No, except for the details about the raid on the newspaper office, I have seen the same material. I realize there are more Civil War issues out there of the "California Weekly News" that I have not seen, and someday I need to rectify that.

If the newspaper office raid and Anderson's description of it in the July 14, 1861 edition elicited sympathy and maybe more from the community, some of the destruction Captain Tracy saw October 8 could have been part of further Union countermeasures to ensure the good people of California understood "the northern point of view." Normally, several acts of defiance against the Union resulted in the total destruction of a village or town if there were northern troops nearby. The north guarded all the railroads, so there were always troops not far from California. I wonder if the presence of the railroad and the publicity that all that exposure brought saved California from total destruction. I wonder if some officer or NCO wanted a "lesson" taught but kept it from being total. If nothing was left, many passers-by might fail to understand the lesson. For best results, I suppose it's best to leave a few ruins for everybody to see so they get the point.

Bruce