Patterson's Creek.
It is said that there was a time when the highway in Chicago might be traced by the hats of the teamsters. At Patterson's Creek the ears of the mules might well serve the same purpose.
Every body seemed to curse the mud, and nobody to take its part. But it deserved great praise for the gentle manner in which it received the forms of the commissioned officers, when they were unable to sit upon their nags. Not one of them was known to be severely injured by a fall during the stay at that camp. Here, Prof. Ellis visited the company a few days, sharing the lot of the private soldier. To accommodate him at night, it was no difficult matter to piece out a blanket of ordinary length, and a long place made by the uneven stretching of the largest sized circular tent, was readily found. His own testimony may give to the reader a hint with regard to the degree of demoralization to which these men had passed after nearly a year of military deprivations:
"When their ranks had been thinned by capture and death, and they had passed through all the corrupting tendencies and temptations of their new life for nearly a year, I saw them in their tents in the heart of Virginia, and nightly from the six tents went up the voice of song and prayer as they bowed themselves around their family altars."
His visit was truly a pleasant one for Company C, and having proved his genuine interest in them, he bade them adieu, feeling, undoubtedly, a deep regret that he was not privileged to share their fortunes through the whole service.
Bivouac on the Levels.
Not long, however, were the troops allowed to remain quiet, when a man of so much life as Gen. Lander possessed, was at their head. On the 5th of February they moved down the railroad to French's Store, and from that point marched through the long night in a tedious, plodding manner, over mountains and through streams, towards a point on the road between Romney and Winchester, to intercept the rebels at the former place. By noon of the next day the men, excessively wearied, found it even a pleasure to throw themselves down upon the snow in the freezing rain, to rest their exhausted forms. It was a fruitless raid. The foe had fled; and at 3 P. M., with joy the men heard the order "About, face!" It was a sweet rest that was enjoyed during that night after they halted on the banks of the Little Cacapon. What added to it, were two stacks of wheat, which were very soon converted into beds. The command moved back early in the following morning to a high table land of the adjacent mountain, where it remained seven days without tents or cooking utensils, and with only one blanket to each man. Strong winds prevailed through these days, which were the coldest of the whole winter. The snow was two thirds of a foot deep where the men made their brush beds, and they had no protection from the weather but loose brush sheds. The log fires in front of these sheds soon consumed ten acres of thick pine forest. One Irish ditching spade was the only cooking utensil which Co. C was able to secure, and even with that it was a tedious process to get a breakfast for fifty men.
Those were comparatively pleasant days, and the men learned to vie with the brute in enduring exposures and hardships.
From this place the division moved, February 13, to a point two miles south of Paw Paw Station, one part going into camp and the other to Bloomery Gap, under the leadership of Gen. Lander, to surprise a small force of rebels under Col. Baldwin. The expedition was a brilliant success. The Colonel with eighteen commissioned officers and fifty privates, was captured.
March to Winchester.