What was the "California Column"?

The California Column, a force of Union volunteers, marched from April to August 1862 over 900 miles from California, across the southern New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and then into western Texas during the American Civil War. At the time, this was the longest trek through desert terrain ever attempted by the U.S. military.

Formation
The "California Column" originally consisted of ten companies of the 1st California Infantry, five companies of the 1st Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry, Company B, 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry and Light Battery A of the Third U.S. Artillery. This command contained 1500 well drilled and disciplined men. Later on, Lieutenant Colonel George W. Bowie's 5th California Infantry was added, bringing the total strength of the Column to 2350 men.

Expedition
The objective of their commander, Colonel James Henry Carleton (promoted to brigadier general while the column was en route) was to drive Confederate troops out of New Mexico, which they had occupied the previous year. The soldiers of the California Column, both infantry and cavalry, often traveled by foot wearing woolen uniforms in the desert heat. They started out from Fort Yuma along the Colorado River. Much like the Confederate Army of New Mexico (also known as the Sibley Brigade), which had entered New Mexico from Texas in December 1861, they traveled in small groups at intervals of a few days so men and horses would not exhaust the springs and wells along the way. They followed the established route of the Butterfield Overland Mail, which had ceased operation the year before. The mail posts were filled with food and grain which Union spies had stockpiled there before the invasion.

Arizona battles
Arizona Confederate volunteers the Company A, Arizona Rangers, managed to destroy supplies along the Column's route, making its progress extremely slow. Most of Carleton's attempts to send messages to General E. R. S. Canby, the Union's beleaguered departmental commander of New Mexico, were intercepted, and one entire patrol was captured by Confederates at White's Mill at the Pima Indian villages. It was not until late June that a scout named John W. Jones was able to outrun pursuing Apaches and get a message to Canby: "The Column from California is really coming." By the time the California Column reached the Rio Grande, the Confederates had already retreated to Texas.

The Column engaged the Confederates in two small skirmishes, first at Stanwix Station near the end of March 1862, and in mid-April at Picacho Pass. Additionally, 140 men of Company E, 1st California Infantry, and Company B, 2nd California Infantry, fought the famous Apache leader Cochise at Apache Pass in July. Most of their service after that would be against the Apaches and Navajo. Arizona pioneer Sylvester Mowry was arrested at his mine in Mowry, Arizona by the Californians, General Carleton, coincidentally an old enemy of Mowry, charged him with selling lead for musket balls to Confederates.

Mowry was imprisoned for six months at Fort Yuma before being released due to the lack of evidence and as a result his mine was destroyed and he was forced to leave Arizona where he intended to settle.

5 May, 1862: Monday

Union - Government
In the evening, President Lincoln with Cabinet Ministers Stanton and Chase, leave by ship for Fort Monroe, to take a personal look at the advance into Virginia.

Union - Military
Virginia
Advancing units of McClellan's Army of the Potomac under Joseph Hooker and Phil Kearney clash with rearguard divisions of the Confederates, led by James Longstreet and D.H. Hill, just east of the old capital of Williamsburg.

There was heavy fighting for a line of defensive redoubts built earlier by Confederate General John B. Magruder.

At first the Union attack was unsuccessful, but eventually as more troops arrived, they were able to occupy a part of the line, and Winfield S. Hancock's division outflanked the Confederates.

In the evening the last of the Confederates pulled out as Johnston's army continued its retreat westward toward Rockhmond.

Union: 40,000 troops engaged
Confederates: 31,000

Union losses. 456 killed, 410 wounded, 373 missing for 2239

Confederate losses: 1770 killed and wounded, 133 missing, total 1703, "heavy casualties for what was essentially a delaying and probing action."

Elswhere in Virginia, there was a skirmish at Columbia Bridge.

Tennessee
There is a skirmish at Lebanon

Western VirginiaThere are skirmishes at Princeton and Franklin





Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

4 May, 1862: Sunday

Union - Military
Virginia
The Army of the Potomac enters Yorktown, Virginia, following the evaculation of the Confederates. The month-long siege had been successful in part - but Johnson's army had never been attacked and was intact.

There were brief skirmishes at Williamsburg as forward units of Union troops fought with the retreating Confederates.

Mississippi
There is skirmishing at Farmington Heights as Halleck's army closes on Corinth. W. T. Sherman's division is within six miles of Corinth's defenses.

Tennessee
There is skirmish near Purddy, Tennessee. There is a skirmish at Pulaski, Tennessee, north of Nashville.

New Mexico Territory
Cononel Carlton's "California Column" moves east from CAlifornia, causing Confederates to evacuate Tucson in New Mexico TErritory.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

3 May, 1862: Saturday

Military - Union
General Halleck wires to Washington that he is personally leaving Pittsburg Landing and that his army will be in front of Corinth by the night of May 4.


