HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: Should Major Rich, acting assistant paymaster United States army, apply to you for funds to complete the payment to the companies of New York volunteers, lately mustered out of service by Major James A. Hardie, Colonel Mason directs that you deliver to him whatever he may require out of the military contribution fund, to be replaced by the Major when he returns to San Francisco. I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, W. T. SHERMAN, First Lieutenant 3d Artillery, A. A. A. General. Capt. J. L. FOLSOM, HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, August 25, 1848. SIR: I have the honor to inform you that in consequence of the quantity of gold obtained in this country, cash is in great demand. Drafts cannot be negotiated except at a ruinous discount, and it will be necessary to transmit funds for the service of the quartermaster's department here. The disbursements will be heavy in consequence of the small garrisons, and necessity of hiring laborers at tremendous wages. At the present moment the assistant quartermaster at San Francisco is hiring guards for his storehouses at from fifty to one hundred and twenty dollars a month. The services of laboring men cannot be commanded at a lower price. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Major General JESUP, R. B. MASON, -Quartermaster General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. 1 HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, August 25, 1848 SIR: Colonel Mason directs me to return you the proceedings of the general court-martial in session yesterday at the Monterey Redoubt, California, with the enclosed extract from orders No. 35, of May 27, 1848, and to direct you to reassemble the court, that it may cause the judge advocate to make the record as pointed out in said orders, which directs that no blank pages be left; and yet the records of your court, which consist of five sheets of paper, have four blank pages. Your most obedient servant, W. T. SHERMAN, First Lieutenant 3d Artillery, A. A. A. General. To Capt. W. G. MARCY, President General Court-martial, Monterey Redoubt, California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: Your several letters of the 20th instant are just received, and I am directed to convey to you by the return of the express the answers of Colonel Mason, as follows: The women, wives of soldiers, will be given a free passage to San Francisco in the government barque Anita, as also such sick men as may, in the opinion of the medical officer, be unable to come up by land. If Colonel Mason were to remit the corporal punishment awarded by the general court-martial to privates Earl and Hutcheson of company E, he could not with propriety in a similar instance order the execution of the same sentence of a regular soldier. He cannot consent to make so wide a difference; and therefore cannot change orders No. 56 of yesterday's date, herewith sent you. You are aware that the arms given the Mormons at the time of their discharge were in fulfilment of an agreement made with them at the time. of their enrolment. No such stipulation was made to your regiment, and General Kearny left no record of the promise he made you verbally to that effect; nor did he even mention it in conversation with Colonel Mason. If the arms now in the hands of your men be given them, for all time to come the soldiers stationed in California can sell their muskets, and citizens will freely buy of them, knowing that those so bought cannot be distinguished from those given to your regiment. For this reason, even in the United States, government arms of late patterns, bearing the inspector's mark, are never sold. At present there are no percussion muskets or rifles properly in the hands of citizens of California; and if, at any future time, such are seen by a government officer, they can be identified and seized. This, of course, could not be done were Colonel Mason to permit each man of your regiment to retain his musket. The dangers to their lives for the want of fire-arms will not be at all great in that part of California where they are certain to go. For these reasons, he cannot comply with your urgent request to the effect that the men of your regiment retain their arms and accoutrements. But as to provisions, he is waiting the arrival of Major Rich, to learn from him whether he is instructed to pay your men the travelling allowance to the place of enrolment. If such payment be made, each man will have enough money to meet all his wants till he arrives at such point of California as he may select to reside or work in. Should, however, the paymaster's instructions not warrant such allowances to your men, then Colonel Mason will order the commissary to issue enough provisions to subsist them during their journey to Monterey or San Fran cisco. Full instructions on this subject will go down the coast in the Anita, which is only waiting the arrival here of Major Rich to take her departure for Santa Barbara. In consequence of the great danger to life and property described by you, the orders heretofore given to Captain Smith are countermanded; and his company will remain at Los Angeles. I have the honor to be your obedient servant, W. T. SHERMAN, First Lieutenant 3d Artillery, A. A. A. General. Colonel J. D. STEVENSON, Commanding S. M. District, Los Angeles, California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, August 29, 1848. SIR: I have the honor to inform you that specie is now so scarce in California, that drafts on the subsistence department cannot be negotiated except at a ruinous discount. I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, General GEO. GIBSON, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, commanding. Commissary General of Subsistence, [No. 42.] Washington, D. C. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: The schooner Lambay-acana has just arrived from San Francisco, bound for Valparaiso. I shall forthwith despatch Lieutenant Loeser, 3d artillery, as bearer of despatches, in this vessel, so that, if possible, he may meet the British steamer of October at Payta, and reach Washington before the month of December of this year. My letters Nos. 