Historic California
Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields:
Camp Anderson
(Post near Sacramento City, Post
near Sutterville)
Major Julius J. B. Kingsbury with a battalion
of the 2nd Infantry Regiment established a post in a swamp south
of Sutterville about a dozen miles from Sacramento City, for
the purpose of staging in advance to the Bear River to establish
Camp Far West. The camp was named
for 2nd Lieutenant Charles C. Anderson, 7th
New York Volunteers, when had earlier commanded Fort
Sacramento (Sutter's Fort) and died at San Francisco. September
13, 1847, from a fever contracted while on detached service at
Fort Sacramento. A few days later the camp was moved to the levee
next to Sutterville's landing site on the east bank of the Sacramento
River, three miles south of Fort Sacramento. Unhappy in California,
the major shortly before September 17 turned the command over
to Captain Hannibal Day and took an unauthorized leave of absence.
On September 22, Captain Day and the battalion abandoned Camp
Anderson and marched overland to the Bear River.