Joining Up with the Union: California's Place in the Nation and the Meaning of Military Service in the Civil War

Abstract

Prior to the start of the Civil War, California had been a state for less than a dozen years and was populated by a diverse group of people from around globe, many of whom had been lured to the state by the call of gold. Up to that time, these residents did not have much need to define their or their state’s allegiance to the rest of the far-off nation. When news of the outbreak of Civil War in 1861 reached California by Pony Express, residents loyal to the Union immediately called for their own men to enlist in President Abraham Lincoln's growing army. Because of California’s geographic isolation, Union armies initially rebuffed the Californians’ offer to rush east. Even so nearly 16,000 Californians, including recently settled white Americans and Europeans, and native Californios, voluntarily enlisted. They garrisoned western forts protecting California from local sympathizers, safeguarded the Southwest from Confederate invasion, and pursued Native peoples who allegedly impeded white settlement in this region. Finally, nearly 500 men eventually joined troops fighting in the East. In the vein of "new military history," my thesis examines letters, diaries and reminiscences of approximately forty soldiers who enlisted in California to consider how these volunteers, whether serving in California, Arizona or Appomattox, saw their service as fulfilling masculine duty to state and country. Historical evidence shows that California soldiers believed that their service reflected both patriotism for their adopted home and dedication to unity even when their postings were not in the East. In this way, these Union volunteers served as a crucial factor in helping to define California’s relationship with the United States.