US Navy Ordnance Seaman assigned to Company D Musketeers on the USS Cyane, a 790-ton sloop-of-war carrying 20 guns, under Commodore Robert F. Stockton and involved with the Battle of Rio San Gabriel in California during the Mexican-American War after docking in San Pedro and was wounded in the right thigh from "friendly fire" injuries during the battle from a soldier's musket and died later that night.
Burial location had been unknown and is not registered with Federal VA grave locator but a book documenting the detailed memoir of a soldier that was present at the battle has just been found titled "The Journals of Marine Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson 1845-1848." The description of the burial is on page 276. The memoir describes a fellow Seaman Frederick Strauss, who had been fatally shot in the neck during the battle and Seaman Thomas Smith who had been shot by accident and died that night, being buried together in one grave at the location of the battle the morning of January 9th. The bodies were uncovered by the Californios and stripped of their clothing and left exposed until an unknown American reburied the bodies that night and it can only be assumed that the bodies remained at this location as a final resting site. There is no evidence that the US Government recovered the bodies and interred them at another location.
Seaman Smith and Seaman Strauss are not interred at the Mare Island Cemetery in Vallejo like the Navy Sailors who were originally buried at Dead Man's Island in San Pedro following the Battle of Rancho Dominguez and relocated.
Burial listing remains "Buried or Lost at Sea" with added burial description.
Notes: Information about Seaman Thomas Smith referenced from : James M. Cutts. "The Conquest of California and New Mexico" (Phila.: Carey & Hart, 1847), p. 205.
National Archives has been contacted for help and any information regarding his Naval record
Burial location had been unknown and is not registered with Federal VA grave locator but a book documenting the detailed memoir of a soldier that was present at the battle has just been found titled "The Journals of Marine Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson 1845-1848." The description of the burial is on page 276. The memoir describes a fellow Seaman Frederick Strauss, who had been fatally shot in the neck during the battle and Seaman Thomas Smith who had been shot by accident and died that night, being buried together in one grave at the location of the battle the morning of January 9th. The bodies were uncovered by the Californios and stripped of their clothing and left exposed until an unknown American reburied the bodies that night and it can only be assumed that the bodies remained at this location as a final resting site. There is no evidence that the US Government recovered the bodies and interred them at another location.
Seaman Smith and Seaman Strauss are not interred at the Mare Island Cemetery in Vallejo like the Navy Sailors who were originally buried at Dead Man's Island in San Pedro following the Battle of Rancho Dominguez and relocated.
Burial listing remains "Buried or Lost at Sea" with added burial description.
Notes: Information about Seaman Thomas Smith referenced from : James M. Cutts. "The Conquest of California and New Mexico" (Phila.: Carey & Hart, 1847), p. 205.
National Archives has been contacted for help and any information regarding his Naval record
US Navy Ordnance Seaman assigned to Company D Musketeers on the USS Cyane, a 790-ton sloop-of-war carrying 20 guns, under Commodore Robert F. Stockton and involved with the Battle of Rio San Gabriel in California during the Mexican-American War after docking in San Pedro and was wounded in the right thigh from "friendly fire" injuries during the battle from a soldier's musket and died later that night.
Burial location had been unknown and is not registered with Federal VA grave locator but a book documenting the detailed memoir of a soldier that was present at the battle has just been found titled "The Journals of Marine Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson 1845-1848." The description of the burial is on page 276. The memoir describes a fellow Seaman Frederick Strauss, who had been fatally shot in the neck during the battle and Seaman Thomas Smith who had been shot by accident and died that night, being buried together in one grave at the location of the battle the morning of January 9th. The bodies were uncovered by the Californios and stripped of their clothing and left exposed until an unknown American reburied the bodies that night and it can only be assumed that the bodies remained at this location as a final resting site. There is no evidence that the US Government recovered the bodies and interred them at another location.
Seaman Smith and Seaman Strauss are not interred at the Mare Island Cemetery in Vallejo like the Navy Sailors who were originally buried at Dead Man's Island in San Pedro following the Battle of Rancho Dominguez and relocated.
Burial listing remains "Buried or Lost at Sea" with added burial description.
Notes: Information about Seaman Thomas Smith referenced from : James M. Cutts. "The Conquest of California and New Mexico" (Phila.: Carey & Hart, 1847), p. 205.
National Archives has been contacted for help and any information regarding his Naval record
Burial location had been unknown and is not registered with Federal VA grave locator but a book documenting the detailed memoir of a soldier that was present at the battle has just been found titled "The Journals of Marine Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson 1845-1848." The description of the burial is on page 276. The memoir describes a fellow Seaman Frederick Strauss, who had been fatally shot in the neck during the battle and Seaman Thomas Smith who had been shot by accident and died that night, being buried together in one grave at the location of the battle the morning of January 9th. The bodies were uncovered by the Californios and stripped of their clothing and left exposed until an unknown American reburied the bodies that night and it can only be assumed that the bodies remained at this location as a final resting site. There is no evidence that the US Government recovered the bodies and interred them at another location.
Seaman Smith and Seaman Strauss are not interred at the Mare Island Cemetery in Vallejo like the Navy Sailors who were originally buried at Dead Man's Island in San Pedro following the Battle of Rancho Dominguez and relocated.
Burial listing remains "Buried or Lost at Sea" with added burial description.
Notes: Information about Seaman Thomas Smith referenced from : James M. Cutts. "The Conquest of California and New Mexico" (Phila.: Carey & Hart, 1847), p. 205.
National Archives has been contacted for help and any information regarding his Naval record
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