Military - Confederacy
Virginia
Faced by overwhelming numbers, giant seige guns and a threat from more Union soldiers to the north on the Rappahannock, General Joseph E. Johnston withdraws his troops from Yorktown before McClellan can launch his major bombardment. The troops pull back through Williamsburg toward Richmond.

McClelland had had double the number of Confederate troops, yet nevertheless for over a month had taken no serious action against them, as he had believed the Confederates outnumbered him.

In southwest Virginia the Confederates proclaim martial law.

Georgia

There is a skirmish at Watkins Ferry.

Mississippi
There is a skirmish at Farmington near Corinth, and on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.

Arkansas
There is a skirmish near Batesville.

________
Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

2 May 1862: Friday

Uinion - Government/Military
Edward Stanley is appointed military governor of North Carolina.

Military - Confederacy
Mississippi
General Beauregard calls on the soldiers of the Confederacy to defend Corinth, Mississippi from the invading "despoilers of our homes," as the Union army under Halleck begins to move toward the Southern concentration point.

Virginia
There are skirmishes at Trevilian's Depot and Louisa Court House.

Aekansas
There is a skirmish at Litchfield.

North Carolina
There is a skirmish at Trenton Road.




Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Union General Benjamin Butler

Bio from Wikipedia:
Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts.

During the American Civil War, he served as a major general in the Union Army. His administration of occupied New Orleans, his policies regarding slaves as contraband, his ineffectual leadership in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, and the fiasco of Fort Fisher rank him as one of the most controversial political generals of the war. He was widely reviled for years after the war by Southern whites, who gave him the nickname "Beast Butler."

Early life
Butler was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, the sixth child of Captain John Butler, who served under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and later became a privateer, dying in 1819. He was named after Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. His elder brother, Andrew Jackson Butler (1815–1864), would serve as a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War and joined him in New Orleans.

After the death of his father, his mother, Charlotte (Ellison) Butler, operated a boarding house in Lowell, Massachusetts. He attended Waterville College (now Colby College) in Maine and graduated in 1838. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840, began practice at Lowell, and soon attained distinction as a lawyer, particularly in criminal cases. He married Sarah Hildreth, a stage actress and daughter of Dr. Israel Hildreth of Lowell, on May 16, 1844. They had three children survive past their childhood: Blanche (1847–1939), Paul (1852-1918; the Butlers' first child, also named Paul, had died at age 5 in 1850) and Ben-Israel (1855–1881). Blanche Butler eventually married Adelbert Ames, a Mississippi governor and senator who had served as a general in the United States Army during the Civil War.

Entering politics as a Democrat, Butler first attracted general attention by his vigorous campaign in Lowell advocating the passage of a law establishing a ten-hour day for laborers. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853, and of the Massachusetts Senate in 1859, and was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions from 1848 to 1860. In the 1860 Democratic National Convention at Charleston, South Carolina, he advocated the nomination of Jefferson Davis (voting for him on the first 57 ballots) and opposed Stephen A. Douglas, and in the ensuing campaign he supported John C. Breckinridge. His military career prior to the Civil War began with him as a third lieutenant in the Massachusetts Militia in 1839; he was promoted to brigadier general of the militia in 1855. These ranks were closely associated with his political positions and Butler received little practical military experience to prepare him for the coming conflict.

Civil War
Baltimore and Virginia operationsAfter rioting in Baltimore, Governor John A. Andrew sent Butler with a force of Massachusetts troops to reopen communication between the Union states and Washington, D.C. A major railroad connection from the Northeast passed through Baltimore and immediately after the start of the war it was unclear whether Maryland would stay in the Union. Butler arrived with the 8th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment by steamer at Annapolis on April 20, 1861. He employed his expert negotiation skills with Governor Thomas H. Hicks and, by April 22, his regiment had disembarked and was put to work repairing damaged railroad tracks around Baltimore. At the same time, the 7th New York Infantry arrived and Butler assumed command of the entire force; his military career would be characterized by his eagerness to assume authority in the absence of official instructions.

While Butler remained at Annapolis, the New Yorkers were among the first Union troops to march into Washington following President Lincoln's initial call for volunteers. On May 13, Butler's remaining force occupied Baltimore without opposition.

On May 14, Union artillery and scores of camps crowned Federal Hill and Union troops patrolled the streets, further supported by the heavy artillery in Fort McHenry. Butler's reward for his aggressive but unauthorized premature action was to be relieved of command by a livid General Winfield Scott. However, Lincoln appointed him one of the first major generals of U.S. Volunteers, ranking from May 16, 1861. (Also on that day, appointments were given to John A. Dix and Nathaniel P. Banks. Both appeared on the promotion order before Butler, making him the third highest ranking major general of volunteers.)

