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 in the county 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 Californio Lancers, led by Major Andrés Pico. After U.S. reinforcements arrived, Kearny's troops were able to reach San Diego.
Background
On 30 June 1846, just after the outbreak of the war, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny was promoted to brigadier general in command of the Army of the West at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Kearny mustered 300 US Army regulars, 1,000 volunteers from Missouri, and the Mormon Battalion of 500 men. His orders were to conquer New Mexico and California, establish civilian governments there, and to "act in such a manner as best to conciliate the inhabitants, and render them friendly to the United States".
From Fort Leavenworth, Kearny moved via Bent's Fort to New Mexico, which submitted without fighting. Kearny established Fort Marcy at Santa Fe.
Kearny continued west with 300 troops. His force interacted with the Apache and Maricopa tribes, and captured a Mexican courier with news of American activities in California. Kearny learned that a naval force under Commodore Sloat had taken control of Monterey, the capital of Alta California. Kearny had orders to assume command of U.S. forces in California. On 6 October, Kearny met Kit Carson near Socorro. Carson informed him that the naval force (now under Commodore Robert F. Stockton) had occupied most of California.
Kearny decided that a smaller force could move faster. Keeping only about 100 men of Companies C & K, 1st Dragoons, he sent 200 men back to Santa Fe, where there were problems with the Navajo. Guided by Carson, Kearny's force reached Warner's Ranch in California on 2 December, 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. Needing remounts, Kearny's men rounded up mules and half-broken horses around Warner's Ranch, most of them belonging to José María Flores, comandante general of the Californios.
General Kearny's Army, most originating from Fort Scott:
- Captain Abraham Robinson Johnston – regimental adjutant, Company K, 12 mounted dragoons
- Captain Benjamin (Ben) Daviess Moore – Company C, 60 dismounted dragoons, some mounted on mules
- Captain Henry Smith Turner – Kearny's Army of the West Adjutant general
- Lieutenant William H. Emory – Chief Topographical Engineer, Corps of Topographical Engineers
- Lieutenant William H. Warner – Corps of Topographical Engineers, commanding four topographical engineering "mountainmen" Peterson, Londeau, Perrot, and Private Francois Menard
- Lieutenant John W. Davidson – commanded two howitzers and six dragoons placed at the rear of the advance
- Second Lieutenant Thomas (Tom) C. Hammond – aide-de-camp
- Major Swords – assistant quartermaster – rear guard for baggage train, officers' personal slaves, and civilians
- U.S. Army Surgeon (Captain) Dr. John S. Griffin
- Enlisted men:
- Judge Pearce (Kearny's personal bodyguard), Sergeant Williams, Pat Halpin (bugler), Sergeant Falls, Sergeant John Cox, Private William B. Dunne, Private David Streeter, Private James Osbourne, (Private) Dr. Erasmus Darwin French (physician assistant)
- Company C: Corporal William C. West, Private George Ashmead, Private Joseph T. Campbell, Private John Dunlop, Private William Dalton, Private William C. Leckey, Private Samuel F. Repoll, Private Joseph B. Kennedy,
- Company K: 1st Sergeant Otis L. Moor, Sergeant William Whitness, Corporal George Ramsdale, farrier David W. Johnston, Private William G. Gholston, Private William H. Fiel, Private Robert S. Gregory, Private Hugh McKaffray
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:
- 10 U.S. Navy carbiners from 'Fleet on the Pacific Coast' F Company aboard the USS Congress commanded by Acting-Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale and Passed-Midshipman James M. Duncan (later commanded USS Norwich (1861) )
- Sutter Fort's Russian brass 4-pounder cannon, which had been hidden after Mexican authorities tried to use the cannon against Californios at the Battle of Cahuenga Pass during the 1831 tax revolt. Charles Weber disclosed its location to Gillespie.
- 26 Mounted Rifle Company, commanded by Acting-Captain (Sgt.) Samual Gibson (later commanded company B of 26th Arkansas Infantry Regiment) and longtime Kit Carson and John Fremont associate, Acting-Lieutenant Alexis Godey: including Antoine Robidoux (interpreter), Philip Crosthwaite, Beatitude Patitoux, William Henry Russell, Daniel Sexton, Franklin Sears, Thomas Burgess, Jean Nutrelle, Private Henry Booker.
- Rafael Machado, Californio guide provided by San Diego
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:
- Don Leonardo Cota: Capt. Enrique Abilia (Los Angeles), Capt. Ramon Carillo (Los Angeles), Capt. Jose Maria Cota (Los Angeles), Capt. Carlos Dominguez (Los Angeles), Capt. Nicolas Hermosillo (Los Angeles), Capt. Jose Alipaz (San Juan Capistrano), Capt. Ramon O. Suna (San Diego)
- General Andres Pico: Don Leandro Osuna (San Diego), Capt. Juan Bautista Moreno, Capt. Tomás A. Sanchez, Capt. Pablo Vejar, Capt. Manuel Vejar
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 who 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:
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:
The Americans were in no condition to pursue and indeed found themselves in a very unhappy plight.