In this presentation we will look at the personal experiences and artistic renderings of three military figures who produced important visual evidence of California during the 1840s. They were William Rich Hutton, William Myers, and Alfred Sully. All three produced vivid images of life in California during the 1840s. While some of their works have been widely reproduced, others have been relatively undiscovered. The complete body of their works offers a unique glimpse of the way in which the American newcomers saw the land and the people of this region. Their personal experiences and artistic work foreshadowed the contradictory tensions that resulted from the encounter between Americans and Californios as a result of the U.S. conquest.