California State Military
DepartmentCalifornia State Military
DepartmentAfter the proposition to invade Texas, via Sonora and Chihuahua, was given up, General Sumner was ordered East, and Brigadier-General George Wright, United States Volunteers, Colonel of the Ninth Infantry, U.S.A., succeeded to the command of the Department of the Pacific. The California troops were stationed at various places throughout the State. The regulars, with the exception of the Ninth Infantry and four companies of the Third Artillery, were ordered East.
The following is the correspondence showing the strength and disposition of the troops up to the time of the organization of the “California Column;” the California Column, so called, being the force organized for the purpose of recapturing New Mexico, which at that time comprised the territory now within the limits of Arizona. (See proclamation of General Carleton organizing the Territory of Arizona, on page 55 of this book):
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HEADQUARTERS ARMY, September 16, 1861. Brig.-Gen. E.V. SUMNER, U.S.A., Commanding Department Pacific, San Francisco: SIR: A dispatch was sent you by the pony express the tenth instant and a duplicate the fourteenth, directing you to suspend the expedition, via Mazatlan, to western Texas, and to prepare to send all the regular troops, except four companies of artillery by steamer to New York. The General-in-Chief directs that you accordingly leave one company (Third Artillery) at Fort Vancouver and three companies in the harbor of San Francisco. The remainder of the regulars you will send forward by steamer to New York as fast as they can be collected for embarkation. The cavalry and artillery horses will be disposed of in such manner as may be deemed best for the public interest. The arms and equipments of the troops will be brought with them; also, ten thousand of the muskets remaining in store. The field batteries and their equipments will be left behind. You will send orders to Colonel Wright to repair to San Francisco to relieve you in command of the department, and after his arrival will proceed to the headquarters of the Army and report in person. Brig.-Gen. J.W. Denver, U.S. Volunteer Service, will be ordered to California to relieve Colonel Wright, who will then proceed to report in person at Army headquarters. The following dispatch was sent you this day by pony express and also by telegraph: “Besides the volunteer force called for from California to guard the overland mail route, the five regiments (one of cavalry and four of infantry) originally ordered will be organized and held ready for service on the Pacific Coast and elsewhere, according to future orders to be given. “I send a copy of this to the Governor of California.” I am, sir, etc.,
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In compliance with instructions received from the General-in-Chief, the following movements of regular troops in this department are ordered, preparatory to their sailing for New York: 1. The garrison of each of the several posts in the District of Oregon will, upon being relieved by volunteer troops, proceed to Fort Vancouver, from whence they will be sent to this city. The horses and horse equipments belonging to the company of cavalry at The Dalles will be turned over to the company of Oregon volunteers; the horses and equipments pertaining to other companies of cavalry in the district will be brought to this city. 2. The troops serving in the District of Southern California will, with the exception of those stationed at Fort Yuma and New San Diego, be in readiness to concentrate at San Pedro. When relieved by volunteers the companies at Fort Yuma will unite with that at New San Diego. 3. The garrisons of Forts Churchill, Humboldt, Bragg, Crook, Gaston, Umpqua, and Ter-Waw will be relieved by volunteer troops. When relieved, the companies of the Sixth Regiment of Infantry at these posts will repair to Benicia Barracks, and those of the Fourth Infantry and First Cavalry to this city. The horses, with their equipments, pertaining to companies of the First Cavalry at Forts Churchill and Crook will be brought to this city. 4. The headquarters and Companies C, H, I, and L of the Third Regiment of Artillery will be in readiness to sail at a moment’s notice. The horses, harness, etc., pertaining to Company C will be turned over to the Quartermaster’s Department, and the field battery and ordnance stores to the Ordnance Department. 5. Lieutenant-Colonel Merchant will at once transfer from Companies D, H, I, and L of his regiment a sufficient number of privates to make an aggregate of ninety for each of those companies selected to remain on this coast. 6. Paragraph 1 of Special Orders No. 165 is revoked. Company L, Third Artillery, will immediately proceed to the Presidio of San Francisco. 7. The troops directed above to repair to this city will, upon their arrival, receive further instructions. By order of Brigadier-General SUMNER.
