Initially recruited from the 2nd Regiment of Light Infantry of Catalonia, the company was composed of four officers and one hundred enlisted men and was commanded by Captain Agustín Callis, a veteran of Spain's wars in Italy and Portugal.

[1] The Catalan Volunteers arrived in Guaymas, Sonora in May 1768 as a part of an expedition of some 1200 Spanish soldiers and native allies assembled to quell a revolt by Pima and Seri Indians.

[2] In September 1768, Lieutenant Pedro Fages and a detachment of 25 Volunteers were ordered south to San Blas, Nayarit to form a part of the expedition of Gaspar de Portolà to establish a Spanish foothold in Alta California.

His often high handed treatment of soldiers and missionaries and his possible mishandling of the distribution of rations led to criticism from Father Junípero Serra, who successfully petitioned Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa for his removal.

In Sonora, the Catalan Volunteers served alongside the Fusileros de Montaña (Mountain Fusiliers), another independent company from Catalonia associated with the 2nd Regiment.

The following April, the Volunteers of the Second Company were posted to the Presidio of El Pitic (modern Hermosillo) in response to renewed hostilities with the Seris, who quickly surrendered.

In his absence, the Presidio was ordered abandoned, and the garrison moved to its previous location at Santa Cruz, Sonora, which was believed to be more defensible and easily supplied.

They arrived at Nootka Sound in April 1790 where they re-established the abandoned redoubt of Fort San Miguel, becoming the first regular European military unit posted to present-day British Columbia.

As the Mexican War of Independence escalated, the Second Company, posted at El Perote near Mexico City under Captain Juan Antonio de Viruega since 1800, was deployed to Morelos to join an army under General Calleja in a massive campaign against the insurgency.

Though Calleja later praised their valiant stand, the Second Company was unable to prevent the escape of scrappy rebels under José María Morelos and suffered heavy casualties.

The Volunteers managed to survive as a Company, participating in the battles of Tuxpango, Tlacótepe, and Ajuchitlán, through 1815, by which time they were no longer a discrete unit, having been absorbed into larger battalions.

The crest of the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey includes an image of a feathered leather helmet that is meant to symbolize the Catalan Volunteers and to commemorate their role in the founding of the post.

[7] The Catalan Volunteers are portrayed in the 1955 American film Seven Cities of Gold, which presents a fanciful and historically inaccurate account of the founding of Spanish California.

"[8] An infantry soldier wearing a Catalan Volunteer uniform briefly appears in the opening scene of the 1968 film Guns of San Sebastian which, like Seven Cities of Gold, stars Anthony Quinn.