California's Premier Civil War Museum
former Union Army Headquarters during the Civil War
The Drum Barracks Civil War Museum - California's Premier Civil War Museum - is housed in the last remaining wooden building of Drum Barracks, named after Adjutant General Richard Coulter Drum, head of the Department of the Pacific. This facility served as the Union Army headquarters in the Southwest (Southern California and the Arizona Territory) from 1861 - 1871. Drum Barracks, which was first called Camp Drum, served as the main staging, training and supply base for military operations in the Southwest, and occupied approximately sixty acres of land with an additional thirty-seven acres near the harbor. The land was sold to the Army by Phineas Banning, and B. D. Wilson, who each received one dollar, with the agreement that the land would revert back to them after the camp was closed.
