Handwritten letter from Brigadier General Albert Maver Winn to the governor of California, John McDougall, regarding troop orders and recent confrontations in Nevada and California.
Title
Albert Maver Winn letter : Coloma, California, to John McDougall, Vallejo, California, 1851 July 21.
Albert Maver Winn was born in 1810 in Loudoun County, Virginia, and spent some of his childhood in Ohio. He climbed the ranks of the military thanks to service in Mississippi, and arrived in California on May 28, 1848 due to a military request to establish a new settlement in the state. He served on Sacramento's first city council in 1849, and helped to found the Sacramento Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grace Episcopal Church. In 1850 he was appointed as an officer to the California State Militia. During his service, he supported the first California Vigilance Committee. In 1860 he moved to San Francisco, and did local community services during the Civil War due to his mixed alliegence. In 1875, he helped to gather master craftsmen and small farmers for the establishment of the organization which later became known as the Native Sons of the Golden West. Winn died on August 26, 1883 in Sonoma, California and is buried in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery.
John McDougall was born in 1818 in Ross County, Ohio. He first saw military service in 1832 when he volunteered to serve in the Blackhawk War. With the coming of the Mexican American War in 1846, he was commissioned as an officer with the Indian volunteers, serving with distinction until the war's end. Moving to California in 1849, he quickly became involved in the politics of the new state and was elected to serve as the first Lieutenant Governor of California. Following the sudden resignation of Governor Peter Burnett on January 9, 1851, McDougall was appointed in his place to serve as the second Governor of California until 1852. He died on March 30, 1866, and was originally buried in San Francisco's Laurel Hill Cemetery, but was later moved to Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma.
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