Page "Albert Sidney Johnston" Paragraph 8

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Johnston was the commander of the U. S. Army Department of the Pacific in California.

Like many regular army officers from the South he was opposed to secession, but resigned his commission soon after he heard of the secession of his adopted state Texas.

It was accepted by the War Department on May 6, 1861, effective May 3.

On April 28 he moved to Los Angeles where he had family and remained there until May when, suspected by local Union authorities, he evaded arrest and joined the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles as a private, leaving Warner's Ranch May 27.

He participated in their trek across the southwestern deserts to Texas, crossing the Colorado River into the Confederate Territory of Arizona on July 4, 1861.