California Militia and National
Guard Unit Histories
Plumas Rangers
Official or other titles: Plumas Rangers, 1st Brigade, 6th
Division, California Militia Location: Quincy, Plumas County
Mustered in: December 1, 1855 Mustered out: 1861
Papers on file at the
California State Archives:
a. Organization Papers
1 document (1855)
b. Bonds 2 documents (1855-1856)
c. Correspondence (Unclassified letters) 12 documents (1856-1862)
d. Election Returns none
e. Exempt Certificates, Applications for none
f. Muster Rolls, Monthly returns 2 documents (1855)
g. Oaths Qualifications 1 document (1856)
h. Orders none
i. Receipts, invoices 1 document (1857)
j. Requisitions 1 document (1856)
k. Resignations 2 documents (1858-1859)
l. Target Practice Reports none
m. Other none
Commanding Officers
E. T. Hogan, Captain,
Elected December 1 1855, Resigned February 1858
N. C. Cunningham Captain Elected: January 2, 1858; Commissioned:
February 18. 1858; Resigned January 29, 1859
W. 0. Varner, First Lieutenant,
Elected December 1, 1855
R. J. Barnett, Captain, Date of Rank: April 10, 1859; Commissioned:
April 28, 1859
W. D. Sawyer, First Lieutenant, Date of Rank: April 10, 1859;
Commissioned: April 28, 1859
History
Hundreds of emigrants
on their way to the Sacramento Valley, in the Gold Rush era of
1850, passed through Plumas County on the Lassen Road, and after
repeated attempts to prove or disprove the Legend of "Gold
Lake'', settlements were made in the newly opened, country. Here
too, the pioneers were harassed and worried by the Indians. Friendly
Indians in 1856, informed the settlers that the northern tribes
were tampering with them (the friendly Indians), endeavoring
to raise a crusade against the whites. Immediately upon receipt
of this news and before the snow had set in for the winter of
1855, arrangements were completed in November to perfect a volunteer
company for military protection.
Under the seal of Plumas
County, W. T. Ward, County Judge, (November 24, 1855) appointed
E. T. Hogan, an attorney practicing in Elizabethtown, to open
books for the enrolling of names of persons to form a militia
guard. This action was taken under the provision of an Act of
the Legislature entitled, An Act concerning Volunteer or Independent
Companies. (1) Following the usual procedure of enrolling
members, a meeting was called to be held at the Saloon of Flournoy
& Company, in Elizabethtown, Saturday, December first of
the same year at three o'clock P. M. for the election of officers
and such business as was necessary.
A resolution was drawn
up at the meeting which included the naming of the company as
the Plumas Rangers, First Brigade, Sixth Division; the appointing
of E. T. Hogan, S. J. Clark and J. D. Ritchie as a committee
to draft Resolutions and By-Laws for the government of said company;
the proceedings of the meeting to be published in the Old
Mountaineer, and finally that the meeting stand adjourned
until Saturday, December eighth, at two o'clock P.M., to meet
in the public square in Elizabethtown. This Resolution was signed
by E. T. Hogan, President, and S. J. Clark and J. D. Ritchie,
Secretaries.
The first communication
on file from Captain Hogan to Headquarters was dated March 7,
1856, wherein he reported their formation of the newly organized
company and attached to his letter two newspaper clippings which
had been published in the Old Mountaineer accepted as
the legal notices for the meeting and the election of officers,
together with the Resolution which had been drawn up. The Captain
stated in this letter that in case the men were called into active
service against the Indians, they were willing to act either
as mounted or foot riflemen, whichever might be deemed more efficient,
if mounted they would furnish their own horses, etc. As.to the
arms Captain Hogan requested the information as to what Bond
would be required for eighty stand of rifles, together with accoutrements
in case they were called into service.
Twice changes were made in the personnel during the existence
of this company. The first change came when Captain Hogan resigned
the command to assume his newly elected office of County Judge
of Plumas County. At the election January 2, 1858, following
the resignation of the Captain, N. C. Cunningham was honored
by the members with a unanimous vote to raise him to the Captaincy.
The second change was made in the following year, January 29,
1859, when Captain Cunningham resigned from his office as he
had moved away from Quincy. The election to fill this office
was not held until March nineteenth, when R. T. Barnett was elected
Captain and W. D. Sawyer was elected First Lieutenant.
