The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!
This was the fear of the Spanish in Mexico for hundreds of years and ultimately led to the building of four Spanish presidios and forts in upper (Alta) California and to the eventual settling of California by the Mexicans and then the Americans during the Conquest of 1846.
However, nothing the Spanish did could stop the Russians from coming. One day in 1811, the Russian Navy arrived at Bodega Bay just north of the San Francisco Presidio, renamed it Count Rumiantsev Bay and established a harbor for commerce.
In 1812 things got worse — hundreds of Russians arrived by ship from Sitka, Alaska, then a part of Russia, and established what was to be called Fort Ross. The Spanish could do nothing but object. The Russians had too many ships, men and guns with which to defend them from any Spanish force that could be mustered.
Fort Ross was located on a bluff above the ocean and on the edge of the then magnificent redwood forests. The Russians were masters at working in wood and they had the iron tools with which to cut timber from the forests. They set about building Fort Ross entirely of redwood.
Large slabs of wood were cut for the fort stockade and houses, administrative headquarters and barracks for their troops. The 250-by-300-foot rectangle stockade had 15-foot high redwood walls with two bastions, two stories high, in opposite corners. A total of 55 buildings were eventually built during the 30 years that the Russians occupied the site, including two windmills, an innovation in California.
The purpose of the Russian settlement was to support commerce. The Russian-American Company that was strongly backed by the Russian Imperial Government ran it. For this reason no troops were stationed there, but the fort was strongly defended by well-trained settlers and a set of Russian cannon sent down by ship from Sitka.
For years the Spanish and then the Mexicans kept an eye on the Russians and even traded with them when it was to their advantage to do so, but they were also urging the Russians to leave “their territory.” The Russians were always glad to do business with the Spanish and Mexicans and always welcomed them to the Russians’ possessions whenever they wished to visit.
As a stopgap to the northern expansion by the Russians, the Mexicans moved the northern frontier of “their territory” to Sonoma in 1833, where they established a barracks using troops from the San Francisco Presidio that was then placed on caretaker status.
Presidio comandante Lt. Mariano G. Vallejo was placed in charge. We have a military record of the defenses of Fort Ross as a result of a visit there by Vallejo in April 1833. His visit was a part of a larger survey of the northern territories ordered by Gen. Jose Figueroa, the governor of Alta California.
As a result of this expedition, Vallejo prepared an extensive report for the governor. He gave an assessment of the fort’s ordnance. He stated as follows:
“In the two opposite corners that face, one toward the mountain and the other toward the sea, there are mounted 12 pieces of artillery on two towers or a type of platform, of 8 caliber, six in each one. Six pieces of the same caliber are mounted in a large building with cannon ports on both sides. They call it the Barracks and it is situated right next to the main door or gate where they maintain a guard to keep track of whoever enters or leaves.
“Three pieces are mounted at the rear of the commandant’s house. All of the pieces are mounted on naval gun carriages except for two violentos of 3 caliber that are mounted laterally to the stairway of the main building. Each able-bodied individual keeps a musket at home. Sixty extra muskets and eleven rifles are kept in a gun rack in the antechamber of the Commander’s house.”
Vallejo observed a total of 23 pieces of ordnance in 1833. Most of the guns were 8 pdrs. It does not state whether these are iron or bronze. It turns out that these were iron and the violentos were bronze 3 pdrs. cast in 1804 at St. Petersburg.
Despite its production of ships and farm produce on a large scale for the northern Sitka settlement, Fort Ross began to become more and more expensive to operate and was losing money for the company every year. In 1839 the Russian government decided to cut its losses and offer the fort for sale.
After two years of advertising and negotiating, the Russians offered the fort to a new settler in Mexican California, Johann Augustus Sutter who was then building his own fort at what was later to be the state capital, Sacramento.
In his sales contract with the Russians, Sutter acquired all of the movable property of Fort Ross and a secret title to the land for a sum of 30,000 Russian rubles to be paid over a period of years in cash and produce, grain and cattle from the Sutter estate. This included the fort’s cannon.
John Bidwell, Sutter’s caretaker in 1842, tells us in his memoirs that about 40 rusty iron cannon and one or two bronze pieces were transferred to Sutter’s Fort.
The focus of our story is the two bronze 3 pdrs.
These were the violentos that were located at the bottom of the stairs at the entrance to the three-story administration building and were mounted on field carriages rather than naval field carriages like the 8 pdr. iron guns.
The violentos were two of a type of gun that was cast in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1804. An unknown number were cast at the same time and of the same pattern and distributed throughout the Russian Empire. This pattern became known as the “Unicorn gun” due to the spike shape of the cascabel knob.
In the settlement contract with Sutter, one of the 3 pdrs. was to remain at Count Rumiantsev Bay (Bodega Bay) where it was to be used for signaling ships to the harbor anchorage. The other 3 pdr. was sent to Sutter at his fort, and eventually became known as the “Sutter Gun.”
