y clement
for this season of the year. A little firing occurred this morning, but
no general engagement resulted. This was greatly feared, for had General
Lee advanced upon us, it is difficult to see how our men, though
somewhat covered by the fire of our batteries from Falmouth Heights,
could have recrossed the stream without fearful loss. But both armies
spent most of the holy day in the sacred task of caring for the wounded
and burying their dead. Monday was also spent mostly in the same
employment, and in the night, so skilfully as to be unknown even to the
Rebel pickets, our whole army was withdrawn to the north side of the
river in perfect order and without loss. Our pontoons were then taken
up.

General Burnside was not willing to remain totally idle, and, after some
time had elapsed, he planned another grand movement, which, with more or
less opposition from his subordinates, who did not confide in his
judgment, he endeavored to execute. But he had just taken the first step
in the programme when he was signaled to desist by a telegram from the
President, who had been informed that the temper of the army was not
favorable to a general move under its present commander.

With the battle of Fredericksburg terminated the campaign of 1862, and
the two great armies established their winter quarters facing each other
along the line of the Rappahannock. Our camps extend for several miles
along the northern shore above and below Falmouth, and the enemy occupy
the south bank above and below the Heights of Fredericksburg. Indeed,
nearly the whole territory between the Rappahannock and the Defences of
Washington, a dark, forsaken, wilderness region, with only here and
there a plantation or a village, was soon converted into a vast camping
ground, and became the most populous section of Virginia.

To avoid the distant transportation of forage, the greater portion of
the cavalry is encamped near Belle Plain, where government transports
land with supplies from Washington. The Harris Light has established its
camp on the Belle Plain and Falmouth Turnpike, about four miles from the
former place, and has named it "Bayard," in honor of our lamented
commander, whose fall at Fredericksburg is still a subject of universal
sorrow.

It is wonderful to witness how the forests are disappearing in and
around our camps. From morning till night the chopmen's axes resound
from camp to camp, echoing dolefully along the river-shore and far