A Civil War Soldier In California Is Not A Mistake

A Civil War soldier in California sounds like a glitch in the story we learned in school until you trace the footsteps back to Drum Barracks near the Port of Los Angeles. We take a listener’s sighting seriously and use it as a doorway into a forgotten piece of American history: California’s divided loyalties, the creation of Camp San Pedro (later Drum Barracks), and how thousands of troops moved through Southern California as the Union fought to hold the Southwest. If you’ve ever wondered why certain places feel charged, this one gives you the receipts and the reason.
 
From there, the tone shifts from historical to personal and unsettling. Drum Barracks is now a Civil War museum in Wilmington, and it carries a long list of reported paranormal activity: chains dragging across floors, footsteps and mumbling in empty rooms, sudden smells of pipe smoke, and the repeated appearance of a woman known as “Maria,” often linked to lavender and violet perfume. We talk about why museums, former posts, and old hospital grounds can become magnets for ghost stories, especially when so many lives passed through in a short span of time.
 
We also share a strange Queen Mary moment that leads to an “object story” we still can’t explain: an old hairpin that appears in a jacket pocket and later vanishes, plus a Civil War bullet box that doesn’t always stay where it belongs. If you’ve had a Civil War ghost encounter, a haunted museum experience, or the kind of event that raises the hair on your neck, we want to hear it. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these stories and add their own.

