Moses A. McLaughlin (1834–1899) was an Irish-born California Militia officer, Union Army officer, farmer, later a medical doctor. As Captain, 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry, he is best known for his role in the 1863 Keyesville Massacre, and subsequent campaign that forced the capitulation of the Owens Valley Paiute in the Owens Valley Indian War and their removal to Fort Tejon.
Early life Moses A. McLaughlin was born in County Antrim, Ireland in 1834.Arthur W. Hafner, editor; Fred W. Hunter, project manager; E. Michael Tarpey, data entry specialist., Directory of Deceased American Physicians, 1804–1929, 2 volume(s), American Medical Association, Chicago, 1993. San Francisco Call, Volume 86, Number 166, 13 November 1899, Deaths, McLAUGHLIN Little is known about his early life except that he immigrated to the United States and was in Oroville, California, by late 1856. There on December 22, 1856, he joined in organizing the Oroville Guard, a California Militia Company headquartered at Oroville, Butte County, California. M. A. McLaughlin was chosen Captain, but after they had received their arms, a disastrous fire burned the armory and surrounding buildings on July 5, 1857. This ended their activities until the beginning of the Civil War. California State Militia and National Guard Unit Histories; Oroville Guard, from California State Military Department, The California State Military Museum website, accessed Oct. 8,2013
Early Civil War Service After the start of the American Civil War McLaughlin enlisted in the 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry September 10, 1861, as a captain. Brig. Gen. Richard H. Orton, “Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1867”, State Office, Sacramento, 1890, pp 225-233. Second Regiment of Cavalry, Company D His Company D, was soon sent to Southern California to support the buildup of troops there for the defense and occupation of the area.
McLaughlin may have had prior professional military experience in the cavalry arm, (possibly in the antebellum U. S. Army), for one of his superiors, Assistant Adjutant General, Lt. Col. Richard C. Drum mentions him in his report of his tour of inspection of the District of Southern California:
At Kline's ranch I found Captain McLaughlin's company, Second Cavalry. One third of this company are on detached service, as expressmen, teamsters, &c., ... The portion of the company at this station I found admirably instructed in all their duties (excepting their clothing, which is very bad), and in good condition for active service. This officer is, I think, one of the best instructed in the cavalry force from this state, and prompt and active in the discharge of all his duties." Congressional edition, Volume 3583, War of the Rebellion, Series I vol. L in two Parts. Part I- Reports and Correspondence, Etc., Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897. p. 1111, Report to Headquarters Department of the Pacific from Assistant Adjutant General, Lt. Col. Richard C. Drum, May 20, 1862
McLaughlin was soon thereafter ordered to Fort Yuma to face a general court marshal for "cruelly beating and maltreating" Private Michael Burke, formerly a member of his company.War of the Rebellion, April 21, 1862, p.1018, Order to Captain McLaughlin from 1st. Lt. Ben. C. Cutler, Acting Assistant Adjutant General, Dist. of So. Cal. On June 6, Lt. Col. George Spafford Evens under orders to organize an expedition to deal with the Indian rising in the Owens Valley, asked headquarters for a fully manned and mounted Company D, and an officer to command it. He pointed out that McLaughlin was still awaiting orders in Fort Yuma.War of the Rebellion, Vol. LXII, June 6, 1862, pp.1121-1123 Still in command of his company, McLaughlin continued in service with Lt. Col. Evans at Camp Independence from late July in the Owens Valley following the first, seemingly successful campaign of the Owens Valley Indian War.
Visalia Secessionist Disturbances
In an attempt to control subversion of the Union cause in the secessionist hotbed of Visalia, on the orders of General George Wright, McLaughlin moved his company and another in October 1862 over the Sierra Nevada Mountains from Owens Valley in four and a half days to take command of Camp Babbitt.War of the Rebellion, April 21, 1862, pp.152-153, Report of Lt. Col. Geo. S. Evans to Lt. Col. R. c. Drum, Assistant Adjutant General, Order to Captain McLaughlin from 1st. Lt. Ben. C. Cutler, Acting Assistant Adjutant General, Dist. of So. Cal. Oct. 7, 1862. On December 12, three men from Visalia rode in front of a dress parade of the garrison and cheered for Jeff Davis, prompting McLaughlin to order their immediate arrest. On December 24, 1862, McLaughlin wrote for reinforcements, in the face of rising tensions between the Union and Secesh factions.
On December 31, McLaughlin issued orders for the arrest of the owners and publishers of the "Expositor", the local secessionist newspaper. That same day he was instructed by headquarters by telegram to release all political prisoners after they had taken the oath of allegiance. Both owners eventually swore the oath, one after a time in the jail. However this did not stop them from continuing to publish their paper opposing the war and the Union cause.Aurora Hunt, The Army of the Pacific: Its Operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Plains Region, Mexico, Etc., 1860–1866, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2004, pp. 337-338
McLaughlins Campaign in the Owens Valley
At the beginning of March 1863, the Owens Valley Indian War broke out again. The commander of Camp Independence, Captain Ropes, sent messages to Camp Babbit requesting assistance. Camp Babbitt immediately sent First Lieutenant S. R. Davis with 44 men to reinforce camp Independence. Several skirmishes between the belligerents occurred that month, with little effect on the war.
