Monthly Archives: February 2018

Meeting of March 27, 2018

Robert Burch on “California in the Civil War: Securing the State in 1861″

California’s involvement in the American Civil War remains one of the great hidden facets of that conflict. One subject never explored by Civil War historians are the military operations within the state. Despite public expression of hope and confidence, doubt existed among senior Unionist politicians and U.S. Army officer’s regarding the prospects of preserving California in the Union in April 1861. Yet eight months later California was secured Union state after bold use of very limited Federal military resources and emergence of pro-Unionist Governor Leland Stanford.

The internal state Secessionist and external Confederate threat to California was real. Three lines of effort were developed to achieve their goal. Secessionists politically advocated a ballot referendum proposing to secede California from the Union and establish the “Republic of the Pacific” with intend of ultimately joining the Confederacy. At the same time, they militarily pursued raising a Secessionist Army to seize state by force. Externally the Confederate Army in Texas proposed capturing Southwest U.S. with assistance from California, Nevada and Arizona volunteers (the New Mexico Campaign, discussed in a later presentation).

This presentation describes this threat and the Union response. It is the product of original research that drew on multiple original and secondary sources, principally the Official Records and various secondary local history articles. This story is described in rough chronological order:

  • Non-Military Actions Laying Foundation for Bloodless Military Victory
  • U.S. Army Secured San Francisco
  • U.S. Army Secured Los Angeles & San Diego
  • U.S. Army Secured San Bernardino
  • California Volunteers Relieved Regular Army Units
  • California Volunteers Secured Southern California
  • Measurement of Success – Capture of Daniel Showalter

What is the so what? It’s relevance. First, how state politicians and U.S. Army leaders secured California for the Union in 1861 offers insight into a successful counter-insurgency operation. Secondly, unlike similar situations in the Border States during the Civil War, and the nation as a whole, this success was without bloodshed or lingering, deep division among the civil population. Finally, the state “economic boom” resulting from the Federal government’s appreciation to California for its loyalty after the war is still attracting immigrants to California over 150 years later.

Bob Burch is a native Californian, born and raised in Santa Clara County. He is also a lifetime student of the Civil War. He had the opportunity to visit many Civil War sites from Florida to Pennsylvania to New Mexico during his 30 year military career. Like many California CWRT members, he desires to understand his home state’s role in the war. He started collecting material for this presentation ten years ago and initiated a serious study 15 months ago. This series documents his research in great detail. Time allows only a few key points from each slide to be presented. Numerous period photographs and magazine drawings are included for visual effect with the intent of comprehending California’s role in the Civil War.

Meeting Minutes March 2018

Quiz for March 27, 2018

Civil War Quiz: How Did Weather Affect the Civil War?

Q#1 – What is the name of the meteorological period that the Civil War took place at the tail end of?

Q#2 – What was a well-known example where weather adversely affected Union general George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign in 1862?

Q#3 – At the September, 1862, Battle of Chantilly, what weather condition helped contribute to the death of Union general Philip Kearney?

Q#4 – What battle was fought on May 15, 1864, where hundreds of Confederate soldiers’ feet became stuck in the mud as they attempted to cross a wheat field which the soldiers forever dubbed the “field of lost shoes?”

Q#5 – At the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863, what weather condition helped to contribute to the element of surprise of Stonewall Jackson’s flank attack?

Q#6 – Following his dreadful defeat at Fredericksburg the previous December, what was the name given to Union general Ambrose E. Burnside’s January 1863 military maneuver involving the Army of the Potomac?

Q#7 – What was the name given to one of the most famous (and comical) weather-related incidents during the Civil War that occurred on March 22, 1864, in Dalton, Georgia?

Q#8 – What weather event contributed to the sinking of the USS Monitor off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina?

Q#9 – What was the weather like during Jefferson Davis’s inauguration for the presidency of the Confederate States of America in February 1861 in Montgomery, Alabama?

Q#10 – At the Battle of Gettysburg, Rev. Dr. Michael Jacobs, a math professor at what was then called Pennsylvania College recorded his observations three times a day during every day of the battle. What was the name of the book he created that contains very specific details on the weather at the Battle of Gettysburg and the role it may have played in battle?

Q#11 – During the Battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864, there were unseasonable high heat temperatures that adversely impacted both armies both during and after the battle. How did these high temperatures affect the armies after the battle?

Q#12 – What was the most frequent emotional comment that Union soldiers who had to endure bad weather conditions in southern locations included in their letters home?

Q#13 – Union prisoners incarcerated at Andersonville did what in an attempt to shield themselves from the rain and heat?

Q#14 – Why did a number of Confederate soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg actually die from drowning?

Q#15 – During Union general William T. Sherman’s march into South Carolina, massive storms caused numerous rivers to flood their banks. What adverse affect did his cause Sherman’s march?

Meeting of February 27, 2018

Nick K. Adams on “The 2nd Minnesota in the Western Theater”

Nick K. Adams, great-great-grandson of Cpl. David Brainard Griffin, will describe the organization of, and first two years of action of the 2nd Minnesota Regiment of Volunteers in the Western Theater. His compelling presentation will be personalized by selected readings from the 100 letters Griffin wrote back to his young family on the Minnesota prairie prior to his death at the Battle of Chickamauga.

Those letters have been published as My Dear Wife and Children: Civil War Letters from a 2nd Minnesota Volunteer. A companion novel that tells the home front story of the family’s difficult struggle to survive while Griffin was gone has recently been published as Away at War: A Civil War Novel of the Family Left Behind. Autographed copies of both books will be available for purchase at the meeting.

Nick K. Adams grew up in Los Angeles County and now resides in Tacoma, WA, having retired from a career in elementary education. He has followed a life-long passion of interest in the American Civil War after learning of his own g-g-grandfather’s participation and sacrifice in that pivotal period. He continues to speak at schools, libraries, service clubs, and Civil War Round Tables, and is an avid Civil War re-enactor in his portrayal of Minnesota’s 1861 Governor Alexander Ramsey who sent his grandfather into the conflict to preserve the Union.

Meeting Minutes February 2018