348 DISPUTES SAN GABRIELLE MESA LOS ANGELES. 



before they departed, Stockton agreed that he might command the 

 expedition in a position subordinate to him as commander-in-chief. 



On the 29th of December, with sixty volunteers, four hundred 

 marines, six heavy pieces of artillery, eleven heavy wagons, and 

 fifty-seven dragoons composing the remains of General Kearney's 

 troop, they marched towards the north, and, on the 7th of January, 

 found themselves near the river San Gabrielle, the passage of which 

 the enemy, with superior numbers under General Flores, was prepar- 

 ed to dispute. It was a contest between American sailors and sol- 

 diers, and California horsemen, for the whole Mexican troop was 

 mounted ; yet the Americans were successful and crossed the river. 

 This action occurred about nine miles from Los Angeles, and our 

 men pushed on six miles further, till they reached the Mesa, a level 

 prairie, where Flores again attacked them and was beaten off. Re- 

 treating thence to Couenga, the Californians, refusing to submit to 

 Stockton and Kearney, capitulated, as we have already declared to 

 Colonel Fremont, who had been raised to this rank by our govern- 

 ment. On the morning of the 10th of January, 1847, the Americans 

 took final possession of Los Angeles. Soon after this a govern- 

 ment was established for California, which was to continue until the 

 close of the war or until the government or the population of the 

 region changed it. 



The disputes which arose between Stockton, Kearney, and Fre- 

 mont, as to the right to command in California, under the orders 

 from their respective departments, are matters rather of private and 

 personal interest than of such public concern as would entitle them 

 to be minutely recounted in this brief sketch of the Mexican war. 

 It is impossible to present a faithful idea of the controversy and its 

 merits without entering into a detail of all the circumstances, but 

 for this, we have no space, in the present history. Strict military 

 etiquette appears to have demanded of Kearney, immediately upon 

 his arrival, the assertion of his right to command as a general officer 

 operating in the interior of the country. This was a question solely 

 between Stockton and himself, in which Fremont, a subordinate 

 officer, recently transplanted from the Topographical corps into the 

 regular army as a Colonel, had of course, no interest save that of 

 duty. Nevertheless he became involved in the controversy between 

 the claimants, and although raised to the rank of Governor of Cali- 

 fornia, by Commodore Stockton, he was deprived of his authority 

 when General Kearney subsequently assumed that station. The 

 disputes between the Commodore and the General seem to have 

 arisen under the somewhat conflicting instructions of the War and 



