Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/370

348 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 prepared to dispute. It was a contest between American sailors and soldiers, 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. Retreating 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 government. On the morning of the 10th of January, 1847, the Americans took final possession of Los Angeles. Soon after this a government 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 Frémont, 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 Frémont, 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 California, 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