combined parties entered the town in safety.

At this time commenced that memorable conflict between the two
commanders--General Kearney and Commodore Stockton--respecting the chief
command, which subsequently created so much trouble in the American
ranks and throughout the country. Commodore Stockton appears, however,
to have retained the authority; and, having organized a force
sufficiently strong to warrant the undertaking, and General Kearney
having accepted an invitation to accompany the expedition, on December
29th he marched from San Diego, with two officers and fifty-five
privates (dragoons, two officers and forty-five seamen acting as
artillerymen; eighteen officers and three hundred seventy-nine seamen
and marines acting as infantry; six officers, and fifty-four privates),
volunteers, and six pieces of artillery, against the main body of the
insurgents, near Los Angeles. The command appears to have been given, at
his own request, to General Kearney; and as the wagon train was heavily
laden, the progress of the column was very slow--the expedition reaching
the Rio San Gabriel on January 8, 1847--although the enemy had offered
no opposition to its progress even in passes where a small force could
have effectively kept it back. At this place, however, he had made a
stand to dispute the passage of the river; and here the second action
was fought between the Americans and the Californians.

The Rio San Gabriel, at the spot where this action was fought, is about
one hundred yards wide, the current about knee-deep, flowing over a
quicksand bottom. The left bank, by which the Americans approached, is
level; that on the right is also level for a short distance back, but
beyond this narrow plain a bank fifty feet in height commands the ford
and the intervening flat, while both banks are fringed with a thick
undergrowth. On this bank, directly in front of the ford, four pieces of