The Golden State in the Civil War: Thomas Starr King, the Republican Party, and the Birth of Modern California by Glenna Matthews (review)

In October 1862, Thomas Starr King—an energetic California Republican and popular orator—wrote to his friend James T. Fields, the editor of the Atlantic Monthly and the coproprietor of Ticknor and Fields, an influential New York publishing house. “We are chipping the shell here & are coming out Northern Eagles, not Southern buzzards,” King reported. “The State must be Northernized thoroughly by Schools, Atlantic Monthlies, lectures, N.E. preachers, Library Assoc[iations]—in short Ticknor & Fields-ism of all kinds” (150). This extraordinary letter nicely captures Thomas Starr King in all his grand cultural and political ambitions. (Fortunate is the author who finds such a perfect quote!) It also captures much, although not all, that is at the core of this fascinating, somewhat idiosyncratic book.

The Golden State in the Civil War is at one level a valuable synthetic history of California during the Civil War era. Matthews provides a brisk accounting of the state’s complex geographic, ethnic, and political history during these crucial years. The newly formed state remained solidly in the Union during the war, although the narrative includes a healthy number of colorful Copperheads and a handful of truly extraordinary schemers and traitors. Civil War historians will be familiar with the small numbers of celebrated Californians who fought in the East, including the men of the California Regiment who served with Colonel Edward D. Baker at Ball’s Bluff, and the larger body who served in the “California Battalion” as part of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. Far greater numbers of California recruits patrolled in the Southwest during the war, where they had a few brutal encounters with Apaches but saw almost nothing of men in gray uniforms. The state’s greatest contribution to the Union cause came in the form of the large quantity of gold that flowed east to help fund the war effort. Matthews gives due attention to the roles of Californians, and especially female volunteers, in raising funds and supporting the national voluntary commissions. And in telling the story of a state that was—and is—so distinctive in its racial and ethnic composition, Matthews includes an extended and sobering analysis of the war’s impact on “Californians of color.” In short, readers who are after a history of the state during the Civil War will be rewarded by this lively narrative, with its fascinating characters, evocative anecdotes, and accessible prose.

But even while Matthews is careful to touch all the appropriate bases and meet the expectations of a broad synthesis, it is clear that she is after bigger game. Interwoven with the broad synthesis is a richly researched tale of the ongoing battle for the cultural soul of the Golden State. In this other war, fought on oratorical platforms, newspaper editorial pages, and in a variety of pamphlets, travel guides, and works of art, King and his fellow northern eagles did their best to keep the southern buzzards at bay, with impressive success.

King, a Unitarian minister and star of the lyceum circuit, moved from Boston to San Francisco in April 1860, full of a reformer’s enthusiasm and enthralled with the world he found in the West. He entered a society characterized by a complex racial hierarchy, strong regional divisions, an assortment of colorful political characters, a culture of sometimes brutal violence, and an impressive store of natural resources. As a celebrated orator and travel writer, King arrived with what Matthews describes as a distinct “level of cultural authority” (59). He also enjoyed a dense web of friends among the nation’s cultural elite. The day after his ship landed in San Francisco Harbor, King was speaking before a packed audience of enthusiastic locals. In the months between his arrival and the crucial election of 1860, the energetic orator toured the state, casting his...