336 CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 



were numerous, and a desperate fight ensued, which at one 

 time well nigh proved fatal to the Americans, their line be- 

 coming scattered by the sorry condition of the animals on 

 which some of them were mounted. Captain Johnson made 

 a furious charge upon the enemy with the advance guard. He 

 fell almost in the very commencement of the fight, but the 

 courage of our countrymen did not flag, and the enemy was 

 eventually forced to retreat. ■ Captain Moore led off rapidly 

 in pursuit, but the mules of the dragoons could not keep up 

 with his horses, and the enemy seeing the break in the line, 

 renewed the action, and charged with the lance, in the use 

 of which they are very expert. They fought well, and 

 the American loss was heavy. General Kearney himself 

 was wounded in two places, Captain Gillespie and Lieu- 

 tenant Warner each in three, and Captain Gibson and 

 eleven others were also wounded, having from two to ten 

 marks of lances on their bodies. Captain Johnson, Captain 

 Moore, Lieutenant Hammond, two sergeants, two corporals, 

 eleven privates, and a man attached to the topographical de- 

 partment, were slain. The severe wounds of the actors in 

 this fight caused the march of the army to be delayed, and it 

 did not reach San Diego until the 12th of December. 



When Commodore Stockton heard of the outbreak of the 

 Calif ornians, he dispatched the frigate " Savannah " to relieve 

 Captain Gillespie, but she arrived too late. Three hundred 

 and twenty of her crew landed and marched towards the City 

 of the Angels, but the Californians met them, well appointed 

 with fine horses and artillery, and though the sailors fought 

 heroically, they were eventually compelled • to retire before 

 such an overwhelming superiority of numbers. They lost 

 eleven in killed and wounded. Commodore Stockton came 

 down himself to San Pedro in the " Congress," and made an- 



