Camp Cady (1860–1861, 1866–1871) was a U.S. Army Camp, on the Mojave Road near the Mojave River in the Mojave Desert , located about 20 miles east of modern-day Barstow, California , in San Bernardino County , at an elevation of 1690 feet. Camp Cady was named after Major Albemarle Cady , 6th Infantry Regiment , who was a friend of Carleton and commander at Fort Yuma in 1860.
8-592: Camp Cady was established during the Bitter Spring Expedition in 1860, by Major James H. Carleton , and Company K, 1st U.S. Dragoons , as a base camp for Carleton's campaign to punish Paiute who had attacked travelers at Bitter Spring on the Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road . After the Bitter Spring Expedition, Camp Cady was garrisoned off and on until it was abandoned for a time in early part of
16-682: The American Civil War after Fort Mohave was abandoned in May 1861. Sometimes used by California Volunteers patrolling the area in 1862, it was used by them after Fort Mohave was re-garrisoned in 1863 to guard the Mojave Road until the end of the Civil War. It was later garrisoned by the U. S. Army as one of a number of posts on the Mojave Road to protect travelers on the road from Paiute attacks along
24-777: The Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road , the winter trade route and wagon road between Utah and California . The Bitter Spring Expedition was the result of two incidents earlier in the year, on along or near the Mohave River the other at Bitter Spring. First was the killing of a cattleman in January 1860, on the Mojave River, reportedly by Southern Paiutes . Two months later of two unarmed teamsters were killed at Bitter Spring by Native American men thought to be Paiute who had posed as friends before suddenly turning on them, feathering them with arrows. In April 1860 Major James Henry Carleton
32-556: The bodies of two Native American men, earlier slain by a detachment of Dragoons on the Mojave River at the Fish Ponds , were taken to Bitter Spring. At Camp Bitter Springs the site of the earlier attack on the cattleman and the teamsters, the bodies were hung from an improvised scaffold. A few days after a May 2 engagement at Old Dad Mountain , the heads cut off of the three natives killed there, were placed on display with those hung on
40-486: The gibbet at Bitter Springs. On May 28, following reports of the display in the San Francisco press and after General Clarke had read Carlton's dispatch telling of the display of severed heads at Bitter Spring, Clarke ordered Carleton to cease mutilating the dead and remove all evidence of the mutilation from public gaze. The post remained at the spring to guard travelers on the road, until abandoned in late July 3, 1860 at
48-723: The road, from 1866 to 1871, when it was abandoned, after the Paiute where deemed pacified. At the site of Camp Cady there remain some ruins and a historical marker east of Barstow, within the Camp Cady Wildlife Area . California Historical Landmark Marker Camp Cady #963-1 on the site reads: Bitter Spring Expedition The Bitter Spring Expedition of 1860 was a U. S. Army expedition from Fort Tejon , by Company K, First Regiment of Dragoons , led by Major James Henry Carleton , to punish suspected Southern Paiute raiders that had attacked travelers at Bitter Spring along
56-548: The water course in its vicinity." Carlton at the head of Company K, First Regiment of Dragoons left the fort in early April. However Carlton's attitude toward the Paiute had been soured by his investigation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre , which colored the subsequent treatment of the natives his command encountered on this campaign. After arriving and establishing his base at Camp Cady Carlton sent out patrols looking for hostiles. On April 22, on Carlton's orders,
64-573: Was appointed commander of the Bitter Spring Expedition. Brevet General Newman S. Clarke , Carlton's superior, commanding the Department of California , in San Francisco , ordered him to "proceed to Bitter Springs and chastise the Indians you find in the vicinity." The General specifically instructed Carleton that "the punishment must fall on those dwelling nearest to the place of the murder or frequenting
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