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COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the thirtieth ultimo, also an extract from Special Order No. 160, of the same date, from the headquarters of the Army. On the seventeenth instant, five companies of the Second Infantry, California Volunteers, left this place on the steamer for Oregon, for the purpose of relieving the regular troops at the most remote stations in that district. To-morrow five companies of the Fourth Infantry, California Volunteers, will embark for Oregon, and relieve the troops at Fort Dalles, and the garrisons in the district west of the Cascade Mountains. After the withdrawal of the regular troops from the District of Oregon there will remain, under the present arrangement, ten companies of volunteer infantry and one company of regulars (Third Artillery). The company of the Third Artillery now at Fort Vancouver will occupy San Juan Island, and the volunteer infantry will occupy all the posts in the district now garrisoned by the regulars, with the exception of Fort Cassady. No more troops will be sent to Oregon for the present, and I have suspended the enrollment of the volunteer company of cavalry at Fort Dalles, as the recent call made by the War Department for a regiment of cavalry to be raised in Oregon will, it is presumed, be ample for any emergencies likely to arise in that country. The District of Southern California is under the command of Colonel Carleton. He has ten companies of infantry and five of cavalry, and, should it be necessary, an additional force can be thrown into that country with promptness. On the steamer which will leave here on the first proximo there will embark at San Pedro the headquarters staff, band, and six companies of the Fourth Infantry, one company of the Ninth Infantry, and two companies of the First Cavalry, the whole under the command of Bvt. Lt.-Col. R.C. Buchanan, Fourth Infantry. The regular troops from Fort Yuma will reach San Diego in season to embark on the steamer leaving here on the twenty-first of November. I shall send forward the regular troops to New York with the utmost dispatch, as fast as they can reach the coast, without regard to regiments. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Col. E.D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D.C. |
GENERAL: I have this moment received Major-General McClellan’s dispatch of the second instant, calling for a report of the condition of my troops. I have replied briefly by telegraph as follows: “Troops in good condition. Cavalry regiments full. Infantry regiments filling up. Fifteen companies sent north.” The organization of the volunteer force called for from this State by the War Department will be completed at an early date. The cavalry service is the favorite arm in this country, and both regiments, the first of five and the second of twelve companies are full. It is confidently expected that the five infantry regiments will be nearly filled by the first of December. The First Infantry is fully organized and is in the southern district of the State. Five companies of the Second and five of the Fourth Infantry have already been sent to Oregon to relieve the regular troops in that State and the Territory of Washington. Four companies of the Third Infantry and one of the Second Cavalry have been sent to relieve the garrisons of Forts Bragg, Seward, Gaston, and Ter-Waw; one company of the Second Cavalry to Fort Crook; two companies of same regiment to Fort Churchill, and one to Benicia Barracks. In the Southern District of California Colonel Carleton is in command. He has his own regiment, First California Volunteer Infantry, and the First Cavalry, a battalion of five companies. Commands have already been sent to relieve the regular troops at Fort Yuma and at San Diego. Colonel Carleton’s intimate knowledge of the southern section of this State makes it of the highest importance that he should remain there in command. As the War Department specially designed Colonel Carleton to command the First Infantry, California Volunteers, originally designed for protection to the overland mail service, I have taken it for granted that it was not intended to withdraw him from the volunteer service, under the instructions from Adjutant-General’s office of the third of October, 1861. Lieut.-Col. Cady, of the Seventh Infantry, regular Army, is now in command of the District of Oregon, having been sent there by General Sumner to relieve Colonel Brott, of the First Cavalry. The regular troops I shall send East as fast as they reach the coast. Most of them will have sailed by the first of December; those from Colville and Walla Walla will not get off quite so soon. Should it be the wish of the department to send volunteers from this country to the East, I doubt not that the regiments would be filled very promptly. The personnel is not surpassed by any troops we have; all that is required is instruction and discipline. Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
Brigadier-General SETH WILLIAMS, Adjutant-General,
at Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D.C. Inform General W. that Colonel Carleton and Colonel Cady will be retained in his department; that his arrangements are approved. Recommend to the Secretary that six picked squadrons of Californians be formed for service with the Army of Potomac and four for service in Texas; that two regiments of California and Oregon infantry be raised for service here and two for western Texas. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN |
