On the Drum Barracks Beat

According to a listing in Wikipedia, there were still a handful of veterans of the American Civil War (1861-1865) alive when I was born.

With all who remember that monumental conflict now gone, the war is still present in the form of written records, artifacts, weapons and materiel, forts, fortresses, encampments and buildings of endless variety. For that single American conflict 150 years ago, there is a vast extant inventory of structures, in part because the war itself consumed the entire nation and many buildings and sites have been preserved as monuments and testimonials to a conflict that killed two-thirds of a million soldiers in four years: a level of productivity that should be highly admired by todays warmakers (although it was soon eclipsed by WWI, a highly productive war, which killed 16 million people, including 20,000 English dead in a single day at the battle of the Somme).

It’s amazing to consider the vast scale of armament and construction associated with the Civil War. To pick just a few random examples, I have been to Fort Knox in Maine, a massive example in granite of the classic pentagonal style of military fortresses of that era. It was begun as a coastal defense against the British, but was garrisoned by Maine volunteers during the Civil War.

More than a thousand miles to the south, I’ve also visited Fort Clinch, on Amelia Island, Florida, another 5-sided fortress, this one built of earth and brick guarding another strategically important waterway.

Ft. Clinch was begun for a previous conflict, the Seminole War, but became a hotly contested strategic point and construction of the fort was accelerated in response to the onset of the war.

On the Far Coast

Ft. Stevens with later concrete ramparts

The Counselor and I also visited Fort Stevens, three thousand miles to the northwest, at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, seaward from Astoria, another earthwork fort protecting a key waterway.

In between, across the width of the continent, are hundreds, probably thousands of forts, encampments, battlefields and other Civil War sites. One couldn’t catalogue them in a lifetime, much less visit them. I don’t go out of my way to search out old forts, but they’re everywhere, and the curious traveler just has to stop. (Here’s a question to ponder: is there a state other than Alaska or Hawaii that does not have a structure — a depot, artillery emplacement, fort — built by one of the armies for the Civil War?)

It’s not too surprising, then, to learn that there’s a Civil War survivor a few miles from our house in Los Angeles: the Drum Barracks, the last remaining Civil War structure in Los Angeles, originally part of Camp Drum.

A man named Phineas Banning was a co-founder of the city of Wilmington, which occupies the north end of the Port of Los Angeles. Highly successful as an entrepreneur, Banning was an important figure in Los Angeles history, and had a pivotal role in establishing the Port of Los Angeles as a major force in shipping (now one of the world’s busiest ports).

War in California

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Unionist like Banning were concerned that the strong degree of support for the Confederacy in southern California could lead to the creation of a strategically powerful base of operations from the West. Banning and another prominent local donated land to the Union, which built Camp Drum.

The camp would eventually house about 7,000 troops. A couple thousand of these soldiers did march out of Wilmington to maintain control of the New Mexico Territory, which included present day Arizona, from the Confederacy at the battle of Picacho Pass, near Tucson, the westernmost battle of the war.

Today, the former officers’ barracks is all that remains of Camp Drum, but it’s in fine shape. It’s located in a mostly residential neighborhood not far from downtown Wilmington.

Now a Civil War museum, the barracks is worth a visit for a glimpse at the world of the 1860s. It may only be a curiosity for residents of Virginia or Tennessee, who can’t swing a cat without hitting a Civil War landmark (although there are serious penalties for striking a Confederate landmark with a feline, an act described in local ordinances as cataclysm).

Brad and Dad, Front of Barracks

One photo from about 1863, soon after Camp Drum was established, shows a camel hitched outside a building at the camp. The Army had imported camels from Africa as an experimental source of pack animals to serve in the arid southwest, the  Camel Corps. A few dozen of them were stationed to installations in California, eventually based at Camp Drum.

There was, by the way, a more western Civil War fort, out on Santa Catalina Island. It was built as a deterrent against the risk of Confederate sponsored privateers that might threaten the shipping in and out of the mainland port. An original building still exists, occupied today by a yacht club.

Nearby: The Banning Museum

Just a few blocks away from Drum Barracks is the Banning family mansion, which is also a museum worth visiting in its own right. The government eventually returned the donated land to Banning once the fort was decommissioned, and he and his family continued to prosper.

CLICK HERE to access the Wikipedia entry on the Drum Barracks.

CLICK HERE to access the Drum Barracks official site.

© Brad Nixon 2010, revised 2020. One photo © M. Vincent 2010. Used by kind permission.