High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Pacific Coast Theater of the American Civil War was the military operations in the United States on the Pacific Ocean and in the states and Territories west of the Continental Divide. The theater was encompassed by the Department of the Pacific that included the states of California, Oregon, and Nevada, Washington Territory, Utah Territory, and later Idaho Territory. The operations of Union volunteer troop detachments primarily from California, some from Oregon and a few companies from Washington Territory were directed mostly against Indians in the theater. Union and Confederate regular forces did not meet directly within the Pacific Department except in New Mexico Territory, however operations were directed against Confederate irregulars in California and strong garrisons were placed in Southern California, and southern New Mexico Territory to control the region which had strong secessionist sympathies. Though the Union and confederate armies did not meet, Confederate States Navy warships would operate in the Pacific Ocean, but neither of them succeeded in interupting commerce to the Eastern United States. The last of these commerce raiders the CSS Shenandoah fired the last shot of the American Civil War in the Bering Sea off Alaska. Attempts by the Confederacy to buy or seize ships for commerce raiding on the West Coast were thwarted by alert Union officials and the Pacific Squadron.