The Military and the San Francisco
Earthquake, 1906
Soldiers in the City: The Army
Responds
by Will Elder, Interpretive Ranger and Diane Smith-Melloy, Media
Intern, Golden Gate National Recreation Area
"There came not a single sound,
no shrieking of whistles, no clanging of bells. The terrific
roar of the conflagration, the crash of falling walls, and the
dynamite explosions that were to make the next day hideous had
not yet begun.”
Brigadier General Frederick Funston recalling
the scene from Nob Hill just after the 5:12 a.m. shock
As the city burned, almost all of the
1,700 soldiers quartered in the city were sent to maintain order.
In this photo, taken on Market Street looking east, smoke pouring
from the top of the Call Building (multistrory structure at left)
signals its imminent destruction. Once ignited, the fire burned
downward through the building, one floor at a time, exploding
windows as it went. (Bancroft Library) In the dawn light of April
18, 1906, at 5:12 a.m., the California coast was shaken by a
violent temblor from Salinas to Fort Bragg. Damage from the earthquake
was severe, but in San Francisco, the ensuing fires were truly
catastrophic. Burning almost unchecked for three days—the
city’s water pipes had been shattered by the quake—the
fires destroyed more than 500 city blocks. Overcome by shock,
panic, and confusion, three-quarters of the city’s population
of 400,000 ended up homeless, and more than 3,000 died.
It is hard to comprehend the emotions
felt by the people of San Francisco as the firestorm approached
their homes after the 1906 earthquake. What possessions would
they take with them? What would they require or desire after
all else was gone? And where would they go? In the days following
the earthquake, 300,000 newly homeless needed food and shelter.
Fortunately for the city, army troops
stationed at posts now part of the Golden Gate National Parks
responded within hours. They maintained order; contained the
fires; established communications; gave medical treatment; and
provided food, shelter, and sanitation. San Franciscans were
never more aware of, never more interactive with, and certainly
never more grateful to the army than after that disaster.
General Funston Takes Command
Awakened by the tremor, the top army officer in San Francisco
at the time, 40-year-old Brigadier General Frederick Funston
(shown above in oval photo) left his home on Nob Hill to survey
the damage. Columns of smoke were rising over the city, and the
streets were filling with stunned onlookers. Funston realized
that as the shock subsided, panic and disorder would set in.
He knew he must call out the US Army forces under his command
to maintain law and order.
Funston quickly sent orders to Fort Mason
and the Presidio, and before 7 a.m., soldiers marched into the
city. Funston had effectively taken military control of San Francisco
without consulting the mayor or any higher military authority.
The Army to the Rescue
The army’s first task was to maintain order and to help
fight the rapidly spreading fires. Trying to escape the burning
city, hundreds swarmed the Ferry Building. One witness noted:
“The uncontrolled crowds rushed from saloon to saloon, looting
the stocks and becoming intoxicated early in the day.” San
Francisco mayor Eugene Schmitz authorized military and civilian
authorities “to kill any persons found engaged in Looting
or in the Commission of Any Other Crime.” Army troops closed
the saloons and evacuated residents in advance of the fires,
thus maintaining order. Soldiers on duty on city streets provoked
mixed reactions; residents were both comforted and troubled.
(This paradoxical mix of emotions—inspired by the sight
of armed soldiers in our airports and at our bridges following
the September 11, 2001, attacks—is no doubt familiar to
contemporary Americans as well.)
There have been many written accounts
of this San Francisco catastrophe; two of the most informative
are by William Bronson (The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned: A Photographic
Record of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, reissued
by Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1997), and Dan Kruzman (Disaster!:
The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, New York:
William Morrow, 2001).
For information on the San Andreas fault, whose movement provoked
the earthquake, see Michael Collier’s book, A Land in Motion
(Golden Gate National Parks Association and the University of
California Press, 1999).
Without water, firefighters dynamited
buildings to create firebreaks. Army artillery officers led these
operations. Carrying dynamite through showers of sparks, they
often laid charges in buildings already on fire. On the third
day, the army gained permission to dynamite entire blocks along
Van Ness Avenue, forming a firebreak well in advance of the conflagration.
However, the fire burned itself out that day.
The earthquake severed communication lines
throughout the city. Not only were people unable to assure family
and friends of their safety, but fire fighting and relief assistance
could not be organized. Signal Corps troops from the Presidio
of San Francisco and the National Guard of California immediately
ran new lines and maintained them. Through a burning city, they
connected the Presidio to the firelines, and Fort Mason to an
outside cable at the Ferry Building. Army headquarters then communicated
with the Secretary of War over this line.
As casualties overwhelmed the city’s
damaged hospitals, army hospitals cared for civilians. Within
days, an army field hospital set up in Golden Gate Park treated
over 5,000 patients, mostly women and children. As fear of a
typhoid epidemic grew, army chief surgeon Lt. Colonel G. A. Torney
initiated strict sanitation codes, which fed speculation and
hysteria. The San Jose Sunday Mercury and Herald reported: “Typhoid
fever, as a result of unsanitary conditions, has made its appearance.”
The reality was that, to the contrary, the sanitation codes averted
an epidemic from further decimating the city.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, thousands
were without food, clothing, or shelter. Presidio quartermaster
Major Carroll Devol quickly requested help from the War Department,
and within hours, train-loads of supplies were on the way. Devol
was then placed in charge of distributing both military and civil
supplies. Additionally, the army ran twenty-one refugee camps
and inspected all of the many tent camps that sprang up around
the city.
Lessons Learned
Although San Francisco was fortunate to have a strong military
presence in 1906, many lessons were learned. More stringent building
codes were developed, and formal policies were established to
clearly define the army’s role in civil disasters and its
relationship to relief agencies and organizations—valuable
preparation for future disasters.
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