The regiment garrisoned Santa Barbara, before capturing the city of La Paz in Baja California.

[3] He served as the deputy clerk of the Supreme Court of California in 1854, the same year he was elected to the San Jose Common Council.

[4] During the Civil War he was commissioned as a captain and promoted to lieutenant colonel, and served successively as inspector and ordnance officer.

He was appointed commissioner to investigate the affairs of the United States Mint at San Francisco in 1881, and moved to Los Angeles in 1886 and continued the practice of law.

The Donner-Houghton House, an historic building in downtown San Jose, was built by Houghton in 1881.