I'd love to learn more about the "Hastings Plot" in California. It seems Lansford Hastings made a trip all the way to Richmond to get Jeff Davis's approval for Confederate activities in California. I remember reading about Hastings' men gathering horses at San Bernadino to support the move. I don't think it got very far though, since it was fairly late in the war. Southern Cal was supposed to have been full of Confed sympathizers, since it was largely settled from the South.

p.s. Hastings is better known for his emigrants' guide book which had a major mistake in it that led the famous Donner Party to disaster.