By Marge O’Brien, past Director, Drum Barracks

Located at Wilmington, in Los Angeles County, Drum Barracks is California Historical Landmark No. 169. Their website is http://www.drumbarracks.org/

The wind tugged at the troops’ clothes as they stood at attention, waiting. Then the command came: “Right face! March!” With the jangling of bridles and the creaking of accouterments, the final detachments of 1st California Infantry Regiment, U.S.V., some 350 strong under the command of Colonel James Carleton, left Camp Drum.

The troops’ destination was Fort Yuma, California, where the rest of the force, 2,000 strong, that history would call the “California Column” were mustering, waiting to march. These troops would be reinforcements, augmenting the army of Col. James Slough U.S.V., now engaged in operations against Confederate forces in Arizona and New Mexico.

This is arguably the most significant action taken by California’s military volunteers in the American Civil War. Ironically, most troops never saw combat against rebels. They had drilled at two camps but only one would remain. Camp Drum’s modest beginning would become Drum Barracks, one of the largest Army supply facilities on the west coast during the war. Today one can visit the remnants of Drum Barracks. The State of California and the City of Los Angeles have established a museum of Civil War artifacts in the junior officers’ quarters. Owned by the state, the museum is operated as a facility of the City of Los Angeles by the Recreation and Parks Department.

This is the story of Drum Barracks. It is not the story of California’s involvement in the Civil War. That is beyond the limited scope of this article. Instead this is the chronicle of an army post and its constant struggle for existence. Today people are surprised that, considering the many deterrents encountered by the Barracks, part of this bridge to America’s history is still intact.

Camp Drum came into existence only because Camp Lathan, which was the southern staging area for the war’s California volunteers, was rapidly becoming overcrowded. Established in late September 1861, Latham was situated on Ballona Creek in Rancho La Ballona where the present day intersections of Overland and Jefferson Boulevards are located in Culver City. A new base of operations was needed, preferably near a port.

New San Pedro Location

To the rescue came entrepreneur Phineas Banning. Since the troops that were training at Camp Latham had originally debarked at his wharf on his land in New San Pedro (now Wilmington), it seemed a waste of energy to march to Latham, some 18 miles away, a full day’s journey. Banning proposed ceding the Army a tract of land to be used as the mustering camp outside New San Pedro. This site was located where Avalon Street and Anaheim Boulevard now cross.

There were problems of inadequate drainage with this site. A heavy rainfall in early January 1862 washed the site out, causing discomfort to its inhabitants. In response to the complaints, Banning proposed a new site on higher ground, one mile northwest of the town. During the change of sites, the new camp was named Drum in honor of Lt. Col. Richard Coulter Drum, Assistant Adjutant General of the Pacific Department of the U.S. Army.

Banning, while being a patriot, also wanted to see New San Pedro become the largest seaport in Southern California. With the main Union military supply depot on his land, he got the United States to give him almost exclusive contracts to supply and support the Federal armed presence in Southern California and Arizona for the rest of the war. Because Banning owned and operated both land and sea transport, it gave him a monopoly on moving supplies. This would be the springboard that would allow Banning to eventually amass a fortune.

In mid-March 1862, all the troops that were drilling at Camp Latham were transferred to Camp Drum, leaving about a company of soldiers to observe the Los Angeles area. Now Drum would have sole responsibility to protect Los Angeles County from Indians and Southern sympathizers.

At the end of April, Carleton and his 350 men marched out of Camp Drum into history, leaving it deserted and forgotten. In the following months the garrison increased, but there were problems with the Camp. Tents that would leak badly when it rained (apparently it did this much of the time) composed the men’s quarters and gritty sea winds would blow across the sandy plain causing much discomfort. There were no stands of trees to act as wind breaks; the only vegetation was low scrub. Also there were no structures nearby that would act as shelters except the Banning-built warehouse on his wharf a mile away. Troop morale was low when Lt. Col. Harvey Lee U.S.V. took command on October 7, 1862. Lee inspected the camp, then fired off an angry letter to the Camp’s namesake Col. Drum.

He complained about the conditions of the camp and the unsuitability of the accommodations there. He concluded “...that I will find it difficult to keep this command in proper discipline unless quarters are built or a more comfortable location selected.”

Rather than relocate Drum, the Army saved it by responding with a large construction program. Lumber was shipped from the east coast around Cape Horn, South America. The cost of construction has been estimated at a million dollars, quite an expenditure for its day. However, there was a war on and money was the least of the Government’s concerns. After six months an Army barracks, complete with a hospital, stables and corrals, even a guardhouse, all neatly surrounded by a white picket fence, had replaced the untenable tent city. An officer, seeing the new camp for the first time, recalled in a letter: “We were astonished to find the barracks one of the finest we had ever seen. Some of the men in our company, who had seen service in the East, said they never saw anything like it.”

The Camel Experiment

Camp Drum had been rescued from closing. It now went on to become the military headquarters for Southern California and Arizona. As the mustering point for recruits and soldiers bound for posts in California and Arizona, it was a depot for supplies and weapons. Its garrison fluctuated from 200 to 6,000 men during the war years. All types of troops were stationed there including camels! In fact until recent publicity, Drum Barracks was best known for being the California camel post.

