CHAPTER II.

EARLY MILITARY LIFE.

The spring of 1846 found Sherman a first lieutenant of Company G., Third Artillery, at Fort Moultrie, S. C. Robert Anderson, who held the fort at the outbreak of the Rebellion, was Captain of the Company. One other company of the Artillery (Bragg's) with George H. Thomas, John F. Reynolds and Frank Thomas had gone the previous year to Corpus Christi, Texas, to join the forces of General Taylor, preparatory to the invasion of Mexico.

Sherman was ordered to report at Governor's Island, N. Y., for recruiting service. He left Ft. Moultrie in April, 1846, and reported to Colonel Mason, First Dragoons, on May 1st. Immediately he was assigned to the Pittsburgh recruiting station. Once installed there he opened a second recruiting station at Zanesville, O. Though the duty was irksome, the situation was pleasant for he was contiguous to his home at Lancaster, O., and could often visit his friends.

In May he heard of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca De La Palma, fought May 8th and 9th, and felt such a longing to be with his comrades who were actually fighting, that he wrote to Washington, asking to be considered an applicant for active service. The response being too tardy he started without authority, and with twenty-five recruits for Cincinnati, where he turned them over to the commanding officer at Newport Barracks. He then reported to Colonel Fanning, superintendent of the Western Recruiting

station at Cincinnati, who gave him a good round cursing for leaving his Pittsburgh post without orders and ordered him back.

He reached Pittsburgh by stage in June, stopping at his Lancaster home on the way, and there found an order from Washington relieving him from recruiting service, and assigning him to Company F, 3d Artillery, then under orders for California. He immediately took stage for Cumberland, Md., and cars thence to New York, whence his company was to sail by transport for California.

The company comprised 113 men and officers, in command of Captain Tompkins. It boarded the store-ship Lexington, abreast of Fort Columbus, and sailed July 14, 1846, for the Pacific, via Cape Horn. The long voyage was without incident, other than the daily drill of the men. In sixty days the vessel reached Rio Janerio, where it remained a week. In October the vessel rounded Cape Horn, and in sixty days from Rio, entered the harbor of Valparaiso, where the vessel was re-supplied. It sailed thence in November for Monterey, California, then Mexican soil, but already taken possession of by our navy, and by troops under General Fremont. Kearney was then en route thither overland, and Stevenson was to follow by sea with a regiment of volunteers.

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Monterey Bay was reached in January, 1847, and the news was such as to lead the Company to expect something exciting from the start. Kearney had arrived, and already had vigorous skirmish, the fleet under Commodore Stockton was down the coast toward San Diego, and the whole country swarmed with guerrillas. Sherman was commissary and quarter-master, and had plenty to do to land the Company and quarter it in a block house upon a hill west of the town. But as soon as this work was over and they were all comfort

able, there came a longing for some of the excitement which had been promised. It did not come. Mexico was not fighting her cause on that ground. She had enough to do nearer her capital. So they all agreed that they were doomed to a life of monotony, except as it could be relieved by camp sports, hunting game, which was plenty, and visiting the historic spots.

The situation was made somewhat interesting by a conflict of authority between General Kearney, Colonel Fremont and Commodore Stockton, and it came to be a jocular query among the younger officers, "Who the devil is gov ernor of California?" It was finally decided in favor of Kearney, who appeared at the head of new detachments. Soon after, Sherman was relieved of the duty of quartermaster and commissary, and reverted to his place as a company officer.

In May, 1847, he was asked by Kearney to go with him on the Lexington as aide, to Los Angeles. Before sailing, Commodore Biddle arrived from China, and as supreme naval commander on the Pacific, entrusted Sherman with orders for all naval officers, then in land service, to report at once to him (Biddle) at Monterey. He executed these orders faithfully. Fremont was at Los Angeles, and had not yet recognized Kearney's authority. Sherman was requested to visit him and was instrumental in bringing him and Kearney together for an understanding.

Kearney was preparing to return to the United States, overland, and had arranged for an escort composed of a battalion of Mormons, whose term of service would soon expire. He placed Sherman in charge of his escort with orders to march it to Monterey. He reached his destination in fif teen days, having had a fine chance to view and study the country. By the end of May, Kearney departed overland

for the States, leaving Colonel Mason in command, who selected Sherman as his adjutant-general. Fremont left with Kearney, so that Mason and Sherman held the fate of California in their hands.

The situation was one of absolute repose, and the young officers and their forces repined their lot, especially when they read of the activities nearer the Mexican capital, and of the honors that attended them. Sherman, however, found occasional opportunity for the exercise of his administrative ability. He visited Sonoma for the purpose of settling a difficulty between rival alcaldes, and on his way took in Yerba Buena, now the site of San Francisco, where he was solicited to buy lots at sixteen dollars apiece. He regarded the place as utterly Godforsaken, and refused investment at a song, which in a short while was worth millions. He arrested Nash, one of the rival alcaldes, took him back to Monterey, and, having acquainted him with the situation as it was likely to be, secured for him an honorable dismissal on the condition that he would no longer assume authority under Mexican auspices.

The capture of Mazatlan and Guaymas by the naval forces, and the sending of a few companies of land forces to hold Lower California, comprised all the important movements of 1847 and the early part of 1848. Halleck had been made Secretary of State by Col. Mason, and now occured something of a civic nature which was more stupendous than military power, and further reaching in its results than forcible conquest. This was the discovery of gold in California. Sherman was present with Governor Mason, in the Spring of 1848, when two Americans came in with a letter from Capt. Sutter, at Coloma, stating that he was erecting a saw-mill there, and asking

for protection in his titles. They showed something in a paper which was pronounced by all to be placer gold. It had been taken from Sutter's mill-race. As the land yet belonged to Mexico, no guarantee of his title could be given, but as the spot was forty miles from any large settlement, Gov. Mason gave the assurance that the im provement would hardly be disturbed.

Just then the quicksilver agitation was spreading, and Sherman was kept busy helping the Governor to settle disputed claims to mines fabled for wealth, and located in all imaginary directions and positions. But during the summer of 1848, fabulous stories began to come of the gold finds near Sutter's saw-mill. The cry of gold! gold! rang everywhere. The soldiers began to desert to take their chances with the miners. The population of entire towns and sections might have been seen stringing past in wagons on their way to the gold-fields. GovMason determined to inspect the scene of so much wealth, and dispatched Sherman on a tour of inspection, with four soldiers and an outfit of servants and pack-mules. He made his way over the usual route to Yerba Buena, crossed to Saucelito, packed and rode to San Rafael Mission, passed through Bodega, Sonoma and Puta to the Sacramento River. Sutter's settlement and fort was but a few miles from the river, and when it was reached he found him a veritable monarch of all he surveyed. He had great plenty of herds, and the valleys beyond were teeming with adventurers, locating claims, mining, washing, and wrangling for supremacy. His saw-mill at

Coloma was forty miles beyond the fort, and thither Sherman hastened. The story he learned was that Marshall, the architect of Sutter's saw-mill, had started the machinery of the mill and found that the tail-race