First claimed by Spain and then Mexico, present-day California was part of the larger Alta California province that included much of the Great Basin. Alta California was ceded to the United States according to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

 

European exploration of Alta California began in the mid-1500s, when both Spain and Great Britain were interested in controlling this region of North America. The first explorer from New Spain (later Mexico) was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer employed by Spain. In 1602, Sebastian Vizcaino conducted the first serious exploration, named landmarks, and recommended that Spain colonize California and Mexico.

 

Missions and presidios (military forts) were built from Baja (Lower) California northward to San Francisco from about 1697 to 1780. A few Russian fur-trading posts appeared along the northern coast. Franciscan friars from the Roman Catholic Church were active in establishing missions and trying to convert the native people to Christianity. The friars also taught the native people farming, weaving, and other skills. Only approximately 10 percent of the native population was successfully converted. In the 1830s, the Mexican government began to break the hold of the missions by selling the missions’ best grazing lands to citizens to stimulate new settlement. This secularization of the missions led to great resentment of the Mexican government by the Californians. Large, wealthy, patriarchal families began to form an upper class that dominated political affairs, and they frequently aligned themselves with U.S. merchants and ranchers who were settling the newly available lands. Livestock became the key industry.

 

Following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, Alta California became a province of Mexico. It had its own legislature and military force. Beginning in 1825, Mexico sent to California a series of governors who were unpopular with the California citizens who wished to maintain their own government. The cruel leadership of Manuel Victoria, who became governor in 1831, led to fighting between Mexican troops and insurgent Pió Pico and his followers. Victoria finally left, and Mexican control over California was tenuous.

 

The first organized group of U.S. settlers arrived in 1841. Others began to follow. Mexico refused an offer by the U.S. government to purchase California. California citizens were equally distrustful of U.S. interest in their province.

 

Just before the Mexican-American War, a party of rough frontiersmen led by explorer John C. Frémont [3] entered California in 1845. They were hostile and warlike and disobeyed Mexican directives. By the time war was declared, Frémont’s activities had been supported by U.S. naval forces. Small-scale fighting against bands of Californians ultimately resulted in California’s surrender to the United States (Treaty of Cahuenga).

 

California joined the United States according to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and became the thirty-first state in 1850. Despite treaty language that guaranteed their property rights, Californians were frequently stripped of their lands. Many were driven out of the newly discovered goldfields or simply killed. This led to bloody guerrilla raids and other retaliatory violence in the southern California frontier. By the end of the 1880s, most Californians had been forced out or were living in Spanish-speaking ghettos.

 

John Augustus Sutter, (1803–1880)

 

A Swiss immigrant who arrived in California via the United States, John A. Sutter owned vast tracts of land in northern California near Sonoma. His walled complex, called Sutter’s Fort, was a staging area for the Bear Flag Revolt and Colonel John C. Frémont’s California expedition in 1846.

 

Sutter arrived in the United States in 1834 from Switzerland. He worked his way west from New York City via St. Louis, Santa Fe, and Oregon before he reached San Francisco Bay in 1839. Sutter received permission from the Mexican government to establish a colony in northern California.

 

Sutter began to build Sutter’s Fort at the junction of the American and Sacramento Rivers on August 16, 1839. Many acres were cleared that were converted to agricultural fields, orchards, and vineyards. Sutter worked hard at establishing a good relationship with the Mexican government and the neighboring Californios. In 1841, he was awarded Mexican citizenship and granted a larger tract of land, upon which he built a stately dwelling. Sutter’s Fort became a gathering place for Anglo-American settlers in the Sacramento Valley.

 

Colonel Frémont seized Sutter’s Fort in June 1846 as he collaborated with the Bear Flaggers. He later released Sutter’s Fort after his California Battalion entered the service of the U.S. army.

 

Sutter helped draft the state constitution after the Mexican-American War. After gold was discovered on his vast land holdings in 1848, the California Gold Rush that followed ruined his assets and land holdings. By 1852, he was virtually bankrupt. In 1871, Sutter was in Washington, D.C., presenting claims to the U.S. government for his lost holdings. He was not successful, and he died in Washington at the age of 76.

