The California Column was formed between September 1861 and January 1862 of Union volunteers from California. Two infantry regiments, parts of two cavalry regiments and a four-gun battery of regular army artillery were combined under the command of Col. James H. Carlton. In April 1862, after several months training at various Southern California camps, the column began to leap frog eastward from Ft. Yuma, but never more than four companies at a time owing to the scarcity of water. The Column had three skirmishes with Rebel troops as they moved eastward to help expel the Rebel invaders from Arizona, New Mexico and Westernmost Texas. The Column reached Mesilla, New Mexico on the Rio Grande in September 1862. They reoccupied several abandoned Union forts, set up new outposts and spent the rest of the war in battling the Apache Indians and keeping open an east-west military pony express service. This presentation gives an historical overview of the California Column as told through its extant letters and covers (envelopes) sent to and from its soldiers who marched farther than any other unit in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Scott Prior
Scott Prior was a successful petroleum exploration and development geologist for 42 years, having worked for ARCO International, and Occidental Petroleum. He has now transferred his interests in earth history to postal history. He has authored 10 articles on private express companies operating during the California gold rush. These were published in Western Express, the quarterly journal of the Western Cover Society, with two earning the “Basil C. Pearce Award,” for most outstanding article during the prior year—in 2023, and 2019. He is also interested in early California postal history in general and specifically that relating to the California Column. He lives with his wife, Ellen, in Huntington Beach.