Brevet 2nd Lieutenant Bradford R. Alden, to be 2nd Lieutenant, 15th September 1833, vice Harford resigned.
"Fourth Regiment of Infantry," Washington Globe, Washington, D.C., November 6, 1833, page 2


    Second Lieutenant Bradford R. Alden, 4th Infantry, to rank from 15th Sept. 1833, vice Harford resigned.
"Memoranda," Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, D.C., July 17, 1834, page 3


    Conformably to the order of the President of the United States in the case, Major General [Winfield] Scott assumes the command of the Army.
    His aides de camp are First Lieutenant B. R. Alden, 4th Infantry, and First Lieutenant E. D. Keyes, 3rd Artillery.
"Duties Assumed," Lancaster Examiner and Democratic Herald, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1841, page 2




    The Academic Board is composed of the following gentlemen: . . . Bradford R. Alden, Captain 4th Infantry, instructor of infantry tactics . . .
"Examination of the First Class Cadets for Degrees and of the Cadets Generally," New York Herald, June 24, 1849, page 1


My dear wife—
   I like your notion of husband--as I like everything you do and think. Catham's [Chatham's?] letter is full of love from Ma & herself to you. I can never be an idle man--I find plenty to do out here. Do not be alarmed if a mail should come without a letter occasionally--it often happens they say.
    Mar. 26th.--Dear little Sarah has been winding her little self into my mind, of late, and vindicating her chain to all my love--to as much as I was accustomed to give Percy. How I see them both--looking up at me with their large earnest, confiding eyes--and I seem to hear the patter of their dear little feet, as they trot and run and dance and caper--in steps and curves that no map would hold. If I could but feel one thrill of their vivacious, hearty little hearts--it would be enough to electrify me for a month.
    Two Indians are before my door-with two rugged and kittenish-looking little bear cubs. One of the companies has bought them for pets, I hear. Officers and soldiers often are wondrous lonely and low spirited--at all out of the way stations. Pets are natural enough amusements for lonely men--better [by] far, than some amusements men fall into.. The other evening, as I strolled in to cheer up old Col. Bonneville he woke up to to receive me, half asleep--"Most happy--most delighted to see the Captain--"Jove sir--Do you know, between you and me--I felt so lonely and restless tonight--I had half a mind to go up to my bedroom and take a few drinks to myself--just to drown thought & get a little boozy." He never drinks--but many officers at out of the way stations--get boozy as he says--just to drown care. We are fortunate in not having one drinking man at this post.
    Married officers absent from wife and family are woebegone generally--but some times amusing. Wallen says--at Corpus Christi--a month after poor Higgins was drowned--Capt. Morrison one day declared--"I must have some excitement"--we all require it--it has a fine moral effect" and that night went off to a faro table and lost full $400--a surprising venture and loss for him. But how did he account for the deficiency of so large a sum to his wife--who held him to such narrow expenses? I inquired. Oh said Wallen--he set it down to payment of Higgins' debts--and so explained it to his wife--who to this day talks of their debts of poor "Hee-gins"--raising up her hand in wonder at his extravagance.
    Mar. 28th.--I was reading yesterday an essay on Children, in which a peculiar sacredness was attributed to the simplicity and innocence of children. The poet Wordsworth held that view and goes even further. In addressing the Deity:
     "Thou who didst wrap the cloud of infancy around us, that Thyself, therein, with our simplicity awhile might'st hold on earth, communion undisturbed."
    As if God really held communion with little children in their early days of theirs.
I like the suggestion--and suffer that our church must recognize it. What a little world of delight I promise myself in your dear arms and the children who God permits me to come to you again.
    The stir now is my company is a marching stir. Shoeing mules, mending wagons and pack saddles--breaking in mules and drivers--packing pork in sacks--roasting coffee--baking hard bread--gathering information of the road, the grass, the water, the forest &c.--the English botanist & ornithologist is to accompany me--a great acquisition.
    These English people in the Hudson's Bay store are very unlike any business people, we have seen. In their large store, everything lies about open and neglected. They manifest no anxiety to sell you any thing, although they are very polite. The store, too, is shut up for an hour at 12 noon, and closes altogether at sunset.
    Wallen dislocated his wrist, badly, the other day--by springing out of a wagon and putting his hand out to save his head. He walks about with his fingers spread on a splint--as someone said, very like a whale. It may be six months before his wrist is strong--even a year or more before it is entirely recovered.
    Dr. Israel Moses is every inch an Israelite. All the features of the Jew are stamped in him indelibly. He is a good physician and polite enough in his way. I must recover and disinter my old (long time ago) deference to ladies. They make much of such things even out here--and are curious and exacting touching points of etiquette. It is all very good and forms are not by any means to be put aside.
   My soldier servant, Hunt, has been drinking a little lately. He has amusing tricks to propitiate me--borrows my prayer book--vows to stick to me till the last. I suspect him however of being dreadfully lazy--and have just now sent him back to the company for duty for ten days. Little Rogers of the band (one of our old Jefferson Barracks Sunday school scholars) came the other day to inquire about you and the children. One of my best corporals cut his knee slightly a few weeks since, and neglecting it for a few days--is now in the hospital laid up--and may be lame for life. 
    My company is excellent material--and all submission and deference--I am really attached to them, and if I were to remain with them doubtless could do them a great deal of good.
    [Postscript, written vertically in margin] Mr. Sprole humbugs the [illegible] amazing—some of our youngsters think him a wonder--
California Historical Society MS 29  Alden's letters were excerpted with extensive, though not always correct, footnotes in the California Historical Quarterly of September and December 1949.


    I am for the last few days in much better spirits. To tell the truth, I was very woebegone--very homesick--very lovesick--in spite of all my rages of stoicism. It was partly physical however--and now that I am emerging from my sore throat--and other little acclimatizations--I am getting more a man again--and more hopeful. This chaplain church, when the services are in a common school-room &c. is better than none, but is not all a church should be.
    It seems to me that I begin to detect a radical defect in my religion--and that my neglect of system in a/c & is a religious neglect.  Were I to learn and correct such an error of my life--and were I to take a step upward in religion--after this rough experience--it would not be too dearly bought. Our old Lt. Col. is Catholic--but until I came he never attended church of his own faith. More than once I pointed out to him that the great trouble he had in Mexico might have been sent to him as a punishment and to awaken him. He professed to be strict with this view--and, yesterday declared to me that my casual remark had had such an effect that he intended henceforth to attend his church--to study his duty--and to be confirmed by the Catholic bishop. I have become so distrustful of men that even in all this--I find myself reflecting "well perhaps he does this mainly to propitiate me."
    My rooms are very nice--large fireplace--center table and handsome chairs, matting and drugget. In the hall, I hang up a lantern until eleven o'clock. Our food at the mess is quite poor. I shall have much better after I commence my march. I shall sell my furniture, fortunately, for what I paid--but shall take my charming pony along with me. Alvord may be on his way down to see me today. We shall have a few happy days together, I hope, before I move southward. He thinks this movement is just the thing for me--and indeed it seems thus far to be a choice piece of what this world calls "good fortune." I shall be stirring for thirty days--on the march nearly every day--seeing new sights--meeting with the varieties that 40 mules will not fail to develop. Every morning will be fresh and every night we shall be thankful for rest. Our old frisky Colonel says "My dear Captain--you'll be all alive, up there in the mountains 5000 feet above the sea-shore. Your lungs will have no load to carry--they'll trot off at a gallant pace, brisk and free as air--while here--why, here, we poke about and go sprangling round not much better than so many flies caught in a molasses jug."
    Mar. 29.--Today we are feasting ourselves with thoughts of the mail, expected tomorrow. Too cruel was the fate that kept back our last--making it now a month since your last. What will this mail bring forth? What pleasant surprise am I to be caught up in? Or am I to hear some new trouble to punish me for my sins. If you dear Annie are only well and getting strong and becoming hopeful then I shall be content. My anxieties for the Meadville branch have subsided wonderfully. I have at times permitted them to concern me greatly.
    March 31st. The happy day is here. Your sweet letter of Feby. 10th has just arrived and has made me a new man. Your religious views and practices are just those that have growth and endurance and wear in them--and are such as belong to my dear wife's character. May mine be only as firm, even, clear, and trustworthy. Your Bishop Wilson church views are plain, clear and regular as the sun. If I had adopted them years ago, how much better would it have been for me and you, my dear Annie. I am a new man tonight--and only lament that instead of nine pages, it was not 90. What true joy seems to be preparing for me, when we meet, with God's blessing. It is too much for me to conceive. My constant pervading feeling--every day and every hour--is that happiness when attained by me is not a fruit to be enjoyed at once--but to be husbanded as a fund for you dear Annie--and the little children--therefore endurance, patience, improvement, knowledge, duty are all understood as elements and bonds of happiness.
    I regret that this week my letter is so short. I have so much I wish to say.
   
