object of thwarting the rebel designs. Sumner, who was exceedingly desirous of active service in the field, accepted the commission, though he had doubts about its feasibility; but on further consideration, and in view of the probability of involving Mexico in trouble and especially on account of urgent remonstrances on the part of many prominent loyal citizens of California, the project was given up; and the new troops that had been raised were directed to be employed mainly west of the Rocky mountains, and particularly in relieving the companies of the regular army on the Pacific coast and enabling them to proceed east to the seat of war.1

In October, 1861, General Sumner, who had acted so promptly and ably in suppressing all signs of disaffection on the Pacific coast as to acquire the confidence not only of all the loyal citizens of California but also of the national administration, was recalled for duty in the east; and the military command of the department of the Pacific devolved on Colonel George Wright, who about the same time became a brigadier-general. His policy was to carry out the work so well commenced by Sumner. Besides watching Sonora and particularly Guaymas, the threatened occupation of which by the rebels he was particularly anxious to prevent, he kept his eye on the territory nearer home. Finding that various secessionists in the southern part of the state were organizing with the avowed object of proceeding to Texas and that they were receiving aid and comfort from many of the native Californians of that region, he sent a couple of companies, in addition to those sent by Sumner, to look after them, to seize all the boats and ferries on the Colorado river and guard them, and also to reinforce Fort Yuma. Among these secessionists was a party headed by Daniel Showalter, the individual who the previous May had killed Charles W. Piercy in a duel and was then a fugitive from justice. There were seventeen or eighteen of them collected in the neighborhood of Warner's ranch on the border of the Colorado desert in San Diego county; they were all loaded down with arms and ammunition, and several of them carried commissions as officers in the rebel service. Whatever may have been their ulterior purposes as to 1 Orton's Record of California Men, 12, 15, 23-29.

marching, they, unlike General Albert Sidney Johnston and his party who lost no time in getting beyond the Colorado river, waited too long in California and were swooped down upon and carried off by Major Edwin A. Rigg of the First California infantry volunteers, acting under the orders of General Wright. Showalter and his party were at once marched off to Fort Yuma, where they were kept securely guarded until afterwards, when, being by that time of no danger to anybody but themselves, they were exchanged and joined the Confederates. Showalter subsequently in 1866, having run a course without honor to himself or credit to the state that gave him birth, died at Mazatlan.'

In the early part of December, 1861, on account of the seizure of New Mexico and a part of Arizona by the Confederates and particularly on account of their threats of advancing further, General Wright proposed the organization of an expedition, consisting of a number of the California volunteers already mentioned and constituting the body afterwards known as the "California Column" to dislodge and drive them out. In his letter, dated December 9, suggesting this expedition, he stated that the force he proposed sending and which was then in southern California amounted to about one thousand five hundred men; and he added, speaking of them and the other companies raised in California, that he had "never seen a finer body of volunteer troops." In accordance with his proposition, approved by General McClellan, the California Column was organized and assembled at Fort Yuma in April, 1862. It consisted of the First California infantry, ten companies, Colonel James H. Carleton, who was placed in general command; the First California cavalry, five companies, Colonel Edward E. Eyre, and a light battery of four brass field pieces. It was subsequently reinforced by the Fifth California infantry, ten companies, Colonel George W. Bowie. On April 28, soon after the advance of the column had started eastward on its campaign from Fort Yuma, Carleton was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general and his position of colonel given to Joseph R. West, though the information did not reach them for some time afterwards. The first brush with the 1Orton's Record of California Men, 19, 20, 40; Davis' Political Conventions, 653.

enemy was at Picacho Pass, where Lieutenant James Barrett of the First California cavalry and two of his men—the first Californian volunteers who lost their lives in the war-were killed. Soon after the skirmish at Picacho Pass, the main body of the California Column came up; and it advanced thence, in pursuit of the enemy, to Tucson, which it occupied on May 20—the Confederates having abandoned it and retreated to New Mexico.'

On June 8, 1862, in view of the chaotic condition of civil affairs and the utter absence of civil authority in the country, General Carleton, who however still called himself colonel, issued a proclamation from his head-quarters at Tucson, assuming control as military governor of Arizona until further order; declaring the territory under martial law; laying down certain fundamental rules of government to be observed by the people, and providing for the trial and punishment of offenses. This, on June 28, 1862, was fully approved and confirmed by General Wright. Meanwhile on June 21, Colonel Eyre, with one hundred and forty of the First cavalry, started from Tucson and on July 4, after a difficult but admirably executed march of about three hundred miles, arrived at and took possession of Fort Thorn on the Rio Grande river. There the stars and stripes were immediately raised; and Eyre prepared to cross the river and afterwards invade the "sacred soil" of Texas. He succeeded in getting across and securing Las Cruces, Mesilla and Fort Fillmore and also Fort Bliss in Texas and would doubtless have done much more, as he was close upon the heels of the fleeing Confederates, who were disorganized, disheartened and demoralized. But he was hampered by instructions from General Edward R. S. Canby, then at Fort Craig in command of the department of New Mexico, who had ordered him to stop. Upon the receipt of the news at Tucson of these successes, the main body of the California Column was ordered forward to the Rio Grande; and the head of it arrived at Las Cruces on August 10. On August 22 the stars and stripes were hoisted by Captain John C. Cremony of the California Column over Fort Quitman, and not long afterwards by Captain Edward D. Shirland over Fort Davis, one hundred and forty miles further into the heart of Texas. The result was the 1 Orton's Record of California Men, 46, 47.

re-opening of the southern overland mail route and the reoccupation, for the Union, of the military forts in Arizona, southern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. Thus were the proposition and instructions of General Wright carried out; and thus did the California Column show itself equal to any service performed in the war.'

'Orton's Record of California Men, 55-67.

CHAPTER XIII.

STANFORD (CONTINUED).

HE loyalty of California and its people to the Union, which

TH

had been manifested so decidedly at the commencement of the war, knew no diminution but rather continued to increase during its progress-and this notwithstanding reverses on the battle field that encouraged secession. At the state election for members of the legislature on September 3, 1862, shortly after the disastrous "Seven Days' Battles" in Virginia in which McClellan was sore pressed by Lee and Stonewall Jackson, the popular vote was very largely in favor of the administration represented by the Republican and Union tickets. All of the senators elected on this occasion and almost all of the assemblymen were of this complexion, so that on joint ballot out of forty senators and eighty assemblymen there were about ninety-five Republican or Union administration men, fourteen or fifteen Democrats, who claimed to be Union men but anti-administration, and eleven secessionists. The legislature of 1863 met at Sacramento on January 5; and one of its very first acts was a very strong Union resolution, which was introduced into the senate by Charles B. Porter of Contra Costa county and adopted in that body on January 6 by thirty-one ayes against eight noes and in the assembly on January 11 by sixty-four ayes against eleven noes. It indorsed Lincoln's emancipation proclamation as necessary for the success of the efforts of the government to suppress the "desperate and wicked rebellion" and re-establish the authority of the national Union, to which measure California pledged the cordial and earnest support of its people.'

On January 7, 1863, Governor Stanford presented his first annual message. He deemed it proper to express gratitude to

'Senate Journal, 1863, 23; Assembly Journal, 1863, 84.