent of the State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, we
tender to him assurances of our high personal regard, and our sincere regret at
the occurrence of causes that render it necessary to part with so esteemed and
valued a friend, as well as co-laborer in the cause of education."
Powhatan Clarke, Secretary of the Board.
LOUISIANA 96
A copy of the resolution of the Academic Board, passed at their session of April 1,1861:
"Resolved, That in the resignation of the late superintendent, Colonel W. T.

Sherman, the Academic Board deem it not improper to express their deep
conviction of the loss the institution has sustained in being thus deprived of
an able head. They cannot fail to appreciate the manliness of character which
has always marked the actions of Colonel Sherman. While he is personally
endeared to many of them as a friend, they consider it their high pleasure to
tender to him in this resolution their regret on his separation, and their sincere
wish for his future welfare."
I have given the above at some length, because, during the civil war, it was in Southern circles asserted that I
was guilty of a breach of hospitality in taking up arms against the South. They were manifestly the aggressors,
and we could only defend our own by assailing them. Yet, without any knowledge of what the future had in
store for me, I took unusual precautions that the institution should not be damaged by my withdrawal. About
the 20th of February, having turned over all property, records, and money, on hand, to Major Smith, and
taking with me the necessary documents to make the final settlement with Dr. S. A. Smith, at the bank in New
Orleans, where the funds of the institution were deposited to my credit, I took passage from Alexandria for
that city, and arrived there, I think, on the 23d. Dr. Smith met me, and we went to the bank, where I turned
over to him the balance, got him to audit all my accounts, certify that they were correct and just, and that there
remained not one cent of balance in my hands. I charged in my account current for my salary up to the end of
February, at the rate of four thousand dollars a year, and for the five hundred dollars due me as superintendent
of the Central Arsenal, all of which was due and had been fairly earned, and then I stood free and discharged
of any and every obligation, honorary or business, that was due by me to the State of Louisiana, or to any
corporation or individual in that State.
This business occupied two or three days, during which I staid at the St. Louis Hotel. I usually sat at table
with Colonel and Mrs. Bragg, and an officer who wore the uniform of the State of Louisiana, and was
addressed as captain. Bragg wore a colonel's uniform, and explained to me that he was a colonel in the State
service, a colonel of artillery, and that some companies of his regiment garrisoned Forts Jackson and St.
Philip, and the arsenal at Baton Rouge.
Beauregard at the time had two sons at the Seminary of Learning. I had given them some of my personal care
at the father's request, and, wanting to tell him of their condition and progress, I went to his usual office in the
Custom-House Building, and found him in the act of starting for Montgomery, Alabama. Bragg said afterward
that Beauregard had been sent for by Jefferson Davis, and that it was rumored that he had been made a
brigadier-general, of which fact he seemed jealous, because in the old army Bragg was the senior.
Davis and Stephens had been inaugurated President and Vice-President of the Confederate States of America,
February 18, 1860, at Montgomery, and those States only embraced the seven cotton States. I recall a
conversation at the tea-table, one evening, at the St. Louis Hotel. When Bragg was speaking of Beauregard's
promotion, Mrs. Bragg, turning to me, said, "You know that my husband is not a favorite with the new
President." My mind was resting on Mr. Lincoln as the new President, and I said I did not know that Bragg
LOUISIANA 97
had ever met Mr. Lincoln, when Mrs. Bragg said, quite pointedly, "I didn't mean your President, but our
President." I knew that Bragg hated Davis bitterly, and that he had resigned from the army in 1855, or 1856,
because Davis, as Secretary of War, had ordered him, with his battery, from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, to
Fort Smith or Fort Washita, in the Indian country, as Bragg expressed it, "to chase Indians with six-pounders."
I visited the quartermaster, Colonel A. C. Myers, who had resigned from the army, January 28, 1861, and had
accepted service under the new regime. His office was in the same old room in the Lafayette Square building,
which he had in 1853, when I was there a commissary, with the same pictures on the wall, and the letters "U.
S." on every thing, including his desk, papers, etc. I asked him if he did not feel funny. "No, not at all. The
thing was inevitable, secession was a complete success; there would be no war, but the two Governments
would settle all matters of business in a friendly spirit, and each would go on in its allotted sphere, without
further confusion." About this date, February 16th, General Twiggs, Myers's father-in-law, had surrendered
his entire command, in the Department of Texas, to some State troops, with all the Government property, thus
consummating the first serious step in the drama of the conspiracy, which was to form a confederacy of the
cotton States, before working upon the other slave or border States, and before the 4th of March, the day for
the inauguration of President Lincoln.
I walked the streets of New Orleans, and found business going along as usual. Ships were strung for miles
along the lower levee, and steamboats above, all discharging or receiving cargo. The Pelican flag of Louisiana
was flying over the Custom House, Mint, City Hall, and everywhere. At the levee ships carried every flag on
earth except that of the United States, and I was told that during a procession on the 22d of February,
celebrating their emancipation from the despotism of the United States Government, only one national flag
was shown from a house, and that the houses of Cuthbert Bullitt, on Lafayette Square. He was commanded to
take it down, but he refused, and defended it with his pistol.
The only officer of the army that I can recall, as being there at the time, who was faithful, was Colonel C. L.
