e had been on duty at Los
Angeles. Three companies of the regiment had been ordered to Warner's
Ranch, about half way between Los Angeles and Fort Yuma, and established
Camp Wright. On the twelfth of February, orders had been received by
Colonel J. H. Carleton, commanding the regiment, to form the tenth
company of his regiment from the recruits enlisted in San Francisco by
Lieutenant Pettis. Company K, First Infantry, California Volunteers, was
thus formed, and was officered as follows: Captain, Nicholas S. Davis,
promoted from First Lieutenant of Company A; First Lieutenant, George H.
Pettis, promoted from Second Lieutenant of Company B; Second Lieutenant,
Jeremiah Phelan, appointed from Hospital Steward of the regular army.

In the meantime, the government at Washington had received information
that General H. H. Sibley had left San Antonio, Texas, with about three
thousand seven hundred rebel soldiers for New Mexico, and as the
government had immense stores of clothing, camp and garrison equipage,
and commissary stores in different posts in that Territory and Arizona,
with but few troops to defend them, and a majority of the officers
avowed secessionists, the rebels expected an easy conquest. Accordingly,
Colonel Carleton had orders to organize what was known as the
"California Column," which consisted of the First and Fifth Infantry,
California Volunteers, (George W. Bowie was Colonel of the Fifth
Infantry, California Volunteers); First Battalion Cavalry, California
Volunteers; Company B, Captain John C. Cremoney, Second Cavalry,
California Volunteers, and Light Battery A, Third United States
Artillery, Captain John B. Shinn.

That an idea may be obtained of the difficulties of this enterprise, I
will say that it is about nine hundred miles from Los Angeles to the Rio
Grande, not a pound of food or of forage was to be obtained on the
route, and everything to be consumed had to be brought from California.
Neither was there, as we afterwards ascertained, a single resident in
all that long march, except at Fort Yuma. The country through which the
"Column" passed was without water, and the Colorado and Gila Deserts to
be crossed before we should come in sight of the green cottonwoods of
the Rio Grande. The Apache Indians supposed that they had driven all the
whites out of the Territory of Arizona, and the former required constant
watching and attention. In consequence of the scarcity of water on the
route, the "Column"