Battle of Dominguez Ranch was a Mexican-American War engagement fought in California, 1846. It was a Mexico victory.
The Battle of Dominguez Rancho, or the Battle of the Old Woman's Gun, was a military engagement of the Mexican-American War that took place on October 8-9, 1846, within Manuel Dominguez's 75,000-acre (30,000 ha) Rancho San Pedro. Captain José Antonio Carrillo, leading fifty California troops, successfully held off an invasion of Pueblo de Los Angeles by some 300 United States Marines, capturing for the first time in the few instances of U.S. history the U.S. Colors upon the battlefield, while under the command of US Navy Captain William Mervine, who was attempting to recapture the town after the Siege of Los Angeles. By strategically running horses across the dusty Dominguez Hills, while transporting their single small cannon to various sites, Carrillo and his troops fooled the Americans into thinking they had encountered a large enemy force. Faced with heavy casualties and the superior fighting skills displayed by the Californios, the remaining Marines were forced to retreat to their ships docked in San Pedro Bay.
After receiving word of the Siege of Los Angeles, Commodore Robert F. Stockton sent US Navy Captain William Mervine and the frigate Savannah on October 4 to San Pedro to assist Captain Archibald H. Gillespie. Arriving on October 7, Mervine set out on October 8 with sailors, Marines and bear flaggers to recapture the town. (Note: there is confusion about the exact dates of the events, with some sources believing them to be a day earlier.)
Having little knowledge of the enemy, Mervine planned his march poorly. It began inauspiciously with the death by friendly fire of a cabin boy upon landing. His troops were armed with an assortment of muskets, cutlasses and pikes; they brought no horses, wagons or cannons. The first leg of the march toward the pueblo, on October 8, was a six-hour dusty slog with little or no water, during which they were harassed by the enemy on the hillsides around them. Mervine and his troops reached the abandoned Dominguez Rancho, where they camped for the night, within view of an advance detachment of Flores' troops. There was sporadic firing from the enemy during the night, with no other effect than that of depriving Mervine's party of sleep. Setting off at daylight the next day, the Americans advanced just to the north of Dominguez Rancho.
When the Americans had occupied Los Angeles in August, residents had hidden some weapons by burying them. General José Flores' force, equipped with lances, knives and old firearms that had been hidden, was nearly as poorly armed, but it did have a cannon.
This old brass four-pounder, used ceremonially in the Los Angeles Plaza, had been buried in the garden of Inocencia Reyes. It was dug up and mounted on a horse-drawn limber. (In another account, the "old Woman" is identified as Clara Cota de Reyes. It is said that she had buried the small cannon in a cane patch near her home with the help of her daughters, one of whom was named Inocencia.) Señora Reyes' four-pounder was mounted on a homemade carriage and dragged on the narrow trail that the Americans needed to use. Ropes (probably lassos or riatas) were lashed to the limber to pull the gun into the brush for reloading. The Californio horsemen deployed at a safe distance from the trail on the enemy's flanks. The simple tactics proved effective. When the Americans came within 400 yards, the cannon was fired and quickly pulled back into the brush, followed by musket fire from the horsemen.
Approximate location. The nearest recorded settlement is shown; the exact site is unrecorded.
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