 

California Battalion

 

Led by Colonel John C. Frémont, the California Battalion was officially recognized by the U.S. government in July 1846. It was mostly used as an occupational force in Los Angeles, San Diego, and other coastal cities during 1846–1847.

 

Frémont first entered California in late 1845 with a band of about 60 men. Headquartered near Sutter’s Fort, his men were heavily armed and warlike and defied directives from the Mexican government. They antagonized local citizens and took property.

 

In June 1846, emboldened by the presence of Frémont, a group of Californians and U.S. settlers seized Sonoma, skirmished with Californian troops, and declared California free from Mexico. The exact role of Frémont in planning this Bear Flag Revolt is unclear; he did, however, cooperate with the rebels, who later joined his command.

 

Frémont’s growing force was officially authorized by Commodore Robert F. Stockton on July 24, 1846, as the California Battalion of Mounted Riflemen; Frémont’s second in command was U.S. Marine Corps Captain Archibald H. Gillespie. The 300-man battalion was the military force that Stockton used in occupying Los Angeles in August and enforcing the new U.S. government he had proclaimed. Broken into smaller units of 25 to 50 men, part of the battalion was used to occupy the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco.

 

Captain Gillespie’s 48-man portion of the battalion in Los Angeles surrendered to California insurgents in September 1846. San Diego and Santa Barbara also fell. While this was occurring, Frémont and the rest of the California Battalion remained in the Sacramento Valley. Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny [4] and his exhausted command (they had marched westward from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and fought two battles) arrived in San Diego in December. Early in January, a combined U.S. navy-army force led by Commodore Stockton retook Los Angeles after fighting the Battle of San Gabriel River. On January 14, 1847, Frémont and the rest of the battalion rode casually into the U.S. camp, where Frémont proudly presented the Treaty of Cahuenga, which he had signed with rebel leader General Andrés Pico two days before and which ended the fighting in California.

 

Against orders from President James K. Polk and over the protestations of Kearny, Stockton appointed Frémont the military governor of California on January 16, 1847. About two weeks later Stockton was replaced with Commodore Branford Shubrick, who, with new presidential orders, promptly replaced Frémont with Colonel Richard B. Mason. Soon afterward, Stockton, Kearny, and Frémont left for court-martial proceedings against Frémont in Washington, D.C. By this time, most of Frémont’s California Battalion had dispersed into the California hills; the few remaining members were “regularized” into the U.S. army stationed in Los Angeles.

 

San Francisco

 

The village of San Francisco, California, was occupied by U.S. naval forces under Commander John B. Montgomery on July 8, 1846.

 

After Commodore John D. Sloat of the U.S. Pacific Squadron occupied Monterey, California, on July 7, 1846, he instructed Commander Montgomery of the USS Portsmouth to seize San Francisco. Montgomery received the order the following day.

 

Montgomery had translated into Spanish Sloat’s proclamation that California was now part of the United States. Montgomery and 70 men went ashore at Clark’s Point in dress uniforms and marched to the customhouse in what is now Portsmouth Square in present-day San Francisco. Watched by approximately 40 curious inhabitants, Montgomery read aloud that the U.S. naval force would not rule oppressively. The U.S. flag was raised, and a 21-gun salute was fired from the USS Portsmouth anchored offshore.

 

After inspecting the Presidio and Battery San Joaquín, Montgomery ordered another battery to be built on Telegraph Hill, which commanded the harbor. Fourteen U.S. Marines under Lieutenant Henry B. Watson were detached as a garrison force.

 

Monterey

 

The capital of California during the Mexican-American War, the port city of Monterey was occupied by U.S. naval forces in July 1846 and proclaimed part of the United States.

 

Founded in 1770, Monterey was the capital of California. It became an important trading port in the early 1800s. The small but thriving town consisted mostly of one-story, white adobe buildings surrounded by expanses of green grasslands with herds of horses and cattle. Majestic mountains rose in the distance, and the port had an excellent harbor. Monterey was home to U.S. businessman and consul Thomas O. Larkin, who had fostered congenial relationships with Mexican and Californio leaders.

