Henry Fillebrown, former vaquero and first volunteer of the California 100, who journeyed back east to fight for the Union.

At the start of the Civil War, California wasn’t a sure bet to stay in the Union. It had an active and vociferous population of Southern sympathizers, who dominated California’s government during the first decade of statehood. In the bitter years before the war, the state’s politics spun out of control. The dominant Democratic Party broke apart over slavery and Secession. The quarrel peaked in 1859, when California's pro-slavery Chief Justice shot and killed its free-soil US Senator in a duel. This violence shook California voters and weakened the Democratic hold on the state. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln and the upstart Republican Party won California by about 700 votes, even though less than a third of California’s voters cast their ballots for him.

When the war came, Californians were swept up in the turmoil, just like their cousins back East. Almost 16,000 men (mostly from Northern California) volunteered to serve the Union. They signed up to fight Rebels, but found themselves dispersed across the West, where they replaced the regular army. Californian Volunteers waged brutal campaigns against the Navajo, Apache, Kiowa, Comanche, Paiute, and Shoshone peoples in battles that have been largely lost to history – overshadowed by the wholesale carnage taking place back East.

Life in wartime California was strongly affected by the crisis. Secessionist sentiment burned hot in the southern and central parts of the state, where whole communities pledged themselves to the Rebel cause. Some even attempted to launch partisan campaigns. One daring gang tried to sail a privateer out of the San Francisco!

Below are three themes that are covered in the book. For more information about the Golden State's experience of the Civil War, visit the history page of California Educational Multimedia.

Unionists' concerns were heightened by the fact that General Albert Sidney Johnston commanded the US Army on the Pacific Coast. Johnston was a Southerner, with strong ties to the State of Texas. When Texas seceded in the spring of 1861, Johnston was in a position to hand over the defenses of the Pacific Coast to Southern sympathizers. He was also commanded the federal arsenals, which contained weapons for 75,000 men. California's fate – peace or insurrection – depended on Johnston's loyalty to the oath he had taken as a US officer.

At the start of the war, California's congressional delegation was composed of members of the "chivalry," the pro-slavery wing of the Democratic Party that wanted to bind the state to the South. Southern President Jefferson Davis was assured that the Pacific Coast would give a great deal of trouble to the Union – if not secede entirely.

Unionists' suspicions about Johnston were heard in Washington by the incoming Lincoln administration, who promptly sent out General Edwin V. Sumner, a rock-ribbed New Englander, to replace Johnston as commander on the Pacific Coast. Johnston did not know he had been superseded. Hearing that Texas had seceded, Johnston resigned before learning of Sumner's appointment.

Despite Republican fears, Johnston's tenure in command was exemplary, from the moment he assumed command until Sumner took over. Once relieved, Johnston traveled south to Los Angeles. He was 58 and ready to retire after a lifetime of service.

In the end, though, Johnston couldn't accept civilian life while his adopted state of Texas was at war. Johnston enlisted as a private in a local Secesh militia group, the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles, and joined them in a desperate journey across the Southwest in June and July 1861.

Johnston died on April 6, 1862, while leading his men at the Battle of Shiloh.