User:Asiaticus/Garra Revolt

Garra Revolt in November 1851, was a revolt of Cupeno and Cahuilla under the leadership of Antonio Garra, chief of the Cupeno's. It was Garra's plan to unite the tribes in Southern California to kill or drive out the Americans.

Background
The Garra Revolt was triggered by the efforts of San Diego's first county sheriff Agoston Haraszthy to collect taxes from the native tribes in San Diego County in 1850 and 1851. The county which at that time was much larger than it is today, covering besides its present territory most of eastern Southern California, including what is now Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties and parts of Inyo and Los Angeles Counties.

The accusation was later made that William Marshall, his son in law, had assured Garra that the Californios and Mexicans, once a revolt had begun, would come to their assistance against the Americans. Garra is said to have dispatched runners to all of the Indian tribes between the coast and the Colorado River (Cocopah and Yuma), north to the San Joaquin Valley (Serrano, Yokuts) and south into the upper country of Baja California (Kumeyaay).

Revolt Begins
The revolt began at Warner's Ranch which was attacked on the night of November 27. Juan Jose Warner had sent his family away, and he had remained behind with a hired man and an Indian boy who had been placed with him in exchange for a bushel of corn. One hundred Indians sur­rounded the trading post, and Warner and his hired man held them off until their ammunition ran out. They then fled from the ranch house toward horses that had been kept saddled for just such an emergency. Warner and the Indian boy escaped but the hired man was killed. The Indians burned the house, drove off the stock, and then proceeded to the Agua Caliente Hot Springs three miles away. At the Hot Springs of the Agua Caliente they murdered four Americans who had gone traveled from San Diego to bathe in the hot springs for their health.

Four American sheepherders were killed upon the Gila River near the Colorado River crossing by the Yuma tribe. The Yumas turned on each other in a fight over the division of the sheep of the four American herders they had killed.

The general uprising did not materialize, because of the failure of the Cahuilla Indians as a whole to follow the lead of the men from Los Coyotes, and because of a change of heart on the part of the Yumas who had pledged their cooperation to Garra. The Yumas and Cocopas had halted their own inter-tribal wars long enough to unite for the intended attack on San Diego, but soon fell out.

Suppression
When news came of the revolt the San Diegans prepared to defend the town which was placed under martial law. Every able bodied man numbering not quite a hundred, was enrolled in a volunteer com­pany, the San Diego Fitzgerald Volunteers organized under Maj. E. F. Fitzgerald, U.S. Army, as commander. Cave J. Couts was named captain and Sheriff Haraszthy, first lieutenant. They were supplied with ammunition and rations for thirty days. Parties were sent out that were to act only on the defensive till reinforcements arrived from the north. Thirty five men were left to protect the town. The rancheros sent their families to town for better protection. Haraszthy went out with a small party and took William Marshall and two Indian companions into custody and delivered them to San Diego for a court martial.

William Marshall, former sailor from Providence, R.I. and a son-in-law of Antonio Garra since 1844, was found guilty of the crime of treason against the State of California and the murder of four American citizens in connection with the Indian uprising at Warner's Ranch. He was hanged in Old Town, San Diego on December 13, 1851.

Meanwhile Lt. Sweeny, who had been left at Fort Yuma, with a dozen man garrison, was joined by Capt. John W. Davidson and sixteen additional men who had been sent from San Diego as a relief party and by the parties of Maj. Henry L. Kendrick and Capt. L. Sit­greaves, who had been exploring the Colorado River. Because of a lack of supplies, it was decided to abandon the fort on December 6 and return to San Diego. While on the march the mountains were covered with signal fires from Carrizo Creek to Santa Ysabel. At San Pasqual they received orders to return to Santa Ysabel, where their forces were joined with those of Majors Heintzelman and John B. Magruder and about one hundred soldiers who had been quar­tered at Mission San Luis Rey.

Sweeny and his men were ordered to protect San Diego, and he took the mountain trail toward El Cajon and arrived on December 21. Dur­ing the absence of the Army regulars, a force of recruits from San Francisco had arrived by sea and had kept San Diego in a state of un­rest with their drinking and rioting. Sweeny placed their ringleaders in irons, then ordered all 250 recruits to line up and reviewed them without a carrying a sidearm of any kind. The soldiers were silent and respectful, thus ending their virtual state of mutiny.

The remaining United States Army forces, at Santa Ysabel, had divided into two divisions, each was to take a separate route through the mountains toward the village of Los Coyotes where the rebel Indians had been holding their councils of war. One column under command of Major Heintzelman was attacked by In­dians led by a chief named Chapuli. The soldiers concentrated their fire on Chapuli and killed him, as the Indians fled up the sides of a mountain, a second chief was shot dead. A number of prisoners were captured in the vicinity of Los Coyotes, among them a number known to have taken part in the attack on Warner's. After a military trial on the spot, four chieftains were condemned to die, and were executed on Christmas Day while kneeling before their graves. Some eighty Indians witnessed the executions which took place at the site of the village near the creek bed.

On December 27, Fitzgerald's Volunteers left San Diego. Upon reaching Agua Caliente they burned the village of the Cupeño Indians, and proceeding to the site of Warner's store, found nothing but ruins and the bodies of two Indians.

Meanwhile to the north, General Joshua Bean led thirty-five men who were to combine forces with a group of Mormons from San Bernardino and some Californios under Andrés Pico at the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino. Meanwhile, Juan Antonio, leader of the Mountain Cahuilla, decided to take the side of the Amerians. He invited Garra to a confer­ence, and took him prisoner. Garra's son and ten followers soon also surrendered themselves to Juan Antonio. Garra and his followers were then turned over to General Bean. Garra's son and four other Indians were hastily executed at Chino, but the elder Garra was taken to San Diego. There in January, 1852, he was tried before a militia court martial, on charges of treason, murder and robbery. Captain Cave J. Couts was the presiding judge. Found guilty of treason against the State of California, the murder of four American citizens, and theft, Antonio Garra, was executed before a firing squad.