S4 E5 Was Montgomery's Landing "near this spot"?

The history I’ve read regarding July 9th, 1846, states that the USS Portsmouth pulled up to the shoreline at Montgomery and Clay Street, marines disembarked from the ship and onto land, then marched up Clay Street to raise the American flag in Portsmouth Square. It’s stated as if the soldiers stepped off the ship and directly onto land. But, is that accurate? 

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Transcript

Today’s thank you goes to Jim in Martinez for becoming a Hide and Tallow Member/monthly supporter. Thank you, Jim!

This other thank you is long overdue. Michael in San Francisco was an existing listener when I met him, socially in real life. He has loaned and given me books from his collection that have directly aided my research on some of my episodes. Actually, on this episode. I should have thanked you a while back. Thank you, Michael.

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Oliver: California Historical Landmark #81 Montgomery Landing

“On July 9, 1846, in the early morning in "the days when the water came up to Montgomery Street," Commander John B. Montgomery - for whom Montgomery Street was named - landed near this spot from the U-S-Sloop-Of-War "Portsmouth" to raise the stars and stripes on the plaza, now Portsmouth Square, one block to the west. 

Tablet placed by the Native Sons of the Golden West. 1915”

This plaque is placed at the corner of Montgomery and Clay Street. Does anything about what I just read feel ‘off’? 

I’ll explain. The history I’ve read, many times, regarding July 9th, 1846, the morning of the Battle of Yerba Buena, states that the USS Portsmouth pulled up to the shoreline at Montgomery and Clay Street, 60 - 70 marines disembarked from the ship and onto land, then marched up Clay Street to raise the American flag for the first official time in La Plaza Grande, (now called Portsmouth Square). It’s stated as if the soldiers stepped off the ship and directly onto land. 

One specific part about this narrative felt off after learning more than is normal or healthy about this six block radius. Based on my previous research about the physical aspects of Yerba Buena Cove, in Season 2 Episode 3, and knowing what I know now, the “Landed near this spot” became my point of ‘unease’.

Oliver: On a Personal Note

It's bold of me to question the US landing spot of Montgomery and Clay Street, considering I’ve read this as fact in so many history books and it has been accepted as truth.

I haven’t shied away from discussing other commonly believed early San Francisco history, so what is different about this one? Maybe it’s the fact there is a plaque, and the little stick versus big stick feel about coming up against historians who have specifically written about this day? I’m just a hobby historian with a microphone and a small podcast. Maybe I should punt this to someone else in the future to hopefully chase down.

After a bit of early-San-Francisco-history soul searching, you know what I think?  … this looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me. ‘Cause we need a little controversy. (Fade out).

I should try. What do I have to lose? Hopefully not listeners. 

Are you ready? Here we go. <rushing sound>

Oliver: Questions Girlina is Trying to Answer, Today

·       Regarding Montgomery’s landing of the USS Portsmouth, where does “near this spot” refer to? How near was it? 

·       If not at Montgomery and Clay Street, where did the USS Portsmouth land for the Battle of Yerba Buena, July 9th, 1846?

·       What led ‘history’ to accept the landing spot as Montgomery and Clay Street?

·       Who created the Montgomery and Clay narrative? 

 Oliver: These are known data points

·       We know the troops marched off the USS Portsmouth on July 9, 1846. 

·       We did not have amphibious warships until the 1920s or hovercrafts until 1950s. 

·       Hide and tallow ships were smaller than a sloop of war like the USS Portsmouth. 

o   Side note: Hide and tallow traders anchored a ¼ mile out from Yerba Buena Cove, where it was deep enough to anchor a ship. Then, during high tide, they rowed small boats to get to the Yerba Buena Cove beach. At high tide.

·       By the time of the USS Portsmouth landing on July 9, 1846, Clark’s Point had become a second landing spot 

Oliver: Here is a bit of USS Portsmouth background.