Butler was assigned command of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, and of the Department of Virginia. In the conduct of tactical operations in Virginia, Butler was almost uniformly unsuccessful. His first action at Battle of Big Bethel was a humiliating defeat for the Union Army. While in command at Fort Monroe, Butler declined to return to their owners fugitive slaves who had come within his lines, on the grounds that, as laborers for building fortifications and other military activities, they were contraband of war, thereby justifying granting these slaves a relative freedom, in spite of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

The U.S. Congress later mandated that other Union commanders refuse to return slaves to their former masters.

New Orleans
Later, in 1861, Butler commanded an expeditionary force that, in conjunction with the United States Navy, took Forts Hatteras and Clark in North Carolina. He directed the first Union expedition to Ship Island, off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, in December 1861.

In May 1862, he commanded the force that conducted the capture of New Orleans after its occupation by the Navy after the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. In the administration of that city he showed great firmness and political subtlety.

New Orleans was unusually healthy and orderly during the Butler regime. Many of his acts, however, gave great offense, such as the seizure of $800,000 that had been deposited in the office of the Dutch consul and his imprisonment of the French Champagne magnate Charles Heidsieck. Most notorious was Butler's General Order No. 28 of May 15, issued after some provocation, that if any woman should insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and shall be held liable to be treated as a "woman of the town plying her avocation", i.e., a prostitute. This order provoked protests both in the North and the South, and also abroad, particularly in England and France, and it was doubtless the cause of his removal from command of the Department of the Gulf on December 17, 1862. He was nicknamed "'Beast' Butler" or alternatively "'Spoons' Butler," the latter nickname derived for his alleged habit of pilfering the silverware of Southern homes in which he stayed.

Butler censored New Orleans newspapers. He closed The Picayune when it ran an editorial that he found offensive. Historian John D. Winters wrote that most of the newspapers "were allowed to reopen later but were so rigidly controlled that all color and interest were drained away" and that churches that planned a special day of prayer and fasting for the Confederacy were forbidden from doing so. Several clergymen were placed under arrest for refusing to pray for President Lincoln. The Episcopal churches were closed, and their three ministers were sent to New York City under military escort.

On June 7, Butler had executed William B. Mumford, who had torn down a United States flag placed by Admiral Farragut on the United States Mint in New Orleans; for this execution, he was denounced (December 1862) by Confederate President Jefferson Davis in General Order 111 as a felon deserving capital punishment, who if captured should be reserved for execution.

Butler also took aim at foreign consuls in New Orleans, particularly George Coppell of Great Britain, whom he suspended for refusal to cooperate with the Union. Instead, Butler accused Coppell of giving aid to the Confederate cause. U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward sent Reverdy Johnson to New Orleans to investigate complaints of foreign consuls against certain Butler policies. Even when told by President Lincoln to restore a sugar shipment claimed by Europeans, Butler undermined the order. He also imposed a strict quarantine to protect against yellow fever, which had the added impact of delaying foreign commerce and bringing complaints to his headquarters from most foreign consuls.

With the Federal occupation, runaway slaves and slaves from abandoned plantations arrived in large numbers in New Orleans. These unattached persons had to be fed and housed. A Union officer complained of "a big problem" with the new arrivals. John D. Winters wrote that "Soldiers resented the fact that the pampered Negro was given better tents, equal rations, and was allowed to tear down more fences for sleeping boards than were the soldiers. General Phelps [an abolitionist] had organized a few squads of Negroes and drilled them daily. ... Not knowing what to do with so many Negroes, Butler at first returned the runaway slaves to their masters. But still the contrabands came. Some of them were employed as cooks, nurses, washwomen, and laborers. ... [Finally] Butler ordered ... the exclusion of all unemployed Negroes and whites from his lines."

Army of the James
In November 1863, Butler commanded the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and, in May 1864, the forces under his command were designated the Army of the James. He was ordered to attack in the direction of Petersburg from the east, destroying the rail links supplying Richmond and distracting Robert E. Lee, in conjunction with attacks from the north by Ulysses S. Grant. Grant had little use for Butler's military skills, but Butler had strong political connections that kept him in positions beyond his competence. Rather than striking immediately at Petersburg as ordered, Butler's offensive bogged down east of Richmond in the area called the Bermuda Hundred, immobilized by the greatly inferior force of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, and he was unable to accomplish any of his assigned objectives. But it was his mismanagement of the expedition against Fort Fisher, North Carolina, that finally led to his recall by General Grant.

Fort Fisher and the demise of Butler's military service
Butler's status as a key political ally of President Abraham Lincoln prevented General Grant from removing him from military service prior to the presidential election of November 1864. After the election, however, Grant wrote to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in early 1865 asking free rein to relieve Butler from military service. Since Stanton was traveling outside Washington, D.C., at the time, Grant appealed directly to Lincoln for permission to terminate Butler. In General Order Number 1, Lincoln relieved Butler from command of the Department of North Carolina and Virginia and ordered him to report to Lowell, Massachusetts.

