I was surprised to discover a Northern Rebel from my mother’s family. Almost all of my mother’s family either refused to fight in the Civil War or fought on the Union side. However, one Confederate soldier departed from the Showalter fold. Despite arriving in America as Mennonites in 1750, one of the descendants of the original immigrant died in 1866 in a Mexican bar gunfight. There is a short video about the life of Dan Showalter from Pennsylvania, who became a California legislator, was involved in one of California’s last duels, and was a Confederate officer.
California entered the Union as a free state as part of the Compromise of 1850. After the unexpected discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California’s population increased dramatically and threw the balance between free and slave states out of balance in more ways than one. There were pro-slavery proponents in California, but their efforts were destined to fail because the U.S. Congress was in control. The only possible way to make California a slave state was for the state to secede and join the Confederacy. The efforts of Dan Showalter and others to transform California into a slave state failed because, while they made a lot of noise, their numbers were few. My Showalter relative also fought one of the last American duels. He fought the duel with rifles instead of pistols and killed a California State Senator.
This hyperlink will take you to a video that explains Dan Showalter’s life and times.