Drum Barracks was the Union Army's headquarters for Southern California and New Mexico during the Civil War. It consisted of 19 buildings on 60 acres (240,000 m2) in what is now Wilmington, with another 37 acres (150,000 m2) near the waterfront. Its junior officers' quarters has been preserved as the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum. [1] Its powder magazine stands on private property three blocks away, protected by a chain-link fence.
The impending withdrawal of regular troops from California to fight in the Civil War presented Los Angeles with a threefold crisis:
The response was to build a major installation, adjacent to San Pedro Bay and 25 miles south of Los Angeles, [2] to be garrisoned by troops moved from Fort Tejon and later by recruits from Northern California and from among the loyal minority in the area. While the land was donated by Union sympathizers, the construction cost eventually reached $1 million. [1]
The Drum Barracks is named for Richard Coulter Drum, Assistant Adjutant General of the Army's Department of the Pacific in San Francisco. He supervised construction from his office, visiting the new post only once.
In 1863, Major Bennett, the post commander, wrote to the Adjutant-General in Washington asking that the name be changed to Fort Drum, comparing it to Fort Snelling, Minnesota and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. [3] No response to the letter has been found.
At least three of the leading citizens of Los Angeles were arrested and taken to the Drum Barracks.
Newspaper publisher Henry Hamilton was arrested In Los Angeles on October 17, 1862 and taken to the Drum Barracks. From there he was placed aboard a steamer to be taken to San Francisco and confinement at Fort Alcatraz. He took an oath of allegiance to the United States and was back in Los Angeles within two weeks.
The immediate cause of his arrest is not known, but one of his many editorials had said that the Northern mobilization was an abolition war, "instigated, carried on, and to be consummated, by the degradation of the white race, and the elevation of the African family over them" and that "Black Republican" rule "has degenerated into worse than an Oriental despotism." [4]
The photo shown here has inscriptions stating that Hamilton is on the left. A copy of the photo, taken decades later, has a description indicating that Hamilton is on the right.
Undersheriff A.J. King was arrested at the request of the newly appointed US Marshal, Henry D. Barrows, for saying "that he owed no allegiance to the United States Government; that Jeff Davis' was the only constitutional government we had, and that he remained here because he could do more harm to the enemies of that Government by staying here than going there" and for publicly displaying "a large lithograph gilt-framed portrait of Beauregard, the rebel general, which he flaunted before a large crowd at the hotel." He took an oath of allegiance to the United States and was released. [5]
In October, 1862, a month after he had been elected to the state Assembly, former California Attorney General and later Los Angeles District Attorney E.J.C. Kewen was arrested for ‘treasonable utterance’ and sent to Fort Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. After two weeks, he took an oath of allegiance, posted a $5,000 bond and was released. [6]
The report of the arrest does not say what the utterance was, but one of his speeches was published later:
“What sorcery is there in the name of Lincoln that it should move the world to extraordinary homage and devotion, and obliterate all the monuments of ancient security and freedom? … It is not remarkable, therefore, that the Executive should be delirious with power, when the magic of his influence is illustrated by such extraordinary effects of willing obedience and fanatical proscription…
“I am not enamored with this word loyalty. It belongs to kingly and not to free government.” [6]
Drum Barracks troops were stationed at San Bernardino for most of the war and made intermittent encampments at El Monte. [7]
When the news of the Union victory at Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg was received in Los Angeles, battles between Union and Confederate factions broke out. A detachment of troops, on their way to the Owens Valley as an escort to a supply train, intervened. Continuing demonstrations by secessionists required the dispatch of 25 additional men to take up a post near Los Angeles in a position to command the town. [8]
A new wave of Indian raids began as soon as troops were withdrawn to the Eastern theater of war. [9] Troops sent east from Los Angeles to confront Confederates first "had to fight the Apaches, hereditary enemies of the Pumas and Maricopas; and the Navajos were also war-like. From Tucson into New Mexico, in fact, the column had to fight its way through hostile Indians, who lurked in every mountain pass, and guarded every water hole." [10]
Named battles and campaigns fought by Los Angeles troops against Indians included the Battle of Apache Pass and the Owens Valley Indian War.
Drum Barracks troops, including the Spanish-speaking Native California Cavalry, made incursions into the Mexican state of Sonora at Hermosillo, Altar and Magdalena. One incursion led to a shooting incident with troops loyal to Emperor Maximilian and his French allies. [11]
A letter from General Grant, written late in the war, passed on a rumor that former California Senator William M. Gwin had been appointed governor of Sonora by the Imperial government in Mexico and was organizing a Confederate invasion of California. Grant authorized the Army to pursue the invading force back into Mexico and to keep troops there indefinitely. The rumor proved to be false. [12]
After the Civil War, Camp Drum remained active for several years in the Indian Wars. By 1870, it had been deactivated and fallen into disrepair. In October 1871, the Los Angeles Star reported that all remaining troops at Drum Barracks had been ordered to Fort Yuma. In 1873, the government returned the land to its original donors, Phineas Banning and Benjamin Davis Wilson, after auctioning off the buildings. Not surprisingly, there were no winning bids from buyers who would have to move the buildings or dismantle them for building materials. Banning bought five buildings for $2,917 and Wilson bought one for $200. [1]
The museum's resident ghosts were profiled by the Los Angeles Times in 1992, including a description of a ghost who "doesn't know he's dead." The same article says that the building was saved from demolition following "a drawn-out battle more fierce than any of the soldiers stationed here had ever fought." [13] Another profile, "Ghost stories from LA's old Civil War barracks", was published in 2018. [14]
The Drum Barracks was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries in the early 1990s, in a segment narrated by Robert Stack, called 'Civil War Ghosts'. People interviewed in that segment claimed to have seen apparitions of Civil War soldiers. [15] In 2005 the Barracks was featured in an episode of Most Haunted . [16]
Drum Barracks has been designated as a California Historic Landmark, a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1987, it has been operated as a Civil War museum that is open to the public.
