Transcribed as written:

Camp California
February 16th 1862

I take this Opportunity to Adress you a few lines to let you know, That I am well. And I hope theas few lines will find you the same I received the Vituals you sent me. I was very glad to have it it seamed some like home to have such Vituals to eate I am in hops to have the privilege of eating at home before a grate while if nothing happens we must put our trust in God and Abide by the isse we here good nues from our arms every day you will hear from us pruty soon I am in hops you must not pay attencion to what you here. If we ever go into battle I shal write as soon as I here we aromg so [mary] you must not worry yourself about me I shal come out all safe and sound I wish you could be here in our Camp and see how we live some of the boys are writing and some are reading and some are Eating som of the Victuals that was sent from home and enjoying themselves frustrate there is goodeal excitement in Camp life we get good nues from our Army every night then we form a line in our Co Streat and [give] 3 Chers and the Band plays you sent me a pare of mitens but I doe not need them it will be warm wether here soon some of the Boys is talking about sending a box of things home of they doe I shal send some things home [give] my love to grandmother and [kiss] the Children for me I want to see you all very much no more present

Camp California

Adjacent to Ben Brenman Park about a half-mile east of Holmes Run Creek was the site of Camp California. This was a very large winter camp that was named to honor General Edwin Sumner who held the position as commander of the District of California before assuming a divisional command in Alexandria.¹

Camp California was under the shelter of Fort Worth and was two and a half miles from Alexandria. The Fifty-Seventh occupied a field lying between Fairfax turnpike, the Orange and Alexandria railroad and Cameron Run. An entire division of troops was eventually gathered in this general locality, and designated Sumner’s division, being under the command of General Edwin V. Sumner, to whom here we had our first introduction. It was on December 1st, 1861, that Camp California began a career which was not terminated until March 10th, 1862.²

Fort Worth was a timber and earthwork fortification constructed west of Alexandria, Virginia as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War. Built in the weeks following the Union defeat at Bull Run, Fort Worth was situated on a hill north of Hunting Creek, and Cameron Run, (which feeds into it). From its position on one of the highest points west of Alexandria, the fort overlooked the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, the Little River Turnpike, and the southern approaches to the city of Alexandria, the largest settlement in Union-occupied Northern Virginia. In modern times, the site of Fort Worth sits within the boundaries the City of Alexandria (the land west of Quaker Lane, was annexed from Fairfax County in the 1950s) just off Seminary Road.

1. Alexandria Civil War Defenses of Washington Bike Trail Interpretative Stops © Office of Historic Alexandria, City of Alexandria, Virginia ↩︎
2. The Story of a Regiment: Being a Record of the Military Services of the Fifty-seventh New York State Volunteer Infantry in the war of the Rebellion, 1861-1865: Gilbert Frederick, Publisher: Legare Street Press ↩︎