Battle of Dominguez Rancho

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Dominguez Rancho
partof=Mexican-American War


caption=
date=8-9 October 1846
place= Dominguez Hills, California
casus=
territory=
result= Mexican (Californio) victory
combatant1=Mexican Marines
Californios
combatant2=United States Marines
commander1= Californio Army Captain Jose Antonio Carrillo
commander2=U.S. Navy Captain William Mervine
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1=None
casualties2=14 Killed, 2 wounded
casualties3=
notes=The Battle of Dominguez Rancho (October 8-9 1846) was a military engagement of the Mexican-American War. The battle took place within Manuel Dominguez's 75,000 acre Rancho San Pedro.

Battle

Captain José Antonio Carrillo, leading fifty Californio Lancer troops, successfully held off an invasion of Pueblo de Los Angeles by some 300 United States Marines, under the command of US Navy Captain William Mervine, who was attempting to recapture the town after the Siege of Los Angeles. During the battle, four US Marines were killed and twelve were wounded. Ten US troops died of their wounds on Snake Island, Terminal Island, the following day. The Californios suffered no casualties.

By strategically running horses across the dusty Dominguez hills in the area now known as Carson, while transporting their single small cannon to various sites, Carrillo and his troops convinced the Americans they had encountered a large enemy force. Faced with heavy casualties and the superior horsemanship fighting skills displayed by the militia "Lancers", the remaining Marines were forced to retreat to their ships berthed in San Pedro Bay.

ee also

*List of conflicts in the United States
*Battles of the Mexican-American War

Literature

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=4WdgAQbv13EC&printsec=titlepage A History of California: The American Period. Robert Glass Cleland. Published 1922. The Macmillan company. 512 pages]
*California History, Bancroft - http://www.1st-hand-history.org/Hhb/HHBindex.htm