Kilburn, of the Commissary Department, and he was preparing to escape North.
Everybody regarded the change of Government as final; that Louisiana, by a mere declaration, was a free and
independent State, and could enter into any new alliance or combination she chose.
Men were being enlisted and armed, to defend the State, and there was not the least evidence that the national
Administration designed to make any effort, by force, to vindicate the national authority. I therefore bade
adieu to all my friends, and about the 25th of February took my departure by railroad, for Lancaster, via Cairo
and Cincinnati.
Before leaving this subject, I will simply record the fate of some of my associates. The seminary was
dispersed by the war, and all the professors and cadets took service in the Confederacy, except Yallas, St.
Ange, and Cadet Taliaferro. The latter joined a Union regiment, as a lieutenant, after New Orleans was
retaken by the United States fleet under Farragut. I think that both Yallas and St. Ange have died in poverty
since the war. Major Smith joined the rebel army in Virginia, and was killed in April, 1865, as he was
withdrawing his garrison, by night, from the batteries at Drury's Bluff, at the time General Lee began his final
retreat from Richmond. Boyd became a captain of engineers on the staff of General Richard Taylor, was
captured, and was in jail at Natchez, Mississippi, when I was on my Meridian expedition. He succeeded in
getting a letter to me on my arrival at Vicksburg, and, on my way down to New Orleans, I stopped at Natchez,
took him along, and enabled him to effect an exchange through General Banks. As soon as the war was over,
he returned to Alexandria, and reorganized the old institution, where I visited him in 1867; but, the next
winter, the building took fire end burned to the ground. The students, library, apparatus, etc., were transferred
to Baton Rouge, where the same institution now is, under the title of the Louisiana University. I have been
able to do them many acts of kindness, and am still in correspondence, with Colonel Boyd, its president.
LOUISIANA 98
General G. Mason Graham is still living on his plantation, on Bayou Rapides, old and much respected.
Dr. S. A. Smith became a surgeon in the rebel army, and at the close of the war was medical director of the
trans-Mississippi Department, with General Kirby Smith. I have seen him since the war, at New Orleans,
where he died about a year ago.
Dr. Clark was in Washington recently, applying for a place as United States consul abroad. I assisted him, but
with no success, and he is now at Baltimore, Maryland.
After the battle of Shiloh, I found among the prisoners Cadet Barrow, fitted him out with some clean clothing,
of which he was in need, and from him learned that Cadet Workman was killed in that battle.
Governor Moore's plantation was devastated by General Banks's troops. After the war he appealed to me, and
through the Attorney-General, Henry Stanbery, I aided in having his land restored to him, and I think he is
now living there.
Bragg, Beauregard, and Taylor, enacted high parts in the succeeding war, and now reside in Louisiana or
Texas.
CHAPTER VIII.
MISSOURI
APRIL AND MAY, 1861.
During the time of these events in Louisiana, I was in constant correspondence with my brother, John
Sherman, at Washington; Mr. Ewing, at Lancaster, Ohio; and Major H. S. Turner, at St. Louis. I had managed
to maintain my family comfortably at Lancaster, but was extremely anxious about the future. It looked like the
end of my career, for I did not suppose that "civil war" could give me an employment that would provide for
the family. I thought, and may have said, that the national crisis had been brought about by the politicians,
and, as it was upon us, they "might fight it out" Therefore, when I turned North from New Orleans, I felt more
disposed to look to St. Louis for a home, and to Major. Turner to find me employment, than to the public
service.
I left New Orleans about the 1st of March, 1861, by rail to Jackson and Clinton, Mississippi, Jackson,
Tennessee, and Columbus, Kentucky, where we took a boat to Cairo, and thence, by rail, to Cincinnati and
Lancaster. All the way, I heard, in the cars and boats, warm discussions about polities; to the effect that, if Mr.
CHAPTER VIII. 99
Lincoln should attempt coercion of the seceded States, the other slave or border States would make common
cause, when, it was believed, it would be madness to attempt to reduce them to subjection. In the South, the
people were earnest, fierce and angry, and were evidently organizing for action; whereas, in Illinois, Indiana,
and Ohio, I saw not the least sign of preparation. It certainly looked to me as though the people of the North
would tamely submit to a disruption of the Union, and the orators of the South used, openly and constantly,
the expressions that there would be no war, and that a lady's thimble would hold all the blood to be shed. On
reaching Lancaster, I found letters from my brother John, inviting me to come to Washington, as he wanted to
see me; and from Major Tamer, at St. Louis, that he was trying to secure for me the office of president of the
Fifth Street Railroad, with a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars; that Mr. Lucas and D. A. January held a
controlling interest of stock, would vote for me, and the election would occur in March. This suited me
exactly, and I answered Turner that I would accept, with thanks. But I also thought it right and proper that I
should first go to Washington, to talk with my brother, Senator Sherman.
Mr. Lincoln had just been installed, and the newspapers were filled with rumors of every kind indicative of
war; the chief act of interest was that Major Robert Anderson had taken by night into Fort Sumter all the
troops garrisoning Charleston Harbor, and that he was determined to defend it against the demands of the
State of South Carolina and of the Confederate States. I must have reached Washington about the 10th of
March. I found my brother there, just appointed Senator, in place of Mr. Chase, who was in the cabinet, and I
have no doubt my opinions, thoughts, and feelings, wrought up by the events in Louisiana; seemed to him
gloomy and extravagant. About Washington I saw but few signs of preparation, though the Southern Senators
and Representatives were daily sounding their threats on the floors of Congress, and were publicly
