1st California Cavalry Battalion
The 1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers was a cavalry battalion in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Recruits were largely drawn from the Californio population (colloquially known as "Native Californians"), though its ranks included Yaqui and Mission Indians as well as immigrants from Mexico, Hispano America and Europe (particularly France). In addition to its ethnic makeup, the Battalion is also considered unusual for being one of the few lancer units in the United States Army. The Battalion spent its entire term of service in California and Arizona Territory. Service in Arizona. After  a grueling march across the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, the Battalion arrived at their new duty station, Fort Mason, near the settlement of Calabazas on the border in August, 1865. They were joined there by Companies D, E, and G of the 7th Regiment California Volunteer Infantry. From there, the Battalion was to act against the Apaches as well as patrol the International Line against incursions by the forces of the Mexican Empire and its French allies. The neighboring Mexican State of Sonora had recently fallen to Imperial forces (as part of the French Intervention), forcing Governor Ignacio Pesqueira to  flee northward and take up temporary residence at Calabazas. Service at Fort Mason was generally considered miserable. Because of its somewhat swampy (by Arizona standards) location on the banks of the Santa Cruz River, the men suffered from an epidemic which at one point rendered over half of them too sick for duty and led to 8 deaths, including two of the Battalion's officers. The post suffered from supply problems as well. These conditions caused construction of permanent buildings at the post to slow to a halt, leaving the men to live in tents and temporary brush shelters during  their service there and generally curtailing, for a time, operations against the Apaches. These difficulties did not preclude all active service, however, from time to time, the Battalion was able to organize patrols and scouts. Notably, shortly after their arrival at Fort Mason, Captain Pico led a detachment across the border to Magdalena, Sonora in an unsuccessful effort to recover deserters being held by Imperialist forces there. Likewise, in November, 1865, in response to a cross-border incursion at the settlement of San Rafael by Col. Refugio Tanori and some 350 Opata militia loyal to the Imperialists, a force of  Native Cavalrymen pursued the raiders as far south as Ímuris, Sonora. Finally, the Battalion participated in a campaign against the Apaches from December 1865 to January 1866 which took them as far east as the Chiricahua Mountains and as far south as Fronteras, Sonora. The Battalion left Arizona in February, 1866 and were mustered out in California the following March at Drum Barracks, and Company C in April in San Francisco.