Editing John Sutter (section)

=====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}}