 Colonel Stevenson raised a volunteer regiment of ten companies of 77 men each or 770 men to go to California with the understanding that they would be muster out and stay in California.On 1 August 1846, the regiment was mustered into Federal service as the "Seventh" New York Volunteers.Stevenson with his Regiment of New York Volunteers sailed around Cape Horn for California on September 26, 1846, and arrived at San Francisco March 7, 1847.