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The California Campaign (1846−47), colloquially the "Conquest of California" or Conquest of Alta California by the United States, was an initial period of the Mexican–American War that took place in the western part of Mexico's Alta California Department, the present-day state of California. The California Campaign was marked by a series of small battles over 1846 and early 1847.
Contents
Beginnings
When war was declared on 13 May 1846 between the United States and Mexico, it took almost three months for definitive word of Congress' declaration of war to reach the Pacific coast. U.S. consul Thomas O. Larkin, stationed in the pueblo of Monterey, was concerned about the increasing possibility of war and worked to prevent bloodshed between the Americans and the small Mexican military garrison at the Presidio of Monterey, commanded by José Castro.
United States Army Captain John C. Frémont, on a survey expedition of the U. S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers with about 60 well-armed men, crossed the Sierra Nevada range in December 1845. They had crossed into the Oregon Territory in May 1846, when he received word that war between Mexico and the U.S. was imminent.
Bear Flag Revolt
On 14 June 1846, the "Bear Flag Revolt" occurred when some 30 rebels, mostly American immigrants, staged a revolt in response to government threats of expulsion and seized the small Mexican Sonoma Barracks garrison, in the pueblo of Sonoma north of San Francisco Bay. They formed the California Republic, created the "Bear Flag," and raised it over Sonoma. Eleven days later, troops led by Frémont, who had acted on his own authority, arrived from Sutter's Fort to support the rebels. No government was ever organized, but the Bear Flag Revolt has become part of the state's folklore.
The present day California state flag is based on this original Bear Flag, and continues to display the words "California Republic."
Naval engagements—Alta California ports captured
Prior to the Mexican–American War, preparations for a possible conflict led to the U.S. Pacific Squadron being extensively reinforced until it had roughly half of the ships in the United States Navy. Since it took 120 to over 200 days to sail from Atlantic ports on the east coast, around Cape Horn, to the Pacific ports in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands) and the west coast, these movements had to be made well in advance of any possible conflict to be effective. Initially, with no United States ports in the Pacific, the squadron's ships operated out of storeships that provided naval supplies, purchased food and obtained water from local ports of call in the Sandwich Islands and on the Pacific coast. Their orders were, upon determining "beyond a doubt" that war had been declared, to capture the ports and cities of Alta California.
Commodore John Drake Sloat, commander of the Pacific Squadron, on being informed of an outbreak of hostilities between Mexico and the United States, as well as the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, ordered his naval forces to occupy ports in northern Alta California. Sloat's ships then in the Monterey harbor, the USS Savannah, USS Cyane, and USS Levant, in the "Battle of Monterey" captured the Alta Californian capital city of Monterey on 7 July 1846 without firing a shot. Two days later on 9 July, USS Portsmouth, which had been berthed at Sausalito, in the "Battle of Yerba Buena" captured Yerba Buena (present day San Francisco) without firing a shot. On 15 July, Sloat transferred his command to Commodore Robert F. Stockton, a much more aggressive leader. In July, convincing news of a state of war between the U. S. and Mexico had reached Stockton. The 400 to 650 marines and bluejackets (sailors) of Stockton's Pacific Squadron were the largest U. S. ground force in California. The rest of Stockton's men were needed to man his vessels.
To supplement this remaining force, Commodore Stockton ordered Captain John C. Frémont, on the U. S. Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers survey, to secure 100 volunteers (he received 160), in addition to the California Battalion that he had earlier organized. They were to act primarily as occupation forces to free up Stockton's marines and sailors. The California Battalion's core was the approximately 30 army personnel and 30 scouts, guards, ex-fur trappers, Indians, geographers, topographers and cartographers in Frémont's exploration force, which was joined by about 150 Bear Flaggers.
The American marines, sailors, and militia easily took over the cities and ports of northern California; within days they controlled Monterey, San Francisco, Sonoma, Sutter's Fort, New Helvetia, and other small pueblos in northern Alta California. Nearly all were occupied without a shot being fired. Some of the southern pueblos and ports were also rapidly occupied, with almost no bloodshed.
Californios and the war
Prior to the U.S. occupation, the population of Spanish and Mexican people in Alta California was approximately 1500 men and 6500 women and children, who were known as Californios. Many lived in or near the small Pueblo of Los Angeles (present day Los Angeles). Many other Californios lived on the 455 ranchos of Alta California, which contained slightly more than 8,600,000 acres (35,000 km2), nearly all bestowed by the Spanish and then Mexican governors with an average of about 18,900 acres (76 km2) each.
Most of the approximately 800 American and other immigrants (primarily adult males) lived in the northern half of California, approved of breaking from the Mexican government, and gave only token to no resistance to the forces of Stockton and Frémont.
