San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line

Birch envisioned that at New Orleans, one could take a five-times-a-week mail steamer to 540 mi (870 km) to Indianola, Texas. There one transferred to a daily line of four-horse mail coaches traveling 140 mi (230 km) to San Antonio, Texas. Then one would take the San Antonio and San Diego Line 1,476 mi (2,375 km) from San Antonio via the San Antonio-El Paso Road and then continue north to Mesilla and take the Southern Emigrant Trail from there to San Diego. Once on the Pacific Coast the passenger could board a California Steam Navigation Company vessel to San Francisco.

To accomplish this Birch entered a partnership with George H. Giddings, of the San Antonio-El Paso Mail that already ran over half of the route to La Mesilla.[2] 87 watering places and stage stations were organized by Superintendent Isaiah C. Woods, formerly of Adams & Company of California in San Francisco. On the first mail run, they were setting up the line as the mule trains and coaches journeyed west from San Antonio. Superintendent Woods prepared a self-contained outfit for this journey across the unsettled country of Texas, New Mexico Territory and Southern California with almost no existing infrastructure. The vehicles used were celerity wagons or mud wagons, also called ambulances (which was the military use for the same type of vehicle at that time), rather than the better known Concord stagecoach.

Water holes were set up at 30 mi (48 km) intervals but many were unmanned and actual stations sometimes were separated by as much as 100 mi (160 km).[3] These first stations were at most a brush corral and a jacal to house the keeper, while most were merely camping places at springs or stream crossings; camps would be made where the coaches stopped for the night. Only the three at San Antonio, El Paso and San Diego had substantial buildings. The largest and most important station between El Paso and San Diego was at Maricopa Wells, Arizona, the dividing point on the route, where the eastbound and westbound mails met and turned back. Here was erected an adobe house and corral. During the company's existence it employed 65 men in all capacities, and owned 50 coaches and 400 mules.

On July 9, 1857, 17 days after Birch concluded his contract, the first mail left San Antonio and was carried on horseback, arriving at San Diego from San Antonio in 53 days. The second mail, which left San Antonio July 24, was sent by coach and arrived in San Diego 38 days later. The average rate of travel over the route was about 40 mi (64 km) a day.

Following the death of Birch at sea before the first mail reached its destination, his contract was transferred to George H. Giddings and R. E. Doyle. Woods was retained as superintendent with company headquarters in New York. Only about 40 trips were ever made over the entire route before the service was curtailed.

On September 20, 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail Company began operating their stageline over the road, and using the station sites pioneered by Birch and Woods from El Paso, Texas, to Warner's Ranch, California. The San Antonio–San Diego Line was not absorbed by the Butterfield line but on December 1, 1858, the portion of the route between El Paso and Fort Yuma was cut from the service because it duplicated the service of the Butterfield Butterfield Overland. The service from San Antonio to El Paso and from Fort Yuma to San Diego was upgraded from semi-monthly to weekly trips and its subsidy was increased.

During 1860, the west end of the route from Fort Yuma to San Diego was ended, leaving nothing but the 367 mi (591 km) portion from San Antonio to Camp Stockton which was put on a weekly basis. Between Camp Stockton and El Paso it was put on a weekly basis. The service was thus improved to a weekly basis all the way from New Orleans to San Francisco.

After the final suspension of the Butterfield Overland mail, March 12, 1861, the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line reorganized and merged its interests under the title of the Overland Mail Corporation. In May 1861, this company was given a new contract for the year ending June 30, 1862, to operate a mail service over the entire route from San Antonio via Camp Stockton, to Tucson and points in California. An attempt was made to fulfil the contract, beginning April 1, but with the development of the Civil War, and Apache attacks on the stations and coaches of the line resulting from the Bascom Affair, the contractors were compelled to give up. The eastern portion of the line was curtailed June 30, 1861. The end came when the Camp Stockton to Tucson part of the line was discontinued August 2, 1861.[1]

• The Texas Almanac for 1859, Richardson & Company, Galvezton, 1858, pp. 139-150 OVERLAND MAIL ROUTE BETWEEN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, AND SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.

• California stations of the San Antonio to San Diego Mail route map.pdf from parks.ca.gov, accessed Nov. 14, 2013
• R.S. Williamson, General Map of Explorations and Surveys in California, A.O.P. Nicholson, Washington, 1861, from davidrumsey.com accessed September 29, 2013, Shows Southern Immigrant Trail from Fort Yuma across the desert in Baja California to Southern California, with location of coach route between Carrizo Creek, Vallecito to San Diego, circa 1854.