Civil War

Civil War Troops, Isthmus, 1864.

Civil War Barracks, Catalina Harbor, built in 1864.

Civil War cow powder-horn scrimshaw by John Sutten,
Santa Catalina Island, 1864

John Sutten scrimshaw powderhorn,
Santa Catalina Island, 1864.

CIVIL WAR

In 1864, the U.S. Union Army sent 83 soldiers to survey Santa Catalina Island both to protect the area from Confederate privateers and survey the isthmus and adjacent Catalina Harbor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a location for a future Indian reservation for "militant" tribes captured in the Bald Hills War. Captain Benjamin R. West, army commander on the island, and Company C, 4th California Infantry occupied the Isthmus from January 2, 1864 until September 14, 1864. (The 4th California Infantry was a volunteer infantry regiment recruited from northern California during the American Civil War. It was organized at Sacramento, Placerville, and Auburn in September and October 1861.)

The Indian reservation idea was abandoned and so was the camp, but the barracks built remain as a monument to the Civil War.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Hollywood film crews used the Two Harbors Barracks as housing while they transformed Santa Catalina Island into the South Pacific for movies like Mutiny on the Bounty and Old Ironside.

Decades after their first tour, the barracks were once again called on by the U.S. military. During World War II, the U.S. Coast Guard used the barracks as a training station for new recruits. Since 1951 the barracks have been managed by the Isthmus Yacht Club.

In the News~

November 26, 1863 [Henry Hancock to Lieut. Col. James F. Curtis]: “Sir: I have the honor to report that at 8 P.M. of the 22nd instant I arrived at Fisherman’s Harbor, Island of Catalina, with two enlisted men of Company C… having sailed from the port of San Pedro on the sloop Ned Beal, burden 17 28/100 tons, owned by Spencer W. Wilson of Wilson’s Harbor, Island of Catalina… The population of the island is about 100, one-half of whom are miners… The present number of sheep is about 15,000, nine thousand of which belong to Mr. Spencer W. Wilson. Of goats there are some 7,000 or 8,000. Of cattle and horses there are not many… John Johnson, ten years a resident, 200 head of cattle… Spencer H. Wilson, five years a resident; 10 head of cattle… Juan Cota, 400 head cattle… Swain [Sven] Lawson, 10 head cattle…”