Desertion to the gold fields turned out to be one of the major problems facing the military installations in San Francisco. For Keyes, it almost wiped out his entire command.
William T. Sherman, a young lieutenant at the time, also was stationed in California. His Memoirs note that pursuits of deserters had to be composed wholly of officers because the enlisted men were more apt to join the deserters.
The reason for desertions was that a man could earn more in a day at the mines than in a month as a soldier. Prices were so high that when the Headquarters for the Department of the Pacific were set up in San Francisco, an old adobe custom house was used as an office. The commanding general and his wife lived aboard the USS Ohio as guests of the commodore.
The Smiths found themselves in the same situation. All but one of their servants disappeared and, to quote Sherman "The general, commanding all the mighty forces on the Pacific coast, had to scratch to get one square meal a day for his family. ...Breakfast would be announced any time between ten and twelve, and dinner according to circumstances." Finally the married officers gave up and sent their families back to the East.
To make ends meet, and, as Keyes noted, "The garrison being too much reduced for proper military service, the officers were allowed by General Smith to do something to increase their pay." Keyes took up surveying and real estate and within a year was receiving $1,000 a month in rentals. In 1856, Congress authorized additional pay for officers and men stationed in California.
Although Lieutenant H. W. Hollyhock, an associate, also invested in city property, Sherman rejected a suggestion that he buy, too. "I felt actually insulted that he should think me such a fool as to pay money for property in such a horrid place," Sherman noted in his Memoirs.
This "horrid place" had a military history that dated back to 1776 when a 63-man expedition of Spanish soldiers, priests, and settlers arrived to establish a presidio. They brought with them the authority of Spain, in answer to English and Russian overtures from Canada and Alaska. At the same time, Father Junipero Serra established a mission nearby, calling it San Francisco de Asis. Later it was known as Mission Dolores.
The primitive palisaded Presidio was not designed to fend off Indian attacks, because the Indians were considered friendly. As time passed and adobe replaced the rough stick and stone construction, it became obvious that it was not even designed to ward off the changeable San Francisco weather. Throughout the period of pre-American occupation, the Presidio was in a state of continual construction. As fast as new adobe would be built during the dry season, it would be attacked by the rain and atmosphere in the rainy season. Twenty-five years after work started, the fourth wall still had not been completed.
Thirty soldiers founded the Presidio. Twenty years later, a detachment of 35 more arrived. Patrols and escorts, plus a guard at the mission, usually left the Presidio almost vacant and the small garrison was unable to cope with the deterioration of the post. In 1800 the magazine was covered by drifting sand while a hurricane tore off several roofs. By this time, most of the available labor was being directed to Castillo de San Joaquin, on the future site of Fort Point at the Golden Gate.
Isolated from Spain, there was no hesitancy about changing allegiance to Mexico when the garrison heard about independence in 1822. The Presidio continued in operation, but the deterioration could not be prevented when the garrison was reduced to seven artillerymen in 1835. A year later, all regular troops were recalled. A few retired soldiers and their families remained at the ruined forts.
The United States moved in with little effort in 1846. The decrepit defenses offered no resistance when Marines of the USS Portsmouth landed at Yerba Buena and raised the American flag. Yerba Buena soon was renamed San Francisco, and the plaza of the flag raising, Portsmouth Plaza. In the latter years of a wide open city, the Plaza was to be a vice center.
Above the principal landing, in 1846 the Navy placed "a couple of Navy guns," Sherman remembered. He said the site was named the Battery and, from that, the street received its name. Marines manned the Presidio at the same time.
A few months later, a regiment of New York Volunteers relieved the Marines at the Presidio. Two companies were designated to repair it. Stores and ordnance were landed at the city wharf, but the heavy guns, mortars, and carriages had to remain at the docks for several years because they could not be moved across the sand hills.
Devices to minimize desertion included General Bennett Riley's shift of his command to Monterey where they would be farther from the gold fields. The Navy, having lost several crews, took no chances when USS Oregon arrived. She was anchored alongside USS Ohio and her entire crew sent aboard as prisoners until ready to sail. San Francisco owed her early buildings to crew desertions. In 1849, the Presidio saw 549 vessels pass by and within the next five years the harbor had more tonnage than any other port in the world. In 1851, desertions had resulted in the abandonment of 148 ships in the mud along shore. As these were tightly closed in by sand, they became business houses and residence. The sailing ship Apollo became the Apollo saloon; the Euphema was bought by the city as a jail and was moored next to the Apollo on the spot now occupied by the Federal Bank Building.
The expansion of the city brought with it squatters on government lands. Captain Keyes led one "expedition" to clear squatters and, though successful, was brought to court and sued for doing his duty. Presidio troopers also were called out to preserve law and order in the days of Vigilance movements.
Sumner found 500 troops in San Francisco, 115 at the Presidio. He made all three Bay posts independent -Presidio, Point, and Alcatraz- and pushed completion of the fortifications. For good measure, he renamed the quartermaster's brig the General Jesup, after the Army Quartermaster General, instead of its previous name honoring John Floyd, former Secretary of War who had gone south. During the Civil War, as it did in later conflicts was the command post for t e Bay. As the inspection report of 1854 stated the Presidio site was "the only spot about here suitable for a command of troops, either for the forts or for instruction, and is ample and convenient."
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The Presidio in the 1870's through 1890's
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