It was different with many of the warm-hearted Californian sons
of the South who were attached to the Union. Cut off in a distant
land, they held aloof from approving secession. Grateful for the
shelter of the peaceful land in which their hard-won homes were
made, it was only after actual war that the ties of blood carried
them away and ranged them under the Stars and Bars. When the
Southern ranks fell, in windrows, on the Peninsula, hundreds of
these manly Californians left to join their brethren. They had
clung to the Union till their States went out one by one. They sadly
sought the distant fields of action, and laid down their lives for
the now holy cause.

The attitude of these gallant men was noble. They scorned the
burrowing conspirators who dug below the foundations of the national
constitution. These schemers led the eager South into a needless
civil war.

The holiest feelings of heredity dragged the Southerners who lingered
into war. It was a sacrifice of half of the splendid generation
which fought under the Southern Cross.

When broken ranks appealed for the absent, when invaded States and
drooping hopes aroused desperation, the last California contingents
braved the desert dangers. Indian attack and Federal capture were
defied, only to die for the South on its sacred soil. "Salut aux
braves!" The loyalists of California were restrained from disturbing
the safe tenure of the West by depleting the local Union forces.
Abraham Lincoln saw that the Pacific columns should do no more
than guard the territories adjacent. To hold the West and secure
the overland roads was their duty. To be ready to march to meet