Grant informed Butler on January 8, 1865, and named Maj. Gen. Edward O. C. Ord to replace him as commander of the Army of the James. The grounds given by Grant were vague, but Butler focused his defense on his failure to take Fort Fisher, and used his considerable political connections to get a hearing before the Joint Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War in mid-January 1865. At his hearing Butler produced charts and duplicates of reports by subordinates to prove he had been right to call off his attack of Fort Fisher, despite orders from General Grant to the contrary. Butler claimed the fort was impregnable. To his embarrassment, news of the fall of Fort Fisher came during the committee hearings—a follow-up expedition led by Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry captured the fort on January 15—and Butler's career was over.

Postbellum political career
Butler was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1867 to 1875 and again in 1877 to 1879. Despite his pre-war allegiance as a Democrat, in Congress he was conspicuous as a Radical Republican in Reconstruction legislation, and wrote the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (Ku Klux Klan Act). Along with Republican Senator Charles Sumner, he proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, a seminal and far-reaching law banning racial discrimination in public accommodations. The law was declared unconstitutional, and racial minorities in the United States would have to wait nearly a century before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would revive, and expand, the provisions of the law Butler backed.

Butler was one of the managers selected by the House to conduct the unsuccessful trial of impeachment of President Johnson, before the Senate, opening the case and taking the most prominent part.

He exercised a marked influence over President Grant and was regarded as his spokesman in the House. He was one of the foremost advocates of the payment in greenbacks of the government bonds. During his time in the House, he served as chairman of the Committee on Revision of the Laws in the 42nd Congress and the Judiciary Committee in the 43rd Congress.

In 1872, Butler was among the several high-profile investors who were deceived by Philip Arnold in a famous diamond and gemstone hoax.

Butler ran unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts as an independent in 1878, and also, in 1879, when he ran on the Democratic and Greenback tickets, but, in 1882, he was elected by the Democrats, who won no other state offices. From 1883 to 1884, he was Governor of Massachusetts. As Governor, he appointed the first Irish-American judge, and the first African-American Judge—George Lewis Ruffin. He also appointed the first woman to executive office, Clara Barton, to head the Mass. Reformatory for Women. As presidential nominee of the Greenback and Anti-Monopoly parties, he polled 175,370 votes in the presidential election of 1884. He had bitterly opposed the nomination by the Democratic party of Grover Cleveland and tried to defeat him by throwing his own votes in Massachusetts and New York to the Republican candidate, James G. Blaine.

Butler's income as a lawyer was estimated at $100,000 per year shortly before his death. He was an able but erratic administrator, and a brilliant lawyer. As a politician, he excited bitter opposition, and was charged, apparently with justice, with corruption and venality in conniving at, and sharing, the profits of illicit trade with the Confederates carried on by his brother at New Orleans and by his brother-in-law in the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, while General Butler was in command.

Butler died while attending court in Washington, D.C.. He is buried in his wife's family cemetery, behind the main Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts. His descendants include the famous scientist Adelbert Ames, Jr., suffragist and artist Blanche Ames Ames, Butler Ames, and George Plimpton.

A "Benjamin F. Butler Society" meets every year at the Hildreth family cemetery in early November to celebrate the birthday of General Butler, and to replace the American flag that flies over the cemetery. This is the only time of year the family plots, behind two locked gates and fenced off from the public cemetery, are open to the public.

1 May, 1862: Thursday

Confederacy - Government/Military
President Davis writes to General Joseph E. Johnston at Yorktown. "accepting your conclusion that you must soon retire, arrangements are commenced for the abandonment of Navy Yard and removal of public property both from Norfolk and Peninsula." But the plan to withdraw so soon did take Davis by surprise.

Union - Government/Military
President Lincoln wires McClellan on the Peninsula that the general's call for heavy guns "alarms me - chiefly because it argues indefinite procrastimation. Is anything to be done?"

Union - Military
Virginia
McClellan's forces continue the siege of Yorkrtown. Siefge guns are mounted on this day.

Should Yorkrown be taken, the Confederates would lose Norfolk, the Naval Yard, and other important points along the James River.

There are skirmishes at Rapidan Station.

There are skirmishes at Clark's Hollow and Camp Creek in Stone River Valley, western Virginia.

Tennessee
There is skirmishing near Pulaski, Tennesee.

Alabama
Union troops begin two days of operations around Athens, Mooresville, Limestone Bridge and Elk River.

Louisiana
Major General Benjamin Butler, and his troops, officially take over New Orleans, "beginning a reign of efficiency in sanitary and other conditions, corruption in administration, and suppression of the people."

Kansas
Union Brigadier General James G. Blunt assumes command of the Department of Kansas.



Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971