Battle of San Pasqule 1846, Escondido CA.

[P-59A]

I had known about this site for years. I finaly have a jobsite 15 minutes from the site and will be there untill September ( home on the weekends). I read what information the moderators would like to see, but this was a running battle that spanned 8 miles over four days. The city of Escondido has grown up since then and things have changed over the years. Things are spead out. This last Thursday was my first time at one of the battle sites and I found out I needed to dig deep to understand what happened. The Museum is closed and looks like it has been closed many years. The trails were over grown with cactus and dangerous to navigate. I hit the cactus a few times and spent an hour pulling thornes when I got back to my room. I still have three that went in deep and I will have to wait for them to puss out. 

       This is the area around the closed musum. The second part of the battle actualy took place to the left of the museum and in the field in front of the museum/ The first part took place on the other side of the field below the hills.

[P-59A]

Monument on the hill above the museum.

[P-59A]

This is a map of the running battle, It is not to scale. The cartographer had to condence everting on to one page. The opening part of the battle is about right, but everything else is compressed. That map covers 8 miles of movement.

[P-59A]

This is what happened on the ground in front of the visitor center/museum

[P-59A]

In the map above you will see Pueblo San Pasqual to the right of the visitor center. All of the writings refer to it as the Indian village. This photo was taken in the 1880's from the field looking towards that site. The visitor center would be below the hill on the left.

[P-59A]

In the map above you will see Pueblo San Pasqual to the right of the visitor center. All of the writings refer to it as the Indian village. This photo was taken in the 1880's from the field looking towards that site. The visitor center would be below the hill on the left.

    One other thing about that map is the placement of the creek. That is were it is today. About 30 years ago a researcher dug deep into the creeksactual location in 1846. The cartographers map shows it in a different location. This is importaint to understand what happened were. The researcher was able to prove through the few historic photos he could find that in 1846 the creek ran below Brandy road. The small hill next to the creek were Kerney came down the Carreta road is the site of the first battle. This site had been lost to time untill that reasearcher figured it out

[P-59A]

This is what that hill looks like today. Over the years that gap has been filled in to redirect the creek and finaly they filled it up and planted on it/ The last photo was taken in the 20's and clearly shows that the creek had been  there. The sand wash to the right is the give away.

[P-59A]

The first map is modern, the second map is the actual map.  Themodern map is scaled out and would have you believe that the troops crossed half the wash before getting to that small hill. The actual map and what was written down after the battle along with  the native accounts give a totaly different picture.

[P-59A]

This is the site I have been mining my information from. The researcher invested 15 + years on this. While not 100 persent on everything its as good as it gets!   https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d5de0e99771e84ebJmltdHM9MTcxNTk5MDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0xZjJkZDU2Mi1jYmVmLTZmYjktMWQ4My1kYWY5Y2ExNDZlMDUmaW5zaWQ9NTI2OQ&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=1f2dd562-cbef-6fb9-1d83-daf9ca146e05&psq=battle+of+escondido&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9zYW5wYXNxdWFsLm9yZy8_cGFnZV9pZD05MjI&ntb=1

[P-59A]

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=f05f425d5729b2a2JmltdHM9MTcxNTk5MDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0xZjJkZDU2Mi1jYmVmLTZmYjktMWQ4My1kYWY5Y2ExNDZlMDUmaW5zaWQ9NTM0Ng&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=1f2dd562-cbef-6fb9-1d83-daf9ca146e05&psq=recovery+of+war++dead+at+the+battle+of+san+pasquel+1846&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9hcmNoaXZlLm9yZy9kZXRhaWxzL2JhdHRsZXNhbnBhc3F1YWwwMG9jb3k&ntb=1 This is a link to a State of California book published in 1921.

[P-59A]

On page 15 of that book is a map of the battle site as they understood it in 1921. You will see two places circuled on the map. One is the location of the museum and the next is this. In the photo's you will see the replaced 1924 monument. It is understood Kerney retreated to this spot after the second engagment (or 3rd if you count the contact made at that small hill when  they dropped into the valley). I Thought it odd the site has a short wall around it. My buddy I hiked with that day commented it looked like a cemetary. Everyone was buried at Ft. Rosecrans after the battle. One of the accounts I read stated Kearny brought the dead with him and buried them at the camp site he the used to R&R after that first hard day of fighting. The map indicates they  were buried near a tree in the wash. I have problems with that. That would mean they were buried during the battle. I think the account I read is the correct account and this is the site Kearney camped in.

[P-59A]

This is a photo of Mule Hill taken in 1880 and Mule Hill today.

[P-59A]

This photo shows a Dragoon who fought at Mule Hill in 1846 standing next to his battle position im 1880. I'm standing at the exact same spot yesterday.

[danimal03]

Nice pictures and post.  I have never been there.  I do have in my collection one of the rarest US military buttons, and it is from this time period.  Thank you for posting this.

[P-59A]

4 hours ago, danimal03 said:

Nice pictures and post.  I have never been there.  I do have in my collection one of the rarest US military buttons, and it is from this time period.  Thank you for posting this.

Thanks for the reply. If you have the time look at the study of the battle I linked. I think you will find it interesting.

[iron bender]

P59A, great write up and location pics! If I ever get out that way I'll definitely visit. Looks like a great place to wear snake boots. 

