President Lincoln for that
State to furnish its quota of men for the Union army. The same
afternoon, the Franklin Light Infantry, a militia company, composed of
printers only, held a meeting at its armory on Sacramento street, and
voted unanimously to offer their services to the government, which was
accordingly done, and they were the first company that was mustered into
the United States service in California, and was afterwards known as
Company B, First Infantry, California Volunteers, and were officered as
follows: Captain, Valentine Drescher; First Lieutenant, Francis S.
Mitchell; Second Lieutenant, George H. Pettis. Other companies were soon
formed, and the regiment, with nine companies, went into camp of
instruction at Camp Downey, near Oakland.

The regiment had been in camp but a few days when it was ordered to
proceed by steamer to Los Angeles, in Southern California. The transfer
was made, and the regiment went into camp about nine miles from Los
Angeles, on the seashore, where the town of Santa Monica now is. The
First Battalion Cavalry, California Volunteers, consisting of five
companies, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Davis, who was afterwards
killed before Richmond, also accompanied us. In a few days after the
establishment of this camp, Lieutenant Pettis, of Company B, was sent on
detached duty as recruiting officer to San Francisco, in order that the
nine companies now in camp should be filled to the maximum standard. The
tenth company had not been admitted to the regiment as yet, although
several had made application for the position.

Lieutenant Pettis arrived in San Francisco about the fifteenth of
October, and immediately commenced business by opening his recruiting
office on the corner of Montgomery and Clay streets, in the same
building with the _Morning Call_. He was successful, as by the fifteenth
of January he had recruited and sent to the regiment one hundred and two
men, and was ordered by General George Wright, then commanding the
department of California (and who was afterwards lost on the steamer
"Brother Jonathan" on his way to Oregon), to close his office and join
his regiment at Camp Latham. In the meantime, four companies of the
regiment, under Major E. A. Rigg, had proceeded to Fort Yuma, on the
Colorado river, and relieved the regulars who were there. Captain
Winfield Scott Hancock, Assistant Quartermaster United States Army, had
also been relieved and ordered to the States. H