Fairfax Station, January 6, 1863.
We have at last moved into a new camp, and are situated very
comfortably; the men have good log houses with their shelter tents pitched on
top, four men to each house; the camp is laid out with great regularity and is
a very creditable place altogether; the officers have A tents (seven feet by
seven feet) pitched on log walls, averaging a tent to two officers. We have
been at work about ten days on this camp and are as well off now as we were at
Sharpsburgh; no one knows, of course, whether we shall enjoy these good
quarters, but we hope to do so, through the coming wet weather. The weather for
the last three weeks has been remarkable, not a single storm and no severely
cold days.
We had a division review on Saturday, and another one on
Sunday. The first day, I was Officer of the Day and did not attend, but I went
Sunday; it was before General Slocum; Captain Russell was in command, Mudge
being sick. The review was a very fine one, about the best I ever saw. General
Slocum told our brigade commander that our regiment was by far the best in his
corps and the best he had ever seen in the service. The men did look finely; their
clothes, of course, are old and worn, but their rifles, belts, and brasses
shone right out. What a pride one could feel in an army, if every regiment in
the service could be depended upon as ours can for any kind of work. I haven't
any doubt but with good officers we could have the best army in the world.
Rumor says that Burnside will ask to be relieved before many
days. Who will be our next commander, no one knows; Lord save us from Hooker,
at all events!
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 117-8
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