ASSIGNMENT #6 Radicals Part 3-The CopperHeads

The only poisonous snakes found both in the S.F Bay Area and Contra Costa County are the rattlesnakes found there but the Anti-war democrats and Southern sympathizers labeled by the Republican press were called Copperheads.The overall picture in California, including Contra Costa County, was the 1860 presidential campaign had split the dominant Democratic Party into two factions, the Southern Democrats who wanted succession and supported Breckenridge and those who had supported Douglas and the Union. The Democrats up to that point had been dominating in the politics of California since before 1850. The Southern Democrats in 1861 had hoped to continue that success and capture the governership and the California legislature, but failed on both accounts. Leland Stanford(Stanford University and one of the "Big Four" of the Continental Railroad) was the first Republican elected Governer of California in 1861. The Southern Democrats had failed to get the governership and legislature, thus failed in trying to have California succeed from the Union.

Copperheads were common throughout the Bay Area but were out numbered by the Union loyalists during the Civil War. Copperheads were those living in the North or Union States who planned or did anything they could to aid the Confederacy. A story that I read and the actual spot in Oakland I went to, showed where a small cannon sat during the Civil War on 12th and Fallon Street and after each Union victory had reach the West Coast, the cannon was fired to the annoyance of the Copperheads living within ear shot of the cannon. The little cannon had just disappeared after one Union victory, which an Copperhead named Jack Cohane was the one responsible for it's disappearance. The story goes that Union Loyalists, went out and captured Jack Cohane and some Copperheads, marching them to the end of Broadway St and threw them into the Bay. They would not let them out of the Bay until they told them where the cannon was. Jack Cohane and his Confederate sympathizers did not want to drown so they told them that they had dumped the cannon in the bay, off where Jack London square is now. The cannon was retrieved and several of the Copperheads were sent to Alcatraz, which was then used then as a military prison during the Civil War.

Copperheads or Confederate Sympathizers had often went by the names of " Knights of the Golden Circle or "Knights of the Columbian Star", and they were real underground Confederate groups and were active in planning and executing plans to weaken the Union Army in the Bay Area. The Union loyalists had their own group called the Union League",which really counter- acted those Confederate groups and and actually formed Militia's to just do that. One of the S.F Bay Area Confederate groups, "The Knights of the Golden Circle had planned out an all out like attack on Navy boats in the bay, but the plan had failed because the navy and Union League, under Harry Morse became aware of this attack and then stopped them. The end result was that several more Copperheads ended up at Alcatraz for the remaining of the war and a little longer actually.There were other plotsttoo, like their was plans to seize the San Francisco Mint, The Presidio,The Customs House and the Arsenal in Benecia. To note, several of the Contra Costa County Copperheads were part of these planned and failed raids and ended up at the Alcatraz military prison, including two Danville Copperheads.

The most famous of all the Contra Costa County Coppeheads was Lansford Hastings, who was the one who had discovered Quicksilver Ore on Mount Diablo/Danville in 1859. He was also the same Hastings for which the Donner party made the fatal mistake in taking the now famous "Hasting's Cutoff", freezing to death and eating each other in a cannibalism way to survive the harshest Sierra winter in decades. Mr Lansford Hastings was authorized by the Confederate government in Virginia, as a major in the Confederate Army, with the task of raising an army, then going and seizing Arizonia for the Confederacy.The Confederate government soon got wary of Hastings and his lack of being able to raise an army and concerns over his leadership qualities and soon dropped the idea of taking Arizonia for the Confederacy.

Danville meanwhile, was the hotbed of Confederate Copperheads activity in Contra Costa County with such Copperheads in Danville,as founders Daniel and Andrew Inman, John Syndor, Jesse Bowles,Charles woods, A.J. Young and many others. Danville and San Ramon Valley was not only a Copperhead nest but also was the center of Southern Democratic politics in Contra Costa County and other types of Confederates Sympathizer activities. They worked with other groups of Confederacy Sympathizers and Copperhead in Contra Costa County and the S.F. Bay Area to disrupt, destroy or simply irrate Union forces, shipping or whatever would hurt the Union as a whole.