It consisted of 19 buildings on 60 acres , m2 in what is now Wilmington , with another 37 acres , m2 near the waterfront. The impending withdrawal of regular troops from California to fight in the Civil War presented Los Angeles with a threefold crisis:. The response was to build a major installation, adjacent to San Pedro Bay and 25 miles south of Los Angeles, [ 2 ] to be garrisoned by troops moved from Fort Tejon and later by recruits from Northern California and from among the loyal minority in the area.
He supervised construction from his office, visiting the new post only once. At least three of the leading citizens of Los Angeles were arrested and taken to the Drum Barracks. From there he was placed aboard a steamer to be taken to San Francisco and confinement at Fort Alcatraz. He took an oath of allegiance to the United States and was back in Los Angeles within two weeks. The immediate cause of his arrest is not known, but one of his many editorials had said that the Northern mobilization was an abolition war, "instigated, carried on, and to be consummated, by the degradation of the white race, and the elevation of the African family over them" and that "Black Republican" rule "has degenerated into worse than an Oriental despotism.
The photo shown here has inscriptions stating that Hamilton is on the left. A copy of the photo, taken decades later, has a description indicating that Hamilton is on the right.
Undersheriff A. Barrows , for saying "that he owed no allegiance to the United States Government; that Jeff Davis' was the only constitutional government we had, and that he remained here because he could do more harm to the enemies of that Government by staying here than going there" and for publicly displaying "a large lithograph gilt-framed portrait of Beauregard , the rebel general, which he flaunted before a large crowd at the hotel.
The report of the arrest does not say what the utterance was, but one of his speeches was published later:. It belongs to kingly and not to free government. Drum Barracks troops were stationed at San Bernardino for most of the war and made intermittent encampments at El Monte. When the news of the Union victory at Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg was received in Los Angeles, battles between Union and Confederate factions broke out. A detachment of troops, on their way to the Owens Valley as an escort to a supply train, intervened.
