Telegraph line from Los Angeles to Visalia sabotaged

[Newspaper]

Publication: Daily Evening Bulletin

San Francisco, CA, United States
vol. 16, no. 15, p. 2, col. 2


DISTURBED CONDITION OF TULARE COUNTY. — The Visalia Delta, of the 16th April, has an article entitled, "Something for the consideration of Gov. Stanford" — the writer apparently having given up all hopes of influencing Gen. Wright in the premises — in which the following extraordinary statements are made:

This State is on the verge of civil war. This part of it is, to-day, swarming with armed men who have no business here, who camp in retired places, who are stealing horses, who are butchering the farmers cattle, robbing men of arms and money, stopping express riders, cutting telegraph wires, and, in short, following exactly in the footsteps of the roving bands who instigated civil war in Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky. Some of the men engaged in this nice business are sent here, well armed, from the upper country; others are openly recruited and furnished with outfits in this town; while still others are weekly released from the county jail for the express purpose of joining these parties. What means this camping of armed bands in secluded portions of the hills and valleys? It means murder. It means arson. It means every infernal species of brigandage which the traitors have inflicted upon Texas and the Border States. It means that on the day when the news reaches this State of any important reverse of the Federal arms, all the horrors of uncivilized warfare will be let loose upon the thinly populated counties in the Southern portion of this State.

In another portion of the same paper is the following item:

From the gentlemen engaged in repairing the telegraph line between Visalia and Los Angeles, we learn that the guerillas had cut the wire in twelve places. In one place, two miles of the wire had been dragged off to a distance of 300 yards, and in another place half a mile of wire was hidden among the rocks. A considerable number of the glass insulators were also removed from the poles. As all the cuts, extending over a distance of 200 miles, were made in one day, it shows considerable concert of action. It was done to prevent the military officers here from communicating with those at Los Angeles.

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Keywords:General
Researcher notes: 
Supplemental information: 
Researcher:Bob Stahr
Date completed:June 22, 2008 by: Bob Stahr;