How Southern California Almost Seceded and Joined the Confederacy (Los Angeles: transplants, camp)

[DynamoLA]

I ran across a very interesting article talking about how Southern California - San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino (at the time Ventura, Riverside, Orange, and Imperial were part of the above counties), basically voted to secede from Northern California in 1859. The new state would have been named "Colorado". (This was before the current state of Colorado was created.)

Not only was the Secession law passed in the state legislature and signed by the governor, it was approved by 2/3 of the voters in Southern California. Only because Congress and President Buchanan declined to take action, did it not actually occur.

Full story:
Civil War: How Southern California Tried to Split from Northern California | History | SoCal Focus | KCET

Anyway I thought this was very interesting history that you don't hear about much! (And for the record I am glad Southern California did not split off and join the South in the Civil War).

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by DynamoLA

I ran across a very interesting article talking about how Southern California - San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino (at the time Ventura, Riverside, Orange, and Imperial were part of the above counties), basically voted to secede from Northern California in 1859. The new state would have been named "Colorado". (This was before the current state of Colorado was created.)

Not only was the Secession law passed in the state legislature and signed by the governor, it was approved by 2/3 of the voters in Southern California. Only because Congress and President Buchanan declined to take action, did it not actually occur.

Full story:
Civil War: How Southern California Tried to Split from Northern California | History | SoCal Focus | KCET

Anyway I thought this was very interesting history that you don't hear about much! (And for the record I am glad Southern California did not split off and join the South in the Civil War).

Yes, there were Southern transplants in SoCal who sympathized with the South and also wanted to have slaves but that was against the state constitition.

So they cohorted with Californios who still had grudges stemming from the Mexican-American war which handed CA(and other territories) over to the US with the signing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Also, I posted a link in the SF forum about the Civil War and how Southern California attracted people from Southern states while Northern California received many more people from Northern states.

Its a very interesting story indeed.

[FresnoFacts]

Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley was considered such a hotbed of Southern sympathizers during the Civil War that the US government had 2 companies of cavalry set up Camp Babbitt to maintain control.

According to a military history, troopers arrested the pro-South editor of one of the town's 2 newspapers (the other paper was pro-Union). A few months later troopers headed to that Southern supporting newspaper office and "completely wrecked the office . . . breaking the doors and windows of the building, breaking the press, and throwing the type, paper, ink, etc., in the street."
Historic California Posts: Camp Babbitt

Camp Babbitt was abandoned in late 1865/early 1866.

Interestingly, three decades later it was the publisher of a different Visalia newspaper, George W. Stewart, who led the campaign that made Sequoia the second US national park.

[.highnlite]

Fort Churchill Nevada, lay alongside the main east west route from Donner Pass east. Any travelers headed east were asked to take an oath to support the Union. The Confederate sympathizers refused to do so when they refused they were arrested and put on road gangs for the duration of the war. They built a lot of roads in Western Nevada.

[Surftown831]

They were only concerned about money, not true confederate ideologies. They wanted to exploit minorities to make more money and not have to pay taxes to the federal government. I guess much still hasn't changed in So Cal.

[Boompa]

There are always traitors, just turn over a rock and you'll see them

[CAVA1990]

Were there that many folks in So Cal at the time? My CA ancestors then were all up North.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Were there that many folks in So Cal at the time? My CA ancestors then were all up North.

There were less than 400K people in the entire state of which about 25% were in San Francisco itself. (SF's population boomed after the Civil War) and of which about 5% were in Sacramento itself.

So Cal was referred to as "the cow counties". It was rural and agricultural. Santa Barbara was the largest town in the south then.

As I mentioned on another thread - there is a Robert E. Lee connection to California, but before the Civil War. Then-Major Lee was responsible for the border being drawn where it is today rather than at Point Conception, because he thought San Diego Bay was a good natural harbor which could be used as a naval base.

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by UNLV09

They were only concerned about money, not true confederate ideologies. They wanted to exploit minorities to make more money and not have to pay taxes to the federal government. I guess much still hasn't changed in So Cal.

What taxes could be paid to the federal government at that time?

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by majoun

As I mentioned on another thread - there is a Robert E. Lee connection to California, but before the Civil War. Then-Major Lee was responsible for the border being drawn where it is today rather than at Point Conception, because he thought San Diego Bay was a good natural harbor which could be used as a naval base.

What's your source for that?