San Marcos Pass - "Battle" of Fremont's Pass

"Battle" of Fremont's Pass

No shots were fired during this "battle", which consisted solely of John C. Frémont's California Battalion crossing the mountains via San Marcos Pass on the night of December 24, 1846. At that time the Pass was only a path, and a rough one at that. It was a rainy night, and while Frémont's battalion had lost 150 horses and mules from sliding down the muddy slopes during the crossing, the exhausted men were able to reach the Goleta Valley foothills by the next morning, where they camped for two days. On December 27, 1846, they entered into Santa Barbara and ran up the Stars and Stripes at the Thompson Adobe (now 809-811 State Street). No force defended the town: all local men had gone to Los Angeles earlier that week to join the forces under Captain Flores and General Andrés Pico. These forces surrendered to the Fremont on January 13, 1847, a little more than two weeks later, at Cahuenga Pass near Los Angeles.

A local Army National Guard center is named after Frémont, in recognition of his capturing Santa Barbara and making it part of the United States.

The local legend of "Fremont's Cannon" derives from this battle.

There is a California Historical marker located at the site which references the participation of William Benjamin Foxen in leading Fremont through the pass into Santa Barbara.