The Senate had voted no. The southerners had won the vote preventing California from joining the Union as a state. Everyone reacted in their own separate way. Southerners rejoiced, northerners protested, even hurling rotten food and stones at southern congressmen and senators. Californians reacted quite differently however, many met in basements and barns speaking of secession in hushed voices. The next day militias were recruiting any men they could get in Sacramento. There was no lack of men willing to join up.
In Benicia a large militia armed with muskets marched on the Benicia Arsenal and Barracks. The extremely understaffed base sent out 50 men. The revolutionaries fired the first volley taking a high number of US soldiers with. The US soldiers then fired their volley which took few militia men with.
The US expecting the Californians to fire once again received a horrible surprise as the Californians afixed their bayonets and charged the Union men. Few men had prepared their bayonets before the Californians were upon them. In the chaos, many lives were lost while the remainder of the US soldiers fled over the grassy hills in the distance.
The Californians lowered the American Flag above the fort and raised their white flag with a red star in the center. This show of strength displayed to the citizens of the west coast that the rebels could win! Now armed with cannons and equipment of a higher quality, they planned their next move. The militia planned to march south to the Presido of Monterey, bringing any men willing to fight with them.
1 comment:
That was interesting to learn about. You don't see many nonfiction things in the blog, keep writing these!
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