Answer:
Most people know that the Civil War, fought between 1861 and 1865, began with the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 in Charleston, South Carolina. But they don’t know that California did play a significant role in the War Between the States.
Explanation:
Even though Southern California was part of a free Union state, it had strong Confederate sympathies. These Confederate ties were due to the large number of Southerners who had transplanted to the Southern California region. This partiality was evident in the 1860 presidential election; Lincoln received only 25% of the Los Angeles vote.
Once the war began, the Confederacy began thinking of gaining Southern California as a Confederate state. Not only did the state have gold, but the Union blockade of all Southern ports gave the harbors in Southern California a great appeal. Without the accessibility of Europe, the South had no market to export their cotton for income and no source to import needed supplies for the war.
Back in Los Angeles, the danger of a takeover from within was becoming alarming. In April 1861 the Union War Department ordered Major James Henry Carleton and his First Dragoons from Fort Tejon to Los Angeles to protect a one-man quartermaster depot occupied solely by Captain Winfield Scott Hancock, chief quartermaster for the District of Southern California.
Eventually California would have over 17,000 volunteers, and the Drum Barracks would be the staging area for over 8,000 of those soldiers head out to the Southwest. This strong military presence at the hot spots of Southern hostility had the desired effect: trouble was confined to a few demonstrations and public display of the Stars and Bars for the balance of the war years, and California remained a firm Union state.