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, and 41, herewith sent, will give you an idea of the state of affairs here; but words cannot convey the full effect of gold mines upon the changed condition of the people of this countrynone can withstand their powerful influence. The ship Isaac Walton, that arrived at this port on the 27th instant from New York, laden with navy stores, has already lost a great part of her crew by desertion; and it will cost more to land her cargo in Monterey than her entire freight from New York. At San Francisco, many vessels are reported to be without a soul on board; and the schooner Lambay-acana, that conveys this, has but three or four men before the mast. Up to this date 33 of the artillery company have deserted. It is represented that much sickness prevails at the mines from the effects of exposure; the sickly season will end in October. Troops sent to this country must be paid better than those now here, else there is no use of sending them at all. Those now here who stand faithful to their colors should be rewarded. I enclose you copies of letters received on the 25th instant from Colonel J. D. Stevenson, at Los Angeles, California, to show the effects upon the people of that district produced by the order to discharge the garrisons at Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego. In consequence of the well-grounded fears therein described, I have ordered C company 1st dragoons to remain in Los Angeles until further orders. A detachment of that company, 19 strong, under command of Lieutenant Stoneman, has been sent to San Francisco, to guard the magazine there. The remainder of the company, about 60 strong, will be all the troops south of Monterey. If these detachments are much reduced by desertion, I will be forced to abandon Los Angeles altogether, and in that case will feel myself compelled to issue to the inhabitants arms and ammunition to defend their lives and property against the Indians. This will be a dangerous alternative; but it would be inhuman to expose an unarmed people, owing their allegiance to our government, to the mercy of ruthless In dians. Should, unfortunately, any rebellion take place in California, er should the Indians make incursions in the southern districts of this Territory, no future promise of pay, however great, would call a hundred men from the mines to carry on an expedition against them. The late tariff so effectually excluded powder and ammunition, that not an ounce of either can be bought at any price. Major Rich has just arrived from San Francisco, where he paid off the volunteers lately stationed there. He will at once proceed down the coast, to pay off the garrisons in that quarter. I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, To Brigadier General R. JONES, HEADQUARTERS SOUTHERN MILITARY DISTRICT CALIFORNIA, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your several communications of the 8th, and proclamation of the 7th instant, together with department orders Nos. 50 and 52, announcing the conclusion of a treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico, and containing instructions for the disbanding of the 1st regiment New York volunteers under my command. Earnestly as all have desired such an event, the very sudden and unexpected termination of our service has surprised us all, and found many a poor fellow, who has served his country faithfully for more than two years, without a dollar beyond the small amount of pay that will be due them at the time of their discharge; and if they pay the few small debts they owe here, they will not have money sufficient to buy a pair of shoes; and I know that many, if not all at this post, possess so high a sense of honor that they would go barefooted rather than leave in debt to any one in the town. Thank God, all here have acted honorably and fairly to the people of the country, and I trust they will do so to the end. Yet, hard as their case is, they do not complain of the want of anything but the means of defence; for when they are disbanded, not ten men will have either a gun or pistol; and I assure you great fears are entertained, and not without just cause, that they will be wanted, as well for their defence against Indians as against some miserable wretches of the country, who already threaten not only to attack all Americans, but the families of the people of the country who have been friendly to us. My men complain that the Mormons retained their arms, and were allowed transportation to the Salt Lake, for seven months' service, and supplied with twenty rounds of cartridges each, while they, who have served more than two years and travelled thousands of miles of the ocean to come here in the service of their country, are to be discharged without an arm for their defence, or a dollar of commutation; and some of them (the last recruits) had their arms taken from them at Monterey, which, unless you have sent them down in the Anita, they will in all human probability never receive. Soon after I arrived in this country, in a frank conversation with General Kearny on this very subject, he assured me that my men should be allowed to retain their arms, as he had no doubt if it had been suggested to the authorities at home before sailing, it would have been authorized, as they were intended for, and would become, permanent residents of the country. He said he made the stipulation with the Mormons, and he felt authorized to make it with me for my men; and the day he left here for the United States he assured me that he would leave such instructions with you as would insure it. A very large number of my men here must remain until they can raise the means of reaching the upper country, or go up on foot; which would be a most toilsome and perilous journey, unarmed as they will be. Under these circumstances, I have deemed it my duty to present you their most earnest appeal that you will allow them to retain their arms, and that fifteen days' rations of such stores as are at the post may be served out to them on the day they are disbanded. They would not ask this favor of the government if they could in any manner dispose of the land or money scrip. I present this their petition most cheerfully, because I feel that they more than deserve it at the hands of their government; for no soldiers, either regulars or volunteers, have ever surpassed them in correct, honorable, and manly deportment, or in a most faithful and diligent discharge of the duty required of them as soldiers. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Colonel R. B. MASON, J. L. STEVENSON, 1st United States Dragoons, Govervor of California. A true copy: W. T. SHERMAN, 1st Lieut. 3d Artillery, A. A. A. General. HEADQUARTERS SOUTHERN MILITARY DISTRICT, Los Angeles, California, August 20, 1848. SIR: The sudden discharge of the volunteers in this town, and the removal of the dragoons to the northward after that event shall take place, has created the strongest excitement in this section of the country. For months past the Indians have frequently come boldly into the country and shot down people in the road and in the fields, and taken from them their horses and property, and the greatest fears are entertained. And I assure you, upon my honor, that I consider their fears far from groundless, that when all the troops shall evacuate this district of country, there will not be sufficient power to prevent their even coming into the town, robbing the stores and dwelling-houses, and violating the women with impunity; for the few citizens who remain in the town are entirely without arms, and all the arms left here by Fremont's battalion are perfectly worthless and unfit for service unless repaired, which could not be done here if double the value of the arms were paid for it. Forty-five old muskets were selected by the alcalde and repaired at the expense of the town, and these are all the arms I can leave here that are fit for service, under your last instructions, and the ammunition you authorize me |