Terry Gray, of Company B, "to wait till a
man is killed before he can fire his gun!" The army went into camp on a
line from Falmouth to Belle Plain; the Sixth corps occupying nearly the
center of the line, at a place called White Oak Church, from a little
whitewashed meeting house, without bell or steeple, in the midst of a
clump of white oak trees.

The attempt to capture the heights of Fredericksburgh by a direct
assault was indeed a daring undertaking, and one involving a fearful
risk. The only hope of success lay in the active and hearty cooeperation
of all the commands of the army. Such cooeperation was not to be had. To
the Left grand division was assigned an important work which it failed
to accomplish; not because it was defeated in the attempt, but because
the attempt was not made in earnest. The troops were brave and eager to
meet the enemy. None were ever more brave or more desirous to test their
valor. The heroic deeds of those who did advance against the enemy will
ever redound to the glory of our arms; and had all the forces of the
Left grand division been brought fairly into action, the result might
have been different. Surely such troops as composed the grand old Sixth
corps were fitted for a nobler work than standing upon an open plain,
exposed to fierce artillery fire, without ever being allowed to turn
upon the enemy. Our defeat had cost us more than twelve thousand men, in
killed, wounded and missing.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE WINTER AT FALMOUTH.

Camp at White Oak Church--"The mud march"--Return to
camp--General Neill--General Hooker supersedes General
Burnside--Burnside's magnanimity--General Hooker as a
soldier--Reconstruction--The cavalry organized--Business
departments renovated--The medical department--Ambulance
system--Quartermasters' and commissary departments--Life in
camp--Snowball battles--In the Seventy-seventh--The Light
division--Review by General Hooker--General John Sedgwick--Scene
at head-quarters--Review of the army by the President--Preparing
for the campaign.

The men built huts, and made themselves as comfortable as they could, in
their camp at White Oak Church, but disease spread rapidly, especially
among the recruits. The regiments were crowded closely together on
ground too low and wet for good camping ground, and the men, having
never before erected winter quarters from shelter tents, were not so
expert as they became in the suc