Army and Navy Review 1915 Panama-California Edition - Balboa Park

H ISTORY OF FORT ROSECRANS
By Chaplain Jos. L. Hunter, C. A. C.
GEN ER AL VIE W OF FORT ROSECRANS
COAST D E F EN SE S OF SAN DIEGO, is the official designation which includes
Fort Rosecrans, Fort Pio Pico, San Diego Barracks, and some other m ilitary
reservations. Spain claimed San Diego Bay by reason of discovery by Cabrillo
in 1542. The m ilitary defenses date from 1769, when the Spanish Naval and
Army Expeditions of Portola reached San Diego Bay. A hospital was improvised
near the site of San Diego Barracks, and a few days later the Presidio,
on the hill just back of Old Town, was constructed with rude earthworks, and some
huts for quarters. These were strengthened the next year by a stockade and two bronze
cannon, one of which was pointed toward the harbor and the other toward the Indian
Village. In 1793 Vancouver visited the harbor and suggested to the English the advantages
of fortifications on Ballast Point, then called Point Guijarros (cobblestones). The
Spaniards immediately strengthened the Presidio and built Fort Guijarros on the site of
Battery W ilkeson. The battery was six Nine Pounders. Its first action, lasting nearly
an hour, was w ith the American ship “Lelia Byrd,” m ounting six small guns and engaged
in contraband trade. In 1S04 a 25-foot flat boat was constructed and used in the
San Diego river between Ft. Guijarros and the Presidio. In 1820 the Spanish Garrison
at the Presidio was 110 men. The first. Mexican Governor of California, Eclieandia,
made the Presidio his Headquarters, and Pio Pico, the last of the Mexican Governors,
spent much of his life at Old Town. The United States forces arrived on the sloop of
war “Cyane,” S. F. Dupont, Captain, and included M ajor John C. Fremont, K it Carson,
and 160 men. They captured San Diego and used it as a base for operations against
Dos Angeles. December 6, 1846, Gen. Kearney fought against Gen. Andreas Pico the
battle of San Pasqual and lost 21 killed, whose bones lie in the M ilitary Cemetery on
the crest of Point Loma. Kearney’s men were worn out, and starving, from their long
march across the continent, and underestimated the enemy.
San Diego Barracks were acquired in 1850 and occupied by Volunteers. U. S. Grant
was a Quartermaster here, in the early days of the American occupation. Battery “D,”
Third Artillery, arrived in San Diego in 1855. Since that time the Third Artillery has
always been represented in the Defenses of San Diego.