Battlelines 01-15 Color

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Vol. XXVIII, No 1 January/February 2015

Honoring December 6, 1846 with Battle Day 2014

Photos courtesy of

Michelle Wolf & Melvin Sweet

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Presidents Message: by Tom Vilicich SPBVA 2015 BOARD

MEMBERS

Shirley Buskirk

Cliff Clifford

Royce Clifford

Donald Coates

Tom Cook

Jake Enriquez

Randall Hamud

Darlene Hansen

Ron Hinrichs

Gisela Koestner

Richard Meyer

Leroy Ross, Jr.

Stan Smith

Ellen Sweet

Tom Vilicich

Bob Wohl

These officers are

acting until new

officers are elected

President:

Tom Vilicich

Vice-President:

Don Coates

President Emeri-

tus:

Leroy Ross, Jr.

Treasurer:

Gisela Koestner

Recording Secy:

Ellen Sweet

Corporate Secy:

Ron Hinrichs

BATTLELINES Jan/Feb 2015

Well, we did it! Another successful Battle Day is under our belts. It was not quite the same without the reenact-ment in the field across Highway 78. Many people, who had been coming for years, expressed their disappoint-ment that it did not take place. But those who did see the equestrian demonstration of the Dragoons run-ning of the heads and the Californios use of lances, were interested in the presentation. You can read about the running of the heads in the 2014 fall issues of Battlelines.

If you attended Battle Day, please go online and take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MTJTJYL

Battle Day takes many months to plan for the event. It takes both State Park personnel and volunteers to pull it all together. On behalf of SPBVA, I would like to extend a big Thank Y ou to all. We had some new activities for the kids this year. They were a big hit with them.

We could not have asked for better weather on Battle Day. Although rain would be more like the actual day of the battle, sunshine is always wel-come. It just makes for a wonderful day in the park.

For those of you who participated in

the Name the Private (of Company C) voting, the winner is Zarah Bobo.

On Battle Day I received an unex-pected honor. I was awarded the NO-BLE PATRON of ARMOR from the US Cavalry and Armor Association with a medal and certificate for my promotion of the cavalry through my reenacting work, the educational pro-grams at San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park, and wherever I wear my Dragoon uniform in public. These in-clude our school program at the park and also the military programs with active duty personnel and the US Ar-my ROTC from the universities here in southern California. We have had Army ROTC come to us all the way from Phoenix, Arizona.

I have been reenacting for more than twenty years. I have ridden with Gen-eral Custer in the Little Big Horn reen-actment in Montana. I did not get into reenacting to look for awards or acco-lades, but for my love of being a horse soldier and the history of it. I love all periods of the mounted service. But when being honored by organizations such as the US Cavalry and Armor Association, I cant help but feel pride for what I do and truly thank those who nominated and presented me with the award.

Photo courtesy of Melvin Sweet

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Park Hours:

Saturday &

Sunday, 10 am

to 4 pm

(winter hours)

Park Phone

Number:

(760) 737-2201

weekends only or

(619) 220-5422

www.parks.ca.gov

www.spbva.org

SPBVA Info:

Tom Vilicich

(951) 674-0185 or

[email protected]

School & Adult

Tours Contact:

Darlene Hansen

(760) 480-6320

BATTLELINES

Contributions

Deadline :

February 27

Contact editor,

Ellen Sweet, [email protected]

Thank you to everyone who attend-ed, participated in, volunteered, helped plan, and worked the Battle Day event at San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park. SPBVA and Cali-fornia State Parks wants to improve

our Battle Day special event. Please take a moment to take this survey at the link listed. Thank you. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MTJTJYL

Supervising Ranger Chris Lozano

Thanks & Special Event Survey

End of Year Supervising Ranger Chris Lozano

Well, another year has been logged at San Pasqual Battlefield State His-toric Park and there were some great strides made to improve the park over-all for the visitors and hopefully the work will continue into next year. Alt-hough the future of the State Park sys-tem, as we know it, is uncertain for next year as the department acceler-ates toward its Parks Forward initia-tive, one thing that will stay constant

is the dedication of the park volun-teers, the San Pasqual Battlefield Vol-unteer Association, the San Pasqual Band of Indians, and the small park staff that work at the park. Their valu-able time, effort, and passion for his-tory help to keep the past, present, and future alive for generations to learn.

Thank you all for everything you do and lets see what we an accomplish in 2015!

Supervising Ranger Chris Lozano with SPBVA volunteer Tom Cook.

