Civil War in Downtown SF 1860s
Unfinished History
Pro-Union meeting, July 4, 1861, corner of Montgomery, Post, and Market Streets.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
A scuffle between pro-Union and pro-Confederacy supporters at California and Montgomery on July 4, 1862. Nob Hill rises in background in the pre-cable car era.
Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA
A rare photographic image of a nineteenth-century urban riot in progress. Sacramento Street east of Montgomery during the course of the disturbance, showing police lined up to thwart the intentions of those bent on destroying a "secesh" newspaper. Charles and Michael De Young apparently scooped up printing and typesetting equipment left in the streets in the wake of riots against Confederate-sympathizing newspapers after Lincoln's assassination, which they used to launch their newspaper The Daily Dramatic Chronicle.
Photo: Lincoln Museum, Ft. Wayne, Indiana