ABSTRACT

The secession of the Southern states and the outbreak of civil war challenged the commanders of the United States Army in California. Luckily for the army, the battlegrounds in this contest for California would be politics and public opinion and not armed strife. Republicans formed a small party in California in the 1850s, but their record made Southern Democrats fearful about white supremacy. Congressman John C. Burch initiated Street's involvement when he wrote him 22 November with Seantor Milton S. Latham's endorsement, calling for Californians to "raise aloft the flag of the 'bear,' surrounded with the hydra-pointed cactus of the western wilds." The "treasonable transfer" of 60,000 arms to California by President James Buchanan's Secretary of War John B. Floyd became known. California Volunteers and a few federal troops manned the posts and General Sumner returned east with the majority of the regulars.