October 31, 1864---The Battle Born State

OCTOBER 31, 1864:                   

“The Battle-Born State,” Nevada becomes the 36^th State of the Union. In one of the hapless James Buchanan’s last acts as President, he created the Nevada Territory on March 2, 1861 out of the western reaches of the Utah Territory. This was felt to be necessary as the Mormons of Utah Territory (“Deseret”) had begun harassing the “gentiles” of far western Utah. Most of the settlers in the new Nevada Territory were miners. Nevada therefore was a rough and tumble region, not amenable to the stern religious regulation of the Mormons.  

During the Civil War, several precious metal strikes, particularly the Comstock Lode around Virginia City, helped bolster the Union’s specie reserves. This wartime contribution was the “official” reason given for Nevada’s very fast path to Statehood. It was also used to explain Nevada’s subsequent annexations of land from the Utah and New Mexico Territories.

In fact, Nevada became a State because President Lincoln, having tried unsuccessfully to bring Colorado to Statehood, feared that he might need the extra electoral votes that Nevada as a territory could not provide. (As it turned out, Lincoln received but did not need the new State’s two electoral votes. One Elector was absent.)

Nevada’s application for Statehood was therefore expedited. The Territorial Government sent the proposed State Constitution to Washington D.C. for review on October 26^th. Fearing that the mails were too slow to allow for Statehood before the Presidential election, all the documents of Statehood were telegraphed to Washington. The Nevada Statehood package held the record as the longest telegraph ever sent for twenty years, and is still the most expensive telegraph ever sent, at $4303.27 (1864) or $59,294.92 (2010). 

Although Nevada only had 38,000 residents in 1864, this was not a legal bar to admission as a State. Although the Enabling Act of 1802 (which applied to States in the “Old Northwest”) required a minimum population of 60,000 for Statehood, the population requirement did not have to apply to Nevada, it was argued, and so Congress conveniently ignored it.

Nevada as a State was as divided as most other States when it came to taking sides in the Civil War. Though the majority of the population was Unionist and the Territorial / State government was firmly Republican, a significant number of settlers were pro-Confederates (Virginia City, one of the legendary towns of the “Old West,” had been founded by Virginian settlers in 1859). 

As of 1864, Virginia City had a population of 25,000, making it by far the largest city in the State. The population was divided equally between pro-Unionists and pro-Confederates, but the pro-Confederates were often forcibly silenced.  

(Virginia City was not known for its innate tolerance. Between 1863 and 1900 Jewish settlers were restricted to living in a rugged area just outside the city proper called Seven Mile Canyon. The original Jewish cemetery in the State is located in Seven Mile Canyon.) 

The Virginia City Fire Department was made up of firefighters all of whom had been born in New York City, and most of whom had served with the New York Fire Zouaves in the early days of the war. 

The Fire Zouaves, as they continued informally to be known, acted as a pro-Union paramilitary force in Virginia City, keeping pro-Confederates under close watch (and administering beatings when necessary). Most pro-Confederate militants were arrested and sent to Fort Churchill for the duration of the war. (The only Confederate flag to fly in Nevada flew over a saloon. The owner of the saloon was talked into taking it down when word of an approaching mob reached his ears.) 

Nevada raised both an infantry and a cavalry brigade for the Union, and Nevada men guarded the transcontinental trails as well.  

Nevada raised no Confederate military units though undoubtedly pro-Southern Nevadans joined C.S.A. units outside of the State.