 

In 1846, warlike activities had broken out between U.S. explorer John C. Frémont and his frontiersmen in northern California at Sonoma. Shortly afterward, war was declared between the United States and Mexico.

 

The Cyane, Levant, and Savannah, ships from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Squadron, gathered outside Monterey’s harbor. On July 7, 1846, Captain William Mervine [1] of the Cyane and a small force entered the city and demanded its surrender. Captain Mariano Silva, the military commandant, responded that he did not have the authority to surrender the town. Mervine left and returned with a landing party of 235 sailors and marines. He announced that California had become part of the United States and raised the U.S. flag while a military band paraded through the streets. Captain Mervine became the military commander of the city, imposed martial law, and forbade the sale of liquor. He put his 300 men to work building fortifications, including a blockhouse called Fort Mervine that held three cannon. Monterey remained under U.S. control for the rest of the war.

 

Battle of San Pascual, (December 6, 1846)

 

In one of the few Mexican victories of the Mexican-American War, General Stephen W. Kearny’s small force of dragoons was defeated at the Battle of San Pascual by Californio rebels under Major Andrés Pico.

 

After occupying Santa Fe in August 1846 and establishing a military government for New Mexico, Brigadier General Kearny and approximately 100 dragoons headed west for San Diego. Near dawn on December 6, outside the Indian village of San Pascual, Kearny encountered approximately 75 Californio rebels led by Major Pico. Assured by his guide Kit Carson [5] that they would flee, Kearny attacked.

 

After an initial collision, the Californios, all expert horsemen armed with crude lances, fled down the road. Well ahead of their pursuers, Pico split his men, turned, and charged the surprised, straggling U.S. dragoons. In short order, the deadly Californio lances had killed approximately 18 and wounded 15 of Kearny’s men, nearly a third of his force; Mexican losses were approximately 15 killed and wounded.

 

Shocked by the loss, and suffering from a painful lance wound in the groin, Kearny retired his men to Mule Hill. Pico kept them trapped on the hill for three days until a U.S. naval force reinforced them from San Diego.

 

 

Battle of San Gabriel River (Bartolo Ford), (January 8, 1847)

 

Fought between the U.S. joint army-navy force under Commodore Robert F. Stockton and Californio rebels led by José María Flores, this U.S. victory opened the way for the U.S. reoccupation of Los Angeles in January 1847.

 

Having easily occupied New Mexico, Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny and 300 dragoons from his Army of the West marched for California on September 25, 1846, to join forces with Commodore Stockton. After some surprising hardships (including 31 soldiers killed or wounded at the battle of San Pascual), Kearny’s force arrived in San Diego on December 11.

 

Both Kearny and Stockton were eager to march northward and retake Los Angeles, which had fallen earlier to Californio forces under Flores. Stockton’s sailors took quickly to infantry training under the watchful eye of Kearny. Satisfied with the combined army-navy force, Kearny and Stockton moved out on December 29 with 607 men armed with muskets, boarding pikes, and six artillery pieces. Supplies were kept to a minimum and consisted of a few wagons, mules, and cattle.

 

A message received during the march from Flores that called for an armistice was summarily rejected by Stockton. On January 8, 1847, the U.S. force had reached the San Gabriel River, about 12 miles south of Los Angeles. Stockton’s scouts had discovered that Flores had his men in place for an ambush at their intended crossing point of La Jaboneria Ford. Learning this, Stockton ordered his men to cross further upstream at Bartolo Ford; Flores quickly mounted his 450-man army and deployed them on a low ridge about 600 yards beyond the ford before the U.S. force arrived. The morale of the Californios was low because they were poorly armed, outnumbered, and wedged between John C. Frémont’s California Battalion to the north and Stockton-Kearny to the south. Also, Flores’s four poorly supplied artillery pieces offered little tactical advantage.