GENERAL: At 11 o’clock this morning I received your telegraphic dispatch of the thirteenth instant. On the seventeenth instant I shall forward the return called for, as complete as circumstances will admit of. In the meantime, in order to keep the department fully informed of the progress we are making in organizing the volunteers in this State, I will give you a synopsis of the different regiments. The First Cavalry, a battalion of five companies, has been filled and is posted in the southern district of the State. The second Cavalry, consisting of twelve companies, has been filled. Two of the companies are at Fort Churchill, one at Fort Crook, one at Fort Seward, one at Benicia, and the remaining seven are in camp four miles from this city. Both of the cavalry regiments have their horses, but thus far they have only been drilled on foot. They are undergoing a thorough course of discipline and instruction. The First Infantry has been organized and is nearly full. The regiment is stationed at Fort Yuma and other points in the southern district. The Second Infantry has its headquarters at the Presidio, near this city. Five companies of the regiment have been organized and sent under a field officer to Oregon to relieve some of the regular troops in that district. The remaining five companies will, I think, be filled in the course of a month. The Third Infantry has its headquarters near Stockton, in this State. Four companies have been detached to relieve the regulars at Forts Ter-Waw, Gaston, Bragg, and Seward. The remaining six companies will soon be filled. The Fourth Infantry has its headquarters near Auburn, in this State. Five companies of this regiment, under the Lieutenant-Colonel, have already been sent to the District of Oregon, and the remaining five will soon be filled. The Fifth Infantry is near the city of Sacramento. No detachments have been made from this regiment. The recruiting is progressing favorably. I think we can rely upon it that all the regiments will be filled by the close of the year. A rigid course of discipline and instruction has been instituted in all the regiments; the officers are generally enthusiastic and zealous in the discharge of their duties, and are to be commended for their assiduity in acquiring a knowledge of their duties. On the steamer which left here on the eleventh I sent no troops East; they could not reach here in season. On the steamer leaving on the twenty-first I shall embark three companies of the Sixth Infantry, now at Benicia, and three of the Sixth and two of the Fourth Infantry, at San Diego, the whole commanded by Colonel Seawell, Sixth Infantry. I expect to send the last of the regular troops in the department to New York on the steamer on the eleventh proximo. I have nothing special to report. Everything is quiet to all appearance, but we must not relax in our vigilance nor be lulled into a false security. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Brig.-Gen. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General
U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.
The within communication, addressed to Brigadier-General Thomas, after receiving his telegraphic dispatch of the thirteenth instant, is respectfully submitted to Major-General McClellan.
ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D.C. |
Brig.-Gen. GEORGE WRIGHT, U.S. Volunteers, San Francisco, Cal.: You are assigned to the command of the Department of the Pacific, and will retain the Ninth Regiment of Infantry in your command. By command of Major-General McCLELLAN.
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ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Headquarters of the Army, Washington: Dispatch received from headquarters of Maj.-Gen. McClellan, dated 19 November.
Copy to go by steamer. |
ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D.C.: SIR: On the sixteenth instant I had the honor to acknowledge (by telegraph) the receipt of Major-General McClellan’s dispatch of the thirteenth. I have recalled Colonel Carleton from his command in the southern district, and as soon as he arrives I shall organize his command of at least one regiment, for the protection of the overland mail route. I have conferred with Mr. Louis McLane, the agent, as to the most suitable point to locate the troops, in order to afford the required protection. He suggests Simpson’s Park, Ruby Valley, and Camp Floyd, as the best positions to occupy. The first is three hundred and twenty-six miles from Sacramento, Ruby Valley is ninety-eight miles from Simpson’s, and Camp Floyd is two hundred and seventeen miles in advance of Ruby Valley. The weather for many days past has been tempestuous in the extreme, and the snow on the mountains is reported as very deep, and it may be next to an impossibility for the troops to cross over with the necessary supplies. Were it not for the starving condition of the Indians, no fears need be entertained of their committing any depredations. Twenty thousand dollars’ worth of provisions, annually distributed to the friendly tribes along this section of the route, would save the Government vast sums of money. The contract made last summer for the transportation of our supplies from this place to Ruby Valley was at the rate of $400 per ton; and at this season it will cost much more. Everything is quiet on this coast; nothing of importance has transpired since my communication to the Adjutant-General of the Army, dated on the sixteenth instant, a copy of which was forwarded to the headquarters of the Army. I have removed the Third Infantry, California Volunteers, from Stockton to Benicia Barracks. Four companies of this regiment are already at their stations; the remaining six have been organized and are progressing favorably in recruiting. Clothing for all the troops in the department is being made here. Very soon the supply will be ample and of a superior quality, at a reasonable rate. On the ninth I inspected the troops at Fort Point, one company Third Artillery, commanded by Brevet Major Austin, and on the thirteenth I inspected the troops at Alcatraz Island, two companies Third Artillery, commanded by Major Burton. It affords me pleasure to report that I found the troops in high order. The armament of the fort, although incomplete, was found in handsome condition, and ready for any emergency. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