After the Plumas Rangers'
organization was perfected, a Bond for $2,500 was filed to cover
the expense of supplying the arms. A year later the arms were
not forthcoming and a letter was written October 24, 1857, by
Governor Johnson ordering the issuance of the necessary equipment.
Five years after the issuance of the arms, July 25, 1862, Adjutant-General
Kibbe communicated with Captain Barnett requesting the filling
out and filing of a new Bond for $3,000 to cover the equipment.
Not receiving a reply to this letter General Kibbe, on September
twentieth wrote to the Bondholders, Messrs. Hogan, Varner, Covington,
and Clark, wherein he requested the return of the arms and stated
he had failed to get any response from the officers who were
commissioned in March of 1859.
Judge Hogan's reply, September
twenty-sixth, to General Kibbe informed the Adjutant-General
that a number of guns had been destroyed in a fire, which had
occurred in Quincy nearly two years before. The remainder had
been taken over to Honey Lake, some fifty miles distant, at the
time of the Indian troubles in the Spring of 1860. The members
of the company who went over for the.purpose of aiding the inhabitants
had left the arms in charge of Messrs. Frank Drake and 0. Streshly
who had agreed to be responsible for the same. The Judge assured
General Kibbe he would learn the condition, number, etc., of
the arms and order their return to the arsenal, even though it
was his opinion the people were in vital need of defense against
the Indians as they were on an exposed frontier. He concluded
his communication with the information that Messrs. Varner and
Covington, two of the Bondholders, had left California, but that
S. J. Clark still resided in Quincy. No mention was made of Mr.
Hogan. The departure of the three Bondholders from the district
accounts for the lack of response to the Adjutant-General's letters,
as it is evident that Mr. Clark did not wish. to be held entirely
responsible for the Bond transaction.
The expected Indian hostilities
as reported to the residents of Elizabethtown by the friendly
Indians were averted. Therefore, the members of the newly organized
volunteers participated in no activities other than the regular
routine of parades and drills, until they were summoned to go
to the aid of the Honey Lake Valley residents in 1857. The Honey
Lake Valley section had developed into an agricultural community,
and the residents being farmers were looked down upon by their
neighbors, the lordly miners of Plumas County, who called the
tillers of the soil "Never Sweats". Congress had not
determined the state boundaries for California in this locality,
so the residents organized themselves into a local government
electing Isaac Roop as their Governor and adopted the title of
"Territory of Sierra Nevada".(2) In October 1857, the
food supply of the Pit River Indian tribe was running low. The
hostiles, therefore, proceeded to help themselves to farm products
belonging to the whites. While William Morehead was in Susanville
on business, the Indians raided his ranch which was two and one-half
miles from Milford and harvested three acres of his potatoes.
This act of depredation on the whites by the Indians to replenish
the hostiles' larders precipitated what be came known as the
Potato War. The Plumas Rangers were sent for to aid the settlers
in suppressing the Indians. However, by the time they had traveled
the fifty miles distance the trouble had already been quelled,
as the United States Army troops .under Captain William Weatherlow
returned to the district in time to assist the settlers. Chief
Winnemucca and a band of Pah-Utes, who were at the time on friendly
relations with the whites, assisted the residents in running
down the Pit River Indians.(3)
There are no records giving
any further activities of this company other than a brief statement
of the Adjutant-General's in 1862 wherein he mentions that "No.returns
of this company had been received and that the officers had not
complied with the law requirements";(4) also that "He
had attempted to obtain the arms but without avail, as no appropriation
had been made for transporting or collecting arms and he had
been compelled to rely upon correspondence alone both with the
officers and Bonds men which proved unsuccessful''. Both Captain
Barnett and First Lieutenant Sawyer had moved away and no election
had been held to fill their stations.
Many men had answered
the call for Volunteers for the War of the Rebellion from this
district, and it is apparent that no good aggressive leader could
be found to take command and rebuild the Plumas Rangers in order
to maintain a home guard company. Therefore, it is assumed that
the company had been disbanded sometime prior to the year of
1862.
Footnotes
(1) Organization papers of Plumas Rangers,
November 24, 1855, Adjutant General's Office.
(2) History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra
Counties, California, Fariss and
Smith, 1882, page 344.
(3) History Plumas, Lassen,and Sierra
Counties, California, Fariss and Smith, 1882, pages 378,
385.
(4) Adjutant General Report, 1861,
page 132
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
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