The USS Portsmouth arrived in the San Francisco Bay June 3, 1846, before the Bear Flag Revolt, and was initially anchored outside of Sausalito waiting until Captain Montgomery received the official word that the US was taking possession of California. The plan was to anchor away from Yerba Buena until official word was received regarding the US the takeover. I believe it was in the middle of the night, on July 8th, that the Portsmouth anchored outside of Yerba Buena Cove. 

People in Yerba Buena could look across the bay with a telescope and see the USS Portsmouth anchored. There were no surprises about what was going to happen to California or by whom. It was only a matter of ‘when’. 

Oliver: Where Do We Start? <rushing sound>

After more than a year of wondering about this topic, I started my search to see what, if anything, was written, that questions Montgomery’s landing spot. 

The reality was that I would need to search for anything written ‘about’ the landing spot to see if anyone brought up a contradictory view to the commonly believed narrative. Needle in a haystack? Nancy Drew is on the case.

Did the marines and soldiers row little boats to shore? Did that get written out of history? Goodness knows victors have rewritten history to make the situation more heroic than the actual event. But, I’m curious about what really happened that day, since I question the commonly understood story that they landed at Montgomery and Clay Street.

So, I read and read and read, and then, I found … a needle in a haystack. That would be from George Tays who’s other works I’ve previously cited in this podcast. In 1936 Tays wrote a research paper called,” Landing Place of Captain Montgomery Registered Landmark #81 for the State of California, Department of Natural Resources”. This was part of the California Historic Landmark Project Collection. A series of historical essays were commissioned between 1936 and 1940 as part of a W.P.A. Federal Writer’s Project. 

Page 9 into his 18 page paper, Tays writes, “The landing place of Montgomery’s troops had until recently (that’s 1936), been named as being at the foot of Clay Street, up which they marched to Kearney Street and into the plaza. 

This story has often been repeated by almost every writer on the subject, but none of the accounts came from an eyewitness of the event. (Okay… I’m listening.) 

It was supposed that the sailors landed there because they marched up Clay Street from the water’s edge. However, the physical difficulties of landing there have not been take into account. (You tell ‘em, Tays!)

A large sandbar running parallel to the beach at Clay Street, several hundred feet out from the shore made this an even more difficult landing place. This sandbar was exposed at low tide and even at high tide was scarcely under water. (That sandbar would be about current day Hotaling Place and ran into Washington Street, to current day Transamerica building. The sandbar was there because of the Laguna Salada/the saltwater lagoon, at current day Montgomery and Jackson. And, the beach he’s referring to was the narrow Yerba Buena Cove beach that ran along what we now call Montgomery Street.)

In the first place, the water at the foot of Clay Street was very shallow and any well laden boat would have been unable to approach closer than perhaps a hundred feet from the water’s edge. 

(So I checked that and it’s closer to 400 feet at high tide and 1,000 feet at low tide, but I get the point he’s making. The USS Portsmouth weighed 5,700 tons empty.)

Such a state of affairs was unnecessary, however, because only a few hundred yards north of that spot was Clark’s Point. (Clark’s Point was 700 yards away, located at current day Broadway and Battery, but again, I get the point he’s making.) 

Such being the case, it would seem that Captain Montgomery did land his forces at Clark’s Point rather than at the foot of Clay Street. This is the spot named as the landing place by one of the petty officers of the party who wrote an account of it a few days later, under the name of ‘Filings’ which the document has recently come to light. (The plot thickens in 1936 and again in 2024.)

I need to find this ‘newly discovered’ information and read this source document for myself. to ensure I’m not accepting Tays’ interpretation of what an eyewitness wrote. I have already fact checked two things Tays’ wrote, which is enough to make me want to see the source material for myself. Details matter sometimes. 

Tays was referencing work written by someone under the pseudonym ‘Filings’. After some research, Filings was actually a sailor on the USS Portsmouth, named Joseph Downey who wrote both “The Cruise of the Portsmouth, 1845 – 1847: A Sailor’s View of the Naval Conquest of California”. 

Later, in 1853, he wrote another book called, “Filings from an Old Saw; Reminiscences of San Francisco and California’s Conquest”.

