Camp Low (San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, California)

San Juan Bautista, San Benito County · California · American Civil War

Quick BriefCamp Low, or San Juan Bautista Post, was a military post first established in San Juan Bautista, California in December 1864 by California Volunteers in response to attacks by the Mason Henry Gang. The post was named in honor of California Governor Frederick F. Low. The post was abandoned in June 1865 after the Mason Henry Gang was driven out of central California.

Civil War

History & Significance

Camp Low emerged in December 1864 as a Union response to the predatory activities of the Mason Henry Gang, a pro-Confederate outlaw band terrorizing the Central Coast. Major John C. Cremony led three companies of California Volunteers—two infantry and one cavalry—into San Juan Bautista, initially bivouacking on the town plaza.

The unit soon converted the National Hotel on the plaza into barracks. In February 1865, Company B of the Native Cavalry, California Volunteers, arrived from San Francisco under Captain Porfirio Jimeno, augmenting the garrison's strength.

On April 12, 1865, Lieutenant John Lafferty's detachment encountered outlaw leader John Mason in the Great Panoche Valley, wounding him in a confrontation. After the gang was expelled from central California in May 1865, the post closed in June 1865 as the Native Cavalry departed for Arizona Territory. Camp Low represented a localized but significant Union military commitment to suppressing Confederate-sympathetic banditry on the California frontier during the war's final months.