withdrawing to join the Confederate Congress at Montgomery. Even in the War Department and about the
public offices there was open, unconcealed talk, amounting to high-treason.
One day, John Sherman took me with him to see Mr. Lincoln. He walked into the room where the secretary to
the President now sits, we found the room full of people, and Mr. Lincoln sat at the end of the table, talking
with three or four gentlemen, who soon left. John walked up, shook hands, and took a chair near him, holding
in his hand some papers referring to, minor appointments in the State of Ohio, which formed the subject of
conversation. Mr. Lincoln took the papers, said he would refer them to the proper heads of departments, and
would be glad to make the appointments asked for, if not already promised. John then turned to me, and said,
"Mr. President, this is my brother, Colonel Sherman, who is just up from Louisiana, he may give you some
information you want." "Ah!" said Mr. Lincoln, "how are they getting along down there?" I said, "They think
they are getting along swimmingly—they are preparing for war." "Oh, well!" said he, "I guess we'll
manage to keep house." I was silenced, said no more to him, and we soon left. I was sadly disappointed, and
remember that I broke out on John, d—ning the politicians generally, saying, "You have got things in a
hell of a fig, and you may get them out as you best can," adding that the country was sleeping on a volcano
that might burst forth at any minute, but that I was going to St. Louis to take care of my family, and would
have no more to do with it. John begged me to be more patient, but I said I would not; that I had no time to
wait, that I was off for St. Louis; and off I went. At Lancaster I found letters from Major Turner, inviting me
to St. Louis, as the place in the Fifth Street Railroad was a sure thing, and that Mr. Lucas would rent me a
good house on Locust Street, suitable for my family, for six hundred dollars a year.
Mrs. Sherman and I gathered our family and effects together, started for St. Louis March 27th, where we
rented of Mr. Lucas the house on Locust Street, between Tenth and Eleventh, and occupied it on the 1st of
April. Charles Ewing and John Hunter had formed a law-partnership in St. Louis, and agreed to board with us,
taking rooms on the third floor In the latter part of March, I was duly elected president of the Fifth Street
Railroad, and entered on the discharge of my duties April 1, 1861. We had a central office on the corner of
Fifth and Locust, and also another up at the stables in Bremen. The road was well stocked and in full
operation, and all I had to do was to watch the economical administration of existing affairs, which I
endeavored to do with fidelity and zeal. But the whole air was full of wars and rumors of wars. The struggle
was going on politically for the border States. Even in Missouri, which was a slave State, it was manifest that
MISSOURI 100
the Governor of the State, Claiborne Jackson, and all the leading politicians, were for the South in case of a
war. The house on the northwest corner of Fifth and Pine was the rebel headquarters, where the rebel flag was
hung publicly, and the crowds about the Planters' House were all more or less rebel. There was also a camp in
Lindell's Grove, at the end of Olive, Street, under command of General D. M. Frost, a Northern man, a
graduate of West Point, in open sympathy with the Southern leaders. This camp was nominally a State camp
of instruction, but, beyond doubt, was in the interest of the Southern cause, designed to be used against the
national authority in the event of the General Government's attempting to coerce the Southern Confederacy.
General William S. Harvey was in command of the Department of Missouri, and resided in his own house, on
Fourth Street, below Market; and there were five or six companies of United States troops in the arsenal,
commanded by Captain N. Lyon; throughout the city, there had been organized, almost exclusively out of the
German part of the population, four or five regiments of "Home Guards," with which movement Frank Blair,
B. Gratz Brown, John M. Schofield, Clinton B. Fisk, and others, were most active on the part of the national
authorities. Frank Blair's brother Montgomery was in the cabinet of Mr. Lincoln at Washington, and to him
seemed committed the general management of affairs in Missouri.
The newspapers fanned the public excitement to the highest pitch, and threats of attacking the arsenal on the
one hand, and the mob of d—d rebels in Camp Jackson on the other, were bandied about. I tried my
best to keep out of the current, and only talked freely with a few men; among them Colonel John O'Fallon, a
wealthy gentleman who resided above St. Louis. He daily came down to my office in Bremen, and we walked
up and down the pavement by the hour, deploring the sad condition of our country, and the seeming drift
toward dissolution and anarchy. I used also to go down to the arsenal occasionally to see Lyon, Totten, and
other of my army acquaintance, and was glad to see them making preparations to defend their post, if not to
assume the offensive.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter, which was announced by telegraph, began April 12th, and ended on the
14th. We then knew that the war was actually begun, and though the South was openly, manifestly the
aggressor, yet her friends and apologists insisted that she was simply acting on a justifiable defensive, and that
in the forcible seizure of, the public forts within her limits the people were acting with reasonable prudence
and foresight. Yet neither party seemed willing to invade, or cross the border. Davis, who ordered the
bombardment of Sumter, knew the temper of his people well, and foresaw that it would precipitate the action
of the border States; for almost immediately Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee, followed the
lead of the cotton States, and conventions were deliberating in Kentucky and Missouri.
On the night of Saturday, April 6th, I received the following, dispatch:
Washington, April 6,1861.
Major W. T. Sherman:
Will you accept the chief clerkship of the War Department? We will make
you assistant Secretary of War when Congress meets.
M. Blair, Postmaster-General.
To which I replied by telegraph, Monday morning; "I cannot accept;" and by mail as follows:
MISSOURI 101
Monday, April 8, 1861.