With Tays’ 19 page paper and Downey’s two books based on his eyewitness account, I might have what I need. But, I need to track down these two books, which are <typing> 

… at the San Francisco Main Library on the 6th floor. You know what this means? 

<insert sounds of Bart ride>

A Bart ride to the library. 

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From Downey’s book, “The Cruise of the Portsmouth" Next morning at daylight, a busy scene presented itself. All hands were ordered to clean in white frocks, blue jackets blue trousers, black hats and shoes. (I have to assume that blue jacket was worn under the white frock? Imagine 60 - 70 men dressed this way, early morning in our casual and lowkey Yerba Buena. That must have looked very official to the locals.)

“After being marshaled in due order, the band, consisting of one drum and one fife, stuck up Yankee Doodle and off we marched keeping time as best we might, to conquer the redoubtable town of Yerba Buena.” (I had to look up ‘redoubtable’ which means causing fear and alarm. Downey writes with a sense of humor which you have to understand to know when he’s making sardonic jokes and not to take his words at face value.)

“As we had anticipated, there was no foe to dispute our right of possession, for, save, here and there a stray female face peeping from an adobe wall, no living thing did we see, always expecting those invariable appendages to a Mexican Town, the dogs, who looked on in mute astonishment and forgot, in their wonder, even to bark at us.” (The pueblo was empty that day because Californios were ordered to go to Santa Clara by Governor Castro. But, this is the first time I’ve read about stray dogs in Yerba Buena or the District of San Francisco.) 

“On we went then, in all the pride and pomp of Martial Array, over hill and dale, through sand and some little mud, until through the skill pilotage of our Old Man, (that was Downey’s nickname for Henry Bulls Waston), we at last found ourselves brought up all standing in a hollow square, round the flag staff. (The path he described could be the then existing sandy hill we now call Clay Street. That walk is 900 feet up hill and enough time to play Yankee Doodle. But Downey’s description was ‘over hills and valleys, sand and mud’. Was skill needed to march 900 feet straight up hill?)

“…consequently, the flag was bent on to the halyards and by a flourishing and patronizing invitation, the male population of Yerba Buena, comprising dogs and all, some 25 or 30 souls were called into the square.” (25 -30 souls, including the stray dogs. He is acknowledging not many people were in the pueblo that day. What he didn’t understand was that the 25 – 30 souls were the foreigners or wives of Californios who didn’t go to Santa Clara as instructed by Governor Castro. Downey, and many people, believed this was always the population of Yerba Buena. It was closer to 150 people during that time. The majority of the residents were ‘out of town’. And, apparently, they left their dogs at home.)

“A party of Marines was now detached and ordered to occupy the Custom House as barracks and the remainder, with the Jacks, marched off for their boats in the same order they came up. The band in the meantime, making the air resound, for the first time in California, with the soul stirring melody of “Ole Dan Tucker”. We now returned on board, and so for our part ended the first of occupation of the town of Yerba Buena.” (Did you catch that they first returned to their boats, plural. Not the ship. “Ole Dan Tucker was a popular 1843 song, apparently still popular in 1846.)

Okay, so Downey’s first book, “The Cruise of the Portsmouth” had some details about July 9th, 1846, aka, the Battle of Yerba Buena, which are interesting details, but this isn’t the smoking gun I am after since it doesn’t answer my questions. It does provide new insight from a sailor who was there. But, not the smoking gun I was looking for. 

Downey’s vagueness in describing their path from the ship to La Plaza might very well be the reason why later in time, people interpreted the Montgomery and Clay Street story, without taking into account that Montgomery Street today wasn’t how the path ran then, because there was not a street, then. But, that’s speculation on my part. 

The second book Downey wrote, “Filings from an Old Saw” was written in 1853, seven years after the day I’m researching, which allowed Downey the time for analysis and more information of what happened, and gave him time to reconsider his initial take of events. Which is why I always need more than one source because with time we discover more information and the history can change.

Tays used both of Downy’s writings in his summary, so let’s see if Downey’s second capture of that day provides more insight. 

