Downtown Napa’s Veterans Day ceremonies will include a tribute to a ragtag group of armed men who swept through what is now Veterans Memorial Park in 1846, a year before the city’s founding.

Spotlighting a little-known moment in California history, the Napa County Historical Society will dedicate a plaque to 160 horsemen who forded the Napa River at the site on July 6, 1846.

These volunteers were on their way from the Bear Flag revolt in Sonoma to Monterey, where they joined up with U.S. military forces to fight for California independence from Mexico.

The mounted riflemen who walked their horses across the Napa River at low tide that day were making history, Floyd Stone, a research volunteer with the historical society, said.

Many of them had joined the Bear Flag revolt a month before. When they rode through Napa, they were under the command of Army Capt. John C. Fremont, who would become California’s first U.S. senator.

Before going to Monterey, the mounted riflemen detoured to the Berryessa Valley to procure cattle and more horses, Stone said. Put under naval command in Monterey, they would go on to deliver the rest of California to the United States, he said.

The Veterans Day ceremony will start at 11:30 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park at Main and Third streets, coordinated by Tom Sarciapone, chair of the Napa Veterans Council.

Local dignitaries, including Napa Mayor Jill Techel and Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht, will offer tributes to America’s veterans. American Legion Post 113 will provide the color guard.

The American Legion will offer a complimentary lunch at its meeting hall, 1240 Pearl St., following the ceremony.

Stone said he had been pushing for a historical marker at Main and Third since 1983, when he was a Napa City Council member. “I made the pitch that this was a historic place,” he said Thursday.

The council, which was planning a riverfront park, agreed to put up a plaque, but never did, Stone said.

Stone, now 85, revived the plaque idea when he began working as a research volunteer for the historical society.

While a river crossing is perhaps not as significant as having a Bear Flag battle fought in downtown, the passage of those Bear Flaggers makes Napa a part of a momentous time in California history, Stone said.

“It was like Caesar crossing the Rubicon,” Stone said. “They had taken up arms and there was no turning back.”

The Bear Flag Revolt occurred in Sonoma on June 14, 1846. California was fully in the hands of the Americans by the next January. California was admitted as the 31st state on Sept. 9, 1850.

The plaque commemorating the Napa Crossing adorns the wall facing Main Street, under the California state flag containing the iconic bear from the original Bear Flag Revolt.