How Did The California Gold Rush

In the years from 1846-1848 the US was at war with the Mexican government. In February of 1848 the US signed a treaty with the Mexican government that ended the war and from this treaty the US gained a vast portion of the southwest. This portion included California. The process of California joining the Union was sped up due to a large amount of gold that was found in a Sacramento River earlier before the treaty was signed. This discovery of gold caused an influx of people to move to California in search of their own gold.
This rush of people to California was better known as the gold rush. With the population of people booming in California it became apparent that there was a need for a government to be formed. Due to this need in 1849 the
citizens of California sought statehood and became a free slavery state. In 1850 it was granted statehood and became the 31st state of the United States. (California admission day September 9, 1850)
When the Civil war began in 1861 California was still known as a free slave state. The civil war had the state divided into by the Secessionists that dominated the southern part of the state and the Pro-Union that made up the northern part of the state. Secessionists were people who chose to secede, who advocated secession, or claimed secession as a constitutional right.(The Free Dictionary By Farlex). Even though there were secessionists in the south of California it stayed a pro-union and free slavery state. Being a Pro-union state California really helped the union with funding during the civil war because of its vast gold mines and pro-union business heads it was able to give great support. With those two elements of funding helping the union became well funded and because of this it helped turn the tides of the war in the Unions favor. Also, California had a major role in medical support for the troops of the Union side during the civil war. The soldiers that came from California in support of the Union reached in the thousands.
There are many things that the Californian soldiers were known for. One such event was in 1862 when they pushed the Confederate armies out of New Mexico and Arizona. The Californian soldiers were also known for joining the Union state regiment in the east and by doing so the soldiers would be in the majority of the major battles that took place in the east. One of the most famous and infamous battles of the civil war that a California regiment was a part of in the east, was the battle of Gettysburg. In the article The Civil War in California it was stated by the California department of parks and recreation that in the Civil war "over 17,000 Californians would join as soldiers; this is the highest per-capita for any state in the Union"(The Civil War in California). It is truly amazing to see how many soldiers joined to fight in a war that was against the nation that they lived in.
According to the article "Population of the United States (1860)" California had a population of 379,994 people at the time of the Civil War.
Then if you factor the number of the 17,000 that were said to have joined into the civil war and divided the two you get 22.4 or 22 percent of the population that took part in the war. As it said in the article "The Civil War in California" the number that joined was over 17,000. So in total 22 percent or greater of California's population in 1860 enlisted in to the Civil war, but this was not all at once this was over the period of time the civil war took place and this was only a rough
estimate.
While conducting my research I found a few fun facts about California. First, the first governor of California was Peter Burnett, he was elected in 1849 before it even became a state, but quickly resigned after his first annual address was criticized by the legislature.(Governors of California). The California state motto is "Eureka...I have found it!" it refers back to the gold rush when people found gold they would shout this out and it caught on and became California's state motto. The gold was so prominent in the state that California became known as "The golden state" and the states flower became the California Poppy for the flowers natural golden color. This flower is also referred to as the flame flower.(State Symbols USA). Another fun fact is a theory on how California got its name.
It is said that it was from Spanish conquistadors who thought they had found a mystical island based on a book that was published in 1510. In the book it was said that a queen named "Califia" was a ruler of black amazons that had lots of pearls and gold. So when the Spaniards found the supposed Island of "California" in 1535 they named it California because they found pearls and gold there. The real reason why California was named California was because when the Spanish first discovered it they called it the Baja California peninsula. They called it the Island of California then because the Spanish believed that it was an Island and not connected at all to the rest of North
America.
The state capitol of California is Sacramento. Another fun fact about California is that the bear flag that California has was from a revolt called the bear flag revolt that occurred in 1846. This revolt lasted only a month, but the Californians wanted to remember this part of their history when making California a state. This is why they choose the bear flag even though it stood for something different originally then it does know. (History of the California Bear Flag).
Overall, I found it to be very interesting to discover more about California and the part it played in the civil war. I enjoyed delving back into the history of a state that originally I knew very little about.