The date from which we were regularly mustered into the service was January 24th, 1851. The volunteers provided their own horses and equipments. The camp supplies and baggage trains were furnished by the State. This military force was called into existence by the State authorities, but by act of Congress its maintenance was at the expense of the general government, under direction of Indian commissioners. Major Ben McCullough was offered the command of this battalion, but he declined it. This position was urged upon him with the supposition that if he accepted it the men who had once served under him would be induced to enlist--many of the “Texan Rangers” being residents of Mariposa county. Major McCullough was at that time employed as Collector of “Foreign Miners’ Tax,” a very lucrative office. As a personal acquaintance, he stated to me that the position was not one that would bring him honor or pecuniary advantages. That he had no desire to leave a good position, except for one more profitable. The officers, chosen by the men, recommended to and commissioned by Governor McDougall, were James D. Savage, as Major; John J. Kuy-ken-dall, John Boling, and William Dill, as Captains; M. B. Lewis, as Adjutant; John I. Scott, Reuben T. Chandler, and Hugh W. Farrell, as First Lieutenants; Robert E. Russell, as Sergeant Major; Dr. A. Bronson, as Surgeon, and Drs. Pfifer and Black as Assistant Surgeons. A few changes of Lieutenants and subordinate officers were afterward made. Upon the resignation of Surgeon Bronson, Dr. Lewis Leach, was appointed to fill the vacancy. While writing up these recollections, in order to verify my dates, which I knew were not always chronologically exact, I addressed letters to the State departments of California making inquiries relative to the “Mariposa Battalion,” organized in 1851. In answer to my inquiry concerning these known facts, the following was received from Adj. General L. H. Foot. He says: “The records of this office, both written and printed, are so incomplete, that I am not aware from consulting them that the organization to which you allude had existence.” It is a matter of regret that the history of the early settlement of California is, to so great an extent, traditionary, without public records of many important events. It is not deemed just that the faithful services of the “Mariposa Battalion,” should be forgotten with the fading memory of the pioneers of that period. There is in the State, an almost entire absence of any public record of the “Indian war,” of which the discovery of the Yosemite valley was an important episode.