The Big One...

[Private Watkins]

One of the largest California earthquakes, estimated at 7.9, occured in 1857 at Fort Tejon...
http://scedc.caltech.edu/significant/forttejon1857.html

U.S. Grant had already left the State, and Albert Sydney Johnston had not yet arrived... so what famous Civil War personalities might have been around to experience "the Big One" in 1857...?

 

[Private Watkins]

All authorities agree this was one of the biggest quakes within California's recorded history, and at least one expert thought it was the biggest, even larger than the massive event that wrecked San Francisco in 1906.
http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqpapers/00000024.htm

 

[Rebforever]

News reports say Saint Andres is wound tight and ready to go again anytime.

 

[Private Watkins]

Dragoons at Fort Tejon
http://musketoon.blogspot.com/2005/10/dragoons-at-fort-tejon.html?m=1

In 1854, the regulations did away with the frock coat. In its place was a short shell jacket trimmed with orange piping and brass shoulder scales. This uniform did not reach Fort Tejon until the fall of 1856. The old-style surplus jackets in sky blue or dark blue were continued to be issued to the troops--two per year. If Company A troopers wore out their yearly issue, which was often the case, they had to purchase a sky blue jackets, making them appear as worn-out infantrymen.

The men of Company F, arriving at Ft. Tejon in 1857, were issued Mexican War surplus sky blue jackets. This troop would not receive the proper Dragoon pattern uniform until it reached Fort Crook, California, in 1858.

Companies B and K arrived at Fort Tejon on July 7, 1858. Brevet Major (Captain) James Carleton, the commanding officer of Company K, was furious when he learned that the Quartermaster Department had mistakenly sent his unit artillery trousers. He demanded that the Quartermaster take them back and send him proper trousers for Dragoons. The quartermaster officer, temperamental Captain Winfield Scott Hancock, refused to exchange the trousers. This led to a private feud between the future generals Hancock and Carleton.

 

[Private Watkins]

News reports say Saint Andres is wound tight and ready to go again anytime.

Locked & loaded... just like Hancock himself... was he there for the Big One...?

 

[War Horse]

Dragoons at Fort Tejon
http://musketoon.blogspot.com/2005/10/dragoons-at-fort-tejon.html?m=1

In 1854, the regulations did away with the frock coat. In its place was a short shell jacket trimmed with orange piping and brass shoulder scales. This uniform did not reach Fort Tejon until the fall of 1856. The old-style surplus jackets in sky blue or dark blue were continued to be issued to the troops--two per year. If Company A troopers wore out their yearly issue, which was often the case, they had to purchase a sky blue jackets, making them appear as worn-out infantrymen.

The men of Company F, arriving at Ft. Tejon in 1857, were issued Mexican War surplus sky blue jackets. This troop would not receive the proper Dragoon pattern uniform until it reached Fort Crook, California, in 1858.

Companies B and K arrived at Fort Tejon on July 7, 1858. Brevet Major (Captain) James Carleton, the commanding officer of Company K, was furious when he learned that the Quartermaster Department had mistakenly sent his unit artillery trousers. He demanded that the Quartermaster take them back and send him proper trousers for Dragoons. The quartermaster officer, temperamental Captain Winfield Scott Hancock, refused to exchange the trousers. This led to a private feud between the future generals Hancock and Carleton.

Now that is very interesting my friend. Thank you for sharing.

 

[War Horse]

Locked & loaded... just like Hancock himself... was he there for the Big One...?

You're driving the boat, please tell us!

 

[Private Watkins]

Or maybe this guy...?

 

[War Horse]

Or maybe this guy...?
View attachment 99261

Zachary Taylor?

 

[diane]

Sherman must have bounced! He had just built his brand new bank on Montgomery and Jackson Street in San Francisco - his bank went bust but the building is doing fine. It has survived the Ft Tejon quake, the 06, the Loma Prieta - which was almost as big - and everything in between including fires - San Francisco usually caught fire after every big one. And Grant wasn't quite out of the state yet - he had checked into that day's version of rehab after resigning from the army over drink. He was a few blocks down the street at the What Cheer temperance hotel. Another one who probably bounced around, too, was Joe Hooker. He had property in Sonoma. The San Andreas runs straight up the coast past Point Reyes, but the Hayward Fault runs right under Sonoma. The Rodgers Creek Fault takes up where it leaves off - just in case he thought it would miss him!

