DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIx\N. 95 



angles, to receive them. The ground was a perfectly level, treeless plain, 

 and thus admirably fitted for the evolutions of both infantry and cavalry. 

 The enemy's cavaliers were about two thousand strong [?] principally 

 rancheros, and the best horsemen probably in the world. [Stockton esti- 

 mated them at 1,000 to 1,200; but the Mexicans say they never had more 

 than 400 to 500 men, though their extra horses, amounting to something 

 over 100, made the troop look larger. — Ed.]* They were dressed in the 

 Mexican costume, in gay scrapes of all colors, and divided into bands, or 

 squadrons, each of which had some kind of music, — trumpets, bugles, and 

 even guitars and fiddles. They were armed with the escopeta (a clumsy 

 carbine,) a few with pistols and rifles, and some with sabres, and machetes ; 

 but by far the larger part had only a short lance, with a long blade, that 

 could be used with one hand. Many flags streamed over the column ; some 

 troopers having gaily colored handkerchiefs fixed to their lances, which, 

 fluttering in the breeze, gave a festal aspect to the concourse. Confidently 

 approaching our little force, they sent their led horses to the rear under 

 charge of their vaqueros, and began their dispositions for an assured vic- 

 tory, forming in two columns with a squadron front, opposed to two faces 

 of our square. 



" Meanwhile, our men stood firm, as it had been thought best to with- 

 hold our fire until the charge was made. Orders were issued to wait until 

 the enemy came within pistol-shot ; but our sailors, seeing a tumultuous, 

 noisy crowd of men and horses rushing upon them with cries and waving 

 flags, opened fire at half-musket range rather prematurely. Our cartridges, 

 being an ounce ball and three buck-shot, proved very destructive. Men and 

 horses tumbled over in considerable numbers, and the six-pound field-guns 

 completed their discomfiture. They retired, however, in tolerable order, 

 carrying off the wounded — those who had lost their horses hanging by the 

 stirrups of the more fortunate — and again formed for another charge. Three 

 times they essayed to shake our square ; but, being steadily met with the 

 same withering fire, they at last desisted, and rode off towards the moun- 

 tains, leaving open to us the road to their capital, which we entered on the 

 same evening. The force which attacked us on this occasion consisted of 

 native Californians, superior to Mexicans in physical power and military 

 spirit, and far better horsemen ; while all the conditions of the action were 

 favorable for cavalry in attacking infantry. These men were not only finely 

 mounted on well-trained horses, but had also remounts on the field. Yet 

 not one of them got within twenty yards of our square, in the face of that 

 steady rolling file-firing ; nor was a single bayonet or lance on either side 

 reddened with the blood of horse or man. It was a fair test of the respec- 

 tive merits of fiery and chivalrous cavalry opposed to steady and disciplined 

 infantry ; and the former was, as the sportsmen say, "nowhere." 



" Their leader, Flores, attacked our sailor battalion in preference to the 

 volunteer force of Fremont, which had the prestige of long frontier experi- 

 ence that had habituated them to Indian warfare, and made them unerring 

 marksmen. I think he committed a serious blunder ; and that had he en- 

 gaged Fremont's force — which had no knowledge of infantry drill, or dis- 

 cipline, and no bayonets — he must have been successful. This affair ended 



*In a private letter to Fremont, dated Jan. 10th, the very next day after the battle. Gen. Kearny 

 wrote ; " Their force does not exceed four hundred — perhaps not more than three hundred." And again 

 on the 12th he wrote: "We met and defeated the whole force of the Californians on the 8th and gth. 

 They have not now to exceed 300 men concentrated." — Bigelow's '' Lije of Fremont,^' p. 265. 



