goldfields

John Sutter’s little Russian 4-pounder wandered around a bit after the end of the Mexican War, from Monterey to Santa Barbara to San Francisco. When Captain Lippitt of the 7th New York Volunteers, in command of the garrison at Santa Barbara asked for an additional field piece, Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson refused, writing in his letter to Lippitt that “The piece which you now have is an excellent one, probably one of the best in the country, known as the Sutter Gun. It has the admiration of all the participants in the glories of the Mesa and San Gabriel conflicts.”

In 1848, when the 7th New York Volunteers were mustered out, Captain Joseph Folsom (for whom the city of Folsom is named) returned the gun to John Sutter as his property. Sutter used it to fire salutes from Sutter’s Fort.

At this point gold had already been discovered at Sutter’s Mill by James Marshall. In the subsequent rush for gold, Sutter was overwhelmed by the squatters and thieves who swarmed over his vast land holdings. Unable to hold onto his employees and facing mounting debts, Sutter retired to his Hock Farm near Yuba City.

He took the cannon with him and used it to fire salutes to passing steamships on the Feather River. I can picture him, at ease on his veranda, with a glass of brandy in his hand, waving to a passing ship and ordering the gun to be fired.

Sutter’s Hock Farm

In 1865 the house at the Hock Farm burned to the ground and Sutter and his wife retired to Washington, D.C. where for years Sutter fruitlessly pursued a request to Congress for compensation of his losses in the war and the Gold Rush. On his departure he donated the Sutter Gun to the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco. These it remained on display until the 1906 earthquake, when it disappeared in the fire.

Did it melt into a heap of slag? Was it jumbled into the rubble that was dumped into San Francisco Bay? Or is it still resting somewhere in hiding?

The cannon that is fired nowadays each day at noon at Sutter’s Fort is a replica, cast from a sister gun that went back to Sitka when the Russians left Fort Ross. So if you visit Sutter’s Fort and watch them fire the gun, you are seeing the Sutter Gun  . . . . almost.

John Sutter wasn’t the only American to get a grant of land from Governor Manuel Micheltorena. The governor also gave John Bidwell a land grant, his first, at a site in the Sacramento Delta called Ulpinos. Micheltorena knew very well that the Californios disliked him and that a revolution was brewing. He hoped by granting land to men like Sutter and Bidwell to bring the Americans over to his side.

His ploy worked. Sutter put together a small army of Indians and Americans in his employ, and with John Bidwell serving as his aide-de-camp they left New Helvetia on January 1, 1845, taking the Sutter Gun with them. In Monterey they joined up with Micheltorena and the army moved southward. In was a long slow slog through the rain and the mud of a California winter. Bidwell later stated

“The varying scenes of that march, in the very wet and cold winter as it was, the transportation of baggage and ammunition on Mexican carts drawn by oxen over muddy roads, and through difficult passes I have no desire to recall or portray.”

The depredations of Micheltorena’s army drove the residents of California to the rebel side, and General Jose Castro was able to gather his own army of Californios and Americans. Near Los Angeles the two forces met in the Battle of Cahuenga, a battle that hardly deserves the name.

Both sides had about equal numbers, and both had artillery. They fired their cannons at each other, but only a mule was killed. Bidwell again:

“The artillery from both sides opened simultaneously at long range – Sutter with his American riflemen was directed to occupy a deep and winding gulch midway between the opposing forces and approach within rifle shot. Then for the first time the Americans with Sutter could plainly see that Castro had with him as many or more Americans than Micheltoreno.”

It wasn’t long before the Americans on both sides got together, started trading news from home, and decided to sit out the battle. Why should they kill each other over an argument about Mexican taxes?

But as aide-de-camp John Bidwell still had a job to do, carrying orders from Micheltorena to Sutter. He was captured by Castro’s soldiers, got away on his horse, and was captured again.

“Sutter & I started to rejoin Micheltorena – and were both taken prisoner by Castro’s forces, and were both conducted immediately to the presence of Castro which was at the adobe building of the Cahuenga Ranch. C received us in the most friendly manner threw his arms around Sutter – and called him his dear friend.”

Sutter might have been hung, but his old friend pardoned him and he was allowed to return to New Helvetia. The Sutter Gun stayed in Southern California. Micheltorena was put on a boat and sent back to Mexico. The Californios, eager to return to their ranchos and not needing a cannon, took the gun off its caisson and buried the pieces in the ground.

It would soon be resurrected, for the Bear Flag Revolt and the Mexican War were only a year away. But for the time being the Sutter Gun rested in somebody’s garden or field, and by the end of March 1845 John Bidwell was back at Sutter’s Fort, keeping the books and managing Sutter’s business affairs as before.

Stay tuned for more adventures of the Sutter Gun in the Mexican War.