Office of the St. Louis Railroad Company.
Hon. M. Blair, Washington, D. C.
I received, about nine o'clock Saturday night, your telegraph dispatch, which
I have this moment answered, "I cannot accept."
I have quite a large family, and when I resigned my place in Louisiana, on

account of secession, I had no time to lose; and, therefore, after my hasty
visit to Washington, where I saw no chance of employment, I came to St.
Louis, have accepted a place in this company, have rented a house, and
incurred other obligations, so that I am not at liberty to change.
I thank you for the compliment contained in your offer, and assure you that I
wish the Administration all success in its almost impossible task of governing
this distracted and anarchical people.
Yours truly,
W.T. SHERMAN
I was afterward told that this letter gave offense, and that some of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet concluded that I too
would prove false to the country.
Later in that month, after the capture of Fort Sumter by the Confederate authorities, a Dr. Cornyn came to our
house on Locust Street, one night after I had gone to bed, and told me he had been sent by Frank Blair, who
was not well, and wanted to see me that night at his house. I dressed and walked over to his house on
Washington Avenue, near Fourteenth, and found there, in the front-room, several gentlemen, among whom I
recall Henry T. Blow. Blair was in the back-room, closeted with some gentleman, who soon left, and I was
called in. He there told me that the Government was mistrustful of General Harvey, that a change in the
command of the department was to be made; that he held it in his power to appoint a brigadier-general, and
put him in command of the department, and he offered me the place. I told him I had once offered my
services, and they were declined; that I had made business engagements in St. Louis, which I could not throw
off at pleasure; that I had long deliberated on my course of action, and must decline his offer, however
tempting and complimentary. He reasoned with me, but I persisted. He told me, in that event, he should
appoint Lyon, and he did so.
Finding that even my best friends were uneasy as to my political status, on the 8th of May I addressed the
following official letter to the Secretary of War:
Office of the St. Louis Railroad Company,

