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Inter Pocala & History of California (Various Pages) (33 pages)
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Page: of 33
462 MILITARY.
mer of 1853 Fort Lane was established in Rogue
River valley, Oregon, by Major G. W. Patten.”
On the 9th of January 1854 Major-general John
E. Wool was assigned to the Pacific department, and
relieved General Hitchcock in February following.
Previous to the arrival of Wool military matters In
California had been ably conducted in the main,
though with something of the dolce far niente of the
country, but if no great amount of activity had been
, displayed, there had ‘been few collisions between the
military themselves, or between them and civilians.
But when General Wool took the command a different state of affairs prevailed. Before he left the
Atlantic coast he had made several suggestions to
the secretary of war, which that official had seen fit
to ignore without comment; but when Wool proceeded to act as if they were doubtless to be adopted,
the secretary ruthlessly demolished such expectations
in toto. Wool’s correspondence, though somewhat
voluminous, furnishes very entertaining reading.His quarrels with the civil authorities on the Pacific coast were continuous, and often on both sides
acrimonious. The secretary more frequently took
sides against him than with him. As to his intentions, I have no doubt of their honesty, though to
some his measures appeared at times to be arbitrary
and ill-advised."
An entire reorganization of the military departments of the United
States took place in October 1853, the country west of the Rocky mountains,
excepting Utah and the department of New Mexico constituting the department of the Pacific, Gen. Hitchcock in command, with head uarters at 8.
F, This year the 2d inf. reg. was broken up and assigned to different companies, the officers being ordered east to recruit. Jefferson Davis had
succeeded C. M. Conrad as sec. of war. To him Gen. Scott reported that
another regiment of infantry was needed on the Pacific coast, as well as an
additional regiment of cavalry in the department of the west, to guard the
routes of travel to the coast. Accordingly the third art. reg., the ‘gay and
gallant third,’ as it was called in the Mexican war, commanded by Lieutcol J. M. Washington and Maj E. 8. Merchant was placed under orders to
proceed by sea to Cal. It left Gov. I., N. Y. harbor, in Dec. and in Jan.
returned in a distressed condition to N. Y., the San Francisco, on which it
sailed having been shipwrecked. It was not until midsummer that the several companies of the regiment arrived, and were distributed to the different
osts, e
= 16 At the time of this appointment to the command of the department, the :
“
FILIBUSTERING EXPEDITIONS, 463
At the period of the commencement of hostilities
by the south the only fortifications on the coast of
California and Oregon were Alcatraz and Fort Point,
At the former there were 130 troops under Captain
filibustering expedition of William Walker was in progress. Wool had
asked for s cial structions from the president, empowering him to interfere with the recruiting of such expeditions, as violations of the neutrality
laws; and further, to enable him to check these operations, that two companies then at Fort Hamilton might be ordered to accompany him to S. F,
Neither request was granted, and when in his report to the secretary he related the steps taken by him to arrest persons recruiting for Lower Cal. and
Sonora, and his efforts to place the harbor of S. F. in a defensible condition,
when according to the secretary of war he should have been attending to
the suppression of hostilities in his department as his first duty, he was told
that he ‘manifested a want of definite purpose,’ and ‘devoted an undue
portion of his time to other than the proper duties of his command.’ As to
the harbor defenses, in May 1854 Gen, Wool directed Capt Stone of the )
ordnance department of the service to mount on Alcatraz island six 8-inch ~
guns, and six 32-pound guns; also ten 32-pound guns near Fort point, com-!
manding the entrance to the harbor; and that 10: 24-pound guns should be
proagi from Monterey to be mounted on seige-carriages. ‘Lhe reason given
is order was stated in the correspondence of the commanding general
to be ‘in consequence of the conviction of the Mexican consul, the threats
of the French consul, he having lowered the French flag, and the expectation of several French ships-of-war in the harbor of hen Francisco, and
other causes.’ But the secretary thought, inasmuch as fortifications were
in progress at the place named, and the batteries would require to be remounted, the extra expense of the temporary armament was unnecessary,
‘The propriety of erecting the temporary batteries to which you refer,’ he
said, ‘depends upon the necessity.’
The senior engineer in charge of the fortifications at Fort Point was Lieutcol Mason, an eminent officer, who arrived at his post in 1853, laboring
under disease contracted on the Isthmus. Anxious for the rosecution of the .
work entrusted to him, he failed to take sufficient time aor recovery, and .
becoming again prostrated soon died. The officer who was sent to succeed
him was Maj. J. G. Barnard. The old Spanish fort at the Point was taken
down, and some of the material used in the new works. The final surveys
of Alcatraz i. were not made until 1854, when, temporary buildings and a
wharf having been erected, the work upon the batteries and excavation of \
the ditches was completed. The remaining works were forced to wait for }
appropriations, Fort Alcatraz not being completed until 1858, nor Fort Point .
until a year later. The authorities at Washington, believing that the re.
moval of headquarters to Benicia would be an economical measure, ordered
the transfer; but so far from acquiescing, the department commander gave
irrefragable reasons for remaining at 8. fi, and, moreover, proposed to have
constructed a plank road from Fort point to the city via the presidio. To
have abandoned the military reservation at that period would have been to
have had a squatter war over its ossession, for which cause if no other it
was urged by the officers stationed here that the presidio should not be va/_
cated. And so the official war continued, Wool grimly effecting his purpose /*
and explaining afterwards.
In the summer of 1855, two companies of the 3d artillery and 85 dragoon
recruits left Fort Leavenworth enter the command ot Brevet Lieutenantcolonel E. J. Steptoe, for the Pacific coast. I¢ wintered at Salt Lake, and
arrived in the department in J uly 1856, the artillerymen at Benicia, and the
dragoons at forts Lane and Tejon. Later in the season Steptoe marched for
Fort Vancouver via Fort Lane, arriving ‘in Oregoh just in time to take part