California State Militia and National
Guard Unit Histories
Esmeralda Rifles
(Esmeralda Rangers)
Military Unit Designation:
Esmeralda Rifles, 3rd Brigade, California
Militia
After 22 August 1863, Esmeralda Rangers,
3rd Brigade, California Militia
Date of Organization: April 2, 1862
Date of Disbanding: 1864
Inclusive dates of units papers: 1862-1864
Geographical Location or Locations: Aurora, Mono County California,
after 13 September 1863 California-Nevada state line adjustment,
Aurora, Esmeralda County, Nevada
Papers of file at the California State Archives: a. Organization Papers 1 document
(1862)
b. Bonds none
c. Correspondence (Unclassified letters) 21 documents (1862-1864)
d. Election Returns none
e. Exempt Certificates, Applications for none
f. Muster Rolls, Monthly returns 3 documents (1862-1863)
g. Oaths Qualifications none
h. Orders none
i. Receipts, invoices 2 documents (1863)
j. Requisitions none
k. Resignations none
l. Target Practice Reports none
m. Other none
Commanding Officers
W. E. Judd, Captain; Elected August 27,1861
L. A. Lane, First Lieutenant; Elected August 27,1861
H. J. Teel, Captain; Elected April 2, 1862; Commissioned May
22, 1862
A. D. Allen, First Lieutenant; Elected April 2, 1862; Commissioned
May 22, 1862
Official History
On August 27, 1861, there was organized
a volunteer military company in Aurora, Mono County, known as
the Esmeralda Rifles, under the command of William E. Judd.
For some reason the minutes of the meeting
to organize the Esmeralda Rifles were never filed with the Adjutant
General's Office, perhaps due to poor mail service in that part
of the State. The earliest record of the company was recorded
when the unit was officially mustered into the service of the
State, April 2, 1862, and H. J. Teel was elected to the Captaincy.
The Esmeralda Rifles established headquarters
in Aurora, the location of one of California's richest gold fields.
The company's activities consisted of the usual drills, rendering
aid to the civil. authorities in maintaining law and order. Also
in checking any display made by the Secessionists during the Civil
War.
In a meeting held August 22, 1863, it was
unanimously agreed upon to reorganize the company as a cavalry
unit and the corps was to be designated as the Esmeralda Rangers.
On September 13, 1863, when a readjustment
of the boundary line between California and the territory of Nevada
was made, it was discovered that Aurora, the County seat of Mono
County, was three miles on the Nevada side, as a result of this
boundary change. (1)
William C. Kibbe, the Adjutant General of
California, in 1864 sent the following report to the Governor
of Nevada. "That the Esmeralda Rangers and Hooker
Light Infantry, two companies located in Aurora, Nevada, organized
under California law and included in the Third Brigade of the
State Militia, had been dropped from the roster. As the guns,
still in their possession, were furnished by California suggested
when Nevada received their arms from the Government that that
State turn over a like number to Headquarters so that California
would suffer no loss of property." (2)
There are no further records, but it is
assumed that in the first part of 1864, the Esmeralda Rangers
were officially mustered out of California service.
Footnotes
1. Mono County Mines, published
1878, Page 49.
2. Adjutant General Report 1864-1867,
Page 15.
This history was written in
1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in conjunction
with the office of the Adjutant General and the California State
Library