On the 21st of January, 1863, we started on the “Mud march,” about four o’clock in the morning. A bitter cold wind was blowing fiercely, and the air was full of sleet and rain. We marched all day and when we stopped for the night, made fires and sat around them all night to keep warm. The next day was warm as summer, but rainy; the mud grew deeper, as we struggled along, sinking in and being pulled out, taking us all day to go three miles. The whole country was under water, and you could not step without sinking above your shoes in mud. When we stopped for the night we could only lay down in the mud, or sit by the fires we managed, with much difficulty, to make.
The next day the water dried up a little, so we pulled down the fences and used the rails to corduroy the road. We returned to Stoneman’s Switch, and re-constructed our shanties as well as we could, though we sadly missed the comforts we had destroyed before starting out, lest, in our absence, they might fall into the hands of the Johnnies.
We remained in camp until spring, and before that time arrived. Gen. Burnside was relieved, and General Hooker took his place. We gladly heard the order read that relieved him and appointed “Fighting Joe” as his successor.
Chapter VIII.
CHANCELLORSVILLE.
Ah I see you once more in your camp by the way;
Yes, again do I hear your guns in the fray!
In those tangled old woods you stood there in line,
While the foe was advancing! Ah boys, it was fine!
I remember it still, how they swept o’er the field