My dear wife,
    I suppose that few men were happier than your loving husband this morning when the mail brought your sweet letter of March 2nd. I really think it well enough that the Lt. Genl. did not pass--it is providential doubtless. To be sure I would have hailed its passage too as gloriously providential and would have rushed with infinite joy to obey the order. As it is I think I must resign about June--and come home to support you and to complete my happiness. I cannot conceive, my dearest Annie, how you can endure this separation. I know you cannot--I know now that Weir [?] was right--you are too delicate to endure it, therefore hail it with joy and thanksgiving--that I shall send in my resignation--as soon as you intimate--the least, the very least willingness. This is my calm, plain, prayerful conviction. Duty, common sense, affection, common sensibility--all cry out to me--go home to your dear wife--cheer & strengthen her--to save her health--nay perhaps to save her life. You know well, dear Annie, that I did not come here until I was absolutely compelled, by your clear acknowledgment to come--(I left the blank above, and the regular journal follows as dated.)
    Apl. 6.--A day after the regular mail of 31st March--the back mail came--bringing the missing letters by the steamer from New York of Feby. 5th--and yours of Feby. 1st was precious beyond telling. My dear Annie--Percy's running up to kiss you when you recd. my letter was touching beyond expression (the dear little soul). It is not a diseased, melancholy sentiment--but one that pervades and sways my whole heart--my deep, tender, all-absorbing love--my dear wife, for you--and the persuasion that you love me--is the most exquisite enjoyment in life that I can conceive of. All day I have been on the alert superintending the drilling of my mules, for the march. I enter into the preparation with as much vigor & interest as I ever did into any hobby of old--and the careful, beforehand arrangements that I have to make, for this march of 375 miles, are of some importance. I never in my life had just such a matter of fact campaign to prepare for. The minutiae are endless--and I have entered into it with real earnestness--and it will do me no little good.
    Col. Bonneville is becoming tiresome. He is only odd when he lets off some of his odd confessions--or is sad--but for three days I have had a new excitement. On the night of the 3rd--at 9 o'clock--I heard a rumbling on my porch--and a thumping up the steps--which approaching the door--developed itself in the appearance of Alvord, in blouse and rough overcoat, hatchet and canteen--excited with three days travel--and overjoyed to meet me. He seems to be increasing in the faculty he possesses, of enjoying life, nature, history, men, books, acting, thinking and dreaming. The past is a lump of rich  treasure to him. The present is loaded with a wilderness of rich thoughts and wonders, in his mind--and the future is one great field of wonder, prophecy and promise in his eyes. This is no exaggeration at all. I look at him with great admiration and have found myself more than once thinking--Oh that Annie could muster up from the past--in the present--or anywhere--something of this engrossing interest that Alvord takes in life. Society, in its ordinary worldly phase, has many good elements--but it could never furnish the vital elements on which Alvord feeds. We are all laughing at him, admiring him, and enjoying his goodness, earnestness, and intelligence--and if God spares me, my dear wife--for that happy day of meeting--I shall be recreant to everything good, if I do not at once set to work and build up with you a something earnest, regular, thoughtful and solid--on which you and I can feed, to make us earnest, active-minded and happy. He and the visitor who haunts my room, more than ever, since his arrival, have kept me from my journal, so completely that I have sometimes been half provoked. Alvord is uncouth as old Dr. Johnson, and not unlike him. He told a queer story of Bloomerism at table yesterday, in which there was a little double entendre--He said "Bloomerism has done wonders for Oregon--all the women emigrants, who cross the plains dress in that style. Some gentleman said of Bloomerism, "It is not a bad thing--I like ladies' society--I like it much--I have but few opportunities, however, of seeing them--but Bloomerism is a help--for when I do visit them--I like to see as much of them as possible." Alvord told this in his way--stopping--and halting & stumbling along, until he came out with the last word--much to our surprise. He is to be with me a week.
    How many things of interest you touch upon, beginning with Percy's dear little letter. I can never cease reading, dear Annie, all your private thoughts and reflections on religion and the church. Already I begin to realize the want of church. Our chaplain does not hold out as pleasantly as at first. He is odd, opiniative, fussy--and rather humdrum, but still energetic and respectable. There must be a vitality and reality in the church. I feel it sensibly. 
    Apr 8th. After guard mounting I attended to compy. duty and preparation for the march until half past 11. I rode and walked then, with Alvord until near 3 P.M. At 3 I dined and at 4½ P.M. drilled my company till parade. After parade came tea--and then I got to my room alone--lit my candles--and thought I had a good time to write--but like moths to the candle, in stumbled my visitors--and kept me near two hours--while they "bestowed their tediousness upon me." They cannot stay in their quarters--not one of them--and as my quarters are cheery--my lights good and they all like me--in they saunter nearly every night. I set them singing when I can--and some of them sing right well. Last night Brent, Augur and the adjutant were in--and I cleared off the table and had a nice, refreshing game of whist--until 10 o'clock. One of my men was drowned yesterday--and at ten o'clock his friend and comrade, another soldier was seized with a bad epileptic fit requiring five men to hold him. Alvord was very tiresome today.
    Indeed you, dear Annie, are the only being who never is a burden to me--you have done more to make my happy in your life--than any other human being, and you do not know how much I long to be with you. It is a compound of homesick feeling , and a want that your presence only can fill. This wonderful absence is like that caused by imprisonment--many a good man in past days has been kept from his family for a year by the tyranny of some wicked king--but they had none of the solaces that I have--exercise--and your precious letters. Indeed I have to seize every means to keep my head above water--and I thank God that the idea of duty is paramount to everything else--and my greatest solace.
    Tell Percy--our dear little son--that I think of him, morning, noon, and night--that his little letter made me very happy. I think of him as a good little boy--who tries to be good every day and who thinks a great deal of his duty to God--to his dear mother and to his father, now absent so far away. Tell him that it is far better and sweeter to do his duty--and to avoid what is wrong--than to have a big box of sugar plums. That I hope he will be thoughtful and quiet when he says his prayers, and that I wish him to take pleasure in learning little hymns for me. Tell him that he must try to make his dear mother happy while I am away. Tell him that I love him very much, a great deal more than he thinks. I hope he will be kind and generous to little Sarah--who is younger than he is--and does not know so well how to behave. Please tell little Sarah how much I love her and think of her. I would give a great deal to kiss her and Percy, and to hold them in my arms. I hope she will be obedient and good tempered and will obey her dear mammie always--and I hope that she and Percy will pray for me so far away. I fear my writing is not very legible--but owing to my constant interruptions, as I wish to write long letters--I am compelled to write with speed.
    How great the obligation seems for me to assist in the care and education of our little lambs. We are their duty to them. Why, the care of them seems of the shepherd who would describe his flock to the wolves. How (like all men) I have thrown on the mother this charge--
    Apl. 9th. How, dear Annie, shall I make my letters interesting to you--my life out here is so tame, and you know so few [people here] to be interested in that I fear it may be wearisome--while your notices of Julia Bayard, Dr. Cuyler, Mrs. Mahan, Maury, J. M. Jones, Anna & Wm., Mrs. Wayne, Genl. Scott, Thackeray, Mrs. Smith, Scott & John Lee--and that little crystal world you have at command, when you reveal to me the sweet sayings of our two little children--all this is full of interest to me--and you can never say too much of yourself--every thought of your heart, every anxiety & trouble and doubt, is deeply interesting to me.
    Do I love you through a mere fantasy of my own brain, through an exaggeration of imagination only--no, no--God has made me love you--God has put this love of mine for you in my heart. He knows it, he approves and smiles upon us--and as long as it is not (like poor Mrs. Smith & [illegible]) he sanctifies it and guides it for our benefit, consolation & perfection. It does not end in us--it embraces our dear little ones in its sweeping tide and wide arms, shelters and defends them from the assaults of evil. They grow up in its sunshine and warmth. It is God's law and ordinance, for which I thank him with my whole heart.
    Apl. 11th. For two days I have been more chary and quieter than for any day since my coming. Away with the fears and distrust of Providence with which I have been haunted. During my voyage I seemed taken up in a clearer sky where all seemed written in clear outline saying "You are in God's hands. He has a work for you to do. Dare not to doubt his power and love." And we will not doubt it--our Christian vows of consecration to God call upon us with a divine voice, saying, "How can you tolerate such a doubt for one single moment while you retain the name and character of Christian." For you, dear Annie, I am concerned far more than for myself, and to know that you were strong in faith and hope and cheerful in your trust, would be the greatest consolation, but I know that you miss me in a thousand ways, and that I could strengthen, warm and invigorate you--and it is then that this absence wears its worst face.
    I have been forcibly impressed with the virtue and excellence of mere good morals in men--and with the great value of the teaching of our blessed Church in building men up in a plain, sober way--not to drink, not to swear, to be virtuous, orderly and sober in all relations of life. This sort of virtue leads on to the higher privileges and sundries of religion, undoubtedly--and our church is strong in not following the Presbyterian way of disparaging good works.
    Alvord is greatly interested in religion, and like ourselves formerly is concerned about the meaning and value of the church. It has done me no little good to talk with him on this subject. Here he was not tedious. He was very curious to know my church views and I took strong church ground, I assure you--and he was struck with it.
    Three nights since, the band gave me a serenade, and then went round to the other houses. It was very pleasant. Music interests me chiefly for your sake. My shirts are better washed out here in Oregon than Mrs. Beekman ever could do. My lists of things sent out are as correct as yours even. I have a place for gloves, collars, hdkfs., forage cap &c., &c. and like this regular arrangement of my things very much. Alvord has revived the pendulum subject, but has to confess that he had not grasped it. It furnished a topic for an evening, quite stimulating. Mr. Everett's letter to the French minister on the tripartite treaty has challenged our unbounded admiration. He seems to have shot up into a loftier growth, since the shadow of Mr. Webster's genius has been removed.
    Riding alone, the other day, with Dr. Moses, he talked of his Jewish faith, for a long time. It was quite new to me--as I never before had conversed with a Jew on this subject.
    Alvord is deeply interested in the prophecies, and he mentioned many interesting points, which had entirely escaped me.
    Apl. 13th. This is a very pretty spot. The long meadows of the Hudson Bay Compy. stretch away toward Mount Hood, very nicely sketched with tufts of trees on the river bank, and dotted with the company's herds of sheep, cows & horses. The shadows of the clouds are peculiar in the way they reach the ground--and very striking, the shadow and the cloud answering to each other, the like as two ends of the long dusky cylinder of shade between. But the truth is, my dear Annie--that sunshine and clouds--and our beautiful pink flowers, and pleasant shadows, and stately trees--all are tame--whilst I am tormented by your image--an image which sometimes I fear makes Heaven itself seem but an image of you. This is wrong, perhaps, but it is the true confession I must make in this truthful and simple journal. The wiser view, too, I cherish constantly--viz: that I am a lover sent by a severe but just guardian away on probation--and not to return to receive the great prize until he has improved himself, by endurance and manliness, and proved himself worthy to receive, defend, cherish and make happy the heart entrusted to his keeping.
    I am not sorry I am to leave here. I am run down and bored to death by the idle jabbering of my good friends. They were very nice in their love to me at first, but are too idle and too kind. Of course this is not be hinted.
    My file of receipts--my a/c book--my company affairs--are most satisfactory. You would like to peep in & see how I imitate you. Little things are often the pivots on which a whole life hangs. I have learned more than one of these little points since the 1st of last September, which shall be, I trust, of great value to you and me, dear Annie--when I resign--I have been [a] cultivating, practical man for these past four months--and mere talking men--and mere imagination men--have not interested me. I am more taken with men who endure, persevere and act--and do their plain Episcopal duty.
    I hear of no Indians to fight anywhere out here and am not sorry. If I were one of these idle young officers, however, I think I should esteem an Indian war is preferable to the penitentiary of an army life. I pity the officers--they are not happy, and there are plenty of occupations out of the army as honorable--such as superintending two or three sawmills on the Susquehanna--engaging in timber trade--or coal trade--raising cattle and wheat on your farm--taking presidency or treasury of an insurance or railroad compy.--or of some college (even)--making paper, glass or soap (even), expressing oil or dipping into a sugar refinery--making salt, ropes or potash--powder, shot or guns--engaging in manufacture of white lead, flour or cement, lime, blankets, beans or books, newspapers, houses, gardening--in truth, I am carefully looking about at all these things, and do not despair of my perseverance stimulated by my love for you carrying me on successfully--or of carving out an original track for myself. Confide in me, dear Annie, I beg you--we are in God's hands. When out of the army I have my chance with other citizens for appointments in the customs, mint, post &c., &c. also--but this would be no dependence--all that is yours is mine, utterly between you and me & the children. Away with my scruples.
    I have made friends of two heads of the great express companies of New York--and shall extend my acquaintance to gain as many strings to my bow as possible. I see all the obstacles, and difficulties clearly and calmly and yet am firm in the conviction that I can succeed--but it must be. I see now by use of our common money--which I can employ, I see, also--with perfect propriety--to make you happy--and I can be happy I assure you--without scruple or shadow.
    I have been surprised at the delay of my good friend Brent--the Qr. Master--in fitting out my forty mules, six wagons, 36 pack saddles, six citizen teamsters, &c., &c. I think I could have completed it (if I had set to work) as I did at that but let that pass.
    We have news of the death of Lt. E. Russell of this regiment. He had a brush with Indians (so say the papers) and having taken ten prisoners he went ahead with them alone--separating himself from his men--when the Indians fell on him and killed him. It must have been all his own fault. He is known in the regiment as a brave but reckless man. This happened south of my Fort Jones about 50 miles, as far as I can learn. These Indian troubles it is supposed here will be settled by the force which will be concentrated there before I reach my post. There, I shall have a larger command than at any other post in the regiment, viz: My company--two of dragoons, and perhaps one other infy. compy.--and the but while the dragoons are out, escorting trains and protecting the road, the infantry is to remain at the post to make gardens and keep the post in order! This of itself will would be sufficient to induce me to resign--and as soon as things are quiet there in June--if you do not say nay positively and absolutely--I propose to do so.
    Apl. 14th. Your delicious letter of March 2nd and 3rd came today--to give me new life--but at the same time to convince me that it is my plain duty to give up this army life--for your sake. You do suffer everything--you cannot disguise it--and I can scarcely contain myself at the thought. You need repose, and peace, and the calm joy of a home--and it would almost seem that I had deserted you. Indeed it seems so to myself, and doubly to the officers out here, but God will bring me back if I am bold enough to burst these worldly bonds and make a step toward you myself. Then San Francisco would not hold me a moment with all its prospect of gold and fortune. I would hasten--as I long to do--with (as Mr. Burke said) all the veins of my heart. The longer I remain out here, the greater the chance of my becoming entangled in these fine-spun obligations of army nets and refinements--and the greater the risk of accidents--therefore the sooner I break leave the better. It is the voice of duty, affection, love and of every pulsation of my heart--for you my dear Annie--you are to me Margaret Godolphin & Lady Willoughby all compact. Your very complaints of want of faith & trust prove to me your religion. Let me, your husband whom God gave you, calmly declare to you--with every solemnity, and even authority, that belongs to that blessed relation--that I know you. Yes, I know you to be a faithful, true-hearted Christian--contending with adverse winds and storms--sometimes beaten far out of your course--but and almost tempted to give up the struggle--but always recovering with some pain and labor--but always recovering in the end. This is my knowledge of you, my dearest wife, pronounced solemnly here, in the sight of God.
    My torment, now, is lest your health will suffer under this anxiety, and be undermined. There is cause to apprehend it--yes, there is cause--and oh, how dreadful would be my fate then. Bear up then--my dear Annie. Bear up--I beseech you--as for me, I feel trust in God that I shall return, as soon as my resignation is accepted--and reach home in August--and shall yet hold the little children on my knee and in winter evenings make their little hearts thrill while I tell them of mountains of ice and the white-headed eagle--of the rich mines of gold--and the "accursed thirst for fame and gold"--the huge redwood trees, so fat in girth--and the pines that yield sweet sugar--of the large grouse who is the ventriloquist of the woods--and the little field mouse that has its nest in the prairies--of the yellow salmon that leaps four feet up in rocky falls--and the red-blanketed Indian who catches the salmon in his hand-net--of the hundred mules that I am to drive to California--and the beautiful pony that I ride along the banks of the Columbia--of officers in mustaches--and of the time when I wore a thick dark mustachio myself--of peaceful Indians and wicked white men who do not obey God's law, and disgrace themselves by treating the poor Indians like dogs--of men who tell lies, to make money--and whom God punishes sometimes by causing a big tree to fall down and crush them to death--and sometimes makes the river rise and swallow them up. But this is for the children only.
    Please stop and pay for the Home Journal. Get Col. Freeman to enclose the letters for "Fort Jones, Scotts Valley, California" to the Asst. Adjt. Genl. at San Francisco. All is smiling and favorable here as at the first.
    Please ask Genl. Scott if I can give an honorable discharge--at the end of five years--to a young soldier who when a young recruit deserted--and was sentenced & punished--but who afterward recovered himself and became one of the best men of the company. Can such a man also at his discharge receive his extra pay for service in Oregon? Tell me a great deal of the children's doings and sayings.
    The mail came a day before its time, and leaves a day before its time--confounding everybody's mail.
Mrs. B. R. Alden
    Washington
        D.C.
Please put the question to Genl. Scott which I enclose.
California Historical Society MS 29  Annie Alden was the houseguest of William Grigsby Freeman, chief of staff to General Scott. Alden had been Scott's aide de camp.


