Meanwhile at Wolf Run Shoals...

   “Camp near wolfs run Va. Feb. 7th 1863

“Dear Father Mother brothers and Sister   …   Stephen is tired & Harler is on guard so I will Scratch a few lines just to let you know that we are all alive and all of dans boys are well. the sick ones are all doing well   Stephen saw the boys at the old camp last Sauterday   John and Fred had got so that they were out doors some, & the rest were doing well   all except C Cady & F Shedd. Cady has been Sick about a month but he has not got the measels   he has got a very bad cough   is so that he sets up some. Shedd had got the measels and they were about at their height when Stephen was there and they though that he was better that morning that he was there. Steve thinks that the most of the boys will be along the last of this week or the forpart of next   I mean those that are at the old camp.

“you wished to know how far we were from Burks Station   that is more than I know I will tell you the rout that we took as near as I can. you will recollect that the road from our old camp to fairfax Station is due South   when we got to the Station we crossed the railroad and passed to the left of that spring there in the mud puddle and to the right of the encampment where that cavalry was or to the right of the hill where Slocums troops were and kept on in that direction for six miles after leaving the Station. So you will see that we are about ten miles from our old camp and we are as near South from fairfax as you can put your finger   Burks Station you know more about than we do for you have been there and we have not but I should judge that we were not as near that place as when we were at …

…

“If you can get an army map you will find wolf run and Occoquan river laid down and our camp is about one half mile east of where wolf run emptys into the Occoquan & about two miles from union mills (east of them)

“Wilber is so that he sets up most of the time but he has been pretty sick .  Give my best respects to all who may enquire & please write as soon as convenient   J H Hammond” ~ Jabez H. Hammond, West Windsor, age 20, Sgt. Co. A, 12th Regt, Letter No. 26

G.G. Benedict
Co. C. 12th Regt.

"Camp Near Wolf Run Shoals, Va.,February 7, 1863.

"Near us, several hundred feet below the level of our camps, runs the Occoquan river, a muddy stream about as large as the Winooski. Across it, on the heights beyond, are earthworks thrown up by Beauregard's soldiers last winter, now untenanted.

"Our camp is on a knoll from which the men have cleared the pine trees. It is much narrower in its limits than our former fine camp near Fairfax, and it is less attractive in almost every particular.

"The first battalion drill since the regiment left Camp Fairfax, came off to-day. The men have had all they could do in digging rifle pits, picket duty, constructing corduroy roads,--of which they had made miles between this and Fairfax Station,--and the labor of clearing and making camp; and between rain and snow and mud have had the roughest time they have as yet known. Their spirits are good, however...~ G.G. Benedict, Lieut.., Company C, 12th Regiment, Letter to the Free Press of February 7, 1863 in Army Life in Virginia.