Chapter 44
Which Side for California?

Everyone expected the war to be short.

The South was so sure of a quick victory they thought all that would be necessary was for them to raise an army of volunteers and march north to take Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, and that would be the end of it. There was not even a need to sign up troops for lengthy assignments. The Confederacy made the enlistment period just twelve months. That would be more than enough time. Young men and boys throughout the South volunteered in droves. They were so feverish to join the Confederate army there weren’t enough guns for them all.

Four more states promptly seceded—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Although they were bound to the South in many ways, the states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware all decided to stay in the Union.

In the North, the volunteer army grew just as rapidly. More practically minded as to the true depth of the conflict, the North enlisted its young soldiers for three years. Within weeks Lincoln’s request for 75,000 men had been passed. By the middle of the year, the Union’s army was 500,000 strong. President Lincoln ordered a naval blockade of the whole southern coastline so that ships with provisions could not get through.

Loyalties in California were more divided than ever, now that war between the states had actually come. Pa came home from a session in Sacramento in May with what he considered good news.

“Well, we finally put all that new republic and western confederacy talk to rest,” he said. “Piercy and Montgomery and all their crowd oughta be silenced for a while!”

“What happened?” asked Almeda.

“We Republicans finally got our own resolution on the floor—a resolution strongly supporting the Union and Mr. Lincoln’s government.”

“Did you speak again?”

“You bet I did! And this time I wasn’t embarrassed. I got up there and I said what I had to say!”

“And it passed the vote?” I asked.

“You’re doggone right it did—49 to 12. California’s on the Union side of this thing once and for all, and for good!”

“What did it say?”

“Just a bunch of fancy sounding words to say, ‘We’re behind you, Mr. President.’”

“But what were the actual words?”

“I’ll see if I can quote them: ‘The people of California are devoted to the Constitution and the Union now in the hour of trial and peril.’ Some kind of political gibberish like that!”

But despite the vote in the California legislature, there still was more southern support in the state than was altogether comfortable. Many high office-holders had once been southerners. Not long after the war started, a group of San Francisco’s city leaders wrote to Secretary of War Cameron in Washington about their concerns. Since he was editor of the Alta, Mr. Kemble was part of that group. He later let me read a copy of the letter.

A majority of our present state officers are undisguised and avowed Secessionists. . . . Every appointment made by our Governor unmistakably indicates his entire sympathy and cooperation with those plotting to sever California from her allegiance to the Union, and that, too, at the hazard of civil war.

About three-eighths of our citizens are from slave-holding states. . . . These men are never without arms, have wholly laid aside their business, and are devoting their time to plotting, scheming, and organizing. Our advices, obtained with great prudence and care, show us that there are upwards of sixteen thousand “Knights of the Golden Circle” in the state, and that they are still organizing, even in our most loyal districts.

Whether blood would ever be shed in California as a result of the North-South loyalties that were so divisive, it was still too soon to tell. We all hoped not, and hoped that the pro-Union stand of the legislature, in spite of what these men had said about Governor Downey, would ultimately influence the rest of the state to support the government of Lincoln and Hamlin instead of that of Davis and Stephens.

But in the meantime, the first major exodus out of California since the gold rush began to occur. Young men began making their way east to volunteer for the fighting that was sure to come, some to join the Union army, others that of the Confederacy.