Decoration Day Observance in Los Angeles

This photo from the Veterans Administration archives shows a California Decoration Day observance in the 1930s. The veterans would march down the pier and toss memorial bouquets in the ocean to commemorate their fallen comrades.

Sgt. James Eby, 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry

Photo from the Richard K. Tibbals
Collection of the United States
Army Military History Institute

James Eby was a 29-year-old telegrapher from Horsetown in Shasta County when he joined Company M of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry in March 1863. He rose through the ranks to become commissary sergeant and was discharged at Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia, on July 20, 1865.

After the war, Sgt. Eby moved around a bit. In 1880, he was selling supplies at Fort Thompson Indian Reservation in the Dakotas, and he applied for a pension in 1890 as a resident of Illinois. By 1900, he was living in the National Military Home in Marion, Indiana, and by 1910, he had relocated to the Danville National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Illinois.

Civil War California Referenced in TV Show

The Brother Jonathan, which ran aground off Crescent City in 1865, was mentioned in last week's episode of "The Mentalist," whose storyline focused on a marine salvage company in the fictional town of Santa Marta, California. (We'll look at the wreck in greater detail later this summer.)

More on the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry

The Military Museum in Sacramento, California, has a wealth of information online regarding California's involvement in the Civil War, and the staff onsite was quite informative about the topic when I visited the facility in the mid-1990s.

Since I've started on the topic of the California 100, it seemed only fitting that I refer my readers to more information, which can be found by clicking here. I find the GAR photo at the bottom of the page particularly fascinating since I would have thought many of the men might have stayed in the East post-war, but they returned to my home state and their lives in the West.