The Battle of Río San Gabriel and the Conquest of California

A concrete river channel east of Los Angeles was the site of the last major battle of the Mexican-American War in California, the Battle of Río San Gabriel. This is a short video about the battle and its context in the Conquest of California and the Mexican-American War.
The Battle of Río San Gabriel was fought in an afternoon, but it was also part of a longer process that played out over many years, beginning with early Anglo attempts to sieze California from Mexico and continuing after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which officially ceded California to the United States. Of course, the battle site now looks nothing like it did in 1847. The Río San Gabriel doesn’t even flow down this channel anymore; it’s now occupied by the Río Hondo, a completely different river! The concrete channel was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the mid-20th century, after a devastating series of floods in the Los Angeles area.
Here is the location of the battle marker, if you want to check it out yourself (although as you probably tell from the video, there’s not much to see there):
goo.gl/maps/MD...
If you enjoyed this video, please consider checking out my blog, in which I share other history- and technology-related content: www.willylogan.com.
Camera: Verónica Logan
Music: “The Colonel,” by Zachariah Hickman
Archival photos from Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, University of Texas Arlington Library, University of California Berkeley Library, University of Southern California Libraries, and California Historical Society.
Mexican-American War map by Wikimedia user Kaidor (CC BY-SA 3.0)

[@slingingslasher3370]

Thanks for this

[@uterotourettes15]

Living out here my whole life I've just now decided to look into the history of this area and your video popped up. You deserve way more subs and views, thanks for all the detailed descriptions. Never knew about any of this!

[@logawi]

Thank you so much! I'm glad to know that my video helped you understand your home. 😄

[@Dave49erman]

Good job! I also study So Cal history! Thumbs up! CHEERS!

[@logawi]

Thanks so much!

[@gelomelo44]

good vid!!

[@f2mel2]

I would love to own a map of all Ca. battle fields. True to form, battles always seem to have a high ground and a low ground. Armageddon, (mount Megedo) is also configured in a similar manner.

[@logawi]

I would love to have that map too! The military history of California is sadly often overlooked, especially its role in the Mexican-American War.

[@foodforfree7963]

Great video 👍 also question do you know what flags would’ve been flying during the battle?

[@logawi]

That's a good question! The US regulars would have been flying a 28-star flag (adopted after the admission of Texas in 1846 but before Iowa in 1847). There probably were some regimental flags flying as well. Mexico's flag at the time was similar to the modern flag, but the design of the eagle with a snake in its mouth was a little different then

[@And-the-new]

Seizing or Stealing?

[@hvymtl891]

I’m on the site right now as I’m watching this 👍

[@logawi]

Excellent. Cheers! 🍵

[@80sSteve-fd5em]

​@@logawiI would always go by that monument site when I went to visit my grandparents in Montebello.

[@javyair4]

Love this documentary. Where can I find those cannons by the river?

[@logawi]

Oh thanks! You can find the monument to the battle at 969 S Bluff Rd, Montebello. Where Washington Blvd crosses the Rio Hondo (former channel of the Rio San Gabriel). Happy hunting!

[@jamesalvarez8733]

Reference to the conquest of California: The territory here was as much stolen and robbed from Mexico against its will and desires as is booty extorted from a helpless traveler by threat of arms. Who that reviews the violent and fraudulent means employed to revolutionize and conquer California, can look with honest complacency on the gold coin stamped with that appellation? What has been the fate of all nations who believe they can “advance” or have abounded in the precious metals? Read the history of California life thus far developed and say whether this war was to carry with it a crime and folly for such a war, a Pandora’s box of greater evils, it would be the acquisition of the golds lands of the Sacramento. Are we not rushing into the love of money, into extravagance and worldliness, and unrepublican and unchristian habits with sufficient rapidity, Muhammad like, that we must invoke new powers from the god of gold to add to their momentum, that shrine of mammon and mars? Austria may remember how her power trampled on her impotent neighbor Poland, did she not pay dearly very dearly for her “California”? I look at similar nations who have embarked on this career of dismemberment, I see Three great powers, Austria Russia and Prussia united to dismember Poland, each one had as you do now their California; one had his Veracruz, one his New Mexico, the other his California, did they remained incapable of harm? No! You see the blind instrument of justice acting through Napoleon for Polands injuries, he drives the northern Caesar from his capitals, sleeps in his palace, the Prussian drill sergeants are seen in the plains before their capital, luckily to escape death or captivity at the hands of napoleons army, Russia suddenly invaded by over half a million armed soldiers, devastation and ruin cover all three powers, and they realize they too must pay for their wrongs! You may March into Mexico, defeat any number of Mexican armies, you may raise your flag over her capitals, but retributive Justice will call upon you a single hand of Mexicos poorest peasant raised in prayer to god and a power will fall upon you or your soldiers striking their hearts to stone and ash! Are we sure this war is not tainted by other interests or by motives such as conquest? Are the invaders of this ill-fated country, of the 19th century, so pure and upright in all their objects, and so far elevated above the passions of those of the 16th, that they may hone to escape the punishments which awaited them, and which has ever awaited the conqueror and oppressor ? The people of the United States cannot be said to have instigated or premeditated this great crime, the conquest of Mexico and California, yet by accepting the spoils, like king ahab and jezebel, they become obnoxious to the punishment for coveting and taking thy neighbors vineyards. It is no glory to us that we a larger, more affluent nation, one more able to withhold any aggression is bullying its weaker neighbor and taking from it such a large portion of its territory, it’s spoils will not be benefits. See says the aristocrat and monarchist, your boasted government of the people can commit outrages and wage unjust wars as if ever perpetrated by the old kaisers and kings! Whoever would know the further fate of this Roman Diety, “Terminus”, so recently taken under the bosom of American Democracy and under the concept of “Manifest Destiny”, may find ample gratification of his curiosity, in the luminous pages of the historical accounts of "Gibbons Decline and Fall of Rome". Our actions and transgressions have been no light events and come with it no light retribution. When we sow the seeds so copiously, we can’t complain when the harvest is so abundant! - War with Mexico Reviewed, Abiel Livermore 1850 American Peace Society

[@jsandoval3226]

It’s deceptive to call U.S. military and its settlers Americans and referring to Mexico and Mexicans as Californios. These foreign invaders were in fact violating Mexican sovereignty of the American people

[@logawi]

I'm afraid I don't understand your comment. The US military are "Americans" because that is their nationality. "Californios" are not any Mexicans but specifically Mexicans from California during this period. What would you call these groups?