[P-59A]

I found the place described as the location of Snook's Adobe in the report. I also found something else that describes the Adobe as being in a different location. It's true location was most likley in the park, but that dosen't change the fact items were found in that back yard and in that creek/spring. The creek is full of crap dumped over the decades and hard to navigate due to the vegitation. I went yesterday and will spend more time looking at it.

[P-59A]

2 hours ago, iron bender said:

P59A, great write up and location pics! If I ever get out that way I'll definitely visit. Looks like a great place to wear snake boots. 

Snakes can hear me dragging my sorry butt through the brush miles away. The only one I have seen so far was at the San Pasqual battle site.

[P-59A]

After looking  at the places first hand, this painting strikes me as a pretty fair depiction of what it most likley looked like in the thick of it.

[P-59A]

Since the 1920's it was assumed this was the place were Kearny camped to tend the wounded and bury his dead after the first day of battle. It is not. Its near the spot, but this is  not it.  In reading what I can find I'm seeing issues with the dead that were recovered at a later date. The detail that went back, put the remains of the enlisted in one box and the Officers who were not buried in the common grave in thier own box's. The detail confirmed the recovery by counting skulls. What the detail did not know or at least nothing indicates they knew, was that Kearny interned four Californio's with the enlisted. The details report makes no mention of extra bodies in the common grave. The details report also makes no mention of recovering the body from Mule Hill. All of the current history states that body was also recovered. I can not find were that information comes from. I also see nothing about the Californio's left in the common grave.

[iron bender]

This makes me want to re-read 'My Confession'

[P-59A]

This is from the San Diego History site..."The lancers had galloped away by the time the remainder of the dragoons reached the scene of conflict. The battle lasted about one half-hour on the December morning and involved less than half of the Americans who rode into the valley of San Pasqual.107 The Army of the West had possession of the field—a field strewn with the crumpled forms of eighteen American soldiers and three others who would soon die of wounds. An additional seventeen men sustained injuries, while the Californios rode off with no more than a dozen wounded.108"... The numbers do not add up. The only soldier to die of wounds after the battle was burird on Mule Hill. These numbers suggest 21 were buried in the mass grave and the graves for the Officers when they camped for the night after the battle.

[P-59A]

From another site...."

Because of the tremendous fear of being re-attacked, and the immense discomfort of the cactus, no one could sleep. Indeed, the Americans had left the battlefield quickly. So quickly, they had not had time to adequately search for all their missing dead and wounded.

Suddenly, without warning and under the cover of darkness, several San Pasqual Indians arrived at the Americans’ camp with a wounded dragoon. They had found him earlier in the evening when some of the women had gone down to the river at the spring to fetch water.

As the soldiers tended to their newly arrived wounded comrade, the Indians saw the Americans’ demise. As Americans sat around campfires trying to stay warm, the Indians helped them construct six travois to be pulled by mules and on which to lay their most seriously wounded. The travois were constructed out of willow and cottonwood with furs in the middle on which to lay the wounded.

Meanwhile, with the sun gone and the temperatures dropping low, Private James Osbourne of Company ‘C’ was still lying out on the edge of the battlefield. Left alone, he struggled with a serious lance wound in the neck, and with the severe cold.

The Chief of the San Pasqual Indians, Panto, rode over to the Californios and negotiated with Pico to leave the Americans alone for the night in order that they might retrieve any wounded left on the field and to be allowed to bury their dead.  Pico granted this request.

A solemn order was finally given. It was to select a site and dig a large pit in which to intern the dead. It was to be done as discreetly as possible so as the Mexicans or Indians would not re-dig it up and pilfer the bodies. Knowing that their camp would later be gone over by scavengers, a decision was made to bury the dead far away from the camp. The site had to be left unmarked and yet, had to be distinguishable enough so that at a later time, the site could be relocated for re-internment purposes This for a proper Christian and military burial.

By 9:00 p.m., a work detail was busy digging the large burial pit."...."

In an almost haunting way, the scent of the bodies had attracted a pack of coyotes, who, while the pit was being refilled with earth, now began to howl, sending an eeriness across the silent battlefield.

The grave had been made easy to conceal. It was dug not far from their camp, east, and on the other side of the river. Buried in sandy soil adjacent the bank of the river, the now covered pit blended in with the rest of the sandy terrain. Their only marker of the grave site was a lone willow tree."....Kearny reported 18 recovered dead, but it seems at least two others were missing. I assume the 18 count includes the Sgt. buried on Mule Hill.

[Gear Fanatic]

I belive there are some artifacts in the Temecula history center? Also seen some in antiques stor in Temecula, I live in the area but have never actually visited the sight.

[P-59A]

This is from the Rosecrans Nat. Cemetary. They have18 buried on site, but the recovery dates and initial burial differ from what was in the report I have been citing...."During the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), Brigadier Stephen Watts Kearny was tasked with conquering Mexico's northern provinces, New Mexico, and California. On December 6–7, 1846, his joint U.S. military force engaged a group of Californios (Mexican colonists born in California) in the Battle of San Pasqual, about 30 miles north of San Diego. Eighteen of Kearny's men fell in the battle, but his forces held the field. The dead were buried where they fell, but by 1874 the remains were removed to the San Diego Military Reservation. Eight years later they were reinterred at what is now Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. In 1922, the San Diego chapter of the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West had a large boulder brought from the battlefield and placed at the gravesite with a plaque that lists the names of the dead."