Sloat's Landing - Monterey, California
Posted by: 
hotshoe
N 36° 36.210 W 121° 53.622
10S E 598944 N 4051458
Large bronze marker in the plaza shows the location of the annexation of California by US forces
Waymark Code: WM63ZP
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 03/29/2009
Views: 10
After war broke out between Mexico and the USA over territory in Texas, Commodore John Sloat dispatched two US Navy ships from Mazatlan (where they were at harbor, in Mexico) to Monterey, and followed in his flagship Savannah. When Sloat arrived in Monterey in the first week of July, he took possession of Alta California in the name of the USA without a fight. Although Sloat's landing is often referred to as "The Battle of Monterey", that name seems to be a desire to make such history more exciting - but there is no good evidence that there was any skirmish, much less a "battle".
The marker contains an attractive image of the rocky seashore topped by the old Custom House, as it would have appeared to those approaching by ship.
The text simply says:
"Sloat's Landing
On this spot on July 7, 1846, U.S. Marines and Sailors landed
and raised the American flag over the Custom House
which stands before you. Mexico and the United States
were are war. American forces landing in Monterey
claimed 600,000 square miles of land for
the United States."
The Naval Institute Historical Atlas of the U.S. Navy has this passage:
"When in the fall of 1842 Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, commanding the Pacific Squadron, heard rumors of the imminent outbreak of war, he immediately sailed north from Callao to seize Monterey. Learning afterward that the rumor was false, he apologized and returned control of the town to Mexican authorities. Though Congress officially censured him for his rashness, he had demonstrated the vulnerability of this rich and isolated Mexican province.
Jones's censure provided an object lesson to his successor, Commodore John Sloat, who commanded the American Pacific Squadron when war did break out four years later. Recalling Jones's fate, Sloat was determined to avoid any overt act until he received official orders from Washington. Sloat dispatched the sloop Portsmouth to Monterey from his base at Mazatlan in March 1846 with orders to protect American lives. But only after he learned of the Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma did Sloat finally sail for California himself, arriving at Monterey on 5 July in the frigate Savannah.
By then the situation in California had become extraordinarily complicated due to the activities of Lt. Col. John C. Fremont. The "Pathfinder" [Fremont] operated under a commission from the government to survey the Arkansas and Red Rivers, but he had ignored his orders and instead led his party into California in 1845. By June of 1846 he had associated himself with a group of rebellious American settlers, and on 4 July, the day before Sloat arrived at Monterey, Fremont raised the flag of an independent California Republic at Sonoma.
Learning of these events upon his arrival, Sloat assumed (incorrectly) that Fremont had received official orders to commence hostilities, and, therefore, issued orders to his own squadron to seize both Monterey and San Francisco. On 7 July a U.S. landing party of 225 sailors and marines from the three-ship American squadron marched into the town square at Monterey and raised the American flag. Two days later a similar scene was acted out in San Francisco. " (page 70)
by Craig L. Symonds, cartography by William J. Clipson
Naval Institute Press, 2001
Group that erected the marker: State of California
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Custom House Plaza just above Fisherman's Wharf
Monterey, CA USA
93940
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