NEWPORT NEWS AND SUFFOLK.
On the 6th of February, 1863, our connection with the Army of the Potomac was dissolved. We were ordered to Newport News, where the regeneration of the regiment steadily progressed. At three o'clock in the morning the regiment was ordered to pack up, and be ready to march in two hours. It was pitch dark and raining terribly, with mud six inches deep. It was some little time before the men could get bon-fires burning, so that we could see to pack up. The men dressed, took what rations they could get, and fell into line after repeated orders, leaving most of the tents standing, they being wet and too heavy to carry. Marching to the depot, the mud was not only deep but extremely slippery, and nearly every man slipped down, and those that did not, were completely spattered over from head to foot, and were covered with mud and completely drenched through to the skin by the rain, which was decidedly uncomfortable that cold morning. After shivering in the cold for two hours, we were allowed to get aboard the freight cars, and were taken to Acquia Creek. Here we went aboard the steamer John S. Brooks, as did also the 8th and 15th C.V. Most of the men had little or no water in their canteens, and all suffered terribly from thirst before we reached Newport News on the afternoon of the 8th. Whose fault this was I am unable to say, but it was a great piece of negligence to put troops aboard a vessel knowing that they were to remain there for over two days without seeing them provided with water. Newport News was a paradise by the side of Falmouth. There was no mud, rations were good, and the weather was beautiful. We were quartered in barracks, which made it very pleasant.
On landing, the first thing was a drink of water, and then two days rations of soft bread were issued to us, which, although being two loaves, was disposed of in less than two hours; the first one in something less than five minutes. Not having tasted any for over five months we appreciated it. The guard mounts, dress parades, and reviews at this place were the grandest and most imposing ever witnessed in this country. About five weeks were spent in drilling, recruiting, &c., at the end of which time the 3d Division was ordered to Suffolk to strengthen the force at that point.
It was the early part of March and bitter cold when the regiment left Newport News and by boat went to Norfolk, where they went aboard a train consisting of platform cars with a single baggage or passenger car in the rear for the officers. Everything being in readiness the train started and sped on its way to Suffolk, arriving there at midnight. The men jumped off the train and fell into line, when lo and behold only two officers were to be found. The car containing the officers had not been attached to the train. The two officers present had for some reason got upon the cars with their men, and therefore were with the regiment. But we had no orders, whether we were to go farther or stay there, and whom to report to we did not know. The train moved off, dark as a pocket, and some of the men nearly froze to death. Something had got to be done. After a little consultation, the two officers took command of the two wings respectively, and the First Sergeants the companies. The regiment moved off by the flank to cut their way through the darkness and encamp somewhere, until daylight. We first tumbled down a steep embankment, at least twelve feet, the men falling on all sides, then into a brook two feet deep and six feet wide, and finally brought up against a rail fence. Tearing this down we passed into a field and halted, not deeming it best to proceed farther. The men spread out in every direction in the darkness, each one bringing in what he could find in the shape of wood to build fires.
There was a house near by which we supposed to be vacant, and the men in the darkness had taken all the fence and wood, and had even pulled the clapboards from the house as high as they could be reached. When morning came, we found it to be an elegant wood house painted white, and the owner thereof at first made quite a fuss, but when he found so many of the men nearly frozen to death, he concluded it was all for his country. It was on that night that the Quartermaster-Sergeant found that one of the men had bored a hole into a barrel of coffee, which he had mistaken for whiskey, and was shaking it up good, wondering why it would not run. Daylight finally came and we found that we were on the outskirts of the city and within sixty rods of the 112th N.Y. Vols., whose generous Colonel hearing the noise in the night, reconnoitered and finding that we were Union troops, ordered all his cooks up to make us hot coffee. Kettle after kettle of hot coffee all sweetened, was brought to us, which we drank in large quantities before getting thoroughly warmed through. This was a perfect godsend to us, and a more thoughtful action could not have been done by the Colonel. We fully appreciated it, as was shown by the fast friendship between the two regiments thereafter. Some half dozen of the men nearly died, by being chilled through, being several days before they were able to do duty. The officers arrived next morning on the regular train.