journal entry written 3 June 1847

June 3d.

I left in Company of Major Reading, and most all of the Men in my employ, for a Campaign with the Mukelemney Indians, which has been engaged by Castro and his Officers to revolutionize all the Indians against me, to Kill all the foreigners, burn their houses and Wheat fields etc. These Mukelemney Indians had great promesses and some of them were finely dressed and equiped, and those came apparently on a friendly visit to the fort and Vicinity and had long Conversation with the influential Men of the Indians, and one Night a Number of them entered in my Potrero (a kind of closed pasture) and was Ketching horses to drive the whole Cavallada away with them. The Sentinel at the fort heart the distant Noise of these Horses, and gave due notice, & imediately I left with about 6 well armed Men and attacked them, but they could make their escape in the Woods (where Sac. City stands now) and so I left a guard with the horses. As we had to cross the Mukelemney River on rafts, one of those rafts capsized with 10 Rifles, and 6 prs of Pistols, a good supply of Amunition, and the Clothing of about 24 Men, and Major Reading & another Man nearly drowned.

Some Men remained on the dry places as they had no Clothing nor Arms, the remaining Arms and amunitions has been divided among the whole, and so we marched the whole Night on the Calaveras, and could not find the enemy. In the Morning by Sunrise we took a little rest, and soon dispatched a party to discover and reconnoitre the enemy. A Dog came to our Camp which was a well known dog of the Mukelemneys, a sign that they are not very far from us; at the same time a Courier of the party came on galloping, telling us that the party fell already in an engagemt with the enemy. Imediately we left galloping to join in the fight; already some of our Men was wounded and unable to fight. We continued the fighting until they retired and fled in a large hole like a Cellar in the bank of the Calaveras, covered with brushes and trees, firing and shooting with their bows and arrows, but we had them blockaded, and killed them a good many of their Men, but on account of having no more powder and balls, we found it very prudent to leave the Scene slowly, so that it appeared as we wanted to Camp, and so we made a forced March and Crossed the Mukelemney, and returned from this Campaign on the 7th June.