The USS Cyane, Samuel Francis Du Pont, and the War with Mexico, Part II
POSTED ON: Sunday, January 1, 2017 12:00 AM by Jennifer Bryan
Two months prior to the USS Cyane’s arrival at San Diego, Congress had declared war on Mexico after fighting broke out along the Rio Grande, the disputed boundary between Texas and Mexico. On June 7, news of hostilities reached Commodore John Drake Sloat, commanding the Pacific Squadron. Sailing from Mazatlán aboard his flagship USS Savannah, he reached Monterey, California on July 2. On July 7, Sloat disembarked a force of about 250 sailors and marines, who marched to the customs house where they read the commodore’s proclamation declaring that henceforth California would be part of the United States. They then hoisted the American flag “amid three hearty cheers by the troops and foreigners present, and a salute of 21 guns fired by all the ships.” Sloat sent orders to Commander John Berrien Montgomery aboard the USS Portsmouth to take immediate possession of San Francisco Bay and the surrounding territory, which he did on July 9.
Commodore John Drake Sloat (1781-1867) from Edwin A. Sherman, comp., The Life of the Late John Drake Sloat of the United States Navy Who Took Possession of California and Raised the American Flag at Monterey on July 7th, 1846 (Oakland, Calif., 1902), E403.1.S6 S55.
On the afternoon of July 15, 1846, the USS Congress, Commander Samuel Francis Du Pont, arrived at Monterey. Aboard was Commodore Robert Field Stockton with orders from Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft to serve as second-in-command of the Pacific Squadron. Those orders granted Sloat permission to turn over command of the squadron to Stockton and return to the United States if Sloat was in poor health. This the ailing Sloat did on July 29. With the change of command, Du Pont left the Congress to relieve Captain Mervine of the Cyane, and Captain Mervine took command of the Savannah.
Monterey, California from Joseph Warren Revere, A Tour of Duty in California; including a Description of the Gold Region: and an Account of the Voyage around Cape Horn; with Notices of Lower California, the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, and the Principal Events Attending the Conquest of the Californias (New York, 1849) F865.R4 1849.
Stockton had put into operation the first part of his plan to drive General José María Castro and his Mexican forces from California when he sent the Cyane under the command of Du Pont to San Diego with the California Battalion. The second part of his plan unfolded while the Cyane was making its way to the California port of San Pedro. Stockton had landed at that town on August 6, 1846, with 360 sailors and marines from his flagship USS Congress. When General Castro, whose army had dwindled to 100 men and who had overestimated the American force, had learned that Stockton was advancing, he broke camp. Castro and Governor Pio Pico fled south to the state of Sonora, ending Mexican government in California. The remnants of Castro’s army surrendered on August 14. By the time the Cyane anchored at San Pedro on August 15, Stockton had marched his “gallant sailor army” to Los Angeles and taken possession of “this famous ‘City of the Angels,’ the capital of California.”
Commodore Robert Field Stockton (1795-1866) from A Sketch of the Life of Com. Robert F. Stockton; with an Appendix, Comprising His Correspondence with the Navy Department respecting His Conquest of California; and Extracts from the Defence of Col. J.C. Fremont, in Relation to the Same Subject; Together with His Speeches in the Senate of the United States, and His Political Letters (New York, 1856). E403.1.S8 B39 1856
Sources:
Bauer, K. Jack. Surfboats and Horse Marines: U.S. Naval Operations in the Mexican War, 1846-48. Annapolis, Md.: United States Naval Institute, 1969. E410.B38
Johnson, Robert Erwin. Thence Round Cape Horn: The Story of United States Naval Forces on Pacific Station, 1818-1923. Annapolis, Md.: United States Naval Institute, 1963. E182.J58
U.S. Navy Department. Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Washington, 1846. VA 52.A2 (all quotes are from this source)
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