Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/175

Rh their companions who belonged to the army, and vied with them in the display of courage and endurance.

The Americans entered the capital of the Californias on the 10th of January, and on the 13th the leaders of the revolt capitulated at Couenga to Lieutenant Colonel Frémont, who was on his way from Santa Barbara with 400 men and four pieces of artillery, after having suppressed the attempted rising in that quarter of the territory. The enemy surrendered their artillery, and with the exception of an occasional émeute, quite limited in extent, submitted peaceably to the authority of the American officers.

A serious disagreement between Commodore Stockton and General Kearny in relation to their respective powers, interrupted the harmony which had characterized their previous intercourse, soon after they entered Ciudad de los Angelos. The dispute originated in the indefinite character of their instructions; the conquest of California having been achieved before those of a more positive nature had reached them. This was not contemplated, it would seem, by either the Navy or the War Department, and produced a great deal of ill feeling and animosity. Both officers claimed the right to exercise the chief command. On the 16th of January Commodore Stockton appointed Lieutenant Colonel Frémont governor of the territory, who accepted the office, and continued to exercise its functions until the month of March, although General Kearny insisted that the power in fact belonged to himself exclusively. Commodore Stockton was relieved by Commodore W. Branford Shubrick in the month of February, and