140:. The captain will halt a few days in the upper end of the valley, where the difficulties are said to exist, and investigate the matter, and if the position of the Indians should be found as favorable as represented, if deemed advisable will give them battle. The captain will have about forty men, with arms to arm twenty more. This, with the number of citizens that will join him from Keysville, will give him a force sufficient to handle any number of Indians that he will be likely to meet at that place. ....
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collected together, and informed Jose Chico and the citizens who had arrived that they might choose out those whom they knew to have been friendly. This was soon done. The boys and old men I sent back to their camps, and the others, to the number of thirty-five, for whom no one could vouch, were either shot or sabered. Their only chance for life being their fleetness, but none escaped, though many of them fought well with knives, sticks, stones, and clubs.
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the
Tehachapies had endeavored to have him go to the war with them: that many of his own Indians had gone; that some had returned and were now in the valley, sleeping in the camps at night and hiding in the daytime; that there were many Indians there whom he did not know, either Owen's or Tehachapies. I told him to remain in camp with me and dismissed the others. I informed Doctor
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eighteen men of
Company E, accompanied by Lieutenants French and Daley, one 12-pounder howitzer, and four six mule Government teams, used for the transportation of rations, company property, ammunition, and forage, all of which arrived in good condition at Camp Independence, Owen's Valley, on the 24th of the same month. Distance traveled I suppose to be 250 or 275 miles.
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The route from
Visalia by way of Walker's Pass is far preferable to the Los Angeles route, an upon the former there is wood, water, and grass at easy marches. Forage can be purchased in Tulare Valley and forwarded to Keysville, from which point the Government teams can bring it to Camp Independence,
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This extreme punishment, though I regret it, was necessary, and I feel certain that a few such examples will soon crush the
Indians and finish the war in this and adjacent valleys. It is now a well-established fact that no treaty can be entered into with these Indians. They care nothing for pledges
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was in the neighborhood, I sent for him and two other chiefs who were known to have been friendly. Jose Chico is an Owen's River Indian, but resides on Kern River, where he cultivates a farm, he speaks but little
English. In Spanish he, however, makes himself well understood. From him I learned that
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I had been instructed by
Colonel Jones to investigate the Indian troubles on Kern River. On arriving at Keysville I was waited upon by several of the residents of the place, who represented that there was a large body of Indians encamped upon the North Fork of Kern River; that many of these Indians
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A Tejon prisoner says the Tejon and
Tehachapie Indians (those for whom the Government has done so much) have been engaged in both these wars, and as soon as they are tired return to the reservation. The Indian agents should be notified of this fact. If I have to send down there I will leave them
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Accordingly at 2 a. m. on the 19th, accompanied by a detail of twenty men of my command and
Lieutenant Daley, with Jose Chico as guide, I left camp, and at dawn surrounded the camp of the Indians, which was situated about ten miles from Keysville, upon the right bank of Kern River. I had the bucks
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Colonel: I have the honor to report that in obedience to instructions dated Camp
Babbitt, near Visalia, Cal., April 10, 1863, and signed Lieut. Col. William Jones, Second Cavalry California Volunteers, I left Camp Babbitt on Sunday, the 12th instant, in command of twenty-four men of Company D and
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Sir : I have the honor herewith to forward a petition from citizens of
Keysville and vicinity asking military protection from Indian depredations. Captain McLaughlin will leave this camp on the arrival of the detachment of Company E, which will accompany him to join their company at
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given, and have imagined that they could live better by war than peace. They will soon learn that they have been mistaken, as with the forces here they will soon either be killed off, or pushed so far in the surrounding deserts that they will perish by famine.
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having water and grass at intervals upon the road, of not more than fifteen or twenty miles, while upon the Los Angeles road from Tehachapie Canon by Walker's Pass, a distance of over fifty miles, there is not a blade of grass and the water unfit to be used.
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had lost about 150 head of stock; that many other citizens had lost cattle, horses, and other property; that the roads were unsafe, and finally, that the Indians there congregated were for the most part strangers in the valley, and were thought to be
384:"The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies," SERIES I VOLUME L., IN TWO PARTS. PART I REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.; Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1897. pp. 208-210
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McLaughlin in his report mistakes the name Waldron, who was actually William B. Weldon, the partner of J. V. Roberts in a cattle ranching and butcher business supplying Keyesville with its beef. A populated place,
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Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series I, vol. 50, Part 2, p. 386. Colonel R. C. DRUM, Asst. Adjt. General, Dept. of the Pacific to WM. JONES, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Camp Babbitt.
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History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present,
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and vicinity asking military protection from Indian depredations. He forwarded the petition and notified his superiors in San Francisco of the action he was taking:
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had doubtless been engaged in the war and in the depredations committed in Kern River Valley; that one man had been murdered in Kelsey Canon; that
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Captain Moses A. McLaughlin, commanding the expedition to Keysville, made the following report about the incident:
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The California Military Museum: California and the Indian Wars, The Owens Valley Indian War, 1861-1865
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photo of one of three crosses that stand above Lake Isabella in Wofford Heights. CA.
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M. A. Mclaughlin, Capt., Second Cav. California Vols., Comdg. Camp Independence.
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The village where the Keyesville Massacre occurred has been identified by
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I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
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APRIL 12-24, 1863. Expedition from Camp Babbitt to Keysville, Cal.
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Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914. p.37, 44
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Col. E. C. Drum, Assistant Adjutant-General, San Francisco, Cal.
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Report of Capt. Moses A. McLaughlin, Second California Cavalry.
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Asst. Adjt. General, Dept. of the Pacific, San Francisco, Cal.:
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Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Camp Babbitt, near Visalia, Cal.
324:"160 years ago, a culture-defining atrocity on the Kern River"
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very little to do, and save the Government some treasure.
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Camp Independence, Owen's River Valley, April 21, 1863.
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After having the above statements, and learning that
110:William Jones received a petition from citizens of
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143:I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
118:CAMP BABBIT, Near Visalia, Cal., April 8, 1863.
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363:, on the South Fork of the Kern River east of
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94:had driven away the game that sustained the
510:Violence against men in the United States
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397:"April 19: A day of solemn remembrance"
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46:. A mixed force consisting of American
465:Native American history of California
261:. This is used as the memorial site.
38:which occurred on April 19, 1863, in
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470:California in the American Civil War
460:History of Kern County, California
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505:1863 murders in the United States
395:Mayer, Steven (April 19, 2007).
322:Price, Robert (April 15, 2023).
271:Indigenous peoples of California
56:2nd California Cavalry Regiment
27:California mass casualty event
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475:Massacres of Native Americans
249:, near the North Fork of the
401:The Bakersfield Californian
328:The Bakersfield Californian
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74:"about ten miles from
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299:Tübatulabal Memorial
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237:Site of the massacre
193:Owen's River Indians
490:California genocide
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369:Wallace M. Morgan,
92:Great Flood of 1862
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32:Keyesville massacre
18:Keyesville Massacre
480:1863 in California
361:Weldon, California
243:Tubatulabal people
108:Lieutenant Colonel
52:United States Army
500:Massacres in 1863
485:April 1863 events
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