California Militia
and National Guard Unit Histories
Sierra Guard
Official or Other Titles: Sierra
Guard, Sierra Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, California
Militia (1)
Location:
Downieville, Sierra County
Mustered in: October
2, 1854
Papers on file at the California State
Archives:
a. Organization Papers none
b. Bonds 1 document (1854)
c. Correspondence (Unclassified letters) 22 documents (1854-1857)
d. Election Returns 4 documents (1854-1857)
e. Exempt Certificates, Applications for none
f. Muster Rolls, Monthly returns 3 documents (1854-1855)
g. Oaths Qualifications 1 document (1855)
h. Orders none
i. Receipts, invoices 10 documents (1854-1857)
j. Requisitions 1 document (1854)
k. Resignations 1 document (1854)
l. Target Practice Reports none
Commanding Officers
Daniel E. Hungerford, Captain, Elected
September 30, 1854 (2)
James Kane, First Lieutenant, Elected
September 30, 1854 (2)
Robert H. Taylor, Captain, Commissioned:
October 15, 1855
George H. Sandy, First Lieutenant Commissioned: October 15, 1855
(Resigned) .
Charles Cockrane, First Lieutenant, Date of Rank: March 12, 1856
Commissioned: March 24,1856
Francis M. Proctor, Captain, Commissioned:
October 30, 1856
James Kane, First Lieutenant, Elected
1855; Commissioned: October 30, 1856; Resigned July 5, 1857
James Kane, Captain; Elected September
30, 1857
William S. Spear, First Lieutenant, Elected
September 30, 1857
Official History
Downieville, situated in Sierra County,
a county rich in mineral resources, is also rich in memoirs of
the pioneer days,.and was among the first districts to be settled
during the "Gold Rush". In the districts where gold
was found and mined readily, settlements meant homes of more
or less permanence, together with business houses of all kinds.
For relaxation, the residents had erected the National Theater,
and it was here that Lola Montez, Countess of Landsfelt de Heald,
made her appearance in 1856, when she was heralded as "The
wonderful spider dancer". She was greeted with a crowded
house, and so strongly impressed them with her Teutonic beauty
that her name was immortalized in the christening of a lofty
peak, Mount Lola. (3)
Like all communities, Downieville had its crime problems. On
the Fourth of July 1851, a celebration was enjoyed with a parade,
and the guest and speaker of the day was John B. Weller afterward
Governor of California. The day of celebration ended very unhappily
when Jack Cannon, a Scotsman of Herculean proportions, returned
to the Mexican house in which lived the beautiful Spanish woman
known as Juanita. It is presumed that he returned to apologize
for the damage done by the hilarious revelers, but this is nothing
but a surmise. Mr. Cannon talked with Juanita and a Mexican man
a moment, then Juanita left and when she returned plunged a long
knife through the heavy sternum bone and into the heart of Cannon.
A frenzied crowd appointed a Judge and Jury., together with lawyers
who passed the sentence of death. A rope was dropped from the
top of the Jersey Bridge, Juanita stepped quietly into the place
arranged for her, and adjusted the rope herself, and in a few
seconds was pronounced dead. The miners were almost universally
denounced by the press of the country for this affair. (4)
In the year following (1852) the community witnessed its first
duel and there were other affairs that caused considerable distress
among the peaceful people. (5) It is evident that the residents
deemed it necessary to have a controlled military unit, not only
to protect themselves from the hostile Indians, but to preserve
law and order within their own community. Therefore, steps were
taken to form a voluntary guard.
After the usual legal procedure had been complied with in advertising
the call for volunteers, a meeting was held September 30, 1854,
at which time officers were elected and the By-Laws were drawn
up for the Sierra Guard. The first annual election was held September
29, 1855, and at that time there was a question as to whether
the election was legal, and if the old officers retained the
command of the unit until the commissions arrived for the newly
elected staff, Robert H. Taylor, Captain, and George H. Sandy,
First Lieutenant. The former First Lieutenant Kane communicated
with Adjutant-General William C. Kibbe (October 15, 1855) regarding
the question, and the General answered two days later expressing
his opinion to the effect that the election had been legal, also
that the newly elected Captain was entitles to his commission.
A few months later Lieutenant Sandy resigned and on March 24,
1856, Charles Cockrane was elected to fill tine vacancy.
The regular annual election was held September 30 1856, when
Francis M. Proctor was elected Captain and James Kane again elected
the First Lieutenant. It is assumed that Captain Proctor had
resigned from his command, as a letter on file from former Captain
Taylor, February 18, 1857, states that he had received from and
receipted to Captain Proctor the arms of the company. When First
Lieutenant Kane sent in his resignation July 5, 1857, he did
not give any explanation for resigning from his office. Although
the Adjutant-General approved the resignation, no election was
held to fill the vacancies until the regular annual election
on September 30, 1857, when Lieutenant Kane was elected to the
Captaincy and William S. Spear was elected First Lieutenant.
