Yuma Crossing
Immediately after the Mexican–American War in 1848, the U.S. Army built Fort Yuma here to protect travelers from Indians raiding the area. It was the center point of conflict in the Yuma War of 1850–53. From 1864–1890, the fort and nearby facilities was the main army base to support the US Army's efforts to control the Indians throughout the greater southwest.
Yuma War
Heintzelman then returned to San Diego where on February 8, 1852, he set out on the Yuma Expedition, to reinforce Fort Yuma. With 160 infantry and cavalry, Heintzelman arrived at the fort in March, only to find it nearly destroyed. All of the captain's personal belongings left at the post were missing or destroyed, the fruit orchards were withered and his raft sunk. Heintzelman was very upset and proclaimed in his book that Captain Davidson was a coward for abandoning the fort. Captain George Stoneman, who served with distinction in the American Civil War, commanded the American cavalry during this march. In the spring and summer of 1852, United States Army operations against the Yuma were halted. Terrible sand and rain storms, combined with the heat, prevented Heintzelman's garrison from doing anything other than trying to cope with the weather. Relations between the Cahuilla and the Cupeno broke down in 1852 and the two tribes went to war.
In February 1852, the schooner "Sierra Nevada", Captain Alfred H. Wilcox, made her way sixty miles up the Colorado. There the supply contractors George Alonzo Johnson and his partner Benjamin M. Hartshorne constructed two fifty-foot flatboats to be used for transporting supplies. When the boats were finished they were loaded with provisions and sent north to the fort. One of the boats was swamped in the river and lost its entire cargo but it was refilled and eventually reached Yuma Crossing. The other boat was not as successful and had to offload its goods at Ogden's Landing far south of the fort. After this event, Heintzelman accepted that he would have to rely on supplies from overland. Captain Edward H. Fitzgerald was ordered to escort a supply convoy to the fort with forty dragoons at his disposal. At camp in the desert, eighteen miles from Fort Yuma, Fitzgerald's herd of mules and horses was attacked. Defending the animals were eight soldiers and one civilian who fought the Yumas for eighteen hours. In the end all but one of the soldiers were killed while the Yumans suffered four dead. Captain Fitzgerald retreated to the fort, leaving his casualties behind, where he informed the garrison of his defeat. Captain Heintzelman organized a burial detail of sixty men and when they arrived at the San Luis battlefield, the bodies of the slain were found stripped and bady mutilated by buzzards. Fitzgerald's defeat angered Heintzelman much, he requested from his superiors permission to attack the Yumas on the Arizona side of the river but it was denied. According to Heintzelman, the Yumas grew confident after the Battle of San Luis. In August, the schooner "Capacity" arrived off the Colorado's mouth and by September the ship was anchored where the "Sierra Nevada" once was. There they began construction of a sixty-five by sixteen foot paddle steamer named "Uncle Sam". "Uncle Sam" was launched by November and on December 3, it arrived at Fort Yuma and delivered thirty-two tons of goods. The American garrison celebrated the steamer's arrival, its skipper, Captain James Turnbull took Heintzelman on a cruise of the Gila and Colorado before he had to steam back down to the California Gulf.