One of the monuments to soldiers killed in battle at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on Point Loma in San Diego is for those who lost their lives in the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846.
The San Diego chapter of the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West installed the San Pasqual monument in 1922 to honor those soldiers who lost their lives in the 1846 Battle of San Pasqual during the Mexican War. The monument is comprised of a stone boulder with a bronze plaque mounted on it.
The California State Military Museum has reprinted a portion of the book SNAFU: Great American Military Disasters by Geoffrey Ragan here. It provides a long description of the battle and the outcome.
The book The Silver Dons by Richard F. Pourade tells how the remains of the dead soldiers came to be buried at Fort Rosecrans:
"But the dead of San Pasqual lay in forgotten graves in Old Town [San Diego]. The names on the small wooden crosses had weathered away and were no longer remembered."
Who were these 18 dead soldiers? I cannot read the names on the memorial plaque on the stone from my picture. The list of the Americans who died at the Battle of San Pasqual is here - this is a great web page with many pictures of present-day San Pasqual and a re-enactment of the battle.
I found a great picture of the plaque at Fort Rosecrans on www.interment.net here. The names on the plaque are:
Ist United States Dragoons
Company C
* Sergeant John Cox
* Corporal William C. West
* Private George Ashmead
* Private Joseph T. Campbell
* Private William Dalton
* Private John Dunlap
* Private Joseph B. Kennedy
* Private William C. Leckey
* Private Samuel T. Repose
Company K
* 1st Sergeant Otis L. Moore
* Sergeant William Whitress
* Corporal George Ramsdale
* Farrier David W. Johnson
* Private William H. Fiel
* Private William C. Gholston
* Private Robert B. Gregory
California Volunteer
* Henry Baker
Topographical Engineer Detachment
* Francois Menard
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