There is some confusion in the records of these elected officers
on the printed annual reports. The Adjutant General's Report
of December 1861, still carried the officers of the Guard of
the 1856 election, with Captain Proctor and First Lieutenant
Cockrane, and gave Captain Proctor's commission date as of February
20, 1857, the date that the General received the letter from
former Captain Taylor, whereas, election papers on file carry
the commission date as of October 30, 1856.
The Sierra Guard had no difficulty in obtaining ammunition for
their unit. A Bond of $3,000 was signed October 3, 1854, by D.
E. Hungerford, William J. Ford and B. M. Feeter and the following
month the arms were shipped on the steamer Enterprise
from the Benicia Arsenal. There was
considerable difficulty in obtaining funds for the freight bill
due on the shipment of arms, amounting to $230. On April 14,
1856, two years later, Adjutant General Kibbe wrote that it was
hoped that taxes raised from the amended Militia Act, whereby
all persons entitled to military duty were to be assessed fifty
cents, would raise sufficient funds to cover these expenses of
the Guard. The General also requested Captain Taylor to use his
influence with the tax collector to see that the tax was faithfully
collected.
The first duel fought in 1852, the Kelly-Spear affair, had ended
without dire results to either party, but the second one fought
in Brandy City in September of 1855 ended in the death of one
of the men. This duel was between Judge Lippincott and young
Tevis, a leader of the "knownothing party", and the
Good Templars of the Masonic Order refused to bury young Tevis
with honors because of their strong opposition to dueling. The
Sierra Guard was called upon and they took a prominent place
in the funeral procession (6)
The company was often called upon to assist the officers of the
community to carry out the necessary punishments. The bayoneted
muskets of the unit (April 18, 1856) held in check the crush
of three thousand spectators who assembled to see a condemned
man pay with his own life for a murder he had committed. Mordecai
E. Harlow was convicted of the slaying of a man named Smith.
The guards marched on either side of the wagon which conveyed
the prisoner and the officers to the gallows in Slug Canyon,
and stood on duty for an hour while the doomed man talked to
the assemblage.(7) The Guard was called upon a second time, two
years later, January 21,.1859, to.assist the Sheriff when Michael
Munay was executed for the murder of Daniel Sweeney. This time
the execution was held in the Court House Square, and the guards
refused to admit the three hundred spectators. (8)
Members of the three military companies in the district felt
that it would be to their advantage to have unified militia tactics,
so the three units, Goodyear's Bar Rifles, Forest Rifles and
Sierra Guard organized themselves into a Battalion on March 24,
1856. At the first election Daniel E. Hungerford, who had been
the first Captain of the Sierra Guard, was elected Major of the
Sierra Battalion in which capacity he remained until August 18,1861,
when he resigned to go into the service of the United States.
On the Fourth of July, 1857, this Battalion participated in an
all day celebration, at which time they were received by Brigadier
General O.C. Hall and his staff. In his report to Adjutant General
Kibbe, Major Hungerford particularly commended the Sierra Guard
for their excellent display of military tactics during the celebration.
The Major stressed the excellent platoon firing of the company,
the gallant style of the unit in extending courtesies to the
military guests, and the soldierly 'tearing and manly conduct
of the entire rank and file.
The town of Downieville like other early day settlements, was
a victim of the prevalent fire menace. On January 1, 1858, a
fire, more destructive than any subsequent one, destroyed the
entire town. More than two-thirds of the arms of the company
were destroyed in this fire. (9) After many of these settlements
had been leveled by the fires, oft times a great portion of the
population moved on to new locations, leaving so few permanent
residents to take up the task of rebuilding, that it was impossible
to carry on with the former routine. Following this fire the
Sierra Guard lacked numerical strength, and public interest had
waned to such an extent that a military company could not be
maintained after this disaster. On October 30, 1859, Major Hungerford
suggested the Sierra Guard be disbanded by General Orders and
the officers designated to collect together the remnants of arms
and other property belonging to the State, and turn the same
in to the State Arsenal. The company had not paraded for two
years, in fact at the time there were no officers or active organization.
General Kibbe remarked in his Report of December 1861, "Although
the company had not formally disbanded, it scarcely had an existence";
therefore it is assumed that the Sierra Guard was disbanded in
accordance with Major Hungerford's report, October 30, 1859.
Footnotes
(1) Muster Roll of May 1, 1855, designates
Second Brigade, Fourth Division
(2) There is no date for commission, but
in a letter of Captain Hungerford to Adjutant-General Kibbe,
October 17, 1854, he states the commissions had arrived.
(3) History. Plumas, Lassen and Sierra
Counties California - Farris and Smith, 1882, page 459.
(4) History Plumas, Lassen and Sierra
Counties, California - Farris and Smith, 1882, page 445.
(5) History Plumas, Lassen and Sierra
Counties, California - Farris and Smith, 1882, page 443.
(6) History Plumas, Lassen and Sierra
Counties, California - Farris and Smith, 1882, page 444.
(7) Sacramento Union, April 22,
1856, page 2, column 2.
(8) History Plumas, Lassen and Sierra
Counties, California - Farris and Smith, 1882, page 453
(9) History Plumas, Lassen and Sierra
Counties, California - Farris and Smith, 1882, page 460
This history was completed
in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in conjunction
with the California National Guard and the California State Library.
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