May 8,1881.
MISSOURI 102
Hon. S. Cameron, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir: I hold myself now, as always, prepared to serve my country in the
capacity for which I was trained. I did not and will not volunteer for three
months, because I cannot throw my family on the cold charity of the world.
But for the three-years call, made by the President, an officer can prepare his
command and do good service.
I will not volunteer as a soldier, because rightfully or wrongfully I feel

unwilling to take a mere private's place, and, having for many years lived in
California and Louisiana, the men are not well enough acquainted with me to
elect me to my appropriate place.
Should my services be needed, the records of the War Department will

enable you to designate the station in which I can render most service.
Yours truly, W. T. SHERMAN.
To this I do not think I received a direct answer; but, on the 10th of the same month, I was appointed colonel
of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry.
I remember going to the arsenal on the 9th of May, taking my children with me in the street-cars. Within the
arsenal wall were drawn up in parallel lines four regiments of the "Home Guards," and I saw men distributing
cartridges to the boxes. I also saw General Lyon running about with his hair in the wind, his pockets full of
papers, wild and irregular, but I knew him to be a man of vehement purpose and of determined action. I saw
of course that it meant business, but whether for defense or offense I did not know. The next morning I went
up to the railroad-office in Bremen, as usual, and heard at every corner of the streets that the "Dutch" were
moving on Camp Jackson. People were barricading their houses, and men were running in that direction. I
hurried through my business as quickly as I could, and got back to my house on Locust Street by twelve
o'clock. Charles Ewing and Hunter were there, and insisted on going out to the camp to see "the fun." I tried to
dissuade them, saying that in case of conflict the bystanders were more likely to be killed than the men
engaged, but they would go. I felt as much interest as anybody else, but staid at home, took my little son
Willie, who was about seven years old, and walked up and down the pavement in front of our house, listening
for the sound of musketry or cannon in the direction of Camp Jackson. While so engaged Miss Eliza Dean,
who lived opposite us, called me across the street, told me that her brother-in-law, Dr. Scott, was a surgeon in
Frost's camp, and she was dreadfully afraid he would be killed. I reasoned with her that General Lyon was a
regular officer; that if he had gone out, as reported, to Camp Jackson, he would take with him such a force as
would make resistance impossible; but she would not be comforted, saying that the camp was made up of the
young men from the first and best families of St. Louis, and that they were proud, and would fight. I explained
that young men of the best families did not like to be killed better than ordinary people. Edging gradually up
the street, I was in Olive Street just about Twelfth, when I saw a man running from the direction of Camp
Jackson at full speed, calling, as he went, "They've surrendered, they've surrendered!" So I turned back and
rang the bell at Mrs. Dean's. Eliza came to the door, and I explained what I had heard; but she angrily
slammed the door in my face! Evidently she was disappointed to find she was mistaken in her estimate of the
rash courage of the best families.
I again turned in the direction of Camp Jackson, my boy Willie with me still. At the head of Olive Street,
abreast of Lindell's Grove, I found Frank Blair's regiment in the street, with ranks opened, and the Camp
MISSOURI 103
Jackson prisoners inside. A crowd of people was gathered around, calling to the prisoners by name, some
hurrahing for Jeff Davis, and others encouraging the troops. Men, women, and children, were in the crowd. I
passed along till I found myself inside the grove, where I met Charles Ewing and John Hunter, and we stood
looking at the troops on the road, heading toward the city. A band of music was playing at the head, and the
column made one or two ineffectual starts, but for some reason was halted. The battalion of regulars was
abreast of me, of which Major Rufus Saxton was in command, and I gave him an evening paper, which I had
bought of the newsboy on my way out. He was reading from it some piece of news, sitting on his horse, when
the column again began to move forward, and he resumed his place at the head of his command. At that part
of the road, or street, was an embankment about eight feet high, and a drunken fellow tried to pass over it to
the people opposite.
One of the regular sergeant file-closers ordered him back, but he attempted to pass through the ranks, when
the sergeant barred his progress with his musket "a-port." The drunken man seized his musket, when the
sergeant threw him off with violence, and he rolled over and over down the bank. By the time this man had
picked himself up and got his hat, which had fallen off, and had again mounted the embankment, the regulars
had passed, and the head of Osterhaus's regiment of Home Guards had come up. The man had in his hand a
small pistol, which he fired off, and I heard that the ball had struck the leg of one of Osterhaus's staff; the
regiment stopped; there was a moment of confusion, when the soldiers of that regiment began to fire over our
heads in the grove. I heard the balls cutting the leaves above our heads, and saw several men and women
running in all directions, some of whom were wounded. Of course there was a general stampede. Charles
Ewing threw Willie on the ground and covered him with his body. Hunter ran behind the hill, and I also threw
myself on the ground. The fire ran back from the head of the regiment toward its rear, and as I saw the men
reloading their pieces, I jerked Willie up, ran back with him into a gully which covered us, lay there until I
saw that the fire had ceased, and that the column was again moving on, when I took up Willie and started back