 

The U.S. troops formed a hollow square formation, advanced skirmishers, and began to cross the shallow river. Flores launched piecemeal cavalry attacks with no success against the slowly advancing enemy. The Californio cannons were ineffective. Flores’s men began to fall from accurate artillery fire that was directed by Stockton. Within two hours, the U.S. force had scattered the rebels and gained the ridge by the late afternoon, where they camped that night. Many of the Californios deserted in the darkness and went home; a few returned to the battlefield and fired sporadically at the U.S. camp during the night. The following day, the U.S. force brushed aside a lackluster attack during the Battle of La Mesa as they closed in on Los Angeles, which they occupied on January 10.

 

Total U.S. casualties during the Battle of San Gabriel were between 11 and 13 killed and wounded; Californio losses were about the same. The U.S. victory effectively ended the rebellion in California. A few days later, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed, which ended Californio resistance to U.S. rule.

 

Battle of La Mesa, (January 9, 1847)

 

Also called the Battle of Los Angeles, the Battle of La Mesa was the last significant armed conflict between U.S. and Californio forces in California. Four days later, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed.

 

Determined to win Los Angeles back from Californio forces, a combined army-navy force under Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny and Commodore Robert F. Stockton marched northward from San Diego. They fought the Californios under Captain José María Flores at the Battle of San Gabriel River on January 8, 1847, and drove them from the heights overlooking the river.

 

On the following day, the 600-man U.S. force advanced cautiously across a broad mesa toward Los Angeles. The flanks of the small army were guarded by horsemen and scouting parties. After traveling about 6 miles, the U.S. force came upon Flores’s defensive line (500 to 600 men) along a deep ravine, anchored with several artillery pieces.

 

The U.S. troops continued to advance. Stockton instructed his men to lie down when they saw the flash of the cannon and to resume the march after the cannonballs had passed. Stockton began to return the artillery fire.

 

As the Californios began to form a horse-shoe-shaped line to envelop the U.S. position, Stockton ordered his men to form a square, into which they moved the wagons and artillery. The U.S. soldiers continued to march toward Los Angeles. Several Californio mounted charges were attempted, but were turned away by the heavy musket fire. Excellent horsemen, the Californios stripped the dead horses of saddles and bridles, and picked up their dead and wounded, without dismounting. This slow-moving march/battle lasted about two and one-half hours. U.S. losses were one killed and five wounded; Californio losses were one killed and five to ten wounded. Stockton continued to advance in a square formation and camped a few miles from Los Angeles that night.

 

 

San José del Cabo

 

From November 1847 to March 1848, Mexicans under Captain Manuel Pineda and U.S. naval forces and struggled for control over the port of San José del Cabo on the Gulf of California.

 

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Henry A. Wise described this Baja California port as standing “in a pretty valley, with red, sterile mountains topping around it. One broad street courses between two rows of cane and mud-built dwellings, thatched with straws…. At the upper end of the avenue, standing on a slight, though abrupt, elevation from the valley behind, was the cuartel [barracks]….”

 

As part of the blockade by the U.S. Pacific Squadron, the bay of San José del Cabo was occupied by the Congress, Independence, and Cyane on October 29, 1847. Commodore W. B. Shubrick was concerned about rumors of rebellion elsewhere along the coast, especially at Todos Santos and La Paz. Shubrick left 24 men under Lieutenant Charles Heywood as a garrison force at San José del Cabo, along with a month’s worth of supplies, on November 8. Heywood’s men occupied an old mission in town.

 

The supreme commander of the Mexican resistance in the area was Captain Manuel Pineda. He dispatched 150 men under Vicente Mejía of the Mexican Navy to San José del Cabo. Ordered on November 19 by Mejía to surrender, Heywood refused. Mejía attacked that night, but was repulsed with a loss of approximately 2 killed and 3 wounded; three U.S. seamen were also wounded. Another attack the following night ended with similar results. The siege finally ended when U.S. sailors and supplies, including two artillery pieces, arrived on November 26 on the Southampton. The rebels rejoined Pineda, who was planning an attack on La Paz.

