Combat· Mexican-American War
USS Portsmouth landing at Cabo San Lucas
A second flag-raising at the very tip of the Baja peninsula, days after the landing at San José del Cabo.
On 3 April 1847 the Portsmouth stood off Cabo San Lucas, and a Marine detachment went ashore to raise the American flag and claim the southern point of Lower California for the United States. No resistance was offered. The landing was part of the systematic, largely bloodless occupation of the Baja ports that the squadron carried out in the spring of 1847, planting the flag at each in turn to establish American authority over the peninsula. Cabo San Lucas, at the southern extremity, rounded out the initial sweep. Like the others, it was an easy occupation in the early phase, before the Mexican resistance in Baja organized itself and forced the Americans into the defensive fighting that came later in the year and into 1848.
Podcast episodes on Mexican-American War
Record no. 338