page_title: Battle of Yerba Buena
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Yerba Buena / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Plan of Yerba Buena (which was later renamed to San Francisco), as laid out by Jean Jacques Vioget. The map itself dates to 1839, but was published in 1853 as part of a deposition; oriented with north to the right and centered on Portsmouth Square; bounded on the right (north) by Pacific, on the left (south) by Washington), on the top (west) by Grant, and on the bottom (east) by Montgomery.
context_page_description: The Battle of Yerba Buena was an engagement during the Mexican–American War, during which the U.S. Navy captured and occupied the town of Yerba Buena, California without firing a shot.
context_section_description: On July 9, 1846, the USS Portsmouth, captained by Commander John B. Montgomery, sailed into San Francisco Bay, with the intent of capturing the town of Yerba Buena. Aboard the Portsmouth were 220 sailors and enlisted men, along with a contingent of 27 marines. The small Mexican force garrisoning the Presidio did not fire upon the USS Portsmouth, for fear that they would become obliterated. The Portsmouth landed a distance off the shore, and a group of sailors, soldiers and marines, as well as Montgomery and his staff, disembarked in rowboats for Yerba Buena. Upon landing on the shore, Mexican soldiers held their fire, and the Californios grouped together to watch the American force. Montgomery and his force walked up to the flagpole in the town square, where the Mexican flag was flown. He quickly tore it down, and hoisted the Stars and Stripes in its place, proclaiming that the town of Yerba Buena, and all of the land surrounding it, belonged to the United States. After Montgomery's speech, the marine band began to play Yankee Doodle, and the USS Portsmouth fired a 21 gun salute, to celebrate the capture of Yerba Buena. Following the capture of the town itself, Montgomery ordered a detachment of troops to seize the Presidio of San Francisco, and confiscate any weaponry they found, which the detachment did without conflict. Thus, the pueblo of Yerba Buena, and the land that would become eventually known as San Francisco, was captured by the United States of America.
caption: Map of Yerba Buena, drawn by Jean Jacques Vioget in 1839; the town square (later renamed Portsmouth Square) is just south of the compass rose.
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