My dear Annie--
    I have written my long letter directed to York--and now complete the unfinished long letter to Cornwall. I have directed one also to Washington.
    I am so much concerned for your health--and so remorseful for my not declining to resign long ago--and using our common means for a career--that I wish you to tell Genl. Scott that my resignation is in your hands--and as soon as you brace yourself up to the true step--which as an humble Christian I ought to take--I beg you to urge the General to have my resignation accepted. I say, and feel by sympathy with you--that your health will be undermined by the suspense. I feel your dear heart beating with sweet pulsation near my own--and I know now its every throb. The people out here think it strange that I should leave you--and nobody now thinks it stranger than I do.
    We have been too proud and not submissive to God--I more than you--and pride is cruel as a wild eagle. Arrange this positively with the General, and do not let him put you off. You could not and I could not endure the waiting for the Lieut. Generalcy all summer--all fall--all winter--and next summer--and then even if I do get it I think I should resign a few months afterward. My resignation should not be accepted by Genl. Hitchcock of course if active service is to be apprehended--but I care nothing for the inglorious warfare with these poor Indians. There is much that is vulgar out here too that I never touch but which is degrading and foreign to me.
    Please let me know how my bank book stands with the Bank of America, subsequently to Decr. 12th, when it was last settled.
    My next may possibly not reach you for a month, as the interior Oregon mails are irregular. I will endeavor however to write so many on the road that some must reach you.
    The resignation should be directed to Genl. Hitchcock to be sent to me--I cannot very well resign send my resignation through the regular channel--and the irregularity may be earned by making it conditional on Genl. Hitchcock.
    I may not further be kept at Fort Jones, and I might be sent when it might be unhealthy--in September--so in the sight of God I say I will resign. Do not let the responsibility of acting in this case disturb you--but do it--firmly and in the fear of and trust in God.
    Alvord begs me to recommend him to Genl. Fraser [?] for Paymaster. Please have it my recommendation sent to Genl. Fraser unless by some chance it should frustrate any plans you might chance to have for me.
    Continue directing to care of Asst. Adjt. Genl. Townsend at San Francisco--for "Fort Jones, Scotts Valley, Cal." All accounts conspire to make Fort Jones [seem to be] healthy and full of interest. Send the order for acceptance of my resignation back at once by return mail.
    Your health and happiness is of more value than all the world. I can manage right well, with our common money--as I see I now ought to do. I need you too. You are a wonder to me--but I could endure anything for your sake. In time for the mail and in excellent health.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    Tomorrow at 11 I take up the march to California--thoroughly equipped with six wagons drawn by 6 mules each and a herd of 60 under charge of my qr. mr. The preparations, on the part of Brent, the Asst. Qr. Mr., have been going on for a month, engrossing all his men and means apparently as completely as if my company were a little army. We expect confidently to march tomorrow--and my first private concern has been to arrange with a messenger to leave here the 28th, with my letters, to overtake me.
    Whatever touches you touches me vitally--often and often it seems as if you were the center of the world to me, moving everything, and concentrating with powers of nature into yourself. It was by the last mail, sent from here the 15th, that I sent you, dear Annie, my resignation, requesting you to have it accepted and sent to Genl. Hitchcock, immediately, and I feel a stronger man since that moment. Prayerfully, solemnly, and quietly I took this step. I viewed it on every side--just as Sarah would view it in opposition--and with all the drawbacks to be contended with I did not view them in the light of an excited imagination, but in the dry light of cold reality--and rightly and truly and wisely found it to be my duty to leave this region as soon as possible and to hasten home--first to a happy home, where I should enjoy a few days of Heaven and then turn to plain, painstaking, everyday work--always however made noble and worthy in the light of home and the consciousness of pure and honorable aims.
    Make then no delay, but have the acceptance sent to Genl. Hitchcock, subject to his selection of time--depending on the nature of the service, its importance &c., &c., &c. The sooner you send it the better, for delay might involve greater involvements and entanglements out here and defer it until for a year. I would not leave San Francisco, however, until I knew that it was safe to cross the Isthmus--if I had to remain at San F. a month or more. The time spent there would not be thrown away. I could begin my career of business there, and might also form business relations of the greatest value to me.
    You would do not know how unhappy these married officers are--whose wives are left in the East. It is a cruel, slavish life and they all feel it to be so--except the old stagers of 55 and 60--whose hearts have become hardened and who have gone so far into the stream that they consider it as well to keep on as to go back.
    They are generally idle, longing, and restless. I have many advantages over them, and especially in my faculty of keeping everlastingly employed. Books, which of late years I have not held in so much esteem, I confess I begin to value again. Surely I ought not to disparage books, which have been such a solace & strength to me through my whole life. They all envy my march--its stir and variety--and they are becoming so much an interruption to all thought and employment that I am in my heart glad to leave them.
    My great resource is occupation--constant occupation. Since I have begun to keep my accounts and items of expense, I find it a pleasure--and the sight of my bill-sticker is as good as a picture. Enter, my dear Annie, into occupation--I beseech you. Keep perseveringly at it--read and take notes--notice as Berkeley says all of God's thoughts in the world. Every created thing is a thought of God--the spider--the bee--the silkworm--the mole, beetle, grasshopper, the otter, the trout, and butterfly, the crow, the chicken, duck, the quail--then all the flowers and all the clouds and shadows and all changes of light--and perhaps above all, MUSIC, in which I hope I shall be interested, from my native perseverance if I undertake it, stimulated as I shall be by love for you. I hope you will practice on the piano an hour a day for me--and enjoy every chance of hearing music.
    The old Penny Magazine is still a charming book to me, an admirable picture of the scenes, creatures, and history of this mysterious world of God's. Remember too that you owe me the duty of caring for your health--therefore throw other cares overboard. Ride--sing--read--walk--admire and be absorbed in the little children. Use small dumbbells twice a day--and never, never permit yourself to be anxious for me. I know that God is above us and near us and disposes of us--altogether for the best. Oh that we could find the greatest harmony of life--viz: that of consenting cheerfully to the will of God--and with cheerful and trustful confidence. Try it, once--say the prayer of consecration in the wonderful family prayers--give your heart to it, and make an act of religion in doing it--and repeat it twice (if it be not amiss to make the comparison)--do it with the spirit and tone which enabled Percy to take the rhubarb (fixing his teeth, clenching his little hand, planting his foot, and while holding the bitter dose in his hand saying slowly, ''Come on, my old rhubarb, I'll see if I can't take you.")
    Be not anxious for me--for my torments are principally from my deep anxiety for you. The torment of separation from you whom I love so dearly is great indeed--but that as a man I must bear--and as a Christian I must endure as a distinct, evident probation and chastisement from a good and wise Father in Heaven.
    This is my deep conviction. Do not attempt to stand up stiffly against the strong wind of opposition arising in any quarter--sometimes it is better, much better, to bend and lie down quietly till the weight of the storm is over.
    I am not deceiving myself, dear Annie, with the fancy that only once with you again all will be eternally right and easy. I know better--and such a notion would be childish and weak. I am not to lead a life of self-indulgence and ease. I must be ready--self-denying and striving to hold you up. I am to be an example for the children. It will be a victory indeed, if I the day I reach you again--but it is a common proverb in mily. life that after a victory there is a world to be done--or the General may lose his whole advantage, the effects & labor of a whole campaign.
    Every family has some "crook in the lot"--I know none exempt except Profr. Church and doubtless he has his. Do not smile when I say that riding in the woods--or alone in my room--I throw off, often, a whole load of care and am miraculously relieved by shouting out with full throat some terrible snatch of a hymn, chant or song. All men have this reserve, I find, where ladies only sigh. Try it sometimes, I beg you.
    I cross the Columbia here and follow the Willamette River up between the Cascade and Coast ranges of mountains--then I cross the Umpqua and Rogue rivers, the Siskiyou Mountains near the California line and in forty miles I am at Fort Jones, Scotts Valley (about 40 miles from the Oregon line). It is unquestionably the most fertile part of Oregon. The streams abound in red-speckled trout. My English botanist is to join me at the Umpqua with his books, specimens and his own old body. He is a great windfall. The packers are traveling precisely this route every two weeks to Yreka, 20 miles from my post, and the express man goes alone to Fort Jones--with our letters--until which reach here before you have heard of the change. When you send them to Genl. Hitchcock's Asst. Adjt. Genl. as I mentioned in my former letters, they will reach me by land from San Francisco. No Indians are on the route, and I suppose my company is to do police duty at the post while the dragoons scour the country. Some six weeks after I reach my post or about two my resignation will, I hope, be accepted--and then, God willing, I bid adieu to Rocky Mountains, Oregon pines, & Oregon grass and all the rudeness and savagery of this wild coast. I like this expedition, near perfectly. It has everything about it that I like, and I thank God for it.
    Don't forget the deposit in Bank of America of some $4000--and to send  me certificates of deposit. Everything is smooth here as ever--everybody hangs about me as lovingly as ever--just as they did at Corpus Christi--and I verily believe that I have no little influence in the army and am among the most popular men in it.
    I have brought up one young officer, who was ruining himself with drink--made him reform at once on the spot--without mercy--and have put in train the means of keeping him to his vow. As an amusing instance of my improvement in the practical--Capt. Augur (the best soldier here) the other day remarked that every man had his crotchets (Buchanan, Alvord &c., &c.) I replied, "except myself." Well, he answered, I believe Capt. you are right--you are as free from crotchets as anyone I know.
    I find that occasionally laying down the law has a good effect--when you are sure of being right.
    Apl. 22. The boat was not ready today but tomorrow we cross the river. My health is excellent and my spirits much improved since I forwarded you my resignation. This is a short letter, but I may have a chance of sending you another on the march. I intended to write to Percy and Sarah but must be content now with but a few words. The other day the ground near us (8 miles) was covered with a yellowish sand--thrown, it is supposed, from Mt. St. Helens, which is volcanic. Last night I heard when out, at 10 o'clock, a little cry like the complaining of a strong baby--and found it came from the company's little bear cub, which had been put out in an outhouse and was crying sharply to be let into the warm room. So it seems that little bears feel neglect as well as little children. The soldiers opened their theater two nights since--and played very well--so well that once all the women near me were sobbing piteously. On the whole however, theaters are bad and foolish places--and are generally visited by idle people who have no love of books--and are wicked enough to do anything, or go anywhere--for pleasure.
    This is all I can say to Percy today. I may be able to send you more on the road.
    Apl. 23rd. We are off in an hour. My friends are all with me to bid goodbye.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    For these four days since I left Columbia Bks. I have been a new man. From dawn of day until sunset I have been on my feet or on horseback. Every hour has been full of excitement and absorbing interest. The little emergencies of every moment have compelled all old anxieties to silence. I have had the only four days of freedom from suspense and disquiet that I have known since I left you.
    On the 23rd we crossed my six wagons, forty mules, three horses and my fifty men and baggage over the Columbia River, killed a fine buck and enjoyed the first camp fire and fare, three miles from the ferry. The 24th being Sunday we gained but six miles, and encamped at two P.M. The experience of these parts of two days gave us worlds of mending, rearranging, reconnoitering, &c. for that day. The 25th was full of mud holes, ruts, short turns, boggling of mules and the breaking of an iron axle. We commenced packing some of the mules that day, a variety amusing to the men, reminding them of the Isthmus. We reached camp at sunset the 25th. When I and Lt. Collins rode ahead three miles to examine the road, which I had sent him to reconnoiter two days before our departure from the bks., we found a bridge had been swept away, and returned to camp at 8½ P.M. very hungry but not at all fatigued. Supper & sleep were real luxuries. This morning, half an hour before sunrise, I left camp with a party of seven men with axes, augers, &c. and reaching the ruins of the bridge, my men fell to work with crosscut saw, spades, axes, &c. with a zest, and good will and intelligence that was worth witnessing. Eight men more came up at 10 A.M. and at 12 M. our bridge was completed and the first teams, let down the bank by drag ropes, crossed. In an hour all crossed, and then climbing a hill 250 feet high we camped near the Falls of the Willamette, in sight of Oregon City at 4 P.M. The bridge building was as exciting as a fox chase, and the crossing of the six wagons, with six mules each, every loaded wagon requiring thirty men to assist, was quite intense. I enjoyed it with a zest. Here we broke another wagon, which will be repaired by six A.M. tomorrow. My Lieut. and Qr. Mr. Collins is very knowing about wagons, mules, &c., quite an everyday man, but a good mud and water soldier. His wife will join us in five days.
    I hoped to have time to write today, but visitors from the town have interrupted me until now, past nine o'clock. It is quite cold and I am full of regret that I have been kept from my journal. This march thus far seems a blessed Providence for me. It has everything that I could wish for--exercise of the most varied kind--enough fatigue only to make sleep sweet, to settle my mind and to brace up my body, nerves and mind to a key that might even compare with a tour in Europe. This of course is partly the contrast with the weary life of bks., but partly because I really like the stir of a march and the healthy exercise that makes the perspiration start from every pore. The complete success of all my plans & contrivances in every little emergency is another element.
    The first day out the little bear followed the men and whined and complained constantly at being occasionally made to walk. The next morning the poor little soul was found dead. One day I encamped on a trout stream and took half a dozen trout. A mule kicked one of the men badly in the man's heel and today a man cut his heel with an ax. I sent for a physician and was surprised that he would take no fee.
    I am distressed, my dear, dear Annie, that the cool air and late hour forbids my saying any more. It is something however to be able to say that I have never been better in strength of mind and body than now--and have such a promise of exercise, variety and really hearty interest for the things coming days of the march--that my heart is full of thankfulness to God for it. Please make up a letter to Percy for me out of the squirrels, bear, grouse, tall pine trees, my beautiful horse "Brooke," and one to little Sarah too. I directed my letter from the bks. by the same mail to Mr. Reynolds at Lancaster--and now with a heart full of love I have to say--good night, my dear wife.
Mrs. Capt. B. R. Alden
    at Col. W. G. Freeman
        Washington, D.C.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    In good health and spirits, as good as I can be away from you. I camped at this town--on the Willamette--last evening, having made only 100 miles in nine days' march, further than everyone supposed we could gain in that time.
    It has been a constant excitement, full of responsibility, exercise, magnificent scenery, early rising and freedom from fearful anxieties. Indeed I have had so many difficulties to overcome and so much pressing practical work to do, that the present of every hour has been enough for itself. Certainly I have never seen more charming landscapes in any quarter--even Italy and England--than on my route. I could not convey an impression of their peculiar beauty. Your letters by the last mail are to reach me tomorrow. What a happy moment it will be. There are 300 miles yet to march to Fort Jones, and full of interest and novelty. My Lieut. is a trump. I could not have had a better, and his wife is a [illegible] for traveling and a good cook. We take up our march very soon, changing here the plan of transportation and packing forty mules. The men are active, obedient and interested, and if you had not to suffer, I think the adventure and experience of this march would repay (almost) my journey to this land. I shall endeavor to push forward another letter for the mail that carries this--but fear that this may be the only one that reaches you by this mail. I am as brown as a hazelnut and endure fatigue and labor beyond my expectation entirely. By the time I reach Fort Jones I shall be a new man. I am firm in my satisfaction with my resignation entrusted to your hands. What is there on earth that I would not do for you, my dearest Annie. The people of this country are rough and uninteresting--the weather has been showery and the roads muddy and boggy. I write in a store in this town, full of people buying bacon, oysters, powder, leggins, ale, lead, whiskey, pack saddles, &c., &c. I fear that I interrupt the keeper of the store and have to close this short dispatch, much to my annoyance. A steel pen is as hard for me to drive as a plow would be. Tell Percy we caught a little live snipe and found a kildeer's nest with three eggs. The squirrels are nearly as large as our rabbits. I sleep on the ground and rise before sunrise. My pony is a beautiful animal, eats crusts of bread out of my hand, neighs most joyously when he sees other horses--and I call him Brooke.
    Tell him I have met several little boys older than he who cannot spell a single word--and want to learn. Tell little Sarah that I think of her and Percy morning, noon and night and pray that God will bring me home to them and you before many months.
    Hoping, and hopeful--more than ever since I have taken the bold step of resignation--and since I entered on this march--with a heart full of love--
Mrs. B. R. Alden
    Washington, D.C.
Please write to my mother as soon as you get this--as I have not had time to write to her.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie--
    I encamped yesterday evening 150 miles south of Ft. Vancouver and 10 miles north of the California mountains. This is Sunday, and if all had been perfectly smooth I should have stopped to rest for Sunday, but yesterday we had two wagons broken and would have been compelled to remain here until they were mended. The march continues as exciting and as full of responsibility as at the first--the most beautiful scenes imaginable, constant exercise of mind and body, excellent appetite, no fatigue and the most confiding and hopeful thoughts of you and the little children. I am up always at or before sunrise--and from that moment until the day's march ends, about 4 P.M., I am on the qui vive--looking ahead. No sooner have the wagons emerged from one desperate quagmire than a mile or two ahead another is to be apprehended--then a bridge is [to] be built, then a desperate, sideling hill is to be crossed--sometimes requiring forty men at the wheels and pulling on strong ropes, crossing the wagons and stretching on the upper side of the road to prevent the wagons from upsetting.
    For two days I was in the mud up to my knees and bespattered with mud and water from top to toe. For three days of the march it rained day and night. I was wet all the time during the day--but never was better in health. It is now my 16th day of marching--and such rude and laborious exercise for so many days at a stretch I have never experienced in my life--and to my surprise not an ache or weary feeling in bone or limb have I felt for one moment. But this blessing I confess had become almost necessary--for the routine of dull life and stagnation at Vancouver had become really hard to bear, and I was preyed upon by the most devouring anxieties for you, my dear, dear wife.
    Yesterday you presented yourself to me, first as you were at New Haven in 1839, an embodiment of all that I had ever dreamed of, that was serene--love-compelling--life-giving, and enchanting--and then, I thought of you sitting at your the little table, in a winter evening, engrossed in your needle--one foot only on the floor--the other in that peculiar and pleasing attitude of yours (which I might perhaps be laughed at for finding so pretty) but at any rate--with the toe of the other foot pointed down on the and the heel on the left ankle--thus as I saw you at Mr. Corrie's in New York with a cap like a nun of the Port-Royalists--then wearing that cape that I admired so much--then walking with you and the children--then kneeling at the communion table in that blessed little church of the Holy Innocents--and so I could vary the scene and attitude and enchantment, world without end.
    But I do not yield to mere love dreams. I am more and more impressed with the importance of assisting you to bring up the little children in habits of truth, order, intelligence and religion--and of bending my life as I never yet have done, to make you happy.
    What never-ending supervision I have to give my men--and they must be commanded, and must feel that they are commanded. When I took command the Dutchmen always answered yes & no--but I gave orders through my capital first sergeant--then whenever I called a man he was to answer immediately "Yes sir" and quickly to approach me. When he reached me he was to touch his cap & receive his orders and then to touch his cap & obey the order. The change was miraculous, and now they are all as prompt and deferential as "Robert's men of Colebrooke." My lieutenant & his wife have to be commanded too, I find, and a little reserve on my part acts like a charm. What care I have to take moving men & might, of axes, spades, saws, bridles, hauling ropes, packing sacks, picket ropes, spikes, crowbars, drawing knives, augers &c., &c., tallow to grease my boots every night (one night my man burnt up a pair)--horse to be groomed, watered, picketed, fed, & watched every night--my shoes attended to--all before I am served. My new soldier waiter is just what I could wish--and now, after the pioneers pitch my wall tent and build my fire every evening, he spreads a piece of matting over the ground, brings in my trunk, my india rubber bag, my blankets, my camp stool, my saddle and holsters and saddle bags, my tin cup, my champagne basket full of knickknacks, my bag of barley for the horse, my gun, cot, candlestick & wash basin, and has them all placed in order and neatness. My lieutenant's wife and her soldier cook the meals and we eat in my tent.
    Yesterday I shot a California pigeon, a large bird with a white ring round the neck, and a dusky grouse--the grouse was a cock and though out of season very good for the table. This rest on Sunday is a blessed relief for all, men & woman and cattle. I enjoyed it greatly from 5 until 9 this morning, when I found that the pork which I had packed on ten mules was wasting so much in the sun that I had to make new arrangements to preserve it, and then a bridge three miles ahead was broken down by a wagon which passed over yesterday. So at one o'clock I started off with ten men and spent three hours in repairing the bridge. This was necessary, however. We had no quagmires to plump into and no travel and the animals spent the day in luxury in the grass.
    Great are our experiences with the pack train, and various the devices to make it work well. My arms are growing stronger, my hair thicker, my health fresher and my hopes better. I wish I had a warmer place to write in, and I might say so much more--and could tell Percy that we saw several yellow spiders today, how the grove at our encampment last night looked like one of God's blessed churches--how beautiful my pony looks, and how affectionate he is--how hard-hearted the people out here are where they have had no church for 18 months--of the two young deer we saw yesterday, and of the cranes and wild geese that fly high over our heads as the clouds, &c. &c. But I forgot to say that tomorrow promises to bring your letters which reached Vancouver a week after I left--blessed anticipation.
    Keep up your life and health and hope, my dear Annie. God will do for us far, far better than we imagine.
    But my cold fingers--this bright cool night (as you see) will not permit me to go on. Perhaps the next mail might come without a letter, but I will pay the express rider $20 if necessary to take it. Please write a line to my mother on the receipt of this to say you have heard from me--as I have not written to her.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    I reached this ferry over the North Umpqua River last evening--and in spite of the trout and the delicious strawberries and the charming landscape and the stir of the blood from the movements of the march, I would sacrifice them all and much more if the express agent would only quicken his pace and bring me those blessed letters of yours, brought to Vancouver two weeks since. I am somewhat consoled, however, with the prospect of his coming along in three days--bringing two mails together.
    The breaking of our wagons, the frequent disappearance of our mules in the morning, the steep hills on hills that we cannot escape climbing, and the deep swampy holes that are equally unavoidable--have retarded the march so much that, although some days I have gained 15-16 miles, yet the average has been but 10 miles a day. They are not however 10 sluggish miles. The stoppages are generally of such a character as to call forth all our energy and invention--and then when the obstacle is crossed we often have quite smooth going for many miles--my horse full of spirit to dash forward, the Germans lightening the way with good rich singing--and all quite happy. Certainly I never have seen a more beautiful country, and I have imbibed enough [scenery] of late to last me, I trow, for a lifetime.
    The prairies are sprinkled with fragrant old-fashioned johnny jumpups, and the pink in its native soil--and the sloping hillsides are yellow, purple, and crimson in broad lakes of acres of flowers. The verdure is as rich as England--and all so rich and soft that I was not surprised to learn that it was too beautiful to last, for before June has passed the drought has set in, and in July the grass is all gray as dried hay. The drought is the great drawback.
    We met with plenty of strawberries three days since at Applegates on Elk Creek. The people are rude as rude can be, though very shrewd and independent. I like their forecast [i.e., foresight, forethought] and have been amused at their consummate cunning in making a bargain.
    I assure you, I have no time for dreaming. The day is full of practical work, and the evening has to be spent in providing for the contingencies of the next morning.
    The first annoyance I had the 12th, when five men deserted at night. Nothing has been heard of them yet, but I have made such disposition to apprehend them that I do not despair of picking up one or two of them yet. I should not be surprised however if half of the remaining forty-one should desert before I reach my mountain. But as this would be no fault of mine, it would not give me great concern.
    As I approach California, accounts of Scotts Valley become more and more flattering. The Applegates say it is a beautiful plateau and wonderful for grazing. The snow mountains in view far surpass Mount Hood & Mt. St. Helens. Frost is seen nearly every morning in summer, and the health of the valley undoubted.
    A man in this country must overcrow his neighbors, or he will be overcrowed. An officer of the army is expected to be lordly and somewhat domineering. Reserve and independence are quite characteristic both in California and Oregon.
    My health continues vigorous and excellent. My muscles are like leather--all superfluous flesh has disappeared, and in my California hat, overboots and mustachios I venture to say you would not know your petulant and uncomfortable husband of last year.
    God grant that all that is unpromising now may only go on. I always knew that I needed just the exercise and activity & such a movement as this--and have always had a prophecy of it, instinctively. I thank God for his mercy--and pray him with all my heart, my dear Annie, to protect and bless you, and our dear little children. I shoot this little arrow toward the blessed spot on the earth, which is blessed by your presence, to assure you of my improvement in health of mind and body--and of your hope.
    There are no Indians on my track, and before the cold of September begins in my valley I pray that my resignation may be completed and I may hold you to my heart. In about twenty days I expect to finish the march.
    Please always let my mother know when you hear from me, as I do not write to her as regularly as to you. With kisses & tender affection to Percy & Sarah.
Mrs. Capt. B. R. Alden
    Care of Jno. Reynolds Esq.
        Lancaster
            Pennsylvania
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    This day at 10 A.M. I reached my post in this secluded valley, and better [by] far than reaching the place where I am Commandant I touched your sweet letter of March brought to San Francisco by Mr. Trowbridge. There is a treasury of your letters in the possession of Adams & Co.'s express which I expect the 3rd of June--better than many a gold mine, for would you believe it, since the 10th of April I had not seen a letter of yours until my arrival here this day! The post offices and expresses are in combination [i.e., conspiracy], it seems, and between them they have failed to bring me a single letter from Vancouver for these 40 days. You may imagine my vexation, and even distress, but extreme as my trouble was--this letter of yours in answer to mine from San Francisco of Feby. 9th has made me light-hearted as a boy today--and now I am bright with hope again for the 3rd of June for those on the way in Oregon and those that I expect direct from San Francisco.
    Oh how tender and delicate you seem to me this 31st of May. The thought of you is often & often bewildering in its pleasantness. I will not today attempt to express these entrancing feelings. How well you know them all, my dear, dear wife. Before I left Vancouver I made the closest arrangements with the express company for the forwarding of your letters to me, and on my march I met with [an] agent going from Yreka to Vancouver--and in person made the most positive engagements with him to have them sent after me. He took my watch with him to Vancouver for a new crystal, and yet up to this time neither watch nor letter has appeared. The agent at Yreka assures me that such delays sometimes occur by reason of changes in the plans of the company, but that, though delayed, the packages never fail at last to come to their address. By their delay--though they have given me the greatest uneasiness--they have given me a rich harvest to reap when the 3rd of June arrives (in 4 days).
    My march was made in 37 days (three days less than I had laid out for when I left Vancouver). It was full of interesting incidents & experiences--and it seems to me that I have had a view of all the scenery that the world affords in every variety--mountains & valleys, deserts and flowery prairies, high mountains brilliant with snow and one day, and the next over ranges of volcanic hills as desert as the regions of Arabia and in the times of Job and Moses. For two days we were encamped on a trout stream where we picked up specks of gold from the shore and gathered delicious strawberries on the bank. The wolf and the rattlesnake have crossed our paths and yesterday, for the first time, I met the grizzly bear. It was not dangerous--a hunter had him cut up, packed on his horse, covered by his shaggy skin. He had killed him but two miles from my camp--but I have too many things to say that I have to forgo to say more of bears & wolves.
    Yreka turned out its enterprising population yesterday to see the Capt. from Vancouver and his company march through the town. They were as serious and respectful as the good people that you saw at the inauguration. The reception was amusing and unexpected to me. My reception here by the officers of the two dragoon companies of this post was of that character of mingled deference and affection that I have so often met with and which certainly is always very pleasant. I am to assume command tomorrow of my post and valley--and all promises as fair as I could imagine.
    Pardon, dear Annie, this rapid and most unsatisfactory note. I am not full of leisure today, believe me, and it is only by a sort of chance that I learn there is an opportunity by which I may possibly get this to you by the steamer of the 7th.
    Well, and in good hope. My health is wonderfully braced. I may possibly be able to write again--sending you a map, diary &c. With not a minute's time more.
Mrs. Capt. Alden
    Washington D.C.
Please write to my mother a line.
   