 

When the U.S. warships left San José del Cabo in January 1848, a garrison force of approximately 60 men remained behind. Pineda immediately moved his entire army into the area, and approximately 50 women and children took refuge in the U.S. garrison. The U.S. troops began to suffer from reduced supplies, especially food and water. Pineda captured a foraging party on January 22, 1848, which officially began the second siege of the city.

 

In full view of the garrison, the town was occupied by Pineda’s men from January 22 to February 14. The Mexicans kept up a steady sniper fire. Because of limited ammunition, the U.S. sailors did not return the fire. Heywood launched three attacks/forays into the town on February 6 and 7 for supplies, losing one man killed and several wounded. On February 11, a sniper’s bullet killed another sailor.

 

Pineda seized control of the well and built a breastwork to defend it. Desperate for water, Heywood’s men tried to dig a well, but with no success.

 

Much to Heywood’s relief, the USS Cyane was sighted on February 14. Within hours, Commander Samuel F. Du Pont and 102 men landed approximately three miles from San José del Cabo and skirmished toward the city. Joining Heywood, they reoccupied the city.

 

Pineda withdrew to San José Viejo and later to Santa Anita. On March 24, a U.S. force attacked Santa Anita, but Pineda’s men had already retreated to Santiago.

 

 

[1] William Mervine, (1791–1868)

 

Captain William Mervine served in the U.S. Pacific Squadron during the Mexican-American War and raised the U.S. flag over Monterey in 1846.

 

Mervine was born in Philadelphia. He was appointed a midshipman in 1809 and was wounded during the War of 1812. His naval career took him to the Mediterranean and the West Indies. He was promoted to captain in 1841.

 

During the Mexican-American War, Mervine commanded two ships that were part of the Pacific Squadron, the Cyane during 1845–1846 and the Savannah during 1846–1847. On July 7, 1846, he took possession of Monterey, California, and served as its military commander. In October, he commanded a landing party that skirmished with Mexicans near Los Angeles.

 

Mervine became the commander of the Pacific Squadron after the war. During the Civil War, he commanded the Gulf Blockading Squadron that patrolled the Atlantic from Key West to Galveston. Mervine retired as a rear admiral and died at age 77 in New York.

 

 

[2] Surfboats

 

Surfboats were specially designed, flat-bottomed boats with six-man rowing crews that transported more than 10,000 soldiers from U.S. warships to Collado Beach south of Veracruz on March 9, 1847.

 

For his invasion of Veracruz in March 1847, Major General Winfield Scott was in special need of smaller craft that would transport his men from the warships of the U.S. Navy’s Home Squadron across the shallow waters to Collado Beach. Designed by Lieutenant George M. Totten, surfboats met this need and were the first amphibious landing craft ever built by the U.S. Navy.

 

Constructed by the Quartermaster Department near Philadelphia, the surfboats were double-ended, broad-beamed, and flat-bottomed. The frames were made from white oak. The largest boat was approximately 40 feet in length and could hold approximately 50 men; the smallest was approximately 35 feet in length and could hold 35 men. Built in three sizes so they could be stacked during transport, the surfboats were shipped from Philadelphia to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The U.S. Navy ordered 141 surfboats at a cost of $795 per boat Only about half of the boats were constructed and shipped in time to be used during the amphibious landing on March 9, 1847. Manned by a skipper, coxswain, and six oarsmen, the surfboats successfully landed more than 10,000 men on Collado Beach by the end of the day.

 

 

[3] John C. Frémont, (1813–1890)

 

Nicknamed the “Pathfinder,” John C. Frémont became famous for his exploration of the lands of the western United States. His third expedition during 1845–1847 took him to California, where he commanded a U.S. military force that helped seize the province during the Mexican-American War.

 

Born out of wedlock in Savannah, Georgia, Frémont was raised in Charleston, South Carolina. Energetic and adventuresome, he impressed with his quickness and talents some influential citizens, who paid for his private education. Keenly interested in sailing, he went to sea for two years. Upon his return, he worked as a surveyor and engineer with the U.S. Topographical Corps, during which time he developed his love for wilderness exploration.

