thumb|right|Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, August 2008

Drum Barracks was the Union Army's headquarters for Southern California and New Mexico during the Civil War. It consisted of 19 buildings on 60 acres (240,000 m2) in what is now Wilmington, with another 37 acres (150,000 m2) near the waterfront. Its junior officers' quarters has been preserved as the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum. Its powder magazine stands on private property three blocks away, protected by a chain-link fence.

History

In August, 1861, Confederate Colonel John R. Baylor proclaimed the Confederate Territory of Arizona and sent a detachment to occupy Tucson.

Union officials in Southern California responded by organizing the available troops into the California Column, which marched east and confronted the Confederates at Picacho Pass, Arizona.

The withdrawal of regular troops presented Los Angeles with a threefold crisis:

  • The majority of Southern Californians favored the Confederacy, and pro-Confederate demonstrations were made in Los Angeles and El Monte. There was fear that they might seize Southern California, gain control over the gold being mined near San Bernardino and use San Pedro Bay as a base for privateers that would raid the gold ships leaving San Francisco for Cape Horn.
  • Indians in California and what is now Arizona saw the war as the chance of a lifetime to seize cattle, drive off settlers and reclaim their lands.
  • Turmoil in Mexico could allow the Confederates to launch cross-border raids or even invade by way of Mexico.

The response was to build a major installation, adjacent to San Pedro Bay and 25 miles south of Los Angeles, to be garrisoned by troops moved from Fort Tejon and later by recruits from Northern California and from among the loyal minority in the area.

While the land was donated by Union sympathizers Phineas Banning and Benjamin Wilson, the construction cost eventually reached $1 million.

In 1863, Major Bennett, the post commander, wrote to the Adjutant-General in Washington asking that the name be changed to Fort Drum, comparing it to Fort Snelling, Minnesota and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. No response to the letter has been found.

Drum was also honored with Fort Drum in the Philippines, built shortly after he died in 1909.

Fort Drum, New York is named for Lieutenant General Hugh A. Drum, while Fort Drum, Florida is named for a post built during the Second Seminole War in 1842.

Arrest of Confederate sympathizers

At least three of the leading citizens of Los Angeles were arrested and taken to the Drum Barracks.

[[File:Henry Hamilton portrait.png|thumb|left

|One of these men is Los Angeles publisher Henry Hamilton]]

Newspaper publisher Henry Hamilton was arrested In Los Angeles on October 17, 1862 and taken to the Drum Barracks. From there he was placed aboard a steamer to be taken to San Francisco and confinement at Fort Alcatraz. He took an oath of allegiance to the United States and was back in Los Angeles within two weeks.

The immediate cause of his arrest is not known, but one of his many editorials had said that the Northern mobilization was an abolition war, "instigated, carried on, and to be consummated, by the degradation of the white race, and the elevation of the African family over them" and that "Black Republican" rule "has degenerated into worse than an Oriental despotism."

The photo shown here has inscriptions stating that Hamilton is on the left. A copy of the photo, taken decades later, has a description indicating that Hamilton is on the right.

thumb|left|upright=0.6|Undersheriff A.J. King

Undersheriff A.J. King was arrested at the request of the newly appointed US Marshal, Henry D. Barrows, for saying "that he owed no allegiance to the United States Government; that Jeff Davis' was the only constitutional government we had, and that he remained here because he could do more harm to the enemies of that Government by staying here than going there" and for publicly displaying "a large lithograph gilt-framed portrait of Beauregard, the rebel general, which he flaunted before a large crowd at the hotel." He took an oath of allegiance to the United States and was released.

thumb|left|upright=0.8|State assemblyman Edward J. C. Kewen

In October, 1862, a month after he had been elected to the state Assembly, former California Attorney General and later Los Angeles District Attorney E.J.C. Kewen was arrested for ‘treasonable utterance’ and sent to Fort Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. After two weeks, he took an oath of allegiance, posted a $5,000 bond and was released.

The report of the arrest does not say what the utterance was, but one of his speeches was published later: