Garrisons of the Departments of California (in yellow) and Oregon, 1 January 1861
The Department of California was an administrative department of the United States Army. The Department was created in 1858, replacing the original Department of the Pacific, and it was ended by the reorganizations of the Henry L. Stimson Plan implemented in February 1913. As with the preceding organization, headquarters were in San Francisco.[1] Its creation was authorized by General Orders, No. 10, of the War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, September 13, 1858.
As first established, the department covered all territory within the latter-day state borders of Arizona, Nevada, California, and a sizable square of southwestern Oregon representing the Rogue River District and Umpqua District.
When General Edwin Vose Sumner, relieved General Johnston during March 1861 he continued in command of the Department of California now renamed the District of California. His successor in October 1861 (six months after the beginning of the Civil War), Brigadier General George Wright (1803-1865), continued in command of the District even after losing command of the superior Department of the Pacific, on July 1, 1864, to Gen. Irvin McDowell (1818-1885), who had recently been embarrassingly defeated in the first major battle of the Civil War three years before in the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) in northern Virginia, just south of the national federal capital city of Washington, D.C., in July 1861.
The Department of Arizona was established as part of the Division of the Pacific on April 15, 1870. It consisted of the Arizona Territory and the adjacent state of California south of a line from the northwest corner of Arizona, west to Point Conception on the Pacific Ocean coast, so as to include most of Southern California.
From December 7, 1871, the one general officer at San Francisco commanded both the Division of the Pacific and the Department of California and the separate staffs were consolidated into one. On July 1, 1878, Division of the Pacific headquarters was relocated from the city of San Francisco to the Presidio of San Francisco, along the coastline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the city.
The Department of Arizona lost Southern California to the Department of California further west on February 14, 1883, but regained California again south of the 35th parallel three years later on December 15, 1886. The Department of California then consisted of the state of California north of the 35th parallel of latitude and adjacent state of Nevada.
The Military Division of the Pacific was discontinued on July 3, 1891.[4] Each of the three subordinate departments of Arizona, California, and the Columbia, then reported directly to the War Department. The Department of California, with its headquarters at San Francisco, consisted of California north of the 35th parallel and Nevada.
The Hawaiian Islands were added to the department July 12, 1898. It became the District of Hawaii in 1910 as part of the Department of California.
On February 15, 1913 the Department of California, with all the mainland territorial departments, was disbanded for a new organization of the Army. The territory of the former departments of the Columbia and California were now controlled by the Western Department, except for the District of Hawaii that now became the independent Department of Hawaii.
