Incessant picket duty has marked the month of February with a great variety of weather and the men are not sorry to see the 29th day, Leap Year's allotment, for they know that they are just so much nearer the end of the war and their consequent return to their homes. A spring feeling begins to be felt on both sides of the river and indications of activity are discovered among the Confederates, and at least twice recently orders have been given for the preparation of rations for the haversacks, as though some sort of a move were contemplated. On this final day of the month, the Regiment is mustered for two months' pay, while drill, inspection and parade have their accustomed places. Doubtless very few are aware of the hardening effect upon the bodies of the men this regular and constant round of discipline is having; the same will appear in the exactions of the coming months. While February is expiring thus quietly with our Regiment, in the First Corps Kilpatrick is making his famous raid towards Richmond, having started on the night of the 28th, crossing the Rapidan at Ely's Ford and, with Colonel Dahlgren's forlorn hope, is entering upon a project which will make history rapidly. To cover this attempt, a diversion of Confederate attention is made by the Sixth Corps and a cavalry force Feb. 29, '64 under Custer. Passing through the camps of the Third Corps, Sedgwick and his men move out towards Madison Court House, while Custer and his mounted force push on to Charlottesville, where, on this final February day, hostile forces are contending within sight and sound of Monticello, the home and the tomb of Jefferson.
March started off rainy and cold with usual rumors as to immediate orders for some sort of a move, but duty on the picket line continued just the same, and not a few remarked on the discomforts of those who had gone out to Madison Court House and were compelled to bivouac in the snow, into which the rain had changed. For the 2d day of the month, the return of the Sixth Corps and its cavalry accompaniment was chronicled, along with the fact that nothing had been heard from Kilpatrick. Even in wartimes, it did not always rain and the 3rd, being "a splendid day," some of the men climbed up the sides of Cedar or Slaughter Mountain for the view, and to look up traces of the fierce encounter, August 9, 1862, when the Second and Third Corps, Generals Banks and McDowell respectively, all under General John Pope, were beaten by "Stonewall" Jackson and his men. Having encamped so long under the shadow of the eminence, the trip was particularly enjoyable and there was no difficulty in locating many of the prominent features of the bloody day which served as a prelude to the still bloodier battle of Second Bull Run. A two hours' brigade drill on the 4th, under Colonel Leonard, took all available men to the extensive plains across Cedar Run. As an illustration of the degree to which neatness was carried, it should be stated that from their respective company funds pay was given to men, detailed for the purpose, who should do the company washing, hence no excuse for uncleanliness would avail thereafter.
Sunday, the 7th, marked the relief of the Second Brigade on picket, and its return by train to Culpeper, while the First Brigade took its place. An order, promulgated March 10th to the effect that all women in the camp must depart at once, was taken as a sign of increased activity and the next day saw the departure of the visiting betterhalves for their northern homes. Further indication of active campaigning appeared on the 12th when the Colonel issued an order directing the several captains to send back to Washington all dresscoats. John S. Beck, Company C, entered in his diary, the 14th, "In the evening, took the Second Degree in Army Lodge, No. 8, and Free and Accepted Masons," an unusual incident in army life; two nights later, he took his Third Degree. St. Patrick's Day, or the 17th, secured no recognition in camp, though large fires on the rebel side of the river betokened something doing there, yet the afternoon's sun, lighting up the hillside on which the Confederates were encamped, revealed their tents still in place. The 18th, in the afternoon, witnessed no end of hurry and bustle as all effects were packed, even to removing tents from the cabin roofs, and all were to be in readiness to move at once. It was the general agreement that Stuart and his lively followers were surely in the saddle. With stacked arms and expectant hearts, the next order was awaited and, at 5.30 p. m., it came, not to fall in and "Forward," but the bubble-burst words heard so often, "As you were," with a resumption of regular camp routine and duties.
The signing of pay-rolls on the 19th was a sure sign of the approach of the paymaster and the perfection of the weather gave light hearts to all, though a clergyman of the Methodist Church South, seized outside our lines for conducting certain of Stuart's men to the capture of one of our pickets may have had a leaden heart as he was dispatched on his way to Washington, there to account for his conduct; bearing the name of Garnett, he must have belonged to one of the best families of the Old Dominion. The 20th was Sunday, not usually a pay day, but were there signs of activity it was thus employed and, as the paymaster came on this date, the event was considered a Mar. 20, '64 pretty sure sign of a movement; so late did he begin, it was 8 p. m. before the last company was reached. Much to the disgust of all who had thought winter over and past, snow began to fall on the 22nd. By nightfall the ground was white with it, the wind blowing as in an old-fashioned "nor'-easter," so that the on 23rd there was a foot of snow lying around and all hands had to turn out and shovel the same out of the streets and from the parade ground, which was quite ready for the dress parade of the late afternoon.
To the Regiment, however, the most important event of the day was the rearrangement of the several corps constituting the Army of the Potomac, though this act had no immediate effect upon the regular life of the Thirty-ninth. The First Army Corps of the Potomac Army, commanded successively by Generals McDowell, Hooker, Reynolds and Newton, had left an excellent record through the nearly two years of its existence; the disk which, in red, white and blue, represented its several divisions, had ever been a badge of honor and now the advent of General Grant to the command of the army was to bring about various changes, among them the merging of the First Corps with the Fifth; its three divisions, reduced to two, became the Second and Fourth under Robinson and Crawford respectively while Warren, of late temporarily in command of the Second, was assigned to lead the Fifth Corps, and Newton [I] who had succeeded Reynolds at Gettysburg, was relieved. Under the same general orders, the Third Corps also was disbanded, its first and second divisions going to the Second Corps, its third division to the Sixth, and General Sykes, the Commander, to the command of the District of South Kansas. There were thus left the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps in the Potomac Army, to which in the campaign of 1864 the Ninth Corps, under General Burnside, was to be added.
This rearrangement of army relations was not accomplished without some heart-burning and many adverse remarks. John D. Billings in his story of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery says:
"Next to the attachment men feel for their own company or regiment, comes that which they feel for their corps. All the active services that we had seen was in the Third Corps, and its earlier history and traditions from the Peninsula to Gettysburg had become a part of our pride, and we did not care to identify ourselves with any other. If such was our feeling in the matter, how much more intense must have been that of the troops longer in its membership, whose very blood and sinew were incorporated with the imperishable name it won under General Sickles."
The farewell of General Newton to the men of the First Corps bears date of March 25, 1864, and is as follows:—
"Upon relinquishing command I take occasion to express the pride and pleasure I have experienced in my connection with you, and my profound regret at our separation. Identified by its services with the history of the war, the First Corps gave at Gettysburg a crowning proof of valor and endurance, in saving from the grasp of the enemy the strong position upon which the battle was fought. The terrible losses suffered by the Corps in that conflict attest its supreme devotion to the country. Though the Corps has lost its distinctive name by the present changes, history will not be silent upon the magnitude of its services."
Mar. 26, '64 Though the Thirty-ninth had borne no part in the battle-trials of the corps, save in the premonitions at Mine Run, yet its marchings and campings, during eight months of service, had done much towards impressing upon the Regiment the character of the corps and an appreciation of the corps and an appreciation of its excellent record.