Newly refurnished kiosk, an Eagle Scout kiosk pro-ject, organized by Ranger Chris Lozano

Photos courtesy of Michelle Wolf

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California State Parks staff and volunteers proudly presented Battle Day in the park on December 7,2014. This annual event commemorates the 1846 Battle of San Pasqual, the bloodiest battle fought in California during the US-Mexican War.

This year the event included more activities to help the visitors better understand the history of the battle and the people who were involved. Some of the event highlights included new equestrian activi-ties located at the adjacent school site, a battle nar-rative presented in a Readers Theater format,

presentations in the encampment area, ten stations of living history activities, and the four hours of am-phitheater programming. Volunteers also assisted in the museum and in collecting donations for the event.

In summary, the park had over forty volunteers and ten staff helping to develop and present this new Battle Day program for years to come. Three cheers for the San Pasqual Battlefield Volunteers and Association members in presenting another suc-cessful State Park event.

Battle Day 2014 by Gregg Giacopuzzi, State Park Interpreter I

Photos courtesy of Gregg Giacopuzzi

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Photographs courtesy of Michelle Wolf & Melvin Sweet

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Jake Enriquez led the October history discussion about Banditos in the Cow Counties, those counties between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border. The discussion centered on the Flores-Daniel gang dur-ing 1857-1858.

Juan Flores was in his early twenties in 1855 when he was arrested for horse stealing and imprisoned in San Quentin State Prison. He escaped the following year and joined forces with Pancho Daniel. They assembled a gang and called themselves Las Manil-las. They raided San Juan Capistrano where they looted stores, wounded a store assistant, and mur-dered a shopkeeper. That got the attention of Los Angeles Sheriff James Barton, who took off after the gang of 50 with a six-man posse, ignoring ad-vice against such a small number.

One of the men in Las Manillas was Andrs Fon-tes. He wanted revenge against Sheriff Barton for being wrongfully incarcerated for defending an In-dian woman against Bartons lustful advances. Bar-ton had him arrested for horse stealing. Now he was out of jail, the posse was promptly ambushed and Barton and all but two of his men were killed. Fon-tes had his revenge and left the group.

Bartons death brought out everyone: a 120-man posse led by Andrs Pico and Toms Snchez, fifty-one American merchants and California ranchers, forty-four Luiseo Indian scouts, the Monte Rang-ers (former Texas Rangers plus members of the vig-ilante gang, the El Monte Boys), posses from San Bernardino and San Diego, and smaller groups of French and German citizens.

The El Monte Boys lynched eleven suspects, alt-hough only four were members of the gang. In Simi they hung three more innocent men. Another inno-cent man, Diego Navarro was taken from his home and hanged, but the rope was too long. On the sec-ond try, the rope broke, so they shot him as his wife came up.

Flores was brought in by Andrs Picos posse. Flores was tried for murder and hanged on Fort Moore Hill with the riata of a deputy who had been killed. The noose was too short and he died of suf-focation. The crowd hanged three more men over the next three days. Daniels was seized the follow-ing March and that autumn an impatient crowd broke in and hanged him. Fontes went to Mexico and one source says he was killed there May 1, 1860, by the new governor, Feliciano Ruiz de Es-parza, along with Salomon Pico and thirteen other California bandits.

Harpers Weekly was the November discussion, led by Ron Hinrichs and enriched by a stack of 1895 issues that Richard Meyer brought. The Weekly was the project of the youngest Harper son, Fletcher. Publication began in 1857 and by 1860 circulation had reached 200,000. During the Civil War it was the most widely read journal in the United States. So what was it and what attracted so many readers?

When it started, it was 11 by 16 and had sixteen pages, like a newspaper. But later it was more like a magazine. It called itself a Journal of Civilization and had almost everything youd want. In addition to a page or two of foreign and domestic news, there were essays, verse, humor, serial novels, and short stories. The contributors included Charles Dickens, James Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, Owen Wister, The-odore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilsonto name a few. Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes through a serial in the Weekly.

One of the appeals of the Weekly over other pa-pers was the abundance of illustrations. The maga-zine had a reputation for top illustrators such as Winslow Homer, Frederick Remington, James M. Flagg, Maxfield Parrish, Charles Dana Gibson. Thomas Nast was the cartoonist who became fa-mous for his caricatures in the Weekly.

