left standing, I had no alternative but
to obey. About seventy men were left in the camp, all of whom, with the
exception of the quartermaster's clerk and myself, were on the sick
list. Truly this was "a sick house with no doctor," for the surgeon and
each of his assistants had gone forward with the regiment. We were
cheered, however, just at evening by the return of our kind-hearted
assistant surgeon, Doctor Prosper K. Hutchinson, now long since gone to
his reward, who was sent back to remain with the sick ones until they
should be able to join their comrades. The clerk and myself now
appropriated the colonel's somewhat luxurious quarters to our use, and
as we had