At the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, President Polk directed Colonel Kearny to organize the "Army of the West" and lead it to Santa Fe and then on to secure California. On August 18, 1846, Kearny claimed the Santa Fe area for the United States and organized a civil government. After dividing his forces near Socorro, New Mexico, and with Kit Carson as guide, he continued the long march to California with 100 dragoons. Lieutenant William H. Emory's official log records that on November 5 and 6, 1846, the group camped near the junction of the Gila and San Pedro rivers near Winkelman, Arizona, and on November 7, 1846, they traveled down the Gila past this area and camped that night at the junction of the Gila River and Mineral Creek, where the mines of Ray, Arizona are located. Often called the "Father of the United States Cavalry," Kearny was both statesman and soldier, served as Military Governor of New Mexico where he established the Kearny Code as a basis of that state's laws, and was also Military Governor of California, Vera Cruz, and Mexico City. Born in 1794, he died in 1848 at St. Louis, Missouri, at age 54 of fever contracted during his service in Mexico.