During the Civil War, the Weekly had the most extensive coverage. Their illustrations included im-ages of the war, maps, and pictures of the leaders. They sent reporters and artists into the field and the sketches were sent back to Harpers where they were carved on wood blocksuntil the 1890s. Be-cause it takes a long time to do the wood carving, the drawing was made on the wood and then it was cut into 2 squares and each square was given to a different carver. When they were done, it was screwed together to make a master stamp. The pro-cess saved tons of time and enabled them to get pic-tures in the paper in a timely manner.

One of the papers projects after the war was join-ing with the New Y ork Times in taking down New York Citys Boss Tweed. Tweed ordered, Stop them damned pictures! I dont care what the papers write about me. My constituents cant read. But, damn it, they can see the pictures. His emissaries offered Thomas Nast $500,000 to go to Europe and study art, but he refused. Tweed was sent to jail, escaped, and was caught when he tried to enter Spainthe customs agent recognized him from a Nast cartoon. After his death they found a stack of

(Continued on page 10)

History Discussions by Shirley Buskirk and Ron Hinrichs

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History Discussions continued

School of the Platoon, Mounted Skirmishingcontinued.

573.The chief of the platoon, followed by his trumpeter, places himself half way between the skirmishers and the reserve; he moves along the line wherever he thinks his presence most neces-sary. The reserve and the skirmishers execute their movements at the signals of the trumpeter who fol-lows the officer.

If the chief of the platoon wishes the skirmishers to move forward, he causes the forward, No.1, to be sounded; each skirmisher moves forward, regulat-ing his movements by those of the guide and pre-serving his interval; the reserve follows them, keep-ing at its proper distance.

To move the skirmishers towards the right, to the right, No. 4, is sounded; each trooper turns to the right, and marches in the direction of those who precede him, taking care to preserve his distance; the reserve also turns to the right.

To face the skirmishers again to the front, to the left, No. 3, is sounded; the skirmishers and the re-serve turn to the left.

To move the skirmishers toward the left, to the left, No. 3, is sounded; each skirmisher turns to the left and marches in the direction of those who pre-cede him, taking care to preserve his distance. The reserve also turns to the left.

To face the skirmishers again to the front, to the right, No. 4, is sounded; the skirmishers and the reserve turn to the right.

If, after having turned to the right, the instructor wishes the skirmishers to move toward the opposite side, he orders, the about, No. 5, to be sounded; the skirmishers and the reserve turn to the left-about, and move forward.

If, after having turned to the left, the instructor wishes the skirmishers to move toward the opposite side, he causes the about, No. 5, to be sounded; the skirmishers and the reserve turn to the right-about, and move forward.

During the flank movements, if the troopers are to continue firing, they leave the column and face to the enemy for that purpose. As soon as they have fired, they resume their places in the column in doubling the gait.

The skirmishers are marching to the front or at the halt; if the instructor wishes the line to move to the rear, the chief of platoon orders the retreat to be

sounded. At this signal, the troopers of the front rank moves forward 5 paces, fire, then turn to the left-about in order to move to the rear, and retire loading their pieces. When they have marched 50 paces, or more if necessary, the chief of platoon causes the about, No. 5, to be sounded. At this sig-nal, the troopers, who were retiring, face to the front by turning to the right-about. The troopers who are in the first line fire and turn to the left-about. Retire in loading their pieces, pass in the intervals of the line which is in the rear, move 50 paces further, and face to the front at the signal, the about, No. 5.

The troopers of the line which is in the rear move 5 paces to the front the moment the troopers who retire pass into their intervals; they then commence firing by the flank indicated.

The alternate movement of the two lines continues as long as the skirmishers move to the rear. When the instructor wishes the retreat to cease, the chief of platoon orders forward, No. 1, to be sounded. The skirmishers who are in the rear move up, in doubling the gait, abreast of those the most ad-vance, and all march forward until the signal, to halt, No. 2, is sounded.

If the instructor wishes the whole line of skirmish-ers to retire at once, he orders the about, No. 5, to be sounded.

The reserve retires and faces to the front, regulat-ing its movement by that of the skirmishers, so as to remain always at 60 paces from the 2nd line. It exe-cutes its rear movement at the moment the retreat-ing line passes into the intervals of the line which moves forward.

Skirmishing to be continued.

First Sergeants Corner submitted by Tom Vilicich

Nasts cartoons in Tweeds trunk. The Weekly covered the Franco-Prussian War

and were the first to cover the Spanish Ameri-can War. After that it was the Second Boer War and World War I, affairs in Cuba, politics, and social issues. The final issue was May 13, 1916, but since then it has gone through several incar-nations and there is currently an electronic Harpers Weekly Review.

