From: CAPT. GARDINER
To: NELLIE; JODI BROWN
Date: June 4, 1857
Context: BIRTH OF DAUGHTER, NELLIE@ BENICIA; PITT RIVER EXPEDIT'N AND THE TEMPORARY POST, THERE; REFERENCE TO SON, ROBERT'S REACTION TO NEW BABY SISTER. Benicia
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Dear Nellie,
Little Nellie made her appearance yesterday at noon. She and her mother are doing very well . Annie had a very good time of it. Nellie is a fine fat child , and Annie says looks like you. I send
some of her hair. She has dark blue eyes. She has a very fine
pair of lungs, though she has not used them much as yet, as Annie has been able to nurse her. She weighed a littleover nine pounds. Our kind friends have made us perfectly at home, and Hannah has proved a most admirablenurse and then I have been able to be here
and can remain 'till the 15th.
for .
How much we have to be thankful
Since I wrote last I have been up to Pitt river and selected a site for a post, which has been approved and my company is ordered there. We shal1 go im.med iatel y on my return.
I took with me on this expedition only a corporal and five privates. We were gone eight days, bivouacking all the time. We had hard frosts several nights . We saw a great deal of snow on the mountains <Shasta butte, and Dawson's butte are covered the whole
year) and in some places there was plenty alongside of the road. The vegetation most of the way was decidedlynorthern, large pines, gigantic firs , with many northern flowers. I <....)remember only the trillium ( white).Before(....) we got out of the Sacramento
valley, and while(•••.) in warm weather, I saw the seringa and the cal icanthus. I saw plenty of strawberry plants along the road though it was too early for fruit. The spring was about as far advanced at the new post, as I suppose you were at home, that is to say on the 20th of May the grass was high enough for good feed for our horses, and the oak trees were about half leaved out.
Pitt river is a pretty stream about 30 yards wide, but fordable in summer.
I have placed the post on a little flat that slopes abruptly down to the river, directly opposite the mouth of Fall river, which is about the same size. It derives its name from a very pretty fall or rather rapid just at its mouth. The river falls 25 feet in going as many yards. This will be our view from our front windows. It influenced me in deciding on the site. We shall have pretty cold weather in winter, with a good deal of snow, but I think we shallescape the intense heat of some of the valleys in California. At Fort Miller on the San Joaquin the surgeon of the post informed me, that the thermometer had been as high as 122* in the usual place of keeping it, a fair exposure, and that it stood at 117* in the coolest place that would be found on the post.
As our post is only a temporary one we shall not have as nice quarters as at Fort Tejon. I am going to build only log houses, but I think I can make them quite comfortable . Comfort to be sure is comparative. One day while I was gone on my expedition to Pitt river it rained in torrents nearly all day, and we were somewhat
uneasy as to where we were to sleep, as there were no litters within reach. However in the afternoon we found a deserted cabin, which had very evidently been used as a stable. The roof was good, and you don't know how comfortable we made ourselves. We built a fire in one corner and the sides were so open that the smoke did not trouble us at all. My blankets were somewhat damp, and I had a touch of rheumatism the next morning, but a ride of thirty odd miles, and a rousing fire at night drove it all away. My water proof cloak has been a treasure to me. We had no adventure, save the straying away of our pack mule. We caught her however about fifteen miles from our camp, on her way home.
The command of the new post brings me a dollar and twenty cents a day extra pay, which will be a verycomfortable thing. We propose to give out our washing, and think that then with our two
excellent servants Hannah and. Lo vell Ca soldier) we can get along very well.
We shall be more completely out of the world than at Fort Tejon, as in winter the roads are almost impassable.Our mail rider will be the only link between us and the lower country.
Annie expects to go to San Francisco in July to make a visit to Mrs. Halleck, who has sent her the most cordial invitation. I am sure nobody has ever had kinder friends than we. I hope to come down for her in August.
Our post office is "American Range" Shasta County, California. And now I must say goodbye as I have to write to Maryland, and
Carlisle for Annie.
I suppose Francis and Anne will have sailed, before you get
this.
I am so thankful for father's escape, and hope he is quite
well now.
As for your impertinence about Robert's nose, I can tell you he has a beautiful nose. I think that eventuallyit will be like the one that makes his father recognizable. I wish you could have seen him when he first saw his s is ter. He leaned over and kissed her of his own accord several times, and just afterwards when she
began to cry, he began, 'Sh, 'Sh. He seemed delighted with her. He jumped and clapped his hands. Since I have been here this time he has been devoted to me, almost as if he anticipated that his mothers cares would be shared with another. He is very affectionate. Love to all .
Your brother
Tudor
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