Drum Barracks
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Drum Barracks
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Officers' quarters of Drum Barracks, August 2008
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| Location | 1052 Banning Blvd., 1053 Cary St. Wilmington, Los Angeles, California |
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| Coordinates | 33°47′5″N 118°15′24″W / 33.78472°N 118.25667°WCoordinates: 33°47′5″N 118°15′24″W / 33.78472°N 118.25667°W |
| Built | 1862–1863 |
| Architect | Unknown |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival, Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000161 |
| CHISL # | 169 |
| LAHCM # | 21 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | February 12, 1971 |
| Designated LAHCM | June 7, 1963 |
The Drum Barracks, also known as Camp Drum and the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, is the last remaining original American Civil War era military facility in the Los Angeles area. Located in the Wilmington section of Los Angeles, near the Port of Los Angeles, it has been designated as a California Historic Landmark, a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1987, it has been operated as a Civil War museum that is open to the public.
With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, there were concerns on the Union side about the loyalty and security of the Los Angeles area. Many of the area's residents were recent arrivals from the Southern states, and southerner John C. Breckinridge received twice as many local votes as Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 Presidential election. A company of secessionists was also holding public drills in El Monte, California, displaying California's Bear flag instead of the Stars and Stripes.
Phineas Banning, the founder of Wilmington (then known as New San Pedro), wrote a letter to President Lincoln advising that the Union would lose California unless some provision was made to quell pro-Confederacy sentiment. Initially, the Union moved a garrison from Fort Tejon to Camp Latham near Culver City, California. Later in 1861, Banning and Benjamin Davis Wilson, the first mayor of Los Angeles, donated 60 acres (240,000 m2) in Wilmington to the government for one dollar each for use in construction of a Union garrison. By January 1862, the military command had moved from Camp Latham to Camp Drum in Wilmington, and by March 1862, all but one company of Camp Latham's troops had been moved to Camp Drum. The camp was built between 1862 and 1863 at a cost of $1 million and consisted of 19 buildings located on 60 acres (240,000 m2) in Wilmington with another 37 acres (150,000 m2) near the harbor. By March 1864, official letters and papers referred to the encampment as Drum Barracks rather than Camp Drum.
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