Existing comment:
Duty Triumphs
"These Men Have Crossed a Continent"
General Stephen W. Kearney
With the conquest of Mexico accomplished before the arrival of the battalion, the soldiers never engaged in combat. Rather, the Battalion's role was to strengthen and stabilize the U.S. presence in California and facilitate the settlement of the west through the construction of roads, schools, digging of wells, and firing the first bricks for a courthouse in San Diego. Discharged battalion men working for John Sutter discovered gold in Coloma, leading to the 1849 Gold Rush. Returning to the Salt Lake Valley cutting through rock in the Sierra Nevada, they opened the first wagon road east. This trail brought over 200,000 gold seekers to California.
2010 |