 

The success of his western surveys made him a national celebrity. Thomas Hart Benton, a Missouri senator and expansionist, especially took interest in Frémont’s abilities. Frémont fell in love with Benton’s daughter Jessie. After they eloped in the summer of 1841, he explored Iowa Territory.

 

After exploring the Oregon Trail and Oregon Territory with frontiersman Kit Carson in 1842, Frémont explored the Great Basin in 1843. Against the advice of others, he pushed on through the winter passes of the Sierra Nevada. His party barely survived, and some of his men were driven crazy by frostbite. His return to Washington in the fall of 1844 made him a hero, and he was mobbed in public. His passionate descriptions of the West helped fan the public’s support of Manifest Destiny.

 

Brevetted a captain in the U.S. army, Frémont began his third expedition in the summer of 1845 with 62 men. Guiding him to the Great Basin were Kit Carson and mountain man Joseph Walker. Although no written documentation survives to verify his claim, Frémont maintained that he had been instructed that, if he reached California and hostilities with Mexico had begun, he was to use his men as a military force.

 

Frémont’s party arrived at Sutter’s Fort in California on December 9, 1845. Frémont wandered freely and met with U.S. consul Thomas O. Larken in Monterey. Californio authorities were alarmed by Frémont’s rough-looking, heavily armed group. José Castro, the military commander at Sonoma, ordered Frémont to leave. Frémont was confrontational, constructed fortifications on Hawk’s Peak north of Monterey, and raised the U.S. flag in March 1846. Castro prepared to attack, but Frémont withdrew toward Oregon.

 

In the Upper Sacramento Valley, Frémont’s party attacked an Indian village, probably the Klamath Nation. Nearly 200 natives were killed, including women and children. Led by a frenzied Kit Carson, Frémont described it as “perfect butcher,” followed by two days of celebration.

 

On May 9, 1846, Frémont was overtaken by Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie with orders from President James Polk, Secretary of State James Buchanan, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, and Thomas Benton. Gillespie supposedly also delivered verbal orders that he had memorized. That evening, the camp was attacked by Indians, and three of Frémont’s men were killed. Frémont’s group retaliated by assaulting a village on Upper Klamath Lake, killing more than 20 Indians, and burning the village to the ground.

 

Worried that Castro would try to incite the native population against the United States, Frémont “resolved…to strike them a blow which would make them recognize that Castro was far and that I was near.” Frémont attacked and destroyed the village of the peaceful Maidu Indians along the Sacramento River. A small group of U.S. settlers, excited by Frémont’s activities, overran Sonoma in June, raised a white flag with a single red star and a grizzly bear, and skirmished with Mexican troops. Called the Bear Flaggers, they aligned themselves with Frémont. On July 7, U.S. warships arrived at Monterey and raised the U.S. flag, and Commodore Robert F. Stockton combined the Bear Flaggers and Frémont’s force into the California Battalion, with Frémont as lieutenant colonel.

 

Stockton used some of the California Battalion in July and August 1846 to occupy Los Angeles and other cities, including San Juan Bautista, San José, and San Diego. Frémont took the rest of his men northward toward Sacramento.

 

After the Californios, led by José María Flores, retook Los Angeles and became a threat to U.S. authority, Frémont remained surprisingly idle as Stockton and Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny assembled an army-navy force to seize the city. After Stockton and Kearny defeated Flores in two battles to formally enter the city on January 10, 1847, Frémont rode in casually a few days later and presented the Treaty of Cahuenga, a document that he had drafted and signed with General Andrés Pico to end the warfare in California.

 

Both Stockton and Kearny were angry that their subordinate had undertaken this responsibility, when they were the higher-ranking officers in charge. Stockton, however, appointed Frémont governor of California. Outraged because he outranked Frémont, Kearny complained to Washington. In March 1847, Kearny was officially appointed governor by General Winfield Scott. In June 1847, Frémont, his scientific material, and some of his men headed east to Washington with Kearny. Upon reaching Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Kearny promptly had Frémont arrested for mutiny and insubordination.