On April 12, 1863, Lt. Col. William Jones, now commander at Camp Babbitt, ordered Captain McLaughlin to reinforce Camp Independence with a detachment of 24 men of Company D and 18 men of Company E, 2nd Cavalry, California Volunteers, with a 12-pounder howitzer, and four six-mule government wagon teams, carrying rations, company property, ammunition, and forage. Because settlers of Keyesville had appealed to the Department of the Pacific, orders included the instructions:
The captain will halt a few days in the upper end of the valley, where the difficulties are said to exist, and investigate the matter, and if the position of the Indians should be found as favorable as represented, if deemed advisable will give them battle. The captain will have about forty men, with arms to arm twenty more. This, with the number of citizens that will join him from Keyesville, will give him a force sufficient to handle any number of Indians that he will be likely to meet at that place.Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series I, vol. 50, Parts 2, p. 386. Colonel R. C. DRUM, Asst. Adjt. General, Dept. of the Pacific to WM. JONES, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Camp Babbitt – April 12, 1863.
Keyesville Massacre
Captain McLaughlin met with settlers upon his arrival in Keyesville in the Kern Valley. From them he learned that there was a large body of Indians encamped upon the North Fork Kern River; that they believed them to be engaged in the war and in the depredations committed in Kern River Valley.
The Captain then summoned three friendly local Indian leaders. One Jose Chico was an Owens Valley Indian, but resided on the Kern River, where he cultivated a farm. He told McLaughlin that the Tehachapies had endeavored to have him go to the war with them: that many of his own Indians had gone; that some had returned and were now in the valley, sleeping in the camps at night and hiding in the daytime; that there were many Indians there whom he did not know, either Owen's or Tehachapies. Ordering Jose Chico to stay with him in camp, he sent the other two leaders away and advised certain citizens that he was going to visit this camp on the river and that he requested their presence to vouch for the Indians there that they might know.
At 2 a.m. on April 19, Captain McLaughlin, Lieutenant Daley and twenty men, with Jose Chico as guide, left camp, marching at night 10 miles from Keyesville, at dawn surrounded the camp of the Indians, upon the right bank of Kern River. McLaughlin had the males collected together, and informed Jose Chico and the citizens who had arrived that they might choose out those whom they knew to have been friendly. The boys and old men he sent back to their camps, and the 35 others for whom no one could vouch, were either shot or sabered.
McLaughlin's Owens Valley Campaign
On April 24, 1863, Captain McLaughlin arrived at Camp Independence from the Kern River country. As senior captain he became the new Camp Commander. From that time McLaughlin conducted operations in Owens Valley following new tactics not previously used in the war. He no longer pursued the enemy up canyons into the mountains to be ambushed in places of their choosing. Instead he sent detachments of his men high up the mountains at night. Then at daylight they would sweep downward toward the valley, driving any enemy out into the valley where another detachment awaited to cut them off. His soldiers were constantly seeking out the Indian food stores and destroying them. Scouting parties were employed in searching for any smaller bands who remained behind hidden in the tule swamps along the river. No day passed without two or three of them being found and killed, and everything destroyed that could be of any use to the living. McLaughlin instructed the troops that it was of the utmost importance that prisoners should be taken, not only women but men, confident that their love of life would prompt them to furnish important information and that possibly they could be used as guides. Additionally the Owens Valley Indians had never been taught how to maintain their firearms, and their firearms became rusted and encrusted with dirt, making many unserviceable. Some gun barrels were found to have exploded.War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume L, Part I, p.210
Also on May 14, 1863, several natives who had remained hidden near the Owens River were captured by Captain Noble's men, and finding that they would not be harmed, but that they would receive food and clothing, and being informed through the interpreter that Captain McLaughlin came to make peace, they were prevailed upon to conduct the troops to where they supposed a large party belonging to Joaquin Jim was encamped and where they could be surrounded. From these Indians, McLaughlin learned that Captain George was near Death Valley and furnished them with passes and white flags, allowing them fifteen days from the 16th of May to find Captain George and the other Indians and bring them into camp.
Meanwhile, with this intelligence and his guides, McLaughlin made a raid on Joaquin Jim's Camp from May 15–19, 1863. However, Joaquin Jim and his band escaped the trap. On his return to Captain Noble's camp on Big Pine Creek, on May 19, 1863, McLaughlin issued an order suspending hostilities until further orders and sent out more Indian messengers.War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume L, Part I, pp. 210-212 Captain McLaughlin sent 90 soldiers and 26 Paiute including Captain George to trail Joaquin Jim through Round Valley, up Pine Creek and over Italy Pass into the Sierras, losing him a week later in late June 1863.
Meanwhile, on May 22, 1863, Captain George came into Camp Independence to talk peace. He indicated that he no longer wanted war. As a result of his surrender, more than four hundred natives came in to lay down their arms. The bands of Captain Dick and Tinemaha soon followed Captain George's example. By June, there were 500 at the camp and almost 1000 by July.