The Big One...

[leftyhunter]

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...?

We should keep in mind that Ft.Tejon is in the Teachappi Mtns and at the time very few people lived their . Their were no major cities nearby. Bakersfield did not yet exist and few people lived in what is now Santa Clarita . Valencia and Newhall .Almost no one lived in the San Franando Valley. So best guess very few people actually felt the quake.
Leftyhunter