ed, he reported: "The Secessionist party
in this state numbers about 32,000 men and they are very restless
and zealous, which gives them great influence." Still later: "The
disaffection in the southern part of the state is increasing and
is becoming dangerous, and it is indispensably necessary to throw
reinforcements into that section immediately."

In this connection it should be remembered that when President Lincoln
at the outbreak of the war called for 75,000 men, California was
expected to furnish her quota of 6,000 soldiers, but so threatening was
the local situation that not a loyal man could be spared from the State.
On the contrary it was found necessary to retain in the State certain
regiments of the regular army badly needed elsewhere. In the summer of
1861, the War Department proposed to transfer a portion of the regular
army stationed in California to Texas, where the situation demanded
immediate succor for the friends of the Union. How grave the situation
had become in California may easily be determined by a fact which seems
to have escaped so far the attention of historians. On August 28, 1861,
the leading men of San Francisco sent a communication to Hon. Simon
Cameron, Secretary of War, remonstrating against the withdrawal of
United States troops from California for the following reasons:

1. "A majority of our present state officials are avowed secessionists,
and the balance being bitterly hostile to the administration are
advocates of a peace policy at any price."

2. "About three-fifths of our citizens are natives of slave-holding
states and are almost a unit in this crisis."

3. "Our advices, obtained with great prudence and care, show us that
there are about 16,000 Knights of the Golden Circle (a secret military
organization of secessionists, said by many authorities to have been
much stronger than was at the time believed) in the state, and they are
still organizing even in our most loyal districts."

4. "Through misrepresentation the powerful native Mexican population has
been won over to the secession side."

This document, remarkable in itself, becomes weighty evidence, when it
is stated that after full and careful consideration, the petition was
heeded and the regulars remained on the Coast.

General Sumner held command nearly a year, until, as we are accustomed
to think, all danger of a disloyal California was over, yet as the date
of his departure for the Army of the Potomac drew near