Siege of Los Angeles
In Southern California, Mexican General José Castro and Alta California Governor Pío Pico fled the Pueblo of Los Angeles before the arrival of American forces. On 13 August 1846, when Stockton's forces entered Los Angeles to no resistance, the nearly bloodless conquest of California seemed complete. The force of 36 that Stockton left in Los Angeles, however, was too small and, in addition, enforced a tyrannical control of the citizenry. On 29 September in the Siege of Los Angeles, the independent Californios, under José María Flores' leadership, forced the small American garrison to retire to the harbor.
Soon afterward, 200 reinforcements sent by Stockton and led by U.S. Navy Captain William Mervine, were repulsed in the one-hour Battle of Dominguez Rancho on Rancho San Pedro, on 8 October with four Americans killed. In late November, General Kearny, with a squadron of 100 dragoons, finally reached the Colorado River at the present-day California border after a grueling march across the province of New Mexico and the Sonoran Desert. Then, on 6 December 1846, they fought the botched, half-hour Battle of San Pasqual east of San Diego pueblo, where 21 of Kearny's troops were killed, the largest number of American casualties in the battles of the California Campaign.
Final conquest
Stockton rescued Kearny's surrounded forces and, with their combined force totaling 660 troops, they moved northward from San Diego, entering the Los Angeles Basin on 8 January 1847. On that day they fought the Californios in the Battle of Rio San Gabriel and the next day, in the Battle of La Mesa. The last significant body of Californios surrendered to American forces on 12 January 1847, marking the end of the war in Alta California.
Treaty of Cahuenga
The "Treaty of Cahuenga" was signed on January 13, 1847, and essentially terminated hostilities in Alta California. The treaty was drafted in English and Spanish by José Antonio Carrillo, approved by American Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Frémont and Mexican Governor Andrés Pico at Campo de Cahuenga, in the Cahuenga Pass of Los Angeles. It was later ratified by Frémont's superiors, Commodore Robert F. Stockton and General Stephen Kearny (brevet rank).
California Reinforcements
In July 1846, Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson of New York was asked to raise a volunteer regiment of ten companies of 77 men each to go to California with the understanding that they would muster out and stay in California. They were designated the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers and took part in the Pacific Coast Campaign. In August and September 1846 the regiment trained and prepared for the trip to California.
Three private merchant ships, Thomas H Perkins, Loo Choo, and Susan Drew, were chartered, and the sloop USS Preble was assigned convoy detail. On 26 September the four ships sailed for California. Fifty men who had been left behind for various reasons sailed on 13 November 1846 on the small storeship USS Brutus. The Susan Drew and Loo Choo reached Valparaíso, Chile by 20 January 1847 and they were on their way again by 23 January. The Perkins did not stop until San Francisco, reaching port on 6 March 1847. The Susan Drew arrived on 20 March and the Loo Choo arrived on 26 March 1847, 183 days after leaving New York. The Brutus finally arrived on 17 April 1847.
After desertions and deaths in transit the four ships brought 648 men to California. The companies were then deployed throughout Upper-Alta California, and Lower-Baja California on the Baja California Peninsula (captured by the Navy and later returned to Mexico), from San Francisco to La Paz. The ship Isabella sailed from Philadelphia on 16 August 1846, with a detachment of one hundred soldiers, and arrived in California on 18 February 1847 at about the same time that the ship Sweden arrived with another detachment of soldiers. These soldiers were added to the existing companies of Stevenson's 1st New York Volunteer Regiment. These troops essentially took over nearly all of the Pacific Squadron's on-shore military and garrison duties and the California Battalion's garrison duties.
In January 1847 Army lieutenant William Tecumseh Sherman and about 100 regular U.S. Army soldiers arrived in Monterey. American forces in the pipeline continued to dribble into California.
Mormon Battalion
The Mormon Battalion served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican–American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men, who were led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular United States Army senior officers. During its service, the battalion made a grueling march of some 1,900 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego. This remains one of the longest single military marches in U.S. history.
The Mormon Battalion arrived in San Diego on January 29, 1847. For the next five months until their discharge on July 16, 1847 in Los Angeles, the battalion trained and did garrison duties in several locations in southern California. Discharged members of the Mormon Battalion were helping to build a sawmill for John Sutter when gold was discovered there in January 1848, starting the California Gold Rush.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in February, 1848, marked the end of the Mexican–American War. In that treaty, Mexico formally ceded Alta California along with its other northern territories east through Texas, receiving $15,000,000 in exchange. This largely unsettled territory constituted nearly half of its claimed territory with about 1% of its then population of about 4,500,000.