Truth was the camels were at Drum less than two years. The 31 beasts were originally stationed at Fort Tejon which guarded Tejon Pass in North Los Angeles County. When the 1st U.S. Dragoons abandoned the fort to act as a deterrent against possible secession in downtown Los Angeles, the camels accompanied them. At first they gathered crowds but the novelty of the creatures soon wore out and residents of Los Angeles began complaining of the smell, asking the military to move them elsewhere. They came to Camp Drum in early 1862 joining the other miserable occupants.

An attempt to utilize them as a dromedary courier line, connecting Drum with Fort Mojave and other outposts, proved to be a failure and they were ordered sold by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The Barracks’ camels were removed to Benicia Arsenal in late 1863 for public auction. The camel experiment was consigned to oblivion.

Now a permanent Army post, the Barracks were busy during 1863. That year Los Angeles had several minor disturbances that involved Southern sympathizers. Troops were called out to help local law enforcement. When in November of 1863, there came the announcement that a military conscription quota in California for the Federal army was in effect, rebel supporters attempted to lynch Los Angeles’ provost marshall to prevent him from carrying out the order. Troops from Camp Drum quickly restored peace.

Role in History

By March of 1864, the Camp was called Drum Barracks in military dispatches. The Barracks continued to play a major role in Southern California history. Several Indian disruptions were quickly quelled and, when the proclamation of new quotas for conscription into military service was announced in April, the garrison, remembering the riot of ‘63, was deployed in Los Angeles ready for trouble. The quota was filled by volunteers from the northern part of the state and the crisis lapsed.

Photos above include a scene from a re-enactment held at Drum Barracks,
as well as a Gatling Gun exhibit on display.

Part of the tedium of camp life was relieved by a furlough off the post. Los Angeles was too far a hike, so most of the troops would go to nearby Wilmington. It wasn’t an ideal R&R spot. A trooper described the town in a letter home: “The place consists of Banning’s residence, blacksmith shop, soap and tallow factory, coal and lumber yard.. .The distance to any where from here [ is twenty miles, no roads, no fences, no houses intervening.”

This boredom caused some of the garrison to dig a seven-mile canal from the San Gabriel River to Wilmington. With materials supplied by Banning, a dam was constructed and water diverted to the town and Barracks. The troops received no extra compensation for the task. The project was completed in February 1865. By this time, everybody knew the war was winding down. Each Union success in the east, was one more nail in the coffin of the Confederacy.

On April 11, 1865, Drum Barracks received the following telegram: “To Colonel James E. Curtis, Commander Drum Barracks. Lee, with whole army, has surrendered to Grant.” (Signed) F.F. Low, Governor of California.

This terse message spelled the end of the post. While Los Angeles and the Barracks were celebrating victory, plans were being made to disband the Barracks. With the death of Lincoln, the post carried out its last operation against rebels. Soldiers arrested and briefly detained anyone who “exulted over the assassination of our president.”

In late 1870, the camp was officially abandoned. Only 90 men remained on the post whose structures were deteriorating rapidly. By 1871, all had left with their equipment and stores transferred to Fort Yuma. On July 31, 1873 the camp’s buildings were sold at an auction. Banning bought five of them for a sum of $2,917 with his business partner, B. D. Wilson, buying one for $200. The land was returned to Banning and Wilson.

Historical Landmark

The saga of the Barracks was not over. In 1874, B. D. Wilson opened a Methodist co-ed college called Wilson College on the grounds of Drum. The school was a success but was closed in 1877, moving to a location closer to Los Angeles. Reopened in 1880, this college probably was the forerunner of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

B. D. Wilson and other notable Wilmington families continued to live on the grounds. In 1910, Thomas Keaveny bought the junior officers’ quarters, turning the 14-room mansion into a boarding house. This and the powder magazine would be the only original structures to survive. As Wilson and the others passed on, their descendants sold off their property to developers and oil companies. The outlines of Drum Barracks was slowly submerged in the waves of progress.

But the Barracks did not totally die. Even though by 1962 the old officers’ quarters were unlivable, Keaveny’s family would not let developers buy the land and demolish the house they loved. Instead the Society for the Preservation of Drum Barracks was founded and a plan was developed to save the house as a historic monument. This touched off a bureaucracy battle that lasted for years; space precludes it being told in its entirety. After much struggle with little money, the house was restored as a Civil War museum.

Drum Barracks lives today as the restored junior officers’ quarters. There is the powder magazine but it has deteriorated and is too far from the museum to be counted. The mansion’s 14rooms contain Civil War artifacts, weapons, paintings of Barracks commanders, a library dedicated to the study of the Civil War and southern California history and several rooms laid out as they might have appeared during the period.

The Drum Barracks is designated City of Los Angeles Cultural-Historic Monument No. 21, State of California Historical Landmark No 169, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Lead abatement and restoration projects are planned for the exterior of the building in 2003 and new exhibitions and displays are designed for the interior. Programs, activities and attendance steadily increase. Like the letters of its former inhabitants, it will continue to act as a bridge to a past--a past that only recently has been rediscovered as an important part of the heritage of the United States. We can all be proud to be a part of this heritage.

Bibliography

Robinson, John W. Los Angeles in Civil War Days 1860-65, Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1977.

Hunt, Aurora. Army of the Pacific 1860-66, Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1951.