On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold on the property of Johann A. Sutter near Coloma, California. A builder, Marshall was overseeing construction of a sawmill on the American River.

“Just when we had got partly to work…Mr. Marshall with his old wool hat in hand…exclaimed, ‘Boys, I have got her now.” James S. Brown recalled:

I…jumped from the pit and stepped to him, and on looking in his hat discovered say ten or twelve pieces of small scales of what proved to be gold. I picked up the largest piece, worth about fifty cents, and tested it with my teeth, and as it did not give, I held it aloft and exclaimed, “gold, boys, gold!” At that they all dropped their tools and gathered around.

California Gold; An Authentic History of the First Find…, by James Stephens Brown. In: The Magazine of history, with notes and queries. Extra number. no. 191 (v. 48, no. 3) p. [5]-21[Image 8]. [New York: Reprinted W. Abbatt, 1933]. California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849 to 1900. General Collections

Previous claims of gold in California had proven disappointing, and Marshall’s find was met with skepticism at first. The Gold Rush began in earnest only after President James Polk endorsed the discovery in December 1848. Prospectors heading to California the following year were dubbed “forty-niners.”

Nearly 100,000 people arrived in California in 1849. Although many intended to make fortunes in gold, others capitalized on the miners themselves. Stores, saloons, laundries and other enterprises sprang up overnight in California boomtowns. For example, between 1848 and 1850 Charles F. Hotchkiss earned $23,000 selling merchandise in San Francisco and Stockton. Stephen Chapin David ran general stores and a boardinghouse in mining camps, Mrs. J.W. Likins sold books and prints, Daniel Knower vended prefabricated houses, Mrs. D. B. Bates undertook hotelkeeping, and Alfred Peabody brought a cargo of foodstuffs and tools to the gold camps. All this activity heralded the settlement of California.

On January 24, 1870, as she departed the port city of Yokohama on her return voyage to the United States, the USS Oneida was struck by the British Peninsular & Oriental (P&O) Line Steamer Bombay. The collision severely damaged the Oneida, which sank within about fifteen minutes, taking with her at least 115 sailors (20 officers / 95 enlisted men). Among those lost at sea were at least eight Chinese and six African American crew members. Another 61 sailors (4 officers / 57 enlisted men) were able to reach shore in the only two of the Oneida‘s lifeboats that were fit for launch. Japanese, Russian, French, British, and U.S. vessels in the vicinity later attempted to assist with rescue and recovery operations. As officials endeavored to provide explanations to grieving families and outraged Americans, the somber roll call, along with survivor testimonies, appeared in the hearings of the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General and Executive Documents of the U.S. House of RepresentativesExternal. (Ex. Doc. No. 236, 41st Congress, 2nd Session).

The USS Oneida was a screw-driven sloop-of-war launched in 1861 and commissioned in 1862. A Mohican-class vessel, the Oneida served in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron operations during the Civil War. Eight of her crew were awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay. After the war, the Oneida was recommissioned in 1867 and assigned to the Asiatic Squadron.

The disaster sparked a controversy that encompassed the assignment of blame for the collision, the subsequent actions of the Bombay, and whether more lives could have been saved. Among the contradicting testimonies of those aboard the Bombay and Oneida were opposing accounts of the exact circumstances leading up to and during the impact. They also emphatically disagreed over the specific distress signals, or lack thereof, implemented by the Oneida after the collision. The topic was hotly debated in official forums and public discourse, with Americans outraged over what seemed a callous disregard for human life on the part of the British ship, which had left the scene without any attempt to offer aid. Meanwhile, the British maintained that the American ship had both caused the accident and failed to indicate their distress.

A British Court of Inquiry decided on February 12, 1870External, that the Oneida crew was responsible for the collision, but censured Captain Eyre of the Bombay for not “waiting and endeavoring to render assistance.” A subsequent U.S. Court of Inquiry provided an opinion on March 2, 1870External, which placed all blame for both the collision and desertion on the Bombay, but did fault Captain Williams of the Oneida for failing to replace lifeboats that had been lost in a typhoon the previous August.

Memorials to the Oneida crew were dedicated in Japan. CenotaphsExternal marking empty graves were placed in family lots across the United States to remember husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers among the tombstones of their relatives.

In April 1870, distraught Oneida-survivors arriving in San Francisco(6th column) expressed their grief and fury, with at least one sailor asserting he was ready to reenlist if the U.S. would declare war against Britain in retaliation. Community fundraisers were underway in Boston and Philadelphia by May 1870, to benefit the orphaned children of Captain Williams(3rd column). A year later, American naval officers attended Russian ceremonies in New York City, honoring the Tsarevich (heir to the Tsar) upon the birth of his son, as a show of gratitude for that country’s efforts to recover the lost men of the Oneida(4th column).