From Downey’s second book, he wrote, “The Marines under the command of Lieutenant Watson were in full dress and every officer of the ship, save two, who remained on board to fire a national salute, were to accompany the party. As soon as retreat was beaten, the boats were ordered alongside and the marines and carbineer filed into them”. (The use of boats, again. Early into this episode, I was joking when I wondered if the boats were removed from the story because they didn’t sound heroic enough. But, now I’m really starting to wonder if that was the actual case.)

“We were landed on what is now called Clark’s Point, and when all were on shore, formed in sections, and to the soul-inspiring air of Yankee Doodle from our band, consisting of one drum and fife, with an occasional put in from a stray dog or disconsolate jackass on the line of march, trudged proudly up through Montgomery Street, to Clay, up Clay to the plaza and formed a solid square around a flag staff that stood some 50 yards north of where the present one now is.”

First thought. Downey is saying the original flagstaff was 50 yards north of the current location. Interesting. So, this next point is a partial smoking gun. 

Regarding Clark’s Point in 1846 larger ships anchored outside of Clark’s Point because they could get fairly close to land at low or high tide, take small boats and climb a short but steep ladder to get to land. As a result of large ships using Clark’s Point, Yerba Buena’s financial district developed around this rocky area while the area surrounding La Plaza/Portsmouth Square remained a mixed use zone of residential and small businesses. 

Side note: The Broadway wharf would not be built for another two years, so in 1846 people had to take boats to shore at Clark’s Point. What Downey wrote fits so many other data points and makes a lot sense.

It's possible that Downey, in his first, 1846 capture, didn’t know the name of landing was Clark’s Point, and since neither Montgomery or Clay Street had names on that day, he didn’t have anything to describe regarding their route on July 9, 1846. 

Also, I highly doubt Montgomery Street today ran the same path in 1846. This event occurred before we leveled the sandhills and filled all the valleys in between. I doubt Downey realized his lack of detail and vagueness would leave room for future history to fill in the blanks, right or wrong.

By 1853, there were street names, so why didn’t he add more detail?

I haven’t read anything in Downey’s writings to support what Tays’ writes in his paper, which I am about to read next, but I agree with what Tays wrote. “They passed on the line of march, they marched along the rocky shore to Hinckley’s bridge which crossed the Jackson Street slough, south, over the bridge and down Montgomery Street to Clay Street then up Clay to Kearney Street and the Plaza. 

Hinckley’s narrow footbridge was paid for by Hinckley himself, to support the foot traffic to and from Clark’s Point, the financial district of the Pueblo de Yerba, to avoid having to go around, or through, the saltwater lagoon. 

Again, considering the actual landscape, I agree with Tays’ interpretation of Downy’s account. Tays, like me, is using logic based on the landscape of the time and filling in the blanks of what Downey wrote.

I have one eyewitness account from a sailor who participated in the Battle of Yerba Buena, but one source isn’t enough for me to claim victory in my search for my answers. I’m well aware, (heh hem, John Henry Brown), of how inaccurate eyewitness accounts can be. Even if it supports my theory, that’s not enough ‘proof’. 

Unfortunately, Henry Bulls Watson who was there on that day, didn’t capture anything useful in his Marine Journals, regarding today’s questions. 

You know who we haven’t heard from? Captain John Berrien Montgomery. I know he kept ship logs, because I’ve seen them cited in secondary sources I used for today’s episode, but those are proving hard to find. I found an absolute needle in a haystack via a citation in,” Montgomery and the Portsmouth”, by Rogers, Fred Blackburn, Page 60.”

“I am informed by the U.S Naval Observatory that the moon was on meridian at Yerba Buena as 0.25 AM, July 9, 1846. (12:15 AM) The U.S. Coast and the Geodetric Survey reports that the times of the tide in the vicinity near the time of landing were, “low water 6:04 AM, hightide at 1:17 PM.”

This, right here, is the glue that connects my loose data points. At the time of landing, it was definitely low tide.

I know, from Downey’s capture in both his accounts, that breakfast was served at 6 AM, they left the ship at 7 AM, and raised the flag by 8 AM. That would have been at low time. 