 

Frémont’s court-martial was held in Washington, D.C., from November 1847 to January 1848. Charged with mutiny, disobeying orders, and poor military conduct, Frémont was found guilty on all three counts and ordered dismissed from the army. Although President Polk overturned the decision, Frémont resigned.

 

A string of triumphs and disasters awaited Frémont in the years following the Mexican-American War. In 1848, he tried to cross the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado in the winter. Ten men died, and survivors resorted to eating boiled rawhide, rope, and human remains. Later, the discovery of gold on his ranch in California made Frémont a wealthy man. In 1854, he became trapped again in the mountains in winter during a railroad survey and nearly perished.

 

Antislavery Republicans needed a strong candidate to challenge Democrat James Buchanan and American Party candidate Millard Fillmore in the 1856 presidential campaign, and they chose Frémont. Buchanan, however, won the election.

 

Controversy continued to follow Frémont as a Union general during the Civil War. In Missouri, he announced that captured Confederate guerrillas would be executed and that slaves would be freed. This stunned Lincoln, who reassigned him. As the commander of the Department of West Virginia, Frémont lost five straight battles to Stonewall Jackson. Then, in the Panic of 1873, Frémont’s fortune was lost. After serving as territorial governor of Arizona from 1878 to 1883, he died from peritonitis in New York City.

 

 

[4] Stephen Watts Kearny, (1794–1848)

 

Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny commanded the U.S. Army of the West during its 1846 march from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He later took a small force to California and participated in the battles that led to the reoccupation of Los Angeles in January 1847.

 

Kearny was born in New York City. He joined the U.S. army during the War of 1812. As commander of the 1st U.S. Dragoons, he served at frontier posts for nearly 25 years before the onset of the Mexican-American War.

 

In May 1846, Kearny was given the command of the Army of the West. His job was to march to Santa Fe, secure the occupation of New Mexico, and then move on to California. In June, he was appointed brigadier general, and he quickly assembled and trained his largely volunteer army of 1,660 men.

 

After briefly resting at Bent’s Old Fort, Colorado, Kearny entered Santa Fe unopposed on August 18. En route, he had stopped and proclaimed the U.S. desire for peace to curious New Mexican citizens who gathered in the villages through which he passed. At Bent’s Fort, Kearny announced that he entered New Mexico with the “object of seeking union and to ameliorate the condition of its inhabitants….” At Las Vegas, New Mexico, he climbed on to a rooftop to guarantee that not a “pepper, nor an onion, will be taken by my troops without pay.” He also pledged to protect New Mexicans from raiding Indians and to hang anyone “found in arms against me.”

 

As the military governor of New Mexico, Kearny absolved New Mexicans of their allegiance to Mexico. Eager to win the support of New Mexicans, he tried to be tactful and respectful, attended Mass, and put on a ball to which both U.S. citizens and New Mexicans were invited. With the help of soldier lawyers Alexander W. Doniphan and Willard P. Hall, Kearny made certain that a working civic government was in place before taking 300 dragoons and marching for California on September 25, 1846.

 

 

After leaving Santa Fe, Kearny rode southward through Socorro and Valverde before turning west along the Gila River. At Socorro, he met frontiersman Kit Carson, who informed him that California was under the control of Commodore Robert F. Stockton. Kearny then decided to send approximately 200 men back and convinced Carson to guide his remaining 100-man column through the dry, mountainous country. Winding their way along the Gila River, they rested for two days in Tucson before continuing westward across the desolate deserts of southern California.

 

December 5 brought the arrival of navy Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie and 39 men, who planned to escort Kearny to San Diego. The following day, Kearny’s men clashed with Californio rebels under the command of Captain Andrés Pico at the Battle of San Pascual. Rashly leading a charge at the urging of Kit Carson, Kearny was surprised by a Californio counterattack that killed 18 and wounded 13, including Kearny (wounded by a lance) and Gillespie. Retreating to a small hill, the U.S. forces were kept under siege by Pico’s men until a U.S. Navy relief force from Commodore Robert F. Stockton, arrived from San Diego. Kearny’s ragged command finally entered San Diego on December 12, 1846.