(Continued from page 9)

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Bob & Judy Bowman Justin & Michelle Burkhard Donald & Vicky Coates Jane Stokes Cowgill Jake & Tammy Enriquez Kym & Debbie Lobdell Michael Pique Melvin & Ellen Sweet Thomas M. Vilicich US Seagoing Marines Assn (Stan Smith)

Dragoon Level Members

SPBVAs HISTORY DISCUSSIONS:

Tues, January 27 4:306:30 pm

The History of Cuba led by Shirley Buskirk Tues, February 24 4:306:30 pm Alex Godey led by Richard Meyer

Joslyn Senior Center, Escondido 210 E. Park Ave (off North Broadway) Board Room/Library , Please call Ron Hinrichs, 760-746-8380 for information

Jake Enriquez Family, Escondido Randy Hamud, San Diego Greg Hill, Yucca Valley Gisela Koestner, Poway

Renewing Members. . .Thank You!

2015 CALENDAR

Sunday, January 4

Living History, Park

Friday, January 23

Board Meeting, 11 am-1 pm

Tuesday, January 27

History Discussion, Joslyn Center, 4:30 to 6:30 pm,

The History of Cuba, led by Shirley Buskirk

Saturday, January 31, Mormon Battalion Day,

Old Town SDSHP

Sunday, February 1

Living History, Park

Tuesday, February 24

History Discussion, Joslyn Center, 4:30 to 6:30 pm,

Alex Godey, led by Richard Meyer

Friday, February 27

Board Meeting, 11 am-1 pm

Alex Godey as shown in The Californians, v12, #3

Photo courtesy of Michelle Wolf

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JOIN NOW! Our non-profit organization supports the activities of the San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park. All members receive BATTLELINES, a 10% discount on all bookstore items, special programs, field trips, history discussions, and opportunities to participate in our Living History Sundays and in our annual December re-enactment of the Battle.

SAN PASQUAL BATTLEFIELD VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION P.O. Box 300816, Escondido, CA 92030-0816

(760) 737-2201

This is my/our membership application & dues for the following category:

____Student ($5) ____ Sustaining ($50) ____Dragoon ($100 or more)

____Individual ($15) ____Organization ($25) ____Benefactor ($1,000 or more)

____Family ($20) ____Corporate ($100) Please make checks payable to: SPBVA

NAME(S)_______________________________________________________________________________________________

ADDRESS ______________________________________________________________________________________________

CITY _______________________________________________________ STATE _______________ZIP _________________

PHONE_____________________________________________ EMAIL________________________________________

OCCUPATION_________________________INTEREST/SKILLS_____________________________________________


Off the Shelf... by Shirley Buskirk

Battle Day is over and its a new year. Do people still make New Years resolutions? I have shelves full of books, many from used bookstores, that Ive never read. Last years New Year resolution was to read those books before I get any more. So far Ive gotten through about a third of the biographies, which is pretty good considering I only read them in bed at night.

We carry only a few biographies in the bookstore at the Battlefield, but there are some interesting sto-ries about peoples lives tucked away in other books, even in documents. One of my favorites is the report of Captain Archibald Gillespie, who was injured in the battle. Gillespie was a Marine, who had been sent to California on a secret mission and had joined Stephen Watts Kearny in San Pasqual with a group of other men from San Diego. Both Gillespie and Kearny were injured in the battle and reported on it.

Gillespie reported to Commodore Robert Stock-ton about his injuries, Four lances were darted at me instantly, which being parried, the fifth and sixth quickly followed, accompanied by the dis-

charge of an Escopeta, almost, into my face. At this moment I noticed a lance in rest coming from the front, and when leaning over the neck of my horse, parrying the charge, I was struck on the back of the neck by another lance, at the collar of my coat, with such force as to be thrown clear from my saddle to the ground, with my saber under me. As I attempt-ed to rise I received a thrust from a lance from be-hind me, striking above the heart, making a severe gash open to the lungs. I turned my face in the di-rection of my assailant, when, one of the Enemy riding at full speed, charged upon me, dashed his lance at my face, struck and cutting my upper lip, broke a front tooth, and threw me upon my back as his horse jumped over me. . .

In contrast, Kearnys report to the adjutant general in Washington, D.C. states, Among the wounded are myself (in two places). We sell both reports as well as Kearnys report of the march from Santa Fe to California and Lt. William H. Emorys maps of that march and the battle. Theyre a bargain at one dollar each.

Documents

Battlelines 01-15 Color