Mexican-American War battle
The Battle of San Pasqual, also spelled San Pascual, was a military encounter that occurred during the Mexican–American War in what is now the San Pasqual Valley community of the city of San Diego, California. The series of military skirmishes ended with both sides claiming victory, and the victor of the battle is still debated. On December 6 and 7, 1846, General Stephen W. Kearny's US Army of the West, along with a small detachment of the California Battalion led by Archibald H. Gillespie, engaged a small contingent of Californios and their Presidial Lancers Los Galgos (The Greyhounds), led by Major Andrés Pico. After U.S. reinforcements arrived, Kearny's troops were able to reach San Diego.
Background.
Following a clash of U.S. forces with Mexican forces near the Rio Grande, Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny was promoted to a brigadier general and tasked with multiple objectives to include the seizure of New Mexico and California, establish civilian government within seized territories, disrupt trade, and to "act in such a manner as best to conciliate the inhabitants, and render them friendly to the United States". Kearny's initial force consisted of 300 regular army soldiers, 1,000 volunteers from Missouri, and the Mormon Battalion. From Fort Leavenworth, via Bent's Fort, Kearny had New Mexico capitulate without violent conflict. While in Santa Fe, Kearny established Fort Marcy, named after the Secretary of War William L. Marcy, who had ordered Kearny's force westward.
En route from New Mexico, Kearny's force interacted with the Apache and Maricopa tribes, and captured a Mexican courier with news of American activities in California, with the news stating the Californios had capitulated. Forces under Commodore Sloat had taken control a significant portion of Alta California. Kearny had orders to assume command of U.S. forces in California with his, but sent back most of his force after meeting up with Kit Carson near Socorro on Oct 6 and hearing of the seizure of California by Commodore Robert F. Stockton, Kearny keeping only Companies C &amp; K, 1st Dragoons, about 100 men. Kearny, at that time with a force of 300 men, learning of escalating issues with the Navajo, and with the belief a smaller force could move faster, ordered 200 back to Santa Fe. Kearny's force, guided by Carson, reached Warner's Ranch in California on Dec 2, travel-weary and in a greatly weakened condition. They had just completed a 2,000 mile march; the longest march in U.S. Army history. The men mounted mules and half-broken horses owned by California Capt. Jose Maria Flores, which they rounded up around Warner Ranch.
General Kearny's Army, most originating from Fort Scott:
Captains Johnston, Griffin (Surgeon), and Turner kept journals during their journey from Santa Fe. Lieutenant W. H. Emory of the Topographical Engineers kept the official designated U.S. Government diary, or "Military Reconnoissance" ["sic"] from Ft. Leavenworth to California which was published in 1848.
After turning back the Americans trying to recapture Los Angeles in the Battle of Dominguez Rancho, Capt. Jose Maria Flores sent about 100 men to San Luis Obispo to confront Lt. Col. John C. Fremont's 300 men moving south from Monterey, and sent another 100 men to watch Stockton's base at San Diego, but Flores kept the bulk of his men at Los Angeles.
Captain Archibald Gillespie with 39 men, met Kearny on December 5 with a message from Stockton requesting Kearny confront Flores' men outside San Diego. The total American force now amounted to 179 men.
USMC Acting-Captain (Lt.) Gillespie's Mounted Rifle Volunteers 'detachment' of the California Battalion:
Captains Leonardo Cota and Jose Alipaz took a force to San Pasqual Valley with the intention to interdict and keep in check Captain Gillespie after his departure from San Diego. Later, Major Andrés Pico, after a failed search for a detachment of U.S. soldiers, joined forces with the captains and took command. These Californios led a force consisting of landowners, sons of landowners, and vaqueros, many with well known and respected family names in the community:
On the night of December 5, a Native American informed the Californio forces of the presence of Kearny's forces.
Prelude.
A dragoon patrol under Lieutenant Thomas C. Hammond, guided by Rafael Machado, the son of Don José Manuel Machado (grantee of Rancho El Rosario and sent by the Machado family to assist Kearny), reconnoitered Capt. Andres Pico's force along the road at San Pasqual.
While Machado sneaked into the camp, Lt. Hammond became suspicious he was being set up for an ambush and rode the dragoons into the camp, where they spoke with an Indian they found sleeping in a hut. In a coincidence that has never been fully explained, a guard under the command of Machado's concuñado, the brother of a brother-in-law and future father-in-law, Captain Jose Alipaz, challenged the dragoons and alerted the camp to their presence. While Machado quickly ran back to Hammond's scouting party, Alipaz sounded the alarm but was dismissed by General Pico, until a U.S. Army blanket and dragoon coat were discovered on the edge of camp by Pablo Véjar. With Capt. Alipaz, Captain Leonardo Cota and José María Ibarra (the Californio standing guard) chased the dragoons to the top of the next ridge with the battle cry of "!Viva California!". Pico was alerted, and the Californio camp prepared for the U.S. Army dragoons and marines to attack.
Kearny had planned a surprise attack at daylight, despite the damp weather wetting down their powder and the extremely poor state of the soldiers' equipment and mounts – mostly mules, as the horses had died on the preceding march.
Battle.
Having lost the element of surprise, at midnight Kearny ordered an immediate advance from his camp nine miles away. It had rained that night. Men, muskets, pistols and equipment were wet and cold, but the troops, after over six months without any action, were eager to engage the Californios. Early in the morning of December 6, 1846, the column proceeded by twos across the ridge between Santa Maria (present day Ramona, California) and San Pasqual. During the descent, while it was still dark and with a low-lying fog, Kearny's force became strung out and were caught in a disadvantageous position by General Pico's swift advance. Kearny gave the plan of battle prior to proceeding down into the valley, to keep all casualties to a minimum, to encircle San Pasqual to capture fresh mounts.