It would not take an hour to march 900 yards from the foot of Montgomery and Clay Street to La Plaza. But, it might take an hour, to navigate 60 – 70 men “over hill and dale, through sand and some little mud” as Downey wrote, if they marched from Clark’s Point, along the rocky shoreline, over the footbridge at today’s Montgomery and Jackson Street, to Montgomery and Clay Street, then up Clay Street to La Plaza as Tays wrote in his 1939 paper. 

Interesting, interesting, interesting. Montgomery’s capture of the tide provides meaningful data. Low tide puts to rest the idea that the 5,700 ton ship pulled right up to the shoreline and the soldiers stepped off the ship onto land. 

It puts to rest another thought I had. “Maybe they landed at both Clark’s Point and Yerba Buena Cove?” At low tide, Yerba Buena Cove was sticky, sooty mud for ¼ mile and people would get their boots stuck in the mud. At high tide, at best, you could almost come up to the sandbar at today’s Hotaling Place,400 feet from the shoreline, but this event occurred during low tide. 

You wouldn’t send 60 - 70 soldiers to trudge though sticky mud and risk getting stuck when you can sail up to Clark’s Point, row little boats, and climb up the ladder. So, we are back to Clark’s Point as the landing spot because even at low tide, you could row a boat to the bedrock and climb up the ladder. 

I’m also curious about the carefully worded plaque put up by the Sons of the Golden West, who used, “near this spot”. 

Do I reach out to the society that paid to have the plaque put up? And, ask them, without challenging them, to help fill in the gaps? Why was ‘near this spot’ chosen to describe where they landed? Little stick versus big stick.

You know what? I did just that. And, they got back to me! …with contacts who might know more. Maybe I’ll hear back from someone internally. Maybe I won’t. But, hey, I tried, Dear Listener. I tried to get the straight dope from the society that paid for and placed this plaque. 

I’ll make one last point, that seems unrelated. On July 31, 1846, 22 days after the July 9th Battle of Yerba Buena, the ship Brooklyn arrived with Mormons seeking religious freedom. While their ship was 15 times smaller than USS Portsmouth, it had to anchor somewhere. 

Once again, Captain John B. Montgomery wrote a simple statement that accidentally provides the glue I’m looking for. 

On August 2, 1846, Captain Montgomery wrote a letter describing the Mormon’s arrival. “Officials gave the immigrants permission to disembark and to unload all their possession free of duty. They began unloading at a rocky point (Clark’s Point) near the Battery (current day Broadway and Battery Street) and began setting up accommodations on shore for their first night in their new land.” (And yes, that’s why Battery Street is named Battery Street.)

There is a plaque located at 120 Broadway Street, beyond where Clark’s Point was, estimating where in the water, the ship Brooklyn would have anchored. The plaque commemorates the ship Brooklyn’s landing in San Francisco history. Placed in 1940 by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Marker #60. 

“Commemorating the landing at this point, of the ship Brooklyn, July 31, 1846. A 370 ton vessel, carrying Mormon Colonists and crew of nearly 300 under the leadership of Samuel Brannon.”

So, the Mormons anchored outside of Clark’s Point, where Downey said the USS Portsmouth had also anchored 

Again, the Broadway Wharf wasn’t built until 1848, so they rowed their boats to the rocky point (Clark’s Point), where they officially stepped foot onto land. 

Oliver: Let’s revisit the questions Girlina was trying to answer, today.

·       Regarding Montgomery’s landing of the USS Portsmouth, where does “near this spot” refer to? How near was it? 

o   It depends on how you are defining ‘landed’. Is that where the ship anchored/landed? Where the soldiers stepped foot onto land/landed? Or where they gathered to start the takeover?