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GENERAL: I have this day forwarded to you by steamer a return of troops of this department. It is made up of the latest reports we have received. My troops are occupying a vast extent of country, extending from Yuma in the south to Colville in the north, a distance of about two thousand miles, over the route usually marched. The severe snowstorm in the mountains has completely blocked up the mail route east, and it will probably be several days before they can resume their regular trips. In the meantime I shall avail myself of the telegraph and the tri-monthly steamers to communicate with headquarters. Colonel Seawell sailed on the steamer to-day with three companies Sixth Infantry. At San Diego he will receive five additional companies. Major Lovell, Tenth Infantry, Major Flint, Sixteenth Infantry, and Brevet Major Andrews, Third Artillery, I have placed on duty with Colonel Seawell’s command. The last steamer from Oregon brought down two companies of the Ninth Infantry, and on the steamer now due I expect five more companies of the same regiment. They will all go East on the steamer of the first of December. The companies from Forts Dalles, Walla Walla, and Colville may be looked for by the tenth of December. Lieutenant Mullon has one hundred good men of the Ninth Infantry as escort to the Walla Walla and Fort Berton wagon road expedition. An order was sent early in October for those men to join their companies, since which we have heard nothing from them. The last General Order I have received from your office was No. 89, of eleventh of October, a single copy only. I have not yet received the revised Army Regulations. I would suggest that in sending out books and large packages the ocean route may be used. Quiet pervades the Pacific Slope. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Brig.-Gen. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U.S. Army, Washington, D.C. |
ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D.C.: SIR: On the twenty-second instant I had the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the dispatch of the nineteenth, from the headquarters of the Army, assigning me to the command of this department, and further instructing me to retain the Ninth Infantry under my command. Two companies Ninth Infantry (G and K), with the non-commissioned staff and band, arrived here on the fourteenth, and five more companies of the same regiment reached here on the twenty-second. This command I have concentrated at the Presidio, San Francisco, to undergo a thorough course of instruction. The remaining two companies of the Ninth Infantry are en route from Fort Colville, and I have ordered them to halt at Fort Vancouver. I propose to send one of those companies to “Camp Pickett,” on the island of San Juan, and let the other remain at Fort Vancouver, the headquarters of the District of Oregon and the principal depot for that command. Company E, Ninth Infantry, left this coast on the steamer of the first instant for New York, with the command under Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, Fourth Infantry. The company was without any officer present belonging to it. The Captain, Wood, is on recruiting service East. Nothing was said in the telegraphic dispatch about retaining any additional medical officers, but I have assumed that I should anticipate the wishes of the General-in-Chief by keeping three assistant surgeons, Hager, Craig, and Taylor. Their services are necessary in consequence of the retention of the Ninth Infantry. They were selected after consultation with the Medical Director. After the company of the Ninth Infantry reaches San Juan Island the company of the Third Artillery now there will be brought to this place and posted in one of the fortifications in the harbor. I have ordered the horses and horse equipments of the four companies of the First Cavalry now in Oregon to be concentrated at Fort Vancouver. They have about two hundred horses, but a majority of them are old and unfit for hard service. I would recommend that they be turned over to the volunteer cavalry being raised in Oregon, should the department design furnishing those troops with horses and equipments. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
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ADJUTANT-GENERAL’S OFFICE, January 3, 1862. Respectfully referred for perusal, and remark invited, to the Quartermaster-General, Commissary-General, Surgeon-General. Please return.
Respectfully returned to the Adjutant-General, U.S. Army. By order:
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, August 30, 1862. |
To the ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D.C.: SIR: Since my communication of the twenty-sixth instant, nothing of interest has transpired within this department. At this moment (1 P.M.) it is not probable that the steamer which leaves here to-morrow morning will take more than the headquarters and two companies of the First Cavalry. It is possible, however, that the two companies of the Fourth and one of the Sixth Infantry may reach here in time. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
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SPECIAL RETURN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, COMMANDED BY BRIG.-GEN. GEORGE WRIGHT, FOR PART OF THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER, 1861.
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