Pacific coast theater of the American Civil War

[1] The operations of Union volunteer troop detachments, primarily from California, some from Oregon, and a few companies from Washington Territory, were directed mostly against Indigenous Americans in the theater.Attempts by the Confederacy to buy or seize ships for commerce raiding on the West Coast were thwarted by alert Union officials and the Pacific Squadron.During the secession crisis following Lincoln's election as President of the United States in 1860, a group of Southern sympathizers in California made plans to secede with Oregon to form a "Pacific Republic".Their plans rested on the cooperation of Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Albert Sidney Johnston, headquartered in Benicia, California, who commanded all the Federal troops of the Department of the Pacific.Johnston met with some of these Southern men, but before they could propose anything to him he told them that he had heard rumors of an attempt to seize the San Francisco forts and arsenal at Benicia, that he had prepared for that, and would defend the facilities under his command with all his resources and to the last drop of his blood.This fear was based on the demonstrated Southern Californian desire for separation from the rest of California in the overwhelming vote for the 1859 Pico Act, the strength of secessionists in the area, and their declared intentions and activities, especially in forming militia companies.Suspected by local Union authorities, General Johnston evaded arrest and joined the secessionist militia company, the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles as a private, leaving Warner's Ranch on 27 May in their journey across the southwestern deserts to Texas, crossing the Colorado River into the Confederate Territory of Arizona, on 4 July.King, Undersheriff of Los Angeles County, and other influential men in El Monte, California, that had formed another secessionist militia on 23 March, the Monte Mounted Rifles, were thwarted in their plans to assist Johnston when Undersheriff King ran afoul of Federal authorities and when army officers at San Pedro held up a shipment of arms from John G. Downey, the Governor of California, preventing the activation of the Rifles.Subsequently, California units remained there as garrisons fighting the Navajo, the Comanche, and the Apache until after the Civil War when they were relieved by Federal Troops in 1866.To protect Union-controlled ports, especially San Francisco Bay, the shipping point of gold and silver from the Pacific Coast, from possible attacks by Confederate commerce raiders, several forts were either built or improved upon.In Havana, the American consul, Thomas Savage, learned about this conspiracy and notified Rear Admiral George F. Pearson in Panama City.With this incontrovertible proof, Commander Waddell ordered all operations against American ships cease and the Shenandoah set sail for Great Britain to avoid its sailors being tried for piracy.In Northern California there was the ongoing Bald Hills War (1858–1864) against the Chilula, Lassik, Hupa, Mattole, Nongatl, Sinkyone, Tsnungwe, Wailaki, and Whilkut.The Volunteers of California, Oregon, and Washington Territory fought the Snake Indians until relieved by Federal troops in late 1865; the war continued until 1868.