Editing John Sutter (section)

===='Red Star' and 'Bear Flag' revolts====

=====Lone star rebellion=====
{{Main|Juan Bautista Alvarado#Independence movement|Lone Star of California}}
[[File:Californian Lone Star Flag (1836).svg|thumb|Red-and-white version of the [[Lone Star of California]], as hoisted during the 1842 Alvarado rebellion.<p>Note: In early 1846, Sutter hoisted perhaps the above version if not another in red, white, and green. In published, period recollections, [[Bear Flag Rebellion|Bear Flag rebel]] J. William Russell wrote, "When I got to the fort the 'lone star' flag was flying. The colors was made up of the old Mexican flag."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Reminiscences of Old Times by 'Bear Flag' J. William Russell (''Napa County Reporter'', June 2, 1861)|journal=Historical Society Southern California Quarterly|volume=33|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KgoVAAAAYAAJ&q=%22joseph+owen+william+russell%22 5]|issue=March 1951}}</ref><ref>Russell, Joseph Owen William. Statement of Joseph Owen William Russell Concerning the Bear Flag Movement & Operations in Southern California, 1846-1847 Taken at Napa. United States, n.p, 1886.</ref><ref name="pashnit.com">{{cite web|last1=Mayhew|first1=Tim|title=Historic Northern California Sutters Fort|url=https://www.pashnit.com/ca-sutters-fort|website=Pashnit Motorcycle|access-date=2 September 2022}}</ref></p>]]

In 1844–1845, there was a revolt of the Mexican colony of California against the army of the mother country.<ref name="Salomon, Carlos Manuel pp. 73-5">Salomon, Carlos Manuel. ''Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California'', pp. 73–75, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-8061-4090-2}}.</ref><ref name="Engstrand pp. 59-61">Engstrand, Iris and Owens, Ken. ''John Sutter: Sutter's Fort and the California Gold Rush'', pp. 59–61, Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., New York, 2004. {{ISBN|0-8239-6630-5}}.</ref>

Two years earlier, in 1842, Mexico had removed California Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, and sent Brigadier General [[Manuel Micheltorena]] to replace him. It also sent an army.<ref>Salomon, Carlos Manuel. ''Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California'', pp. 70–71, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-8061-4090-2}}.</ref>

The army had been recruited from Mexico's worst jails, and the soldiers soon began stealing Californians' chickens and other property. Micheltorena's army was described as descending on California "like a plague of locusts, stripping the countryside bare." Californians complained that the army was committing robberies, beatings, and rapes.<ref name="Salomon, Carlos Manuel pp. 73-5"/><ref name="Engstrand pp. 59-61"/>

In late 1844, the Californios revolted against Micheltorena. He had appointed Sutter as ''commandante militar.'' Sutter, in turn, recruited men, one of whom was [[John Marsh (pioneer)|John Marsh]], a medical doctor and owner of the large [[Marsh Creek State Park (California)|Rancho los Meganos]]. Marsh, who sided with the Californios, wanted no part of this effort. However, Sutter gave Marsh a choice: either join the army or be arrested and put in jail.<ref>Lyman, George D. ''John Marsh, Pioneer: The Life Story of a Trail-blazer on Six Frontiers'', pp. 252–254, Chautauqua Press, Chautauqua, New York, 1931.</ref>

In 1845, Sutter's forces met the Californio forces at the [[Battle of Providencia]] (also known as the Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass). The battle consisted primarily of an artillery exchange, and during the battle Marsh secretly went over to parley with the other side. There was a large number of Americans fighting on both sides.  Marsh met with them and convinced the Americans on both sides that there was no reason for Americans to be fighting each other.<ref name="Lyman, George D. pp. 254-61">Lyman, George D. ''John Marsh, Pioneer: The Life Story of a Trail-blazer on Six Frontiers'', pp. 254–261, Chautauqua Press, Chautauqua, New York, 1931.</ref>

The Americans agreed and quit the fight, and as a result, Sutter’s forces lost the battle. The defeated Micheltorena took his army back to Mexico, and Californian [[Pio Pico]] became governor.<ref name="Lyman, George D. pp. 254-61"/><ref>Salomon, Carlos Manuel. ''Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California'', pp. 75–76, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-8061-4090-2}}.</ref><ref>Engstrand, Iris and Owens, Ken. ''John Sutter: Sutter's Fort and the California Gold Rush'', pp. 60–61, Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., New York, 2004. {{ISBN|0-8239-6630-5}}.</ref>

=====Mexico's loss in the Mexican{{endash}}American War=====
{{Main|Bear Flag Republic}}

During the [[Mexican-American War]], Mexico's control over [[Alta California]] weakened significantly. Sutter, who identified himself as a French citizen,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/sutdiary1.html | title=Diary of John A. Sutter 1838-1848 - Part I }}</ref> reportedly considered organizing muster British, Canadian, and American immigrants, along with Indigenous peoples, to declare New Helvetia an independent republic under French protection.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Claudine | last=Chalmers | title=The French in Early California | url=http://www.ancestry.myfamily.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=808 | journal=Ancestry Magazine | volume=16 | issue=2 | date=March–April 1998 | access-date=October 8, 2007 | archive-date=July 19, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719023120/http://www.ancestry.myfamily.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=808 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url = https://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article/1/4/45/106446/Their-Flag-Too|title = Their Flag, Too|author = Albert Hurtado|journal = Boom: A Journal of California| date=2011 | volume=1 |issue = Winter 2011|page = 48|publisher = [[University of California Press]]| doi=10.1525/boom.2011.1.4.45 |url-access = subscription}}</ref> Sutter wrote to US Counsel [[Jacob Leese]] in [[Yerba Buena, California|Yerba Buena]]: "Very curious reports come to me from  below but the poor wretches do not know what they do. The first French frigate that comes here will do me justice. The first step they do against me I will make a declaration of Independence and proclaim California a Republic independent of Mexico."<ref>{{cite book|title = Upper California|year = 1904|publisher = Whitaker & Ray Company|author = Bryan James Clinch|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=9UI1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA386 386]}}</ref>

On July 7, 1846, following the Bear Flag Revolt and the [[Battle of Monterey]], Commodore [[John B. Montgomery]] raised the American flag in Monterey. Four days later, on July 11, 1846, Sutter raised an American flag at his fort after receiving it from a messenger sent by Montgomery.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1910&context=uop_etds|pages = 44–46|publisher = University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations|year = 1931|title =The history of Sutter & of Sutter's Fort, 1839-1931|author = Herbert D. Gwinn}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title = Fremont: Explorer For A Restless Nation|author = Ferol Egan|publisher =University of Nevada Press|year = 2012|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=nGyVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT749 749}}</ref> In August 1846, Sutter formally transferred control of the fort to the United States after receiving a commission as a lieutenant under US Army Captain [[John C. Frémont]].<ref>{{cite web|url = https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1910&context=uop_etds|pages = 44–46|publisher = University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations|year = 1931|title =The history of Sutter & of Sutter's Fort, 1839-1931|author = Herbert D. Gwinn}}</ref> In March 1847, command returned to Sutter.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}