A Sketch of the Causes, Operations and Results of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856Webb, Stephen Palfrey
History
A Sketch of the Causes, Operations and Results of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856
Webb, Stephen Palfrey
San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856
At an early hour in the morning the Commander of the force issued orders
to the Captains of Companies to notify their men to appear at Head
Quarters, No. 41 Sacramento Street, at nine o'clock A. M. ready for
duty. Time was of course required to circulate the notice through the
City; but soon the men began to congregate from all quarters and the
building, extensive as it was, by half past ten o'clock, was filled,
both above and below stairs. A most extraordinary assemblage was that
which filled those large halls on that Sabbath morning. Men of every
rank, occupation and condition in society obeyed that summons, and
silently took their places side by side, prepared to do their duty
and abide the issue whatever it might be. Many of these order and
peace-loving citizens had never before, when in health, been absent from
church on the Sabbath day or had the slightest skill in the use of arms,
or knowledge of military movements, yet so really a military people
are the Americans, and so completely overmastered was every man by the
sentiment and purpose common to all; that the precision with which the
whole body handled their arms, and marched without music, was remarked
with astonishment even by officers of the regular army.
After a short drill in the Rooms, ammunition was distributed, and orders
issued to load with ball. The companies then moved in succession into
the street. Not a drum was struck, or other instrument of music sounded,
but in silence the various detachments moved by different routes upon
the designated point. Such a body of men have been seldom if ever seen
united, armed, and resolutely bent upon accomplishing such an object.
The high and low, rich and poor, men of all classes, ages, and nations;
the merchant, the dairy man, the professional man, the clerk, the
porter, the father and son, the philanthropist, the patriot, the
Christian, all were in the ranks of this great Company; and with
flashing eyes and compressed lips marched in silence to accomplish what
they deemed an absolutely necessary measure of Retribution and Reform.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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