The whereabouts of the Fort Ross 3 pdr. that was left at the former Russian facilities at Bodega Bay is unknown today. Stephen Smith purchased these facilities in 1844 and presumably the 3 pdr. cannon was included.
In 1846, during the Conquest of California, the American Navy raised the American flag at the Smith Ranch and demanded that the two cannon in their possession be turned over to the Navy for the duration of the conquest. There is no record of their return, but in later years after the conquest, Smith had four cannon at his farm. There is no record of cannon in this area today.
The Sutter Gun has a clearer history. Sutter was very proud of this special bronze gun and used it as well as about 20 other cannon to defend his fort. In 1846, the U.S. Navy raised the American flag at Sutter’s Fort during the conquest and Sutter used this gun as well as others to celebrate the occasion.
The American Army in the person of Maj. John Fremont requisitioned the gun and took it with them by ship to San Diego where it was in the baggage train of the Army troops that engaged the Mexicans at the battle of San Pasqual. The Sutter Gun was not fired. It was returned to Sutter after the conquest. Sutter kept it with him when he sold the fort and moved to his farm north of Sacramento in 1849.
Here at his Hock Farms, Sutter used the gun to salute ships going by on the Feather River. In 1865, Sutter lost the farm to vandalism and fire. He decided at this point to move to the East Coast to seek his fortune there. Before leaving he donated the Sutter Gun to the California Society of Pioneers.
The society displayed the Sutter Gun for years in front of its museum on Montgomery Street in San Francisco. A society photograph shows the gun at that location in 1867. The Sutter Gun was eventually lost in the 1906 earthquake and fire when any record of it ends.
The story of these two original Russian cannon ends here; however, there are stories of similar Russian cannon that relate to Fort Ross and Sutter’s Fort.
In 1862, the Russian Navy visited San Francisco for an official visit and while there helped to put out a fire in the city. Some sailors died of burns and others succumbed to fevers and were buried in a Russian cemetery outside of the city, which is now lost.
When the United States acquired Alaska in 1867, it sent the Pacific fleet from Mare Island Naval Base to accept the land and begin occupation. While visiting Sitka the Russians there gave one of the 1804 “Unicorn Cannon” to the U.S. Navy as thanks for their help and as a trophy for their support.
This cannon, which was a copy of the Sutter Gun pattern, was kept at Mare Island until it closed in 1996. At that time it was donated to the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum where it resides today mounted on a naval carriage.
The second story that involved the Russian 1804 Unicorn guns begins in 1869. Capt. Gustave Neibaum was a sea captain who sailed the west coast to Sitka. On one of his trips he acquired two of the Russian 1804 Unicorn Guns.
When he retired from the sea, Neibaum bought the now famous Inglenook Winery in Napa Valley, California. The two cannon were kept there until his death. They were eventually sold from his estate to the Alameda Gun Room in Alameda, Calif.
A San Francisco Russian-American attorney, Demitri Ilyin, heard that there was talk of returning the two guns to the Russians, but it was the Cold War and he would have none of that, so he bought both Unicorn cannon.
One was put on display at the Russian-American Credit Union office in San Francisco and the other he placed in one of the bastions at Fort Ross.
During the mid-20th century, the California Parks and Recreation Department purchased Forts Ross and Sutter and the remaining buildings, which had decayed after the Russians left. The land on which the forts stood had been purchased for private ranching and logging.
Over the years both forts have been restored to their original conditions. Fort Ross received Ilyin’s Unicorn gun on loan and it was displayed in one of the bastions. It has since been moved to the new visitors center where it is displayed at the entrance. The other gun purchased by Ilyin is in storage.
Various additional cannon have been donated or purchased by the Fort Ross State Park. Three are British-made iron cannon also of the early 1800s period. There are now 12 cannon in the fort, eight of which are modern replicas. Four of these are iron howitzers and four are carronades.
Sutter’s Fort State Park has a replica of the Sutter Gun cast using one of Ilyin’s cannon as a pattern. South Bend Replicas cast the iron copy in 1986 and the park built a field carriage and a caisson for display and celebratory firings. In addition the state park has collected six iron original and replica cannon for display.
Ilyin says that his cannon are serial numbers 7 and 13 and the one at Vallejo is number 33. This gives us some idea of the number of Unicorn cannon cast at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars in 1804.
Fort Ross and Sutter’s Fort look today pretty much like they did during the pre-conquest period. Fortunately, due to the interest in California history by individuals and the state park department, we have examples of the actual cannon of that period.
If anyone knows of other Unicorn Cannon, please contact the author through The Artilleryman. The Unicorn Cannon supposedly at Bodega Bay is still unaccounted for and we have learned that two are in front of the Statehouse in Quebec City.
These were unique guns from a very special part of California history. With them, the Russians have come to stay in California history and culture.
(About the Author: Justin M. Ruhge is a retired aerospace program manager who spent 40 years in ordnance development and production for three wars. His interests are in California military history. He has published nine books on various aspects of city, county and state history. The last, in 2001, was on the history of shipwrecks along the central coast of California. He has written about the Goleta, Calif., cannons for The Artilleryman.)