Story by Norma Waddell Photos courtesy San Pasqual Battlefield State Park
Fog lay stubbornly at the bottom of the peaceful San Pasqual Valley early on the morning of December 6, 1846. But that quiet valley would soon change into a bloody battlefield. General Stephen Kearny (pronounced
Karney) and his U.S. Dragoons would engage Captain Andres Pico, brother of the Mexican Governor Pio Pico, and 80 of his men in what would later be known as the Battle of San Pasqual. The skirmish would leave 19 Americans dead, 19 wounded (two that would die of their wounds later) and five Californios dead or missing in action. One of the few battles of the Mexican American War, fought on what is now U.S. soil, the Battle of San Pasqual is part of California history and the subject of an annual reenactment in the very same place the actual battle occurred. For the past 27 years, reenactments of the Battle of San Pasqual have been going on in our very own neighborhood. Less than a mile past the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park sits on the site of the former Indian village and is where spectators can watch members of the San Pasqual Battlefield Volunteer Association play out the events of that fateful day. This year it will take place on Sunday, December 1st. As part of the promise of Manifest Destiny, President James Polk made an offer to purchase California from Mexico shortly after
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taking office. Already incensed by the United States making Texas its 28th state while still under Mexican rule, Mexico would refuse the offer and break off negotiations. Following an attack by the Mexican cavalry on an American fort near the Rio Grande, land claimed by both sides, war was declared against Mexico. Polk called the attack that would leave 16 Americans dead or wounded, an “invasion” of U.S. territory where American blood had been “shed.” General Kearney was ordered to march his troops from their fort in Levenworth, Kansas to San Diego, California, the longest march in history, measuring over 2,000 miles. He was to capture New Mexico and continue across what is now Arizona and finally California. What he did not expect was to engage a group of non-military ranchers that weren’t keen on potentially losing the land they had been granted. The ranchers, or Californios as they called themselves, upon learning of the Americans’ presence, united and fought back. When Captain Archibald Gillespie of the U.S. Marines, sent to meet Kearney, fired a cannon, the battle ended. After burying their wounded the Americans would resume their march, but would be stopped again by the