for home round by way of Market Street. A woman and child were killed outright; two or three men were also
killed, and several others were wounded. The great mass of the people on that occasion were simply curious
spectators, though men were sprinkled through the crowd calling out, "Hurrah for Jeff Davis!" and others
were particularly abusive of the "damned Dutch" Lyon posted a guard in charge of the vacant camp, and
marched his prisoners down to the arsenal; some were paroled, and others held, till afterward they were
regularly exchanged.
A very few days after this event, May 14th, I received a dispatch from my brother Charles in Washington,
telling me to come on at once; that I had been appointed a colonel of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry, and that
I was wanted at Washington immediately.
Of course I could no longer defer action. I saw Mr. Lucas, Major Turner, and other friends and parties
connected with the road, who agreed that I should go on. I left my family, because I was under the impression
that I would be allowed to enlist my own regiment, which would take some time, and I expected to raise the
regiment and organize it at Jefferson Barracks. I repaired to Washington, and there found that the Government
was trying to rise to a level with the occasion. Mr. Lincoln had, without the sanction of law, authorized the
raising of ten new regiments of regulars, each infantry regiment to be composed of three battalions of eight
companies each; and had called for seventy-five thousand State volunteers. Even this call seemed to me
utterly inadequate; still it was none of my business. I took the oath of office, and was furnished with a list of
officers, appointed to my regiment, which was still, incomplete. I reported in person to General Scott, at his
office on Seventeenth Street, opposite the War Department, and applied for authority to return West, and raise
my regiment at Jefferson Barracks, but the general said my lieutenant-colonel, Burbank, was fully qualified to
superintend the enlistment, and that he wanted me there; and he at once dictated an order for me to report to
him in person for inspection duty.
Satisfied that I would not be permitted to return to St. Louis, I instructed Mrs. Sherman to pack up, return to
Lancaster, and trust to the fate of war.
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I also resigned my place as president of the Fifth Street Railroad, to take effect at the end of May, so that in
fact I received pay from that road for only two months' service, and then began my new army career.
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The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Volume I., Part 1 by Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891

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MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T.

MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN 1

HIS COMRADES IN ARMS,

VOLUNTEERS AND REGULARS.

St. Louis, Missouri, January 21, 1875.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 10

St. Louis, Missouri, March 30, 1885.

Portrait of General Sherman.

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR.

MEMOIRS OF GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 12

Somerset, Ohio, July 6, 1821.

May it please your Excellency:

We ask leave to recommend to your Excellency's favorable notice Charles R.

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 13

But Mr. Sherman's character cannot be unknown to your Excellency, and on

We think we hazard little in assuring your Excellency that his appointment

With great consideration, we have the honor to be

Your Excellency's most obedient humble servants,

His Excellency ETHAN A. BROWN,

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 14

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 15

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 16

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 17

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 18

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 19

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 20

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 21

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 22

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 23

FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 24

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA.

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 26

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 27

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 28

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 29

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 30

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 31

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 32

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 33

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 34

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 35

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 36

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 37

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 38

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 39

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 40

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 41

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 42

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EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 45

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 46

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS of CALIFORNIA. 47

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED).

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED). 49

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED). 50

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED). 51

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED). 52

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(CONTINUED). 53

January 19, 1881—Saturday.

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