Mervine's march was poorly planned with little knowledge of the enemy. 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 planned 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 on the 9th, 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. Señora Reyes' four-pounder was placed on the narrow trail that the Americans needed to use. Ropes 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. Mervine's forces were helpless on foot against a mounted enemy they could neither see nor count. Realizing they could not reach Los Angeles, Mervine had little choice except to retreat. The main battle lasted less than an hour; five hours later Mervine's forces were back on their ship in San Pedro Bay.
Aftermath
Four of the seriously wounded Americans died and were buried on a little island in San Pedro Bay called Isla de los Muertos, along with the cabin boy.. Mervine's troops reboarded the Savannah, and after a few days, the warship sailed north toward Monterey. The fate of the old woman's gun is unclear. Some say it was surrendered to the Americans after the Capitulation of Cahuenga; however, another account tells that the cannon was resurrected by the Californio dons in 1853 for the celebration of the Fourth of July. According to the account of one Major Horace Bell, a Los Angeles Ranger, Juan Sepulveda dug up the gun from near his own property and took it to Dead Man's Island where he and his friends set it up near the graves of the Americans and fired a salute "in the exuberance of his patriotism." It is possible that the famous gun was displayed at the New Orleans Exposition of 1884-85in the Navy Exhibit.
