California Civil War Rosters
From the book “Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1867”
by Brig.-Gen. Richard H. Orton, pub. 1890
Transcribed by © Kathy Sedler, June 2004, pp 3-4.
PREFACE
Early in 1865, General George S. Evans, then Adjutant-General of the State, required the Captain of every company of California Volunteers then in the service, to send him a roll of his company, giving the record of every man who had been member up to that time, and a brief history of the service rendered by the company. From the rolls so obtained, General Evans published, in his annual report for the year 1865, a Register of California Volunteers. As part of the troops were in the service until January 4, 1867, and as the rolls were full of omissions and errors, and were published without revision, the Register, so compiled, was also full of omissions and errors and incomplete.
For the foregoing reasons, and for the further reason that the Register published in 1865 is entirely out of print (only a small edition having been issued originally), it was decided to revise and issue as complete a Register as could be made from the original rolls on file in the Adjutant-General’s office. Authority to have the work done was obtained from the State Legislature, which passed a bill (approved March 16, 1889) “to provide for the revision of the records of the California Volunteers, to authorize the Adjutant-General to employ additional clerks for that purpose, and to authorize the Superintendent of State Printing to print, bind, and issue the same.”
The Act provides for the issuance of copies of the work to living members of the California Volunteers, or, if deceased, to their heirs.
No provision has been made for the payment of the postage or expressage on the same; and parties entitled, who wish copies, will be informed of the amount required to pay postage, upon application to the Adjutant-General.
Of the ten thousand copies authorized by the law, only two thousand will be issued in the first edition; but the pages will be electrotyped, so that other editions may be issued as they are required.
It is much regretted that the records of the California Volunteers in the office of the Adjutant-General are not more full and complete. Of some of the companies there are no rolls on file, and the printed Register of 1865 is the only record that can be found, and it is impossible to make a complete history of the service rendered. Every source of information has been gleaned, and the history has been made as complete as the scant record and limited time allow. The reason why the histories of the “California Column,”, so called, and of the First Cavalry, are more full and complete than those of other expeditions and organizations, is that fuller and more complete reports of them are found in the Adjutant-General’s office than of the others.
This office is indebted to Captain John Mullan, of Washington, D.C., for much valuable information relating to the California Volunteers, who procured, through Senator Dolph, of Oregon, the publication of a large amount of correspondence relative to military affairs on this coast during the war.
Parties discovering errors or omissions in these records are requested to notify the Adjuntant-General of all such at earliest convenience.
RICHARD H. ORTON,
Adjutant-General.
SACRAMENTO, July 23, 1890.