 

[Private Watkins]

You're driving the boat, please tell us!

I'm looking for some research help... who would have been there in January 1857?

 

[Private Watkins]

And Grant wasn't quite out of the state yet - he had checked into that day's version of rehab after resigning from the army over drink. He was a few blocks down the street at the What Cheer temperance hotel.

In his Memoirs he says he rejoined his family in the late summer of 1854...? (Chptr. 16)

 

[War Horse]

My guess is Lewis (Lowell) Armistead was in the vicinity

 

[diane]

In his Memoirs he says he rejoined his family in the late summer of 1854...? (Chptr. 16)

Ah, yes! You're right. He stopped off there on his way home - well before the shaker! Joe and Cump still made it, though.

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

Or maybe this guy...?
View attachment 99261

Zachary Taylor?

No chance he experienced the 'quake.

2LT Bezaleel W. Armstrong of the 2nd U.S. Dragoons died of sickness on 17 February 1849.

 

[Private Watkins]

No chance he experienced the 'quake.

2LT Bezaleel W. Armstrong of the 2nd U.S. Dragoons died of sickness on 17 February 1849.

Good detetective work...! Thank you!

 

[Private Watkins]

The effects of the 1857 quake were quite dramatic, even frightening. Were the Fort Tejon shock to happen today, the damage would easily run into billions of dollars, and the loss of life would likely be substantial, as the present day communities of Wrightwood, Palmdale, Frazier Park, and Taft (among others) all lie upon or near the 1857 rupture area.

As a result of the shaking, the current of the Kern River was turned upstream, and water ran four feet deep over its banks. The waters of Tulare Lake were thrown upon its shores, stranding fish miles from the original lake bed. The waters of the Mokelumne River were thrown upon its banks, reportedly leaving the bed dry in places. The Los Angeles River was reportedly flung out of its bed, too. Cracks appeared in the ground near San Bernadino and in the San Gabriel Valley. Some of the artesian wells in Santa Clara Valley ceased to flow, and others increased in output. New springs were formed near Santa Barbara and San Fernando. Ridges (moletracks) several meters wide and over a meter high were formed in several places. In Ventura, the mission sustained considerable damage, and part of the church tower collapsed. At Fort Tejon, where shaking was greatest, damage was severe. All around southern and central California, the strong shaking caused by the 1857 shock was reported to have lasted for at least one minute, possibly two or three!

The surface rupture caused by the quake was extensive. The San Andreas fault broke the surface continuously for at least 350 km (220 miles), possibly as much as 400 km (250 miles), with an average slip of 4.5 meters (15 feet), and a maximum displacement of about 9 meters (30 feet) (possibly greater) in the Carrizo Plain area. Kerry Sieh (1978) noted that the Elkhorn Thrust, a low-angle thrust fault near theSan Andreas, may have slipped simultaneously in the 1857 quake -- an observation that a team of researchers (1996) have recently used to support the idea that future movements along the San Andreas fault zone might produce simultaneous rupture on thrust faults in and near the Los Angeles area, causing a terrible "double earthquake".

 

[Private Watkins]

My guess is Lewis (Lowell) Armistead was in the vicinity

Not sure that he was there in time...

Between 1855 and 1858 Armistead served at posts on the Smokey Hill River in Kansas Territory, Bent's Fort, Pole Creek,Laramie River, and Republican Fork of the Kansas River in Nebraska Territory. In 1858, his 6th Infantry Regiment was sent as part of the reinforcements sent to Utah in the aftermath of the Utah War. Not being required there, they were sent to California with the intention of sending them on to Washington Territory. However, a Mohave attack on civilians on the Beale Wagon Road diverted his regiment to the southern deserts along the Colorado River to participate in The Mojave Expedition of 1858-59.
​

Who else might have been there...?

 

[MaryDee]

I was in Sonoma last week, and noted the name of Joe Hooker on a plaque.

 

[diane]

Here is some of what the San Andreas did with that earthquake:

http://lolscience.livejournal.com/

Also from the Fort Tejon quake - this one is 350km and gives a whole new meaning to "Let 'er rip!"

http://lolscience.livejournal.com/