Captain Abraham R. Johnston's advance guard, while still three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) from Pico's forces, was ordered by Kearny to "Trot!", which Johnston misunderstood as "Gallop!". Seeing this Kearny exclaimed "Oh, heavens! I did not mean that!". Forty of the best mounted pulled far ahead of the main body of the force, in violation of the "Cavalry Tactics" manual of 1841, which instructed a charge to begin at just 40 paces from the enemy "so as to arrive in good order, and without fatiguing the horses." The mules pulling the howitzers bolted, taking one of the guns with them. Pico's mounted force remained ahead of the pursuing U.S. forces. Their fresh horses and superior horsemanship allowed them to outmaneuver and lead the advance group of dragoons away from the main force. The Californios had a distinct advantage over the U.S. soldiers in their knowledge of the terrain. A second separation developed until twenty-eight dragoons, including Kearny, were separated. Damp powder reduced the effectiveness of carbines to clubs and pistols to hammers, as described by "Felicita" a San Pasqual Indian that witnessed the battle. The Californios were armed with long lances and reatas (braided rawhide lariat), which they used with great effect. As a consequence, Johnston's charge was unsupported and his dragoons were forced to withdraw.
As the leading element of the U.S. force's attack drew close to a Kumeyaay village, the Californios wheeled back and fired their few firearms. At this time Captain Johnston was killed by a bullet. Pico then withdrew a half mile to higher ground.
A second charge ordered by Capt. Benjamin D. Moore further separated the Americans, and the Californios met his dragoons with a counter-charge by lancers. The charge was quickly surrounded, and Capt. Moore was killed. Gillespie arrived within fifteen minutes with the artillery. Mules are reluctant to wheel, and the horse-mounted Californios outflanked the Americans and captured one of the unattended howitzers. Gillespie used a sabre to fight off a vicious personal attack made by a group of lancers in revenge for his previous actions during his occupation of Los Angeles and the broken agreement to cease hostilities. He took a lance thrust just over the heart that pierced a lung. Kearny was wounded when he was lanced. Other U.S. dragoons were worked on by pairs of Californios who, with fresh mounts and years of practice, would use a lasso to yank soldiers off their mounts to the ground, where the second rider would lance them. Gillespie's men unlimbered the remaining howitzer – John Sutter's Russian-made bronze four-pounder – and were able to drive the Californio fighters from the field after Midshipman Duncan fired canister into them. Either this action (traditional U.S. view) or the unusual degree of bloodshed (traditional Californio view), prompted Pico to withdraw. The U.S. forces fortified a camp on a low hill north of the valley, initially placing their dead on mules that were unable to transport them before burying them outside of the camp under cover of darkness. The location of this camp is within the modern day San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Summarizing the battle, historian Owen Coy writes: ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;The Americans fought bravely against heavy odds, for their mules were unmanageable, and their sabers too short to cope effectively with the long California lances. Coy goes on to write: ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;The Americans were in no condition to pursue and indeed found themselves in a very unhappy plight.
After the battle.
Six messengers.
The next day, December 7, 1846, after assurances by Dr. Griffin that the worst of the injured could be moved, Captain Turner, now in command of the Dragoons, since Kearny was wounded, marched the column toward San Diego. Californio lancers established a blocking position near what is now known as "Mule Hill". Captain Turner ordered Lieutenant William H. Emory and a squad of dragoons to engage and drive off the menacing lancers. With dry powder in their carbines, the dragoons easily forced the lancers away, while inflicting five dead among the fleeing Californios. That evening, Captain Turner, established a strong defensive perimeter and then sent dispatches requesting urgent reinforcements, carried to Commodore Stockton by "Alexis Godey, Thomas Burgess, and one other." On December 8, there still had been no word from the three messengers, when suddenly there appeared a white flag from the Californios. The Lancers wished to trade "four Americans whom [they] wished to exchange for four Californians. This was embarrassing, because the Americans had but one man, Pablo Vejar, as a prisoner." With the trade completed, it was learned from the returned men that Stockton had no horses and therefore could not send a relief party. Prior to capture by the Californios on their return trip, they had hid Stockton's message under a tree, "but when this cache was examined the letters were missing." With Kearny somewhat recovering from his wounds, he regained the command from Turner, and Kearny determined to dispatch another detail to San Diego. On the evening of the 8th, Beale and Carson volunteered for the mission, however General Kearny wanted to retain Carson with the command in case he was needed. Lieut. Beale explained to Kearny that the dispatches might not make it through to San Diego without Kit Carson's experience. That night Lieut. Beale, Scout Carson, and an Indian guide named "Pontho" moved under cover of darkness, taking different routes to the commodore's headquarters at San Diego, 28 miles (45 km) to the south-southwest. For Kit Carson and Pontho (or Panto) the foot journey to San Diego was "a matter of routine." But "to the young naval officer it was pure torture, and upon his arrival at old town [San Diego], being unable to stand because of his lacerated feet, he had to be carried into Commodore Stockton's headquarters." To insure that at least one messenger would make it through, the three men had separated a few miles from San Diego, Pontho (Panto) was the first to make it, then followed Carson, then later the much suffering naval officer Lieut.