 

 

The united force of Stockton and Kearny won the Battles of San Gabriel River and La Mesa and seized Los Angeles in January 1847. Kearny and Stockton argued bitterly about seniority and overall command, and John C. Frémont, who had been appointed civil governor by Stockton, refused to give up the position to Kearny. Eventually, Kearny’s authority was reaffirmed by new orders from Washington. Shortly afterward, Kearny and Frémont returned eastward, and Kearny had Frémont court-martialed for insubordination. Although Frémont was found guilty in the bitter proceedings, Kearny emerged with a somewhat tarnished reputation.

 

Kearny was later civil governor of Veracruz and Mexico City in 1847 and brevetted to major general. Seriously weakened by malaria, he died shortly after his return to St. Louis in 1848.

 

[5] Christopher Carson, (“Kit”) (1809–1868)

 

A famous frontiersman, Christopher “Kit” Carson guided the western expeditions of explorer John C. Frémont. As the guide for General Stephen Watts Kearny’s command that marched from Santa Fe to San Diego in 1846–1847, Carson fought in the Battle of San Pascual and, after slipping through the Californian line, sent back reinforcements.

 

Born in Kentucky, Carson later moved to Missouri. An illiterate youth, Carson ran away to the western mountains from an apprenticeship as a saddler. Over the next few years, he became an accomplished trapper and frontier guide in the Mojave Desert and California, Utah, Idaho, and New Mexico. After his Arapaho wife died, he took his five-year-old daughter to St. Louis, Missouri, placed her with relatives, and financed her education.

 

On his way back from Missouri in 1842, Carson met Frémont on a steamboat. Frémont hired Carson as the guide for his first expedition, and Frémont’s official report of his adventures brought them both immediate fame. Carson also participated in Frémont’s subsequent explorations of the West, including his expedition into California in 1845. He helped Frémont’s 60-man force battle Klamath Indians in northern California in 1846. Appointed a second lieutenant in Frémont’s California Battalion, Carson was later promoted to lieutenant and transported messages to Washington, D.C.

 

After his return to the West, Carson met General Stephen Watts Kearny’s 300-man column near Socorro, New Mexico, on October 6, 1846. En route to San Diego, Kearny compelled Carson to guide them. They were surprised by Californian forces led by Major Andrés Pico at the Battle of San Pascual on December 6. Urged by Carson to attack, Kearny and his command fell into a trap that killed or wounded a third of his force, including three officers. Kearny himself received a painful lance wound in the groin. The crippled command found a small hill to defend, and Pico was content to surround them and begin a siege.

 

Desperate for help, Carson, Lieutenant Edward F. Beale, and Delaware Indian scout Chemuctah, often crawling on their bellies, slipped through the Californian defenses on the night of December 9. After they had successfully penetrated the line, the three split up and walked with bare feet over 35 miles of rocky ground to reach Commodore Robert F. Stockton’s reinforcements in San Diego. Carson’s injured feet kept him bedridden for nearly a week afterward.

 

As part of the joint U.S. army-navy force that left San Diego to reoccupy Los Angeles, Carson participated in the Battles of San Gabriel River and La Mesa in January 1847. He escorted more dispatches to Washington and on June 9 was appointed by President James K. Polk as a lieutenant in the California Battalion. The Senate, however, denied his appointment on January 28, 1848, because of his close relationship to the court-martialed Frémont.

 

At the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, Carson returned to Taos, New Mexico, where he married a local woman. Continuing his frontier lifestyle, he became a popular and influential figure in New Mexican governmental affairs and a well-respected Indian agent. Still illiterate, Carson dictated his autobiography in 1857–1858.

 

During the Civil War, Carson organized the 1st New Mexican Volunteer Infantry in 1861 and was commissioned lieutenant colonel. He spent most of his time fighting Indians and suppressed the Navajo by burning their crops and killing their horses and livestock. Carson was brevetted to brigadier general in 1865 for “gallantry in the Battle of Valverde and for distinguished services in New Mexico.” His health failing, he resigned in 1866 and died two years later at Fort Lyon, Colorado.