CHAPTER IV. THE CAMP AT FALMOUTH, T BURNSIDE'S MUD MARCH. HE troops now commenced to stockade their tents, and erect log huts, as a protection against the inclemency of a southern winter. Tools of every description were scarce, yet the building of winter quarters progressed rapidly. A correspondent, speaking of the various styles adopted, says: "Some model after a heathen temple, some after a Yankee wood-shed, some after an Indian wigwam, and some after a woodchuck's hole. But the Hottentot style of architecture, on the whole, it must be confessed, prevails over every other; and, for every kind of structure that can rise out of mother earth,—that can be created from Virginia mud,—with some ribs and frame-work of logs, let me commend you to this whole region round about." The huts, or houses, built by the regiment at this camp were quite comfortable, although scarcely equal in an architectural point of view to those erected sub sequently. Wooden chimneys and fire-places, lined with mud, rendered the houses not only habitable, but quite comfortable and cozy. At about noon, on Wednesday, December seventeenth, the regiment was formed in close column by division, in front of the regimental head-quarters, and the following order was read by Lieutenant-Colonel Merrill : HEAD-QUARTERS 1ST DIVISION, 3D CORPS, GENERAL ORDER, No. 8. } I congratulate the regiments of this old division on the glory gained by them on Fredericksburg battle-field. It has added to Bull Run, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Glendale, Manassas, Chantilly, another glorious field, another star to the galaxy. The dead, for whom we shed a tear, met glorious immortality, and died as patriots should be glad to die, a sacrifice for our glorious old flag. Their graves shall yet be protected by that sanctified emblem, which will float, revered and honored, from ocean to ocean, from gulf to lake. The old regiments, that have lost so many gallant men, will still maintain, by renewed energy, their old reputation; and, although small bands, are so united and gallant, as to be equal to all that the bravest can achieve. The old standards are safe in their keeping. The new regiments have shown themselves fully worthy of the "RED PATCH;" and I, in the name of the division, acknowledge them as members in full standing. I again congratulate you on your conduct, and predict a glorious name for the division; and ask your united efforts to still further add, by perfect discipline, patient endurance, and soldierly bearing, to its wide-spread reputation. In honor of a gallant soldier, this camp will be designated as "Camp Pitcher." He died, as one of our division dies, with his breast to the foe, doing his whole duty. (Signed) D. B. BIRNEY, Brigadier-General, Commanding Division. The red patch, referred to in the order, was the badge adopted by the division in the Peninsular campaign. During the seven-days' battles in front of Richmond, General Kearney, the fearless commander of our old division, for the purpose of distinguishing his soldiers from those of other divisions issued an order requiring the officers of his command to wear a square red patch upon their caps. After his death the whole division adopted the red patch in memory of their old commander; and a soldier of "Kearney's Division" could ever after be recognized, wherever seen, by this simple badge of red. Subsequently the system of corps and division badges was instituted for the Army of the Potomac; but to Kearney's Division belongs the credit of having inaugurated the custom, which has since been adopted by the entire armies of the United States. The camp at this place was named in honor of Major Pitcher, of the Fourth Maine Regiment. Christmas was observed as a holiday; no military duty was exacted, yet it was a dull day in camp. Thoughts of the happy festive season at home, ere yet war with its desolating hand had swept over our once happy land, came unbidden on this day to many a heart beneath that southern sky. On the thirtieth, orders were received to remove the sick, and rumors of an immediate movement of the army were rife. New Year's morning the officers of the brigade received the congratulations of General Berry, in a polite note, and an invitation from General Ward to attend an entertainment at his head-quarters in the afternoon. A ring had been made, and seats erected for the accommodation of the guests, while the sports were arranged under the supervision of the staff officers of General Ward. Prizes were awarded to the amount of two or three hundred dollars. The wheel of fortune was a cylinder of three feet in diameter, and ten in length, revolving easily upon its axis, at a height of some ten feet from the ground. At one end upon a pole was a twenty-dollar greenback, for the man who would walk the length of the revolving cylinder; a greased pole, with a ten-dollar greenback; a hurdle race; a foot race, "open to all but Pennsylvania reserves; a mule race, where the last mule in took the highest prize; a horse race; original eccentricities of the colored population, "native here and to the manor born;" feats of strength and agility, with burlesque divertisements, made up one of the most agreeable and pleasant entertainments imaginable. A fine band discoursed operatic and patriotic airs. Nearly all the soldiers of the division were present, and among the officers were Major-Generals Hooker and Stoneman ; Brigadier-Generals Berry, Sickles, Ward, Robinson, and several others. On the following day General Stoneman personally inspected the regiment; and we received orders to hold the command in readiness to move at twelve hours' notice. The soldiers, as usual, immediately started a thousand stories and rumors, some of them of the most improbable nature. The weather was magnificent during the first week in January, and our time was principally occupied in reviews, parades and drills. On the sixth of January, the brigade was paraded to witness the execution of the sentence of a general court martial in the case of a private soldier of the First New York Regiment. The prisoner was escorted by a corporal's guard to a position in full view of the brigade, where, after listening to the proceedings, findings, and sentence of the court, he was seated on a stump, while a barber lathered his head and shaved it perfectly bald. He was then marched back and forth before the line, the guard at "charge bayonets" in his rear, and a drum corps playing the Rogue's March; after which he was turned adrift, and ordered to leave the lines of the army at once. Orders were received for a move on the sixteenth; but owing to severe rains on the fifteenth, which ren |