WHEN THE NATIONAL GUARD CAME

Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, June 15, 1878

The San Francisco Fusileers, organized in 1871, were part of the National Guard of California. Later they became Company “C”, 2^nd Infantry Regiment, 2^nd Brigade. 

In the 1870s the Fusileers participated in a couple of noteworthy events in San Francisco. 

In April 1873 Brigadier General Edward R.S. Canby of the United States Army was killed by Modoc Chief Kintpuash, otherwise known as Captain Jack. The killing came during "negotiations", actually a demand for unconditional surrender, in the Modoc War which began when the U.S. Army tried to force the tribe back to a reservation. Canby is noted for being the only Army general to die in the Indian Wars. After lying in state at San Francisco’s military headquarters, the Fusileers were among a thousand soldiers who escorted General Canby’s body to the Central Pacific Ferry wharf where it was loaded aboard the “El Captain” to meet the train in Oakland. 

Several times in 1876, the Fusileers were called out to protect armories in the city in anticipation of trouble during anti-Chinese labor rallies. “For several consecutive nights anti-Chinese sympathizers invaded ‘Little China’ and beat and intimidated the Chinese, sometimes burning washhouses and other places of business belonging to the Orientals ... Although the rioters committed acts of lawlessness no arrests were made.” 

For their 1878 Big Trees Grove excursion the Fusileers boarded the narrow gauge Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad.  Soon “… amid the cheering of the multitude, the blaring of horns, the beating of drums and the fluttering of flags, the train disappeared into the tunnel. The excursionists were cheered along the route, and at every turn in the road were seen carriage loads of people bound for the Big Trees. As the cars went swinging gracefully around the serpentine curves the Fusileers gave vent to their admiration of the grandeur of the scenery, the precipitousness of the rocks, the stateliness of the forest kings, the magnificence of the bay scenery, the ruggedness of the hills, and the Sabbath tranquility of the purling San Lorenzo river. On this train were 500 persons. By other conveyances 400 more arrived, and the afternoon train swelled the number to 1,200. Artists Woods and Cook were at the Big Trees with their tents and instruments. Hooper had placed the grounds in tip-top order, and he supplied the hungry with an abundance. The order of the day was speech making, dancing, eating and singing …”

Notes: Kintpuash is also often spelled as Keintpoos. The Hooper mentioned was John Hooper, the first manager of the Big Trees Grove resort.

Sources: "Winema and the Modoc War - One Woman's Struggle for Peace," by Rebecca Bales, Prologue Magazine, National Archives and Records Administration, 2005, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/spring/winema.html; “History of the San Francisco Fusileers, National Guard of California 1871-1880,” compiled by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in conjunction with the California National Guard and the California State Library, 1940, "Historic California Militia and National Guard Units – San Francisco Fusileers," and “California and the Indian Wars – The Modoc War, 1872-1873,” by Warren A. Beck and Ynez D. Hasse, California State Military History and Museum Program, http://www.militarymuseum.org, February 8, 2016; "The Blue and the Gray," Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, June 29, 1878.