Nine
points of the law or not, possession had little effect in 1863
when the Army decided that it needed Point San Jose. Squatters
who had moved into the reservation within the past decade, building,
renting, mortgaging, and selling the property without regard
for legal titles, were told they would have to go.
Fresh in the memories of some Army men was the furor when Captain E. D. Keyes cleared squatters from Rincon Point in 1853. That episode had resulted in a civil trial. Although the suit was dismissed by the judge, Keyes was told by a juror that the jury probably would have found Keyes guilty in sympathy for the "underdog" squatters.
The military value of the point was admitted as early as 1797. That was when "Bateria San Jose" was constructed at the tip of the point. It was also known as "Battery at Yerba Buena." Five brass 8-pounder cannon were put in earthworks that were hastily dug and covered with brush wood fascines. Instead of a permanent garrison, a sentinel was to visit the place every day.
By 1806 this practice must have stopped. An inspection by the governor noted that the battery had been neglected. "There was not even a hut for the gunners and the guns were rendered useless by exposure," it pointed out.
The sand hills and scrub brush gradually reclaimed the area. By the time that Mexico took over San Francisco in 1822, the site was known as Black Point because of the dark underbrush that covered everything.
Although the United States quickly asserted its ownership of the Point as early as 1850, nothing in the military line was done to use it. An 1856 report on Bay defenses suggested that a permanent battery should be constructed at Point San Jose. It should be "in barbette with earthen parapet, breast height of bricks, a small magazine, and a brick building for ordnance stores and a guardhouse," the report recommended. "It should mount 20 guns."
This recommendation was repeated in 1862, but it was with some hesitancy that the Army took action. Large, well-built residences had been erected by citizens on Black Point, shrubbery and fences had been laid out, and taxes had been paid to the city in accordance with their assessments. Even John Fremont had paid an estimated $40,000 for a frame cottage and 12 acres on the Point. He had rented the place to a friend in 1861 when be went East for Army service.
Then at 6 a.m. on October 3, 1863, General George Wright received a telegram from the War Department. "The Secretary of War directs that you take military possession of Point San Jose," it said, "and erect the battery proposed for its defense. The question of ownership will be determined later."
A few days later a company of the 9th Infantry was ordered to Point San Jose to "take and hold military possession of such land as necessary for the erection of batteries. Almost immediately complaints were heard from occupants. The first was that the soldiers had destroyed some shrubbery.
By 1806, the battery fell into disrepair due to a lack of maintenance. The Spanish Governor of Alta California (Upper California), José Joaquín de Arrillaga’s inspection report read, “There was not even a hut for the gunners and the guns were rendered useless by exposure”.
In 1821, under the terms of the Treaty of Cordova, which established a monarchy separate from that of Spain, Alta California became a province of the Mexican Empire. In 1823, the empire became a republic known as the United Mexican States (also known as the Republic of Mexico or United States of Mexico;
In 1835, in order to counter the perceived military and commercial threat from the Russian colony at Fort Ross, Mexican forces abandoned military installations in what is now San Francisco. At that time, Commandante-General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo edeployed these forces north to the new El Presidio de Sonoma
With the conquest in 1846 of the land now known as San Francisco by United States forces under Captain John C. Fremont, a survey was conducted to determine possible defensive works to protect the harbor. There is no record of the condition of the Bateria at the time of the American occupation, but the area was so overgrown with brush that it was called “Black Point.” Historical sources stated that the fortifications were allowed to deteriorate under the Mexican administration. However, the survey recognized the strategic importance of the Site, and the U.S. Army recommended that the point be reserved for future military use.
When the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded Alta California to the United States of America in 1848, the military government of California began organizing civil government and institutions in preparation for eventual civilian rule. One of the first missions for the military administration was to develop a system in which private and public lands would be administered and what areas would be reserved for military and naval uses.
With the discovery of gold in Coloma, California, in 1848 and the influx of “49ers” into San Francisco, a great deal of strain was placed on the military government to secure the planned military reservations. Deserters from the U.S. Army and the large number of squatters looking for any vacant land to pitch a tent made it impossible for the local commanders to keep the military reservation secured. Occasionally, an officer with a squad of soldiers would evict the squatters only to have them return when the detail left.
On 6 November 1850, President Millard Fillmore issued a Presidential Order withdrawing from the public domain five parcels of land to be used for military purposes:
