Combat· Mexican-American War
First Capture of Los Angeles
The bloodless occupation of the chief town of southern California, and the start of a contest that would prove far harder than it first appeared.
On 13 August 1846 the combined force of Commodore Stockton and Captain Frémont entered Los Angeles without opposition and raised the flag, and a small garrison under Captain Archibald Gillespie of the Marines, some thirty to forty men, was left to hold the city. The easy occupation seemed to settle southern California, but Gillespie's harsh imposition of martial law soon provoked the Californios into the revolt of late September that drove the Americans out. The town would change hands again before the final American reoccupation in January 1847, after the battles of San Gabriel and La Mesa. The initial capture itself was unopposed; the wounded recorded for this entry belong to the fighting that followed Gillespie's occupation rather than the peaceful entry.
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Record no. 56