Transcript

Why A Civil War Soldier Appears

Drum Barracks History In California

Hauntings Reported At The Museum

Queen Mary Oddities And Vanishing Objects

Share Your Story And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey everybody, it's Dr. G, Spirit Tales and Magic. Hope your Sunday is going well. It's a little overcast where we are in Cali, but still warm. We had a listener who wanted to clarify some snail mail things. We'll do that pretty quickly. You can send your ghost story by snail mail. We do move around quite a bit. So we are also the secret parlor theater. Think of it as a speakeasy that travels throughout the world, although these days it's more the United States than anywhere else. Same listener had a question about blood money. Well, that's a bus, allegedly, and we'll talk about that on another podcast. You can, for a limited time, send your ghost stories to 121727 SEV ERN Way in Riverside, California, 92503. You will not find Cassander and I there, but we'll get the mail. Dave goes on to say that he was near the port of California, and his wife insists that during a walk one evening she saw a Civil War soldier. His question is I didn't think California was involved in the Civil War. Why would she see something like that? She's very intuitive, and I don't doubt that she saw what she claims she saw. Got anything for that? Actually, we do. So many people don't realize that California was involved in the Civil War. So the drum D R U M barracks played a significant role in that conflict. Initially, the drum barracks was a five-company post. It was established in January of 62, that's 1862. And back then it was known as Camp San Pedro, I believe. In December of 63, they changed the post's name to Camp Drum in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Drum, who was the assistant adjutant general of the Department of California. It soon took on the name of the Drum Barracks. Now, at that time, the government was unsure whether California would declare itself for the North or for the South. The state was about equally divided in its sympathies. In particular, the southern half of the state, especially around LA, was pro-succession, leading the government to establish a presence in that area. So this post was, let's say, ostensibly built to have troops fight the Indians. Big problem with that is there weren't any Indians to fight in that area. Spending more than a million dollars to build a post, which was a considerable amount of money at the time. The buildings were completed, I believe, in 1863. They were exquisite, and the area locals were very impressed. I believe that campus is about 60 acres of land with around 37 acres located near the harbor. The post was built to house some 500 soldiers, and I think it had stables for around 300 horses as well. It had a hospital, laundry facilities, and of course, soldiers' quarters. All of that was situated around a very large large parade ground. This post quickly became the central staging, training, and supply base for military operations in the Southwest. Throughout the Civil War, about give or take 17,000 Californians came through the barracks on their way back to the east to fight for the Union. General James Henry Clariton on April 13, 1862, led some 2,300 California volunteers through Arizona and New Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley, which was being invaded by the Confederate Armed Forces from Texas. It was the longest and most difficult march of the Civil War. In the end, the troops in California secured the territory that is now Arizona and New Mexico for the Union. Now, after the Union won the Civil War, Camp Drum continued to maintain a presence, sending soldiers to fight all over the Southwest during the Indian Wars. The post was finally decommissioned, I believe that was in November of 71. That's 1871. But the hospital, which was then considered to be the best equipped medical facility west of the Mississippi River, continued to serve wounded soldiers for about another two years. After the hospital closed, the land reverted back to the original owner, and the buildings were auctioned off. Did some research, it was$6,357 for the land in the buildings. Though some were moved, others stayed in place, including the junior officers' quarters, which were used as a high school, a private residence, and a boarding house throughout many years. By the early 1960s, the only remaining buildings on the campus were the Powder Magazine and the Junior Officers Quarters, both of which were to be demolished in 1962. However, through the efforts of community groups, they were actually saved. Fort Drum Barracks, California, 1889, was saved from the dynamite. In 1987, the restored building was opened to the public as the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum. The building is located in Wilmington, California, a district of Los Angeles. It's near the port of Los Angeles, and it is the only major American Civil War landmark in Southern California. So today the museum commemorates California's role in the Civil War, and it hosts several reenactments and events throughout the year. The Old Powder Magazine also stands in the corner of Op and Eubank Streets. If the drum barracks history isn't exciting enough, legend has it that the old building is the site of repeated paranormal activity. Over the years, the museum staff and visitors have frequently reported hearing sounds, unexplained noises, including chains being dragged across the floor, footsteps, mumbling. All this happens throughout the entire building when no one is present. More reports claim to have seen a woman, who they call Maria, often appearing in a hoop skirt and smelling very strongly of lavender and violet perfume. Others claim to have seen the apparition of a man dressed in 1800's officer's uniform, who evidently smokes a pipe, as the smell of pipe smoke is often detected throughout the museum. Now we did some additional research about the museum. You do get pages of things, but we try and not ramble on and on. The most active room seems to be the model room, where many have encountered tobacco and perfume odors. They've heard items being moved around, the sound of footsteps approaching from behind. The drum barracks hauntings have been featured in many books and television shows. A while back when we were doing I think the first October, we did get a letter from someone about having someone breathe on the back of their neck while taking a tour through this very same place. Anything that has to deal with the Civil War. Look at the amount of souls that passed through that area. And of course, it's war, so not everybody lived. I don't think that Cassandra and I have visited any Civil War location where significant battles took place where there were hospitals that didn't raise a hair or two on the back of our neck. So what's your Civil War ghost story? Do you have one? And if you don't, tell me what else raises the hair on the back of your neck. We've got some episodes coming up that are gonna deal with some California cryptids and some ghosts that are well-known residents of our area, let's say. And don't forget our time on the Queen Mary. And I did I did want to mention this one more time. It's a little off topic, but if you heard the episode about the Queen Mary, you know that when Cassandra and I took the tour, down in the engine room area, I got a little nauseous and was being affected by something. So we excused ourselves and got out of there to wait for the second half of the tour. Problem with that is, and if you're a frequent flyer of the podcast, you'll hear this a lot. Cassandra and I tend to venture off the beaten path and get separated from tour groups, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not. You'll hear an episode someday where we're saying, hey, send us some bail money. Just kidding. During that time. Now, I would not consider myself to be anybody that's obsessed with what's in your pocket or where things go. But I was wearing my spirit tails and magic jacket on that tour. In the left pocket of that jacket is an EMF meter, some tissues, and my night medicine. That's what goes in there. That's all that goes in there. So we discover that there is a Bobby pin. It's a very old hairpin that was in that pocket after we broke off from half of the tour. I showed it to the tour guide when we met back up with him. Cassander and I do not get very close to people in the tours. We kind of stay back, which makes it easier for us to wander off. So in a crowd of 20 people, the last two people in the line are genuine, usually us. So where'd that bobby pin come from? That particular bobby pin right now is MIA. I don't know where it is. I know where I left it, and it's not there. Cassandra didn't move it, I didn't move it, but I'll guarantee you it's going to crop back up somewhere. Now I told you that story because a very dear friend of mine that I went to high school with collects Civil War stuff. So when we find Civil War things or new Civil War stories, we acquire them if we can and we save them to see if Mark wants them. So a box of actual Civil War bullets. I've been carrying this thing around for several years. That box of bullets has a very particular resting place where we live. And it will from time to time not be there. And it will from time to time crop up somewhere else. So what's your story like that? You know we want to hear it. Give us a like, give us a share, follow us if you can, and tell all of your friends to tell all of their friends and their friends to download an episode. Because you know we say there is indeed a world unseen. It's a world that exists all around us all the time. And every now and then, for whatever the reason, we catch a glimpse of it. And the dead get in. We love to hear your stories, and we'll give you several of our own along the way. And hey, get around a campfire and tell a paranormal story. It's good for you. Good afternoon from SoCal. We'll talk soon.