California Sabers: The 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry in the Civil WarCalifornia Sabers is the story of the California Battalion and Hundred, a group of 500 select men who were the only organized group of Californians to fight in the East during the Civil War. They volunteered their enlistment bounty to pay their passage across Panama and on to Massachusetts, where they became the cadre of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. From mid 1863 to July 1864, the Second Massachusetts fought a bloody guerilla war in northern