·       If not at Montgomery and Clay Street, where did the USS Portsmouth land on the day of The Battle of Yerba Buena, July 9th, 1846?

o   Based on what Downey and Montgomery wrote, both the USS Portsmouth and the ship Brooklyn anchored/landed outside of Clark’s Point, at current day Broadway and Montgomery Street. This is where they stepped foot onto land, (and landed?).

o   In Henry Bulls Watson’s Marine Journal, the author who edited it for publishing has an ‘author’s note’ on page 160 where next to Watson’s sentence saying that the troops ‘landed’ the author adds, ‘landed opposite the ship’. (That had to be by boat.)

·       What led ‘history’ to name the landing spot as Montgomery and Clay Street?

o   Probably the lack of detail captured by eyewitnesses. Not Downey, Montgomery, Watson. They all kept journals and none of them captured much detail about that day, on that day.

o   If you consider the men gathered at Montgomery and Clay, as they officially started their march, it could seem like ‘this’ is where the takeover started. It depends on how you define ‘landed’.

·       Who created the Montgomery and Clay narrative? 

o   The people who filled in the blanks of what Downey wrote. 

o   Anyone, including myself, who repeated this story. In my episode, “The Battle of Yerba Buena”, Season 3 Episode 1, I left it vague because I had questions. I did say they took boats because intuitively I knew they couldn’t have stepped off the ship and onto land. That would not had been possible until 1848 when the wharf was built. 

After all that, I didn’t find the smoking gun wrapped in a pretty bow, on a silver platter. Instead, I found the gun here, the bullets there and the gun powder residue sprinkled among different sources. 

I believe the words “near this spot” in relation to where the USS Portsmouth landed on July 9, 1846 was likely outside of Clark’s Point, near today’s 120 Broadway Street, if not farther out, based on the Portsmouth being 15 times heavier/larger than the ship Brooklyn. (Yes, that exact spot is land fill, now.)

Oliver: Girlina’s final thoughts.

While my personal conclusion may be aligned with Occam’s razor, the simplest explanation is the most likely, and correct, explanation, it could also be aligned with the "Texas Sharpshooter effect"; A marksman shoots at a barn and then draws targets around the bullet clusters to appear like a skilled shot; which in this case means I cherry-picked my data and information to support my already existing preconceived notion.

What do you think, Dear Listeners? Did I disrupt the common understanding, or a story you have personally repeated, based on what history captured? 

Or did I draw little red circles around my data point bullet holes and claim success? 

If you have thoughts about today’s topic, or know how to find Captain Montgomery’s ship logs for the USS Portsmouth during 1846, I have the exact Naval Group Log numbers listed in my transcript page at monkeyblocksf/buzzspout.com. 

Please reach out to me by email at monkeyblocksf@gmail.com or on our Facebook page at facebook.com/monkeyblocksf. I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. Why?

‘Cause we need a little controversy. Cause it feels so empty without me.”

Thank you again, Jim in Martinez and Michael in San Francisco.

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Thank you for listening. This is Monkey Block retelling the forgotten and misinterpreted stories from San Francisco’s golden past. 

Navy Records, 1789 to 1925

Record Group 45 Roll #

223. 2/1845-10/1846 Letter Book of Captain John B.Montgomery

224. 10/1944-9/1846 Letter Book of Capt.Montgomery Comm. U.S.S. Portsmouth

225. 9/1846-12/1846 Letter Book of Captain John B.Montgomery

226. 1/1847-12/1847 Letter Book of Captain John B. Montgomery

https://archive.org/details/Journal-of-Voyages-of-USS-Portsmouth

Filings from an Old Saw.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106007545467&seq=65

The Cruise of the Portsmouth, 1845-1847; a Sailor's View of the Naval Conquest of California

Downey, Joseph T.

https://archive.org/details/cruiseofportsmou0000unse_v7t5/page/n21/mode/2up

Portsmouth Plaza, the Cradle of San Francisco, Phillips, Catherine Coffin, 1874-1942

Landing Place of Captain Montgomery, Landmark #81, 1936 for State of California, Department of Natural Resources Division of Parks, Berkeley, 1936, California Historic Landmark Project Collection, MSS 0204. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.

https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb5878369z/_1.pdf

Montgomery and the Portsmouth, Rogers, Fred Blackburn

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