Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 43 It was thus the poor scamps escaped. They pulled clear of the ship and thus escaped supping on grape and canister which we had prepared for them. Fremont arrived and camped opposite my vessel, the bark Moscow, the following night. They were early astir the next morning when [ landed to visit Captain Fremont, and were all variously employed in taking care of their horses, mending saddles, cleaning their arms, etc. I had not up to this time seen Fremont, but from reports to his character and exploits my imagination had painted him as a large-sized, martial-looking man or personage, towering abova his companions, whiskered and ferocious looking. I took a survey of the party, but could not discover any one who looked, as I thought, the captain to look. Seeing a tall, lank, Kentucky-looking chap (Dr. R. Semple), dressed in a greasy deer-skin hunting shirt, with trousers to match, and which terminated just below the knees, his head surmounted by a coon-skin cap, tail in front, who, I supposed, was an Officer as he was giving orders to the men, I approached and asked if the captain was in camp. He looked and pointed out a slender-made, well-proportioned man sitting in front of a tent. His dress a blue woolen shirt of somewhat novel style, open at the neck, trimmed with white, and with a star on each point of the collar (a man-of-war’s shirt), over this a deer-skin hunting shirt, trimmed and fringed, which had evidently seen hard times or service, his head unincumbered by hat or cap, but had a light cotton handkerchief bound around it, and deer-skin moccassins completed the suit, which, if not fashionable for Broadway, or for a presentation dress at court, struck me as being an excellent rig to scud under or fightin. A few minutes’ conversation convinced me that I stood in the presence of the King of the Rocky Mountains. Fremont remained in the neighborhood of San Rafael until July 2, when he returned to Sonoma On the 4th of July, our national holiday was celebrated with due pomp and ceremony, and on the 5th the California Battalion of mounted riflemen, 250 strong, was organized. Brevet Captain John C. Fremont, Second Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, was chosen commandante; First Lieutenant of Marines, Archibald H. Gillespie, Adjutant and Inspector, with the rank of captain. Both of these gentlemen named were ofticers of the United States Government, yet this organization was consummated under the fold of the Bear flag that yet kissed the breezes of the “ Valley of the Moon.” The next day, the 6th of July, Fremont at the head of his mounted riflemen, started to make the circuit of the head of the bay, to go south in pursuit of Castro. As there were now no California soldiers north of the bay it did not require a large garrison of the Bear party to hold Sonoma. But the end was hastening. On the 7th of July Commodore John Drake Sloat, having received tidings that war existed between the United States and Mexico, demanded and received the surrender of Monterey. The news was immediately sent to San Francisco, where was anchored the American war vessel, Portsmouth. At two o’clock on the morning of July 9th, Lieutenant Warren Revere left that vessel in one of her boats, and reaching the Sonoma garrison at noon of that day lowered the bear flag and hoisted in its place the stars and stripes. And thus ended the Bear Flag revolution at Sonoma. Lieutenant Revere also sent American flags to be hoisted at Sutter’s Fort and at the establishment of Captain Stephen Smith at Bodega. Lieutenant Revere was sent to Sonoma by Montgomery of the Portsmouth, to command the garrison, consisting of Company B of the battalion, under Captain Grigsby. Lieutenant Grigsby tells us that “a few disaffected Californians were still prowling about the district, in pursuit of whom on one occasion he made an expedition with sixteen men to the region of Point Reyes. He did not find the party sought, but he was able to join in a very enjoyable elkhunt.” In August the Vallejos, Prudon, Leese and Carrillo were released from durance vile, and restored to their families and friends. That very amicable relations existed between the victors and vanquished is evidenced by the fact that in September, while Lieutenant Revere was absent on an expedition, the Vallejos were commissioned to protect the Sonoma frontier with a force of Christian Indians. Some date previous to September 11th, Lieutenant John S. Missroon, of. the Portsmouth, assumed command of the Sonoma garrison. On the 25th of September, a meeting of the ‘©Old Bears ” was held at Sonoma, at which J.