The Irish Brigade Goes into Winter Quarters at Camp California outside Alexandria

December 1861 found the New York 69th Infantry, the original component of the famed Irish Brigade, settling into winter quarters at Camp California just outside Alexandria and along the Little River Turnpike.  The 69th had  previously been encamped at Camp Corcoran on Meridian Hill in Washington.  But, at the start of the month it was ordered to this area of rolling farmland and hilltops overlooking the Little River Turnpike several miles west of Alexandria.  The area is now urbanized and there is no vestiges of the encampment.  However, historical records  help illuminate what camp life was like for the 10,00 men of Sumner's Division, including the Irish Brigade's 69th New York, who spent the winter of 1861-62 there.

Drawing, from a wartime photograph, of the 57th Ne York on Dress Parade at Camp California that appears in the 57th's regimental history published in 1895.