Sending the _Savannah_ immediately from San Francisco to help the forces at the South, Stockton followed in the _Congress_ on October 12th, having Frémont with “one hundred and seventy good men” along with him. Meantime the Mexicans had risen against the Americans at Monterey. In fact, the Mexicans in the country far outnumbered the Americans, and it was only the difference in races that prevented the Mexicans driving the Yankees into the sea. However, Stockton landed fifty men, under Midshipmen Baldwin and Johnson, at Monterey and hurried on to San Diego. Here an attack by the Mexicans was repulsed, and then came Brigadier-general Stephen W. Kearny over the mountains with one hundred men from Santa Fé, New Mexico. Kearny’s men, aided by the sea forces, attacked the Mexicans at San Bernardino on the morning of December 6th; but were repulsed with a loss that was in a way significant, for eighteen were killed to fifteen wounded, and Kearny and Captain Gillespie and Lieutenant Beale of the naval squad were among the wounded. Meantime Captain Mervine of the _Savannah_, had tried to march to Los Angeles but had been driven back. The Mexicans were fighting fiercely for their homes. However, Stockton was the man for the occasion. Kearny was reinforced by two hundred and fifty men, and then he was able to march to San Diego. Next a force of nearly seven hundred men was organized for another attack on Los Angeles. The road thither was one hundred and forty-five miles long, and it lay across a desert of sand. The weather was cold, the men were poorly clothed. The Mexicans were well mounted and accustomed to the country. They disputed the advance stubbornly, and on one occasion, by a plan that proved successful on the plains of Patagonia once upon a time, they stampeded a herd of wild horses toward the American force; but the horses did not take kindly to the task of trampling down Yankee sailors. [Illustration: The Naval Expedition Under Commodore Perry Ascending the Tabasco River at the Devil’s Bend. _From a lithograph designed and drawn on stone by Lieutenant H. Walke, U. S. N._] At the San Gabriel River a decided stand was made against the Americans, but the sailors crossed over and carried the enemy’s works by assault on January 8, 1847. That being the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, the Yankees celebrated their triumph. They had lost two killed and nine wounded, while the Mexicans lost seventy killed and one hundred and fifty wounded. Los Angeles was retaken on January 15th. Then Stockton left for the East and Commodore William Bradford Shubrick came to the coast with the liner _Independence_ and the brig _Preble_.