James H. Carson's California, 1847-1853

About the Book

It is said that California has the most complete recorded history of any state in the Union. Contemporaries called James H. (Henry) Carson’s “sketches” as the most correct eye-witness reports of early California.

The U. S. Congress declared war on Mexico in May 1846, and sent four units to occupy and hold Alta California, with a view to its acquisition. Sgt. Carson’s Co. F, 3d Reg., Artillery, the “pioneer company,” arrived in California in January 1847, after a five-months’ voyage around the Horn; the Panama Canal was not yet built.

In 1847 Carson served as commissary sergeant at 10^th Military District Headquarters. In this capacity he obtained food supplies from the Califor-nios and shared in their social life, making him an important person at Monterey, capital of Alta California. He was one of the few who did not desert his post when gold was discovered in January 1848. In June-July he accompanied R. B. Mason, Col. 1^st Dragoons, and Lt. W. T. Sherman (later Gen. Sherman of Civil War fame) on the first official tour of the Northern Gold Mines. In August 1848, on furlough, he discovered Carson Hill, classic gold mining ground of California. In July 1849 he traveled with Gen. B. Riley, Acting Governor of California and Lt. G. H. Derby on a tour of the Southern Mines. Upon discharge from the Army in November 1849, he elected to remain in California, and became a miner. In May 1850 he served as guide to Lt. Derby, Topographical Engineers, on the first official survey of San Joaquin Valley. It was here he contracted a fatal disease. He wrote his “sketches” during this period of inactivity until his death at Stockton on Dec. 12, 1853, aged thirty-two years.

Carson was a keen observer, and wrote about California’s mineral and agricultural resources; land titles and public domain; establishing a state capital; the first State Legislature. He “saw the elephant.” He learned to laugh at himself, and his writings reflected a broad humor as he wrote about his fellowmen in the gold fields: sailors, dandies, “poor quality class,” Oregonians, pick-pockets, robbers, murderers; necessity of “Judge Lynch” in a land without laws or prisons; the hordes of 49ers arriving; the Chinese; Indians, their habits and customs. A valuable history, lively, sobering, sometimes broadly comic.

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