    Everything comes here by pack trains at 20 cts. a pound from Shasta City. It is perfectly healthy--but I might be ordered to a very unhealthy region, therefore I am bent on your accepting my resignation. I am to be stationed here quite permanently. We are about 30 miles from Oregon and 100 from the sea on Scotts River.
    We are five days by express from San Francisco. Butter is $2.00 a pound, eggs $3.00 a dozen, hams $5.00 apiece, potatoes $15.00 a bushel, and everything else in proportion.
    It is a shut-in valley surrounded by mountains of snow. Two miles distant from a neck of land. We see Mount Shasta--or Shasta Butte, as they call it--the noblest snow mountain my eyes ever beheld.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    My rapid and unsatisfactory note of yesterday is waiting three miles from here for the express, whose day is changed for one day later, giving me a few hours more to venture a few words more. And first I lay your sweet letter by my side to make me happy again. On my march I am surprised to discover now how little I wrote in the way of journal. The main military incidents, the distance traveled, the creeks, prairies, ferries, fords, mountains, sloughs &c. I noted in my main book every day--but writing was almost out of the question. Cold evenings, constant occupation and oversight for the present and for the next day--constantly occurring difficulties & emergencies to be met at once--gave me no opportunity or convenience. I never read a book but the Bible, and that not very often. The march of the children of Israel to the promised land certainly became endowed with a new light and interest--their forty years and my forty days had many more points of resemblance than you would imagine--Syria and Palestine and Arabia were spread before me daily. So much for imagination.
    I wrote to my dear wife--at Oregon City about the 27th April--from Marysville May 3rd--May the 7th--at Winchester the 13th--and then not like yesterday--I am always dissatisfied with the character of my letters especially when they have an air of being done too rapidly. I had in charge a herd of 60 mules to keep note of--six wagons drawn by 36 mules to keep an eye to--and some 50 men to instruct, take care of, watch &c.
    In spite of watching, eight deserted on the route--beyond recovery--but the remaining 40 are wonderfully (or as Coffen would say, marvelously) well behaved. At the Kanyon--(Canon) or (Canyon) as they spell it differently--I found that I had to abandon my wagons--and pack everything on mules. Here then was a theater for invention--on which we did not fail to rehearse our part well--before we exhibited our train through the Canyon--so one day, with 50 mules packed, with muskets, camp kettles, axes, spades, tents, hard bread, pork, saws, trunks, boxes, sacks of clothing, flour, sugar, coffee and all--we entered the mouth of the Canyon Saturday the 21st. My fifer, a young Irishman, mounted [on] a trotting mule, led the train. I rode up to the head when they were a mile in the pass, and found the Dermody, the boy fifer, in great distress. Leading the train as he did, he supposed that he was responsible for all that would befall all that followed. Och, Capt., he cried, sure we'll niver git these craturs through this place. Why, what's the matter, Dermody? Oh, they will go jist where they have a wull to. And then two of yin has jist walked down that gully, before my face, and me looking at them. I laughed at his simplicity--wondering why he stood looking at them--but before we had got half a mile further I found that he was more than half right--and that we could not get through before night. I therefore ordered a retreat--and back we went to camp.
    Next day we tried again bright and early, and threaded the defile of 12 miles without any serious trouble.
    In packing up next day, one of the mules as soon as his packs were fastened deliberately put his head to the ground and made a revolution until he was on his back with his four feet held up as if to support the vault of the heavens. Sometimes he performed this revolution backward--and while on his back performed such tricks with his legs as to gain from the men the name of "the dancing master." Among the names given the mules by the men none were more characteristic--Bullfrog, Squirrel, Sinner, Napoleon, Muskrat, Devil, Dandy, Bricks, Moses, Bumblebee were all modest enough animals. If I had time to write long I could it is numberless [the] amusing incidents of this kind occurring daily with which I was entertained and often made to laugh heartily with which I might fill pages.
    This famous Canyon--or pass--through which in the Umpqua Mountains all the travel has to go from the Columbia River to California, is about 80 miles from the California line north.
    On my arrival at this post I found written instructions from Col. Wright, comd'g. the district, directing me to send an exploring party to the sea--to Paragon Bay--to endeavor to discover a better pack trail route for supplying the post, and also I am to dispatch the two companies of dragoons, the 1st of July, 60 miles east near Klamath and Rhett Lake, to protect emigrants coming in this year. Meanwhile my men are to build a hospital, store room, quarters &c. We are therefore to be very peaceably employed--and again the Fates deprive me of the glories of war--and I am perfectly content.
    I visited the scene of Kearny's fight with the Rogue River Indians, on my march, and the spot where poor Jimmy Stuart was killed and buried. Nobody it seems is killed by Indians here without some improvident exposure. So it was last March with Lt. Russell of my regiment, and so with Stuart.
    My dragoon officers are [Charles Henry] Ogle & [Thomas Foster] Castor, [Richard Carlton Walker] Radford & [Isaiah N.] Moore. Capt. [John William Tudor] Gardiner is expected soon. Nothing could surpass their affectionate deference & respect, and nothing shall occur on my part to give them reason to change. The dragoons are helter-skelter, sure enough. Although in a well-watered valley, all the water for washing & drinking is packed in kegs on mules a mile. There is not a washing tub within 16 miles, not a pane of glass in any room at the post, and floors are of quite hard ground. A cat costs here and at Yreka (16 miles northeast) six dollars, and a hen $5.00. A tin box (ordinary size) of blacking is one dollar, & so on to the end. A common broom is one dollar, &c. While I write my sergeant comes to report that there is no yeast in the country, and that there is but one small ten-gallon keg to pack the water and no vessel to keep it at the comp'y. camp. I have managed however to supply him with another keg, and today sent to Yreka for a half barrel or washing tub.
    I am glad, after all, really glad you sent the daguerreotypes, but where are they? No news of 'em yet. I am glad to hear of Julia Bayard's prospect. Do what pleases you in regard to gifts--and you may be assured it will please me. [end of letter missing]
California Historical Society MS 29


My dearest wife
    Yesterday the precious letters of March 25th and Apl. 5th came from Vancouver to bless me in this valley. I am full of work and papers and have not a moment to say a word more. I pray that those notes from Fort Roger Jones (as I suppose it was intended to be called) may reach you safely. In a few days I shall have leisure to explore the ravines, gold bars &c. of this New Switzerland.
    I received the certificate of deposit for $3000 and shall endeavor not to make a bad use of it. Please let the cashier know of the receipt.
    I am here in a new land and life is in its elements. The young people slip along very easily, and it rests with me to supply first absolutely--Bread, and water, then a kettle to boil meat, next a kettle to boil clothes to wash, then a tub scooped out of cedar, then a trough for bread out of the cedar. Providentially there is a brewery in Yreka, and hops and yeast; and providentially it would seem, from the late frosts of this high region (perhaps 4000 feet above the sea), we are not too late to plant potatoes, tomatoes, onions & cabbage.
    Money is here 8, 9, & 10 percent a month, potatoes $22 a bushel, butter $2.00 a pound. This country groans for the observance of the Lord's Day. Surely I never saw & felt its Divinity as I have here.
    How much I sympathize with you in your experience of Mr. French--and all, yes, all the every word & syllable of your religious trials, joys, hopes, doubts, content, faith, trust, prayers, wishes, and aspiration. Every thought of yours is delicate as a sensitive plant to my heart--let them run, therefore, as they do--through your letters a little clasping vine, seeking the light and bearing toward something strong & firm & high for support. Your account of Percy was quite in my style--amusing, good, imagination--only better than mine. God bless the little soul--and dear brown little Sarah--what a mine & spring of light and refreshment. She will be [omission] to us if God spare us. Good night--God bless you, my dear, dear wife--prays your hoping, trusting husband,
Mrs. Capt. Alden
    Lancaster, Pa.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    Oh this blessed anniversary of our blessed marriage. I am full of hope & thankfulness to God. Blessed be the sun that shone on that day.
    I am here today to arrange for the exploration I am to send to Paragon Bay--and find myself distrusting every man who talks fair. My experience will make me wary enough.
    My valley is sixteen miles from this thriving town, and a beautiful healthy valley as there is in the world. So high are we above the sea that tomorrow I purchase one bushel of potatoes at $24.00 to plant, and plant corn, tomatoes &c. tomorrow--
    I have written you three letters from my post since June 1st and now venture this note because it is the 9th June, my day of days--my the day my star rose--hoping that the stars may aid to bring you this note later--by a few days--
    In excellent health and spirits--and full of hope and love--
    P.S.--Were it not for the dreadful absence--both for you and me--when I resign, by nine months delay in this land I might double any money I had--
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    The 14th brought an order from Col. Wright to dispatch 25 of my dragoons to Benicia for Williamson's escort in his Railroad Exploration. I have got them off this morning and one man remains to carry dispatches. The same order put me in command of "Fort Jones and its dependencies." Never in West Point busiest times have I had busier times than here. Everything to be done and nothing to do it with--Boats to be built (three), garden dug, fenced, planted--floors laid, roofs covered, &c. &c. Absolutely I have had no time either for quiet or for moodiness--and it is a good thing for me. God be thanked for it. Your letter of May 5th came unexpectedly the 13th, giving me great pleasure, though you were not in a very "husband and wifeish" mood. The dear husband of the former letters were very sweet. Every other one of this kind is perhaps as much as I can bear. Our love is now settled on so sure a foundation that it never can be shaken. How anxious I should have been had I known of your week's confinement to bed. As for a tooth less--I know, such is the witchery of your the very air around you--that I shall only like you the better.
    How half divine the family prayers of the prayer book seem out here--It is 5 months since I have communion and at your side. There is a sacred repository somewhere in the "sacred body & blood of Christ" in this precious sacrament--not superstitiously as Mr. Weir views, but blessedly & purifyingly--and I feel the want of it here. We agree perfectly I feel on the subject--about which words often confuse & confound.
    The other night, at 12 o'clock, a tramp and scratch at my door was followed by a call--Mr. Captain--I felt for my revolver in the spur of the moment, and laughed when the man halloed out--express for Capt. Alden. Odd enough if I had fired a bullet into one of your letters, so precious to me.
    Tell Percy I found a lark's nest with beautiful eggs & a gentle little lark near my qrs. A kangaroo mouse, who had gnawed a hole in my gray light overcoat, when he panted in the cat's clutches was an odd creature. My horse is the most gallant and noble fellow this winding valley has ever known.
    The Chinese appealed to me today for protection against three Indians who robbed them. A gallop of 15 miles in this valley is nothing, and my health was never better. For three days past the thermometer has been at 90 in the shade--but by adopting your mode of keeping the room dark I am perfectly cool. I have to act the Genl. Jackson out here--it is the only way. Fortunately I know my strength and never make mistakes where reason & principle are concerned.
    Julia Bayard's red & blue slippers are the brightest & most ornamental objects in my room. They take everybody's eyes and are really valuable. My things are arranged with excellent order--and I am surprised at the comfort and excellence of order. Our fare is as simple almost as Daniel's in the Bible--rice & beans, bread, milk, butter & Spanish beef, with dried peaches & occasional onions. This is all we have and all we want--
    I will get Ma's certificate of marriage (which I have) copied and certified & sent by next mail.
    My dear little Sarah must remember that her dear father will be sorry to hear that she squeals like a cat. I love the children dearly and will tell them soon of my cat and the squirrels here, the busy woodpecker who digs holes in the pine trees and fills them up with acorns--of the storm of hail and the rumbling we hear in the mountains when the glorious snow breaks down from the tops.
    How unsatisfactory this seems to me, but I write as it were in a battlefield--pack trains unloading, dragoons just tramped off, letters, requisitions on Col. Wright to get off &c.
    Tonight is quiet & I will write a quiet letter for the express. Pray for me, my dear wife, love me--trust me--and believe in me--
Never care about the talking. The talking people are generally surface people. There are exceptions--but I should be sorry if you were other than you are.
   
I am tired of Mr. Smith.
   
I shall get 50 percent a year for my money.
   
Think, dear Annie--that my prevailing sentiment is--if Annie loves & trusts me I want no more. If you could only think have this feeling toward me.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    This is the first really quiet day I have had for you since my arrival here. It is true I have plenty of papers on hand, letters to write and responsibilities peeping out every day, and today and tomorrow have their share--but when I finish up the duties of the day it is all done, and I may rest for [a] great part of the next without the incubus of behind work to be hanging on my shoulders. Yours of the 2nd May came also, with power enough to brace me up for any weight, and the news has come from Genl. Hitchcock that Henry Scott is Inspector General. What praise and thanksgiving I should render to God for the bright hopes this news event has for me. I am already preparing to myself to turn over my command of this valley and its dependencies to my next in command, and with great joy. I who six months since considered myself so unfortunate in being projected, as it were, out of the world into blankness and the regions of chaos, am looked upon here as the most fortunate of men.
    Plenty of officers are out in this godless land, long and far from wives & children--poor & helpless--and with no hopes of release but in political intrigue. It is sad enough, and I long to do something for them, but am powerless. My dear Annie, we may have been too much set on ourselves--we may have erred in magnifying our trouble. It seems to me that if I could but learn thoroughly all that this separation was intended to teach--and could patiently and simply bend my coming life under Christ's blessed yoke, and know always that he was my master, and feel that I was a true and humble servant of his--to do his work and service--I would ask no more in this world but that he should continue you to me as my best friend in whose eyes I would always find light & solace, counsel and blessing. Have I said that I would ask only that you should be continued to me--as if that were a slight thing? My pen inadvert[ent] seems to have said this, but it is not the connection that I intended. Perhaps I ought to have said--If all this were granted to me, I would be willing to resign even you. Certainly nothing but such an alternative could prevail upon me to relinquish one, the slightest of the thousand ligaments by which I am bound to you.
    This jar of our smooth Hudson River life has, thus far, God be thanked, been recognized by both of us as a blessed Providence of God's--and I say, God be thanked again and again for the Easter hopes you reveal to me--the blessed convictions you received on last Easter--of God's goodness and greatness--and the endurance of these convictions. May that Easter day be ever blessed and honored in our house and home--and now I shall not refuse to be glad when the Easter altar is strewn with flowers, and the little children shall be taught to associate as many joyful thoughts with Easter as with Christmas. Our church recognizes as all as children--erring children--[line of manuscript cut off--referred to in next letter] securing yourself with written proofs, agreements &c. is mine too. I mistrust every man, but not suspiciously or misanthropically--but on the ground of my knowledge of the weakness & corruption of the human heart--and of my own experience. People after 35 years nearly all I meet seem to have a design in what they do. Their presents, their flattery, their attentions, put me on my guard and make me look out. Certainly I have been treated since the 5th of Jany. of last in a way & with a respect and attention I never received before. True, I am changed. I think myself and men worthy perhaps of [end of letter missing]
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    In the midst of many public papers I sent you a letter the 22nd or 23rd--in great hopes of the appointment of Henry Scott. Genl. Hitchcock had specially informed our young Dr. Crane of Henry S.'s appt., and I was quite sure of it--indeed calmly & soberly sure--but yesterday brought the Baltimore Sun with the distinct announcement of Col. Mansfield's promotion to the place, but to my surprise I was not at all overwhelmed at the reveal.
    It seems another wise and mysterious act of God--for our good. I cannot doubt it--and quite soberly submit.
    Your last was of May 2nd--and now two or three (of the 12th & 19th) must be in San Francisco on the way from San Francisco. How eager I am to touch them. I send two expresses a month to Ft. Reading on the Sacramento River, 120 miles south on a pack trail over Scotts and Trinity mountains--an adventurous road to ones who do not dismount in descending the steep places. All of our provisions are packed on this trail, at an express of 20 cents for every pound. In four days the two soldiers get down, and in four return.
    I suppose that Mason's influence with the Cabinet & Jefferson Davis were strong enough to defeat Henry Scott & to advance an expediency man like Col. M. My young officers would much have preferred Henry Scott. They are mainly for him, and for Genl. Scott against the world. It would not however derogate in the least from their good opinion of the General if I were to mention what you say of his scrambling for place. They think indeed (as Col. Freeman did about my light-house offer) that a man would be considered a goose who would not "take all he could get." Delicacy in putting forth a long arm to help yourself is not the first thing men of the world think of--and the more I see of it (although it tends to allay somewhat of my sensitiveness) the more, thank God, am I resolved to maintain my own consistency, delicacy and whatever I do God has gifted me with, of unlikeness to the greediness and selfishness. At the same time, I trust that God will enable me never to be fantastic and fanatic on this head--and never to make my wife and children suffer for mere imaginary scruples &c., &c. When I am right in the sight of God, with reason and my wife on my side, all the talk, and all the wise saws and sayings and wise warnings of all the wiseacres in the world would not stir me an inch--but if my dear wife were doubtful, oh, then, I would not dare to be too strong. Let me express a doubt--whether Genl. Scott did wrong in making application for Henry Scott. I would not have done it perhaps, but of those who condemn him, let me assure you there is not one out of a score of them who would not have done just as he did.
    What easy mortals the younger officers I meet seem to be. Nothing troubles them as they sit in the shade smoking & chatting, until they feel a little weary--and then they stretch themselves out for a quiet sleep. Newspapers are a great treat. How their breasts swell as they discuss the opera and the last fancy ball in San Francisco. They like the Home Journal right well and are very much obliged to N. P. Willis (puffy as he is) for the pretty conceits he picks up for them and serves up so regularly. And yet, as they like me, I cannot help liking them, especially as I see some of them reading their Bible on Sunday and generally standing up for some religion. What I say of them I am far from saying complainingly.
    On Sundays in Yreka some 2000 miners congregate to trade at the stores, and many to drink and carouse. They have lately established a little paper--as big as my two hands. The other day, as I was thinking "what could I do to instruct these people of the error and folly they are pursuing" a knock at my door brought in a gentleman of the place--with a special request that I should deliver the oration on the 4th of July. He prefaced his message by saying that a "desire was growing up for something better, for improvement in morals, & for better organization of society" and the principal men of the town thought it would be a good beginning to select the respectable principal man in the county to make the 4th of July the occasion of breaking ground in favor of order, law, morals & religion--and therefore they earnestly requested that the comdg. officer at the mily. fort, Capt. Alden, should address the citizens. Well, I had three days to deliberate--and under the circumstances it was impossible to decline. So in eight days--in the open air--in sight of to 3000 bold men--I--even I--who am neither Moses nor Aaron--am to raise my voice and I am not [at] all afraid, and good may come to them and good consequences to me. Thank God I am in good health and voice--and praying to God for light & guidance--shall feel that I am only doing my duty. Perhaps this will be a good time to let out the crowding images and sonorous phrases which, thumping in my brain, I so often let out in conversation, not so very aptly as mild and timid people may have thought, but which uttered in the open air, on a raised rostrum, to the loud in the ears of 3000 bold men, may produce the effect of a statue which is large and rough when seen near at hand, but when raised on a high pedestal in the air is all proper and fair.
    Yesterday, riding to see the English botanist in the cool of the evening, a dusky grouse with her twelve well-grown younglings whirred up from the roadside--and I could describe the pleasant surprise they gave me in terms that might seem extravagant to one who has not the game blood in his veins. Mr. Jeffrey told me I have the said you are of the same temperament of a namesake--T. Farquharson Alden of Marley Hall, in Perthshire, who lives in his ancient estate and hall--400 years old--in Perthshire, Scotland, and is the greatest grouse man in the shire. Grouse-smitten as I am, I would not have ruffled a feather of one of these young grouselings for a sight of Mr. Farquharson Alden's old hall and the freedom of his moors for a week--for I thought of our little younglings at home, and it must have been the same feeling that led me to make my men liberate a young coyote wolf that they had with a string round his neck yesterday, worrying with the dogs.
    Yesterday, also, my corporal brought in three young wild ducks. They stayed overnight, but in the morning--lo, they had found a way to escape.
    I have not suffered from hot weather a moment in this country though the thermometer yesterday was at 90. Today we have fires and a little rain. My radishes, beets, turnips, pumpkins, melons, peppers & watercress, planted 8 days since, are up and flourishing. I find the altitude of this healthy valley above the sea is 2700 feet, about the height of Catskill Mountain House. I send a few sprigs of little flowers, the gentian and the "cranebill geranium," called from the crook in the stem. This valley was called formerly by Hudson Bay people Beaver Valley & the river Beaver River. Beavers are plenty and only two years since 2000 were trapped here.
    The quarters for my company are not yet built, and I am to be here sent here to build quarters, hospital, & commissary store-room.
    In my room of 18 feet square are piled up four boxes of my comp'y. clothing--on the other side 15 muskets and 15 cartridge-boxes line the wall--five seats of pine & cedar logs, sawed off 16 inches long and placed on end, form 5 seats worthy of one of Homer's interiors--of a solid cedar tree, 2 feet long & set on end, is my standing table made. My sitting table is very nicely covered with my Chilean blanket of a sort of worsted, and my mahogany gun case, presented to me at Vancouver, with brass mountings, shines like the well-burnished plates in an old Dutch kitchen. The gun case is opposite my seat, and its contents are that perfect little whisk my wife gave me, the large hair brush--her gift--paper of pins, box of matches, toothbrush, razor, gloves, thread, strings wound on paper, a few bullets, a box of percussion caps, a spring vise, a screwdriver, a microscope, letter stamp, a wedge of solder for tin, a punch to make holes, half dozen sailors needles, an almanac, half a dozen papers of tartaric acid, tape, buttons, a little gimlet, and the little pocket copy of Napoleon's maxims--and all in their own compartments.
    The experience of command of a post is not a little thing. I like it absolutely, and it is a good excellent school. The respect of the people--judges, lawyers, merchants--is something I suffer as a and very pleasant and the respect and affection of the young officers is not a little thing. They seem (I fancy) surprised to find me a man of more than "two ideas''--entirely independent--capable of anything in the way--enterprising, practical, &c. &c. Certainly I have been defamed and under a cloud enough to score me for a lifetime.
    They had poor water packed on mules--the new commander has dug a big well 30 feet deep. They had no bread baker--the new commander found out a baker, got hops & yeast, had dough troughs, &c. &c. made the 3rd day, and now we have good bread. They had no floors. He sent to the saw mill 12 miles off and purchased boards at $80 a thousand feet. Their fresh beef spoiled and they had a hole dug in the ground to make bad worse. I took Now the beef is hung up in the air and keeps three days. They had no post fund--and will have one next month, and five other had nots I could add, from which the not is taken away. All this I say without the least boasting, for any common army man might & would have done the same thing--but it is a good experience and I would be a shiftless husband indeed and head of a house if when I get home I do not--with your consent--get hold of your Mr. Reynolds' 20, 30, or 40,000 dollars and contrive to manage it safely, sanely and well.
    I send you the pieces of my former letter that I cut off--and did not send last express. Perhaps it may be well for you to read what I said--as after these few days' interval I find they express what I intended--and you would prefer having my real thoughts. The dear little children--how I love them--give them love & kisses and everything for me and tell them how I love them.
    Percy would be delighted to see the herd of a hundred horses and fifty mules driven up every day to the corral--or pen--and the colt he would prefer. The young coyote looked for all the world like the fox that I used to tell him a fable of--coming to visit the cat--pricked ears, cunning nose and bushy tail. We have a finch that sings sweetly at night, called by the Hudson Bay people the nightingale. Tomorrow I propose shooting four and twenty blackbirds to bake in a pie.
    But I have my hands full with writing the oration--no time for more--of course with your hope & my head full of love for my dear wife, ever your devoted husband
For Mrs. Capt. Alden
    Lebanon, Pa.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dearest Annie--
    This almost white sheet will have to tell the story of my health and good hope.
    My undertaking, under Providence, of the speech to the bold men & few women of Yreka was not a small one--and for many a night drove me into & past midnight. I am satisfied with the result entirely, and consider it religiously an event in my life which will not lead me blindly to repeat the same thing--but which has prepared me for emergencies that may occur. The time employed in writing it has wasted so much on public paper that I had to [illegible] the procedure--and my new work of post papers were thrown back by the drunkenness of the dragoon who had the duty of clerk to perform. Odd and amusing incidents occurred at the speech which I cannot now tell.
    I am full--oh so full--of work, duty, command &c. that you cannot imagine.
    What idle children I have here. Ten of my men have deserted since Vancouver, and ten more will go. Poor good Mr. Gibson is as much it seems under the influence of his wife as I of mine. If mine were to go to Rome I suppose I would do I don't know which. Temptation would be great.
    Good Mr. Reynolds' death affected me more than you would suppose. Send no more money--I have but little time for money--here.
    Full of love and affection--& full of writing as of love.
    Please write to my mother on receipt of this. I am as ready to resign as ever.
   
    You would have smiled at the Pickwickian procession in Yreka the day of my speech--all as grave as judges with their drum & fife, flag, scarfs, marshal, &c. In a circle before me sat like so many Scythians 100 miners with rifles--and when the Declaration was read they rose, stepped two paces forward, poked up their guns & fired a feu de joie.
    We were announced to the 1500 people with a contrast--thus--"The man who is to read the Declaration is John Van Wyck"--but when I had to be presented it was "The gentleman who is to address you." I was cheered amply and all went off with order & gravity unprecedented. The speech began thus:
    "Friends and fellow citizens--
    "On this triumphal day in our national calendar, when we convene in virtue of the good custom of the land, our hearts beating the drum that calls us together to pay the great day its honor due--I confess it is with no little beating of my heart that I could persuade myself to take the responsible post assigned to me, to march up & encounter the duties, the honors, in the expectation with which I am confronted" (& so on)--
    "On the first day of the new year when friend meets friend they exchange happy greetings, wishing health and happiness for the 12-month that is to follow--and now, on this day 1st day of our national year, it is reason good for gratitude to God that to all inquiry, from any quarter, touching the health, welfare and promise of our happy land, we can cheerfully answer--
    "All is well. And it is right and fitting that with all our hearts we should offer her the honest, old-fashioned greeting, 'Forever, God save the Commonwealth.' "
    This took famously. I will not bore you with more of it. Let it suffice that people said it was not flowery--but was solid and sensible.
    At last we learn that Henry Scott is not the Inspector General, and if I were only more devoted--more faithful--more true to my high Christian calling--I could say that I felt this to be wise & just and good for us--and the act of God for our good. But it must be so. By all that is sacred in our union, my dear Annie, I beseech you to keep up that strong trust in God, and cheerful temper. Your late letters evince such a blessed light as this makes me love you more and more tenderly. In my next I will endeavor to say something to interest our dear little children. How much I love them--but I can never be proud of them--that is not my way--I think dear Percy & Sarah--how I wish I could take them in my arms--look in their eyes--hold them to my heart.
California Historical Society MS 29  Written upside down on the blank half of the second page of this letter is a palimpsest of partly erased penciled letters in Alden's handwriting. One begins "Dear Colonel, I was sorry not to see you.…" The letters could be read with a better scan than I have available.


My dearest wife
    I am tonight--while preparing to retire to my camp bed--not a little eager for your precious letter of June 1st, which reached San Frco. the 1st inst., but has not reached this quiet valley yet. Tomorrow it must come--or I shall be unable to master my impatience. May 18th was your last--full of pleasant accounts of the dear little children and of the comfort of York.
    The decease of our friend and your father's friend Mr. Reynolds touched me in a way unexpected to me. A man of worth he was, and of the good old stamp. I hope that I may inherit some his virtues. If I had not been absolutely possessed with duties and bracing cares, dear Annie, your York letter of the 18th would have seemed a little too dispassionate. You ought not to forget how they are a little Aladdin's lamp to me out here in this Arabia. I have to rub & rub this York lamp of Aladdin of the 18th before I could get the gleam of light. I wished--and so I drew out of the former ones from Washington--so gentle and trusting--and began to call to mind old things, and your present Christian care and gentleness for that strange household at Meadville--and all was right again. You are certain of my love and admiration, respect and trust to the end.
    Everything is manly out here--even to the wolf that walks up now & then to my tent door, and his pack that howl wildly every night from the hill. My garden, the well, the supply of wood & forage, the contracts for beef, the improvement in the bread, the care of the packs of pork, the horseshoeing of 60 horses and herding in the valley of the ninety mules, the charcoal for the blacksmith shop, and tar-making for the boats, the long correspondence with Col. Wright (comdg. the district) and his leaving everything to my judgment, the building of quarters, selection of different pines & cedars for shingles & clapboards, the preparations for sending the dragoons on the Oregon emigrant trail, the settlement of points of duty and expenditure, the desertion of my men (ten since I left Vancouver), the rides of thirty miles a day, the speech to the miners of Yreka, and the insight I gain of men & affairs--are all manly doings contrasted with--boys' excuses for playing truant, their pettish complaint of bread & butter, and preference for puddings, their shirt collars & sugar candy, their petty lies and petty consequence--and indeed that plain on the Hudson has but one charm for me--and that is the happy hours & the religious life my dear wife had there.
    Here I thank God--I am more under law and rule to myself, and it is a blessed rule I have adopted--of fixed hours of prayer, 1st in the morning, 2nd when the sun is at noon, 3rd at sunset, & last before retiring. At West Point it was not so--I did not observe such stated hours, but here I do. My confidence in myself without presumption increases. Men out here all trust in theirselves and distrust others. I hear no joking and foolish jesting. As Mrs. Mahan says (I respect her greatly) this life is a return to fresh nature again--and strange will it be if I do not draw new life and trust and mental as well as bodily health from all I experience in the life that God has led me to by a sure hand--if I do not gain a strength and life from which my dear wife may gain life too. I may not, it is true, seize all the lesson this mission was intended to accomplish, but I pray to God that I may not require several lessons yet.
    July 11th.--The express has been detained, and your 1st of June letter, which reached San F. 11 days since, is promised tomorrow. Happy day will tomorrow be for me. I am glad you gave the $2.00 to Mr. Gibson. How much better to have a trusted conscience like his than to have none at all--and we find thousands. He is in God's hand, even if he is driven by a touch of insanity to Rome.
    Odd enough it seems to me--out here I have been compelled to be my own clerk as I have no writer in my company. Such quantities of writing I never had to do in my life--and it has forced me to tie up and label and endorse my files in the most systematic way, and it does not annoy me.
    There is something certainly congenial to me in this air, for I am infinitely better than I was at Vancouver. This valley and all this northern California is as healthy as England. You cannot imagine a purer air. The valley is but 3 or 4 miles wide, though south of us it widens in one beautiful place to 8 or ten. The solid mountains rise like the a rim of with indented line, 2 to 4000 feet above us and are yet tipped with snow. It is all natural-looking, healthy and beautiful.
    My men are deserting so fast that in a month's time I may not have more than a dozen left, but it is the way everywhere out here--and as I am not in fault it gives me no more concern. While they receive but $7.00 pr. month, common men like them receive $50 & $70 pr. month. The temptation is more than they can stand.
    Any old notions I may formerly have had of governing men by great kindness and delicacy is fast dying away. Let this suffice for the days of my youth, but now that I am older, Christian justice and sobriety are better than mere generosity. Men must be commanded--and what element of command is in me has been more developed in this mission to Cal. & Oregon than ever before.
    I made a visit to my Lt.'s wife yesterday and she gave me an honest account of Mrs. Wallen's grasping selfishness that I did not expect--and so on she described the selfishness of others--as to make it seem that generosity was generally considered as gullibility. I mention this with no special bearing, but the Lt.'s wife told the story remarkably well and graphically. My Lieut. is a plain man but a pushing Qr. Mr. He is no associate for me, and when the dragoons leave (tomorrow) I shall be almost a solitary lord of this valley.
    The physical effect of this pure high air is surprising on me. My hair is blacker, my flesh harder, my legs stronger, and my equanimity a surprise to myself. Such calm quiet strength seems part of another nature than mine. I am not thin, but am free from all rotundity of face and body and almost tremble lest this condition of brain & nerve may not continue.
    My men require full ten times more watching than officers generally give, and I am eternally writing, superintending the garden, driving the well, the hospital, the store house, the officer quarters, the shingling parties, the wagon repairs, &c. &c. but never annoying the men--for this I have to avoid, or they would all, every mother's son of them, desert. I never fuss but walk about as dignifiedly as Mr. Sprole ever did--keeping an eye to a thousand things that must be attended to.
    Lt. Radford is a sort of Simon Buckner, a narrow, foolish Virginian, with little information but honest. Dr. Crane is intelligent, manly and gentlemanly. Lt. Castor is a second Capt. Swartwout, with something of Dick Smith's laziness, and Ogle is quiet as an Indian. I could not wish to be on better terms with men than I am with them.
    My orderly sergeant is a young man of 24 and perhaps the best man at the post. I would not wish a better.
    With hope still firm--and trust in God and confidence unbounded in my dear wife
I must resume my journal letters--and I wish you would too--if you please--
California Historical Society MS 29


    We are informed that the two companies ot the Ist Dragoons, under the command of Lieut Radford, will leave Fort Jones, Scotts Valley, for Tule and Goose lakes, on the emigrant road between this and the Humboldt River, to protect the emigrants on the wo haw navigation from the depredations ot the Indians, on that part of the route.
"From Yreka," Shasta Courier, Shasta City, July 9, 1853, page 2


    The Herald says the Fourth was celebrated by the citizens of Yreka in a style which far surpassed anything of the kind that ever came off in that part of the country. The Declaration of Independence was read by H. D. Van Wyck, and an eloquent oration delivered by Capt. Alden, U.S.A.; after which the company repaired to the Yreka Hotel and partook of a most sumptuous dinner.
Shasta Courier, Shasta City, California, July 23, 1853, page 1


My dearest Annie--
    I wrote last from Ft. Reading the 24th July, and returned to my Ft. Jones the 27th with Paymaster Leonard. He has been my guest until today, and although he has taken up a good deal of my time, he has contributed to make it quite agreeable.
    Your letter of June 3rd, so long delayed, has reached here, passing me on the way, and was a bright spot indeed. Do not suppose that the anxiety you evince touching the important change in our life--that I am meditating--is misunderstood by me. It would indeed be strange if you were not deeply anxious. My daily and nightly conversation with my matter-of-fact paymaster and my own most thoughtful and forecasting reflection confirm me in the judiciousness of the step forward that I have taken. Civil life cannot well be worse than our prospects in army life. Are we forever to be on the brink of other separations? Are we willing to live on, tied to the army by one servile chain, and our hopes & prayers drawing as constantly in another direction? If my life is of such value to you as I know it is--is it to be risked at every point, threatened as it will be by New Mexico, vulgar Lexa, the Red River or the Arkansas, or another crossing of the Isthmus in a few years, when I may not be able to breathe a thought to defer the passage though the deadliest fever rages everywhere along the coast? Or are we to hang on the skirts of Genl. Scott, or when he passes away seek some new patron to protect us, or even begin to seek the favor of men in power with a little more delicacy perhaps, but with the same mere personal ends that control the thoughts and conduct of people whom you and I cannot respect? Suppose that I had boldly and with trust in God resigned in 1849, and visited San Francisco for a year--why $5000 then invested would have now been worth $200,000 or even half a million. And three years from today, if then living in the army, limping along, propped up by the army, as a lame man by a crutch, I would doubtless lament that I had not thrown the crutch away and served the time and the hour that Providence seemed distinctly to mark out in this active, stirring land. I take distinctly into consideration, my dear Annie, all the difficulties, all my want of familiarity with business, all apprehensions that I may not succeed to my wishes, and view it in a plain, painstaking way. I perceive too very clearly that I cannot expect to succeed without making the undertaking I engage in the paramount interest and instinct of every day. If you could bear it I would enter San Francisco as soon as possible, say in September or October, and with our funds commence operations, proposing to get my initiation there at least. Everybody knows here that the possession of $10 or $15,000 is everything to begin with. I might visit Oregon for three weeks and see Gov. Stevens about his coal mine. If I could endure it--and you could--18 months' absence would promise much better success, but such an exile I would not endure for anything short of life and death. The army is worse than you think it, and I have a strong desire to leave it. The more I see of the laboring class of men, the less I think of them. They are cunning, flattering, and of but little principle. Toward them certainly a refined man is justly aristocratic, and this I am toward hundreds of such people as the Clarys, the Swartwouts &c. It was something like this I meant in my allusion to aristocracy in a former letter.
    My Lieut. is no companion for me--a fair Qr. Mr. but as his friend (foolish, cunning, old Col. Bonneville) said of humble circumstances.
    When shall we sit down side by side to study German, Spanish, spiders, grass, botany, bees and all the creatures of God?
    The command of this post and of my two dragoon companies on the trail is no sinecure. At 5 P.M. it is no little entertainment to walk out with my treasured gun and practice with birds on the wing. By perseverance at last it is gratifying indeed, very gratifying, to have succeeded. I hope it will require as much time to succeed in business. This is the day I am full of papers and returns. Let Genl. Scott know that I am bent on resigning--and urge it. Poor man, he knows but little of the love I bear to my wife.
    I will endeavor to send another letter in the Oregon journal more. Take this therefore for what it means, and now I beg you write to me in haste.
    I am well and hard in flesh and in good hope. I send Percy the little scratch of my men's qrs. With a world of love to them & to you.
Mrs. Capt. B. R. Alden
    Newport
        Rhode Island
Write a word to my mother on receipt of this if you please.
Do not annoy yourself with long letters to Meadville--to be sure they are subjects of your kingdom, and God has put them in your hand.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie-- 
    I sent today by Maj. Leonard a letter full of the one idea that engrosses our common thoughts. Surely you and I are not a little unlike the millions in the world of good easy animal people. Honor, independence, elevation, delicacy, conscience are not the common impulses among men and women, but I am not thinking of this now--only I began to apprehend that you might become too anxious in your apprehensions of civil life. Therefore for a while brush them aside and cultivate a few days of trust in me. I may yet be your sunlight. Surely it would be my greatest ambition. You are my not alone my wife, but my best, purest, truest, noblest friend on earth. This I feel and know.
    Many men would be woebegone at this post and lonely and wretched--and that I am not is due to God first--to you next--and to the peculiar congeniality of this bracing air. Expenses are very great here. I am to have a Chinese for servant, cook and washerman at $35 pr. month. I never ate as little in my life though I have a good appetite. In truth I must have been eating too much all my life long. Many people in this country live for months on bread & butter, milk, rice and tea--and it is not bad fare. The salmon are past the season, though the Indians are continually endeavoring to sell them. Yesterday half a dozen new faces came with salmon--and strange faces they were--their chins & cheeks tattooed black as if a handkerchief had been was wrapped around their cheeks, steeped in blue ink. Percy would have thought them as queer as a grizzly bear. Percy & little Sarah--what little planets--always moving and always shining they are in my eyes. When they move too briskly and become little comets--irregular, not obeying law and order--do not, dear Annie, be discouraged and troubled. It is proof of the youthful law of vivacity sometimes, nay often, to overrun boundaries, but they return again. What a little cluster! You and they--How in your [illegible] and three beating hearts you seem to hold the reins of their all this world has of power to sway me and your three hearts--what a tide the thoughts of those hearts sends makes to swell in mine. Do you really know, dear Annie, how you have such power? Tomorrow when my papers are off, and copies all labeled and filed away, I must commence my journal again.
    Aug. 3rd--The morning has come cool and bracing--so fresh I changed my thin for my thick flannels. My man comes to ask for clean sheets & pillow cases for my bed, as he will not permit me to use them on Maj. Leonard's bed, of course. I have just sent 16 miles to Yreka for a physician for one of my sick people--the fee to be $30--paid by the govt. I sent also for quinine, iodide of potassium, the Chinese cook, matches, shot, powder, vegetables, letters, tea, &c., &c.
    Several of the pillow cases have your folds in them yet. If I do not appreciate coins, relics & gifts--of as people assuredly do--I do my veins tingle when my eyes or fingers touch anything your hands have touched. But the fresh morning air brings fresh, sound thoughts, and today it seems insane to allow apprehensions of bad success to cast one shadow. With $25000 of our money--or half of it--with the zest, the impulse and the ambition I feel to make a home for my dear wife and children, I have no unsound fears.
    Believe me when I say that never until my service at this post--of now two months--have I had so practical a conviction and impression engraved, as it were, of the value of plain, everyday business habits. They are manly, honest, & Christian, and any shuffling off of these plain duties is unmanly--and as proof of it (though it is one of my weaknesses and prejudices--and we all have some prejudices--simply to dislike), I confess that his system, precision, and absorbing matter-of-fact business ways compels me to yield him a certain degree of respect, as far as these habits of his are efficient and to be valued.
    We are here without a surgeon and perhaps to remain without one for six weeks, but thank God I am well--with every promise of remaining so--and since the well furnishes good, pure water, my men are getting over their slight attacks.
    Never was a land peopled and settled as this country is, without any apparent grace of God. Everything is conducted in a spirit of rapacity and plunder--the very earth is cultivated in a spirit of plunder. No church, no baptism, no Eucharist, no prayer, but curses are the idioms of the country. No women, no little children--what blighted fruits are to grow from such planting. God only knows. When If our blessed church is to be planted here it must develop what germs it has in new forms. It must come with Sisters of Charity, hospitals, brotherhood of men. Bishop Potters, new order of deacons and evangelists--and some of the elements of Methodism, kept in control by the divine power of the church. It is emergencies like these that, under God, develops the good sort hidden strength of the church, and out of the best parts of the high church movement must may be found the very forms to conquer in this region.
    The express dashes up, and I must end instanter--
Mrs. Capt. Alden
    Newport, Rhode Island
California Historical Society MS 29


Dear Annie
    I am here today on a scout, bound for Jacksonville, Oregon with eleven of my men.
    The people insist on my coming there to aid in protecting them from the Indians. I shall meet Capt. A. J. Smith's company of dragoons there, from the coast, and with the good citizens of the valley shall doubtless make all safe there.
    Let me urge you still as before to push my resignation. Tell the General it is my deliberate desire and intention--admits of no question.
    I have to keep my Irishmen straight. The expedition will do them good.
    My health is wonderfully strong. I did not know I was so strong.
    All is clear and quiet before me as this bright sky.
    I write in the express office and have no more time to say a word of the world of love and affection in my heart. All love to the little children.
Mrs. Capt. Alden
    Newport
        Rhode Island
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie--
    Here I am, with hands full. Appointed Colonel commanding in this war--against the Rogue River Indians--with 200 rifle-men under my command and such a stir as you never saw. Have I time to write? Indeed I have not.
    I am in wonderful health and strength of the old berserker rage. Calm and strong as if all were quiet and calm as our household.
    Thank God for enabling me to meet this emergency.
    Don't believe any rumors that you see in the papers. God strengthen me--and it may all blow over and the Indians I apprehend will run off when we approach them.
    Trust in the same God who brought me through the yellow fever. Write to my mother.
Mrs. Capt. Alden
    Newport
        Rhode Island
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    No battle yet--and no promise of an engagement. The Indians have retreated to the mountains and may confine their depredations to attacks of trains on the road. There is no telling, however, what the issue [i.e., outcome] will be. As soon as the volunteers take it into their heads to go home, the Indians will come back again.
    God is above [us] and rules in a mysterious way. I am now getting impatient that I have not been able to get in reach of the sound at least of whizzing bullets.
    Keep your spirits--& trust in God.
Please write to my mother.
California Historical Society MS 29


(Duplicate. Another sent by mail)
My dear Mrs. A.
    I write you but a line to say that the newspaper account that Capt. Alden has been dangerously wounded in a battle with the Indians is false. He has received a flesh wound in the shoulder and there is every prospect of his speedy recovery, although it will lay him up for several weeks. His conduct in battle was heroic & brilliant & the theme of general admiration, as are his labors in organizing the war in this vicinity. I am most happy to send you this contradiction of the newspaper accounts. I have given you more particulars in another letter.
    This I enclose to Major Townsend at San Francisco requesting him to send it by the very first opportunity of steamer (other than the mail) which may occur. Capt. A. is in good hands & has the kindest attention.
"Letters of Bradford Ripley Allen," California Historical Society Quarterly, September 1949, page 224


[To Col. W. G. Freeman]
Sir:
    The papers are filled with the accounts of Capt. Alden's wounds. He has been severely, though not dangerously, wounded, in an Indian fight, near Jacksonville, about ninety-five miles from this Post. He was fighting like a Hero when he received his wound, musket in hand, after he had fired several times, and was in the act of picking up his rammer, which had fallen on the ground. He received a wound from a rifle ball; it entered the right side of the neck, near the jugular vein, and came out on the left side of the backbone. Judge Robinson informs me the Capt. is on his way to this Post, and will be here today or tomorrow; he is able to walk about. The Judge says his wound is not at all dangerous, though very severe. I would write you more of the particulars but the express will not wait.
    If Capt. A. is not able to write by next mail, I will. I have written to his wife, and directed the letter to York, Pa.
"Letters of Bradford Ripley Allen," California Historical Society Quarterly, December 1949, page 351  


Dear Mrs. A,
    At the request of Capt. Alden I enclose herewith a line from him, and
write a word myself to assure you that the wound, which he received in a battle on Wednesday the 24th inst., is not dangerous. We are the more anxious to write instantly on this point as the report has gone forth through the newspaper that it was dangerous. I am most happy to be able to write this and must add that he greatly distinguished himself in this battle leading the charge upon the Indians, which has resulted in their submission, suing for peace. Genl. Lane commanded in the affair, being also slightly wounded in the shoulder. In two days a council with the Indians is to be held, which will result we hope in the pacification of the country. The conduct of Capt. Alden and the small band of regulars with him is the theme of admiration on all hands. As I approached this place yesterday morning you will judge of the thrilling interest with which I heard from the lips of a young Oregonian, who was in the fight, the terms of praise in which he spoke of Capt. A. & his men. With much more interest did I hear that now his wound was esteemed not to be a dangerous one. It appears to be entirely a flesh wound, entering near the neck, following the surface & coming out behind the shoulder. He has here the kindest attention, & the best medical advice in the country. He will have to lie patiently for several weeks, and as he borne his wound with so much resolution and heroism, I cannot doubt that a few days will make him quite comfortable. This hotel appears to be a very good one, where he gets all the attention the country can afford.
    I was ordered hither from the Dalles to locate a road through this country, and hearing in the Umpqua Valley of the troubles raised a company of citizens to repair to the aid of this valley. I reached here this morning, finding to my satisfaction that Capt. A. had arrived here yesterday, being brought forty miles on a litter, that being the easiest mode in which he could be conveyed.
I remain with the highest respect & regard
    Your friend & obedient servant
        Benj. Alvord
Mrs. Cap. B. R. Alden
   
    I am surprised to find the Captain greatly pleased with the wound as honorable and thus satisfactory, though I have no desire myself to be thus gratified.
    The labors & exertions of Cap. A. on this theater of operations have been immense. He has accomplished wonders with small means & under the most untoward circumstances. I have left my command to remain with him twenty-four hours & am sorry I cannot stay longer. I go tomorrow to the treaty ground, & thence to an exploration to the northward of the road.
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Mrs. A,
    I write you but a line to say that the newspaper account that Cap. Alden has been dangerously wounded in a battle with the Indians is false. He has received a flesh wound in the shoulder and there is every prospect of his speedy recovery, although it will lay him up for several weeks. His conduct in battle was heroic & brilliant & the theme of general admiration, as are his labors in organizing the war in this vicinity. I am most happy to send you this contradiction of the newspaper accounts. I have given you more particulars in another letter.
    This I enclose to Major Townsend at San Francisco requesting him to send it by the very first opportunity of steamer (other than the mail) which may occur. Cap. A. is in good hands & has the kindest attention.
Mrs. Cap. B. R. Alden
California Historical Society MS 29


My dear Annie
    Four days after my battle--and thank God, well and full of hope--my wound is a flesh wound grazing the neck and is a great thing. It has made a hero of me here.
    It will be a month getting well, perhaps more. I have every attendance and kindness--Alvord came like a sunbeam today. All is quiet for a while.
Trust in god forever. Impossible to make my stiff arm do more unhealed.
California Historical Society MS 29  Alden's handwriting deteriorates to near-illegibility at the end.


    Capt. B. R. Alden writes to Capt. James P. Goodall to address him under cover to Daniel Stinson, U.S. Master office, State Street, New York City.
    This letter is dated Antwerp, Belgium, Aug. 21st, 1856.
Memorandum book vol. 20, B. F. Dowell papers, University of Oregon Special Collections Ax 031


    We--that is, Mint Julep, Esquire--have seen an unlimited number of dog fights, cat fights, and human fights, seriatim, from a regular fancy "set-to," to a regular head-breaking row. We have seen sober humans fight until they were considered blue, and we have seen "very blue" individuals fight until they were sober. We have seen young men fight for a glance at fourteen yards of calico, and we have heard of ladies (vide "Ledger") who fought for a quiet squeeze of a young man's hand. We have been about tempted to show fight ourself upon several very savagerous occasions, but we never came fairly into contact but once. It happened very much to our surprise, and against our bodily inclination, or spiritual desire, and in this wise:--
     Over in Oregon--that land of beautiful prairies and majestic mountains, gorgeous landscapes, and barbarous Indians--the scene of our mortal terror was enacted. We had, without thought, gone out upon a foolhardy enterprise, and had succeeded in reaching headquarters with our scalp decorating our cranium, and sat down by ourself to make congratulatory reflections upon our escape, and invidious reflections upon our enemies, and were just wondering how we were to get back into the region of civilization again, when a rapid glance over the prairie on which we were encamped discovered, just in the bound where land and sky became one, an object evidently rapidly approaching. In a few moments after a scout leaped from his horse, which was flecked with foam, and announced that the enemy were only a few miles distant in great numbers. Orders to prepare for marching were at once given, and now all was bustle and confusion. Horses and mules were being caparisoned and packed, the few regulars were laughing at the excitement and explosiveness of the volunteers, while the latter bestowed not a few irreligious expletives upon the lazy soldiers who were never ready to act until all occasion was passed. But at last all things were ready, and without knowing how or why, Mint Julep, Esq., was on horseback, and pushing forward as eagerly as if in pursuit of a "grizzly." While riding along the unbroken prairie it was elegant sport and a fine sight, but when the trail led off through thick chaparral and dense forests, and over huge rocks, and through wild ravines, where "scarce was footing for a goat," Mint Julep, Esq., began to think he had made a fool of himself. He began to call to mind how often the wily savages had entrapped whole battalions in ambush, and raised the hair of their heads in dead earnest, and his teeth chattered as if in his bare bones he was shivering over the "embers of the year." His mind was fast coming to the conclusion that there was more enjoyment on that September day out upon the sky-bounded prairie than in that swamp of a forest, but before he had time to draw up his horse, crash! bang! who-o-o-o? such a screech! and Mint Julep, Esq., went out of his saddle as quickly as if struck by a cannon ball. He dropped the rein of his horse, and snatching his rifle from his saddlebow, said, "Take care of yourself, Old Blackhaw, while I do the same!" and away he went for the cover of a fallen tree. There was all sorts of orders given and executed within a few moments. Six hundred horses were turned loose in the forest, six hundred men sought such cover as the nature of the contest would permit, but after the first volley was fired, quiet began to creep over the spirits of the excited volunteers, and the fight began in earnest. Julep, Esq., lay flat on the ground behind a fallen tree, where he could, from the elevated ground on which he lay, observe the whole fight. The tree had two large branches just dividing where Mint lay, so that while one sheltered his body, the upper one protected the greater part of his head, and left him a space through which he could obtain a fair view of all that transpired in front, with a very fair opportunity to choose his mark, if he felt inclined to join in the fight. After the first flush of terror was over, after he had once been a mark for his foe and had not been killed, and, above all, when he felt that his fortifications were some protection, Mint began to look around him. Near him, in full view of the foe, stood that gallant Major Alden, and a little further on Gen. Joe Lane, while from behind every rock, and tree, and bush peeped the head of some comrade. The Indians, from the dense underbrush in front and on either side, kept up a miscellaneous but constant fire, while the soldiery were doing their utmost to dislodge them, and force them into fair fight. Notwithstanding this, Mint saw the danger which threatened all who were exposed to the view of the savages, and turning to Major Alden, urged him to take shelter behind a tree. The warning was unheard or unheeded, and the gallant Major continued loading his rifle. As he stooped forward in the act of ramming cartridge, and at the same time peering forward into the bushes, a ball struck him, and he fell forward without a groan. His fall was the signal for greater exertion, and while several of his comrades carried him from the field, "Alden and Revenge!" was shouted by every white man on the field. Mint Julep, Esquire, saw the bloodthirsty savage when he leveled his rifle, and saw the smoke wreath up from its muzzle, and saw in the same instant Major Alden fall. He watched narrowly for that savage to show his head again, and not in vain. Little by little the tuft of feathers was pushed out by the trunk of a great fir tree, and then suddenly withdrawn; again the head was put forward, but this time there was an iron tube looking for its eye, and before it could be withdrawn the sharp report of a rifle rang out, a heavy groan followed, and the Indian leaped into the air and fell back dead. For five hours the contest raged, when the Indians called for "a talk," and on the following day a treaty was signed, and peace restored for the space of five weeks and three days. Mint Julep, Esquire, returned home, glad to have escaped, though not sorry that he had encountered some wild adventures.
    Some of your readers, dear Spirit, may ask, Did Major Alden die? No. The rifle-ball struck him upon the side of the neck, from in front, laid bare, but did not cut the jugular vein, passed to the left of his lungs, and passed out just below the shoulder blade. It was a fearful wound, and for months his life was despaired of, but skill and attention restored him, and the worst evil he had to regret was this: He had recently married a beautiful and wealthy lady, who had long attempted to persuade him to throw up his commission in the army, and settle down to a quieter and more domestic life. He had so far complied with her desire as to write his resignation and deliver it to her, with the charge that it should not be forwarded to the Department until he should return from a trip he was about to make into the northern part of California. With this understanding he set out on his journey, and on reaching Yreka was induced to take command of the volunteers, then preparing to set out in pursuit of the Indians. While he was marching against his country's enemies, his resignation was on its way to Washington, and before the day of battle, had been received and accepted by the Department, and poor Alden was no more a soldier.
    But the most laughable occurrence of this battle came to light on the day of the signing of the treaty. It happened on the day before that battle that one T. McF. P. [Thomas McFadden Patton], a "limb of the law," better suited for talking than fighting, was riding across the prairie towards Jacksonville, when to his horror he discovered lying beside his path an Indian, seemingly dead. After assuring himself that said Indian was not playing possum, he dismounted, bravely drew his knife, scalped the dead man, and then made into the village, proclaiming that he had been attacked by Indians, that he had killed one and frightened others, and, in fact, achieved wonders. On the day when the treaty was signed the singular phenomenon of a scalped Indian walking about among the warriors was discovered, and an explanation sought. The Indian came forward, displayed his wounded head, and pointing to T. McF. P., said, "He take'um me scalp." There was a sudden explosion, and under the attention paid to the Indian Tom sought to fly, but was brought back and forced to "own up." The Indian had belonged to a skirmishing party, and had been struck by a spent ball, which passed into his flesh just under his arm, and followed
the bone to the opposite side, where it made its exit, leaving the wound, to all appearance, directly through the lungs. At the time Tom found him he was insensible, but the letting of blood by Tom's knife aroused him, and before Tom was out of sight he was crawling away towards the camp of his people.
    More anon,
DETROIT, August 25, 1857.
The Spirit of the Times, New York, September 5, 1857, page 330


[Patent] 36,694.--B. R. Alden, of New York City, for Improvement in Lamp Burners:
    I claim, first, A lamp burner provided with a cone or deflector constructed of porcelain, pottery, earthenware, or any baked earth or earthy cement, substantially as set forth.
    Second, The combination of said cone with the case or jacket, C, arranged substantially as and for the purpose specified.
    (This invention consists in the employment of a cone or deflector constructed of porcelain, pottery, earthenware, or any baked earth or earthy cement, which is a good non-conductor of heat; said cone being applied to a case or jacket, which surrounds the wick tube, substantially as hereinafter fully shown and described, whereby many
advantages are obtained over the ordinary metal cones or deflectors, hitherto used in coal-oil lamps.)
Scientific American, November 8, 1862, page 300


IN PURSUANCE OF AN ORDER of the surrogate of the County of New York, notice is hereby given to all persons having claims against Winfield Scott, late of the city of New York, deceased, to present the same with vouchers thereof to the subscriber, at his residence, No. 5 West 74th Street, in the city of New York, on or before the 17th day of January next.--Dated New York, the 17th day of July, 1867.
New York Evening Express, December 23, 1867, page 1


    OBITUARY.--Capt. Bradford Ripley Alden, a former resident of the oil regions and well known to the operators and business men of this section, who lived here ten years ago, died at Newport, R.I. on the 10th instant. Mr. Alden, in partnership with the late Capt. Cornelius S. Chase, deceased, the son of J. L. Chase, of this city, leased the John McClintock farm, now a part of the flourishing town of Rouseville, at a very early day, and put down the next successful oil well after Col. Drake's. The mode of drilling at that time was with the old-fashioned spring pole. Mr. Alden, afterward, disposed of the greater part of his interest to the Bliven Oil Co., New York City, realizing a handsome competence from the sale. The residence of Capt. Alden has been New York City for several years. He was a native of Meadville. The deceased had been an officer in the regular army, and had, before the Rebellion, seen considerable military service on the frontier, in Indian hostilities. He carried his professional habits about with him, in respect to exactness in all his dealings and a certain severity of manner. But by all he was respected for his integrity of character, and was cordially liked by his intimate friends. Capt Alden was about 60 years old, and leaves a wife and three children, his eldest son being now in Yale College.
Titusville Herald, Titusville, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1870, page 3


    We are indebted to Major Lardner for a copy of the Army and Navy Journal, of October 22nd, containing a memorial sketch of the late Col. Bradford R. Alden, whose decease was noticed a few weeks since, and of whom we gave some reminiscences. The deceased had a few years since a large circle of friends and acquaintance in the oil region, who will be interested in the communication which we reproduce from the columns of the Journal, as follows:
    Colonel Bradford R. Alden, who died in Newport, R.I., on the 10th September, 1870, aged 60, was a gentleman whose long association with our army, as well as his high personal character, demands far more than a passing notice. He was born in Meadville, Pa., graduated at West Point in 1831, and was an officer of the Fourth U.S. Infantry until he resigned in 1853. At that date he was stationed as captain of the Fourth Infantry at Fort Jones, in Northern California, with but one small company in his command. In August, 1853, a universal and formidable uprising of the Indians on Rogue River, in Southern Oregon, occurred, and a call for aid was sent to him. He instantly repaired thither, distant 200 miles [sic], and beyond his ordinary sphere of supervision, with a small detachment of regulars, and immediately called out and raised a battalion of volunteers for the defense of the valley, of which he was elected colonel. They met the Indians in a stiff battle on the 24th of August, 1853, near Jacksonville, Oregon, and he was badly wounded in the shoulder and spine, a wound from which he never fully recovered. The people of that valley always spoke in enthusiastic terms of him and his prompt, heroic and gallant services--services which we doubt not saved that beautiful valley from a great calamity.
    He had previously served for several years as aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott, and was commandant of the corps of cadets at West Point from 1845 to 1852. Thus large numbers of its graduates can bear witness to the purity and sterling traits of his character. After his resignation he traveled in Europe repeatedly for his health. Unable to ride horseback from his wound, and therefore unfitted to share in the Civil War, he went in 1861 to the petroleum region in northwestern Pennsylvania and was fortunate in initiating some of the most successful petroleum enterprises in that region.
    Colonel Alden was the son of Major Roger Alden, aide-de-camp to General Washington in the Revolution, who passed upon him the highest encomiums; and the son certainly inherited like virtues. No man who ever lived possessed more heroic and noble traits of character. Imbued with decided religious principles from his earliest youth, his pure and genial Christian character was ever exhibited in numberless acts of benevolence, many of which were unknown to mortal eyes. Real want and misfortune were ever met by him with sympathy, and he had a heart as big as the rest of the world. Of polished manners and elegant tastes, he was highly accomplished in his knowledge of literature and art; and extensive travel, with an observing mind, made him a charming companion. He has left behind him a pure spotless fame, illustrating the brightest qualities of the true American gentleman. The only difficulty his friends encounter in writing of his qualities is how to re-train the pen within moderate limits when attempting merely to do bare and simple justice to his memory.
Titusville Herald, Titusville, Pennsylvania, October 24, 1870, page 3


    Yale University has acquired possession of the famous Alden wood carvings, which for some years have been deposited in the Yale art school. These carvings are upon confessionals and panels of a monastery of the sixteenth century at Ghent, and are said to be worth $15,000. They were bought 40 years ago by Col. B. R. Alden of the United States army and brought to this country.
Naugatuck Daily News, Naugatuck, Connecticut, June 24, 1897, page 8