E WINTER BEFORE THE SPOTTSYLVANIA CAMPAIGN

=Morton's Ford=

From Orange Court House, Virginia, the road running northeast into
Culpeper crosses Morton's Ford of the Rapidan River, which, in December,
1863, lay between the "Federal Army of the Potomac" and the "Confederate
Army of Northern Virginia." The Ford is nineteen miles from Orange Court
House.

Just after the battle of Mine Run, November 26 to 28, our Battery left
its bivouac near the Court House, and marched to the Ford. As the road
reaches a point within three-quarters of a mile of the river, it rises
over a sharp hill and thence winds its way down the hill to the Ford. On
the ridge, just where the road crosses it, the guns of the Battery,
First Company of Richmond Howitzers, were placed in position, commanding
the Ford, and the Howitzer Camp was to the right of the road, in the
pine woods just back of the ridge. We had been sent here to help the
Infantry pickets to watch the enemy, and guard the Ford. Orders were
that we should remain in this position all winter, and were to make
ourselves as comfortable as we could, with a view to this long stay. We
got there December 2 and 3, and, in fact, did stay there until the
opening of the spring campaign, May 3, 1864.

=Building Camp Quarters=

With these instructions, as soon as we placed our guns in battery on the
hill, we went promptly to work to fix up winter quarters in the shelter
of the pines down the hill just a few rods back of the guns. It was
getting very cold, and rough weather threatened, so we pitched in and
worked hard to get ready for it.

Each group of tent mates chose their own site and thereon built such a
house as suited their energy, and judgment, or fancy. Some few of the
lazy ones stayed under canvas all winter, but most of us constructed
better quarters. In my group, four of us lived together, and we built
after this manner. On our selected site, we marked off a space about ten
feet square. We dug to the line all around, and to a depth of three or
four feet in the ground--this going below the surface of the ground gave
a better protection against wind and cold than any wall one could
build--and on that bleak hill you wanted all the shield from wind that
you could get. Having dug a hole ten feet square and three feet deep, we
went into the woods and cut, squared, and carried on our shoulders logs,
twelve or eighteen inches thick, and twelve feet long--enough to build
around three sides