All over the State a hegira commenced which ended
in final defeat. Many graves on the shallow-trenched battle-fields
were filled by the Californian exiles. Not in honor did these
devoted men and hundreds of their friends leave the golden hills.
Secretly they fled, lest their romantic quest might land them in
a military prison. Those unable to leave gave aid to the absent.
Sulking at home, they deserted court and mart to avoid personal
penalties.
It was different with many of the warm-hearted Californian sons
of the South who were attached to the Union. Cut off in a distant
land, they held aloof from approving secession. Grateful for the
shelter of the peaceful land in which their hard-won homes were
made, it was only after actual war that the ties of blood carried
them away and ranged them under the Stars and Bars. When the
Southern ranks fell, in windrows, on the Peninsula, hundreds of
these manly Californians left to join their brethren. They had
clung to the Union till their States went out one by one. They sadly
sought the distant fields of action, and laid down their lives for
the now holy cause.
The attitude of these gallant men was noble. They scorned the
burrowing conspirators who dug below the foundations of the national
constitution.
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