Edward Otho Cresap Ord, frequently referred to as E. O. C. Ord, was an American engineer and United States Army officer who saw action in the Seminole War, the Indian Wars, and the American Civil War. He commanded an army during the final days of the Civil War, and was instrumental in forcing the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He also designed Fort Sam Houston. He died in Havana, Cuba of yellow fever.
The New Mexico campaign was a military operation of the trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War from February to April 1862 in which Confederate Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley invaded the northern New Mexico Territory in an attempt to gain control of the Southwest, including the gold fields of Colorado and the ports of California. Historians regard this campaign as the most ambitious Confederate attempt to establish control of the American West and to open an additional theater in the war. It was an important campaign in the war's Trans-Mississippi Theater, and one of the major events in the history of the New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War.
Phineas Banning was an American businessman, financier and entrepreneur.
Fort Tejon in California is a former United States Army outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon between the San Emigdio Mountains and Tehachapi Mountains. It is in the area of the Tejon Pass along Interstate 5 in Kern County, California, the main route through the mountain ranges separating the Central Valley from the Los Angeles Basin and Southern California. The fort's location protected the San Joaquin Valley from the south and west.
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo usually known as Juan Bautista Alvarado, was a Californio politician that served as governor of Alta California from 1837 to 1842. Prior to his term as governor, Alvarado briefly led a movement for independence of Alta California from 1836 to 1837, in which he successfully deposed interim governor Nicolás Gutiérrez, declared independence, and created a new flag and constitution, before negotiating an agreement with the Mexican government resulting in his recognition as governor and the end of the independence movement.
The Department of the Pacific or Pacific Department was a major command (Department) of the United States Army from 1853 to 1858. It replaced the Pacific Division, and was itself replaced by the Department of California and the Department of Oregon.
California's involvement in the American Civil War included sending gold east to support the war effort, recruiting volunteer combat units to replace regular U.S. Army units sent east, in the area west of the Rocky Mountains, maintaining and building numerous camps and fortifications, suppressing secessionist activity and securing the New Mexico Territory against the Confederacy. The State of California did not send its units east, but many citizens traveled east and joined the Union Army there, some of whom became famous.
The Pacific coast theater of the American Civil War consists of major military operations in the United States on the Pacific Ocean and in the states and Territories west of the Continental Divide. The theater was encompassed by the Department of the Pacific that included the states of California, Oregon, and Nevada, the territories of Washington, Utah, and later Idaho.
Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was Established in 1848. It served as a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861. The fort was retired from active military service on May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department of the Interior. The Fort Yuma Indian School and the Saint Thomas Yuma Indian Mission now occupy the site. It is one of the "associated sites" listed as Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites on the National Register of Historic Places in the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. In addition, it is registered as California Historical Landmark #806.
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Fort Washita is the former United States military post and National Historic Landmark located in Durant, Oklahoma on SH 199. Established in 1842 by General Zachary Taylor to protect citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations from the Plains Indians, it was later abandoned by Federal forces at the beginning of the American Civil War. Confederate troops held the post until the end of the war when they burned the remaining structures. It was never reoccupied by the United States military. After years in private hands the Oklahoma Historical Society bought the fort grounds in 1962 and restored the site. In 2017, the Chickasaw Nation purchased Fort Washita from the Oklahoma Historical Society and assumed responsibility for the site and its management. Today, Fort Washita is a tourist attraction and hosts several events throughout the year. In August 2023, the Fort Washita Historic Site was placed into federal trust with the U.S. government.
Alexander Early Steen was a career American soldier from Missouri who served in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He rejoined the army in 1852 and served until he resigned to join the Confederate forces on May 10, 1861. He served as a general in the secessionist Missouri State Guard forces and as a colonel and acting brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in the Battle of Prairie Grove.
The 1st Regiment California Cavalry was a cavalry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. First formed as a battalion, the unit later expanded to regimental size.
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William Hoffman (1807–1884) was a 19th-century officer in the United States Army. The West Point graduate was involved in the Black Hawk War, Seminole Wars, Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. During the Civil War he served as the Commissary-General of Prisoners and set policy for the treatment and release of prisoners.
Camp Latham was a temporary United States Army tent camp located in Los Angeles County, California extant from the fall of 1861 to fall of 1862 in the military District of Southern California during the American Civil War. Camp Latham was located on the south bank of Ballona Creek, approximately .75 mi (1.21 km) southwest of what is now called Culver City station. Short-lived Camp Kellogg was located nearby, just north across the creek.
The Mojave Road Los Angeles was designated a California Historic Landmark on March 19, 1985. It runs from Drum Barracks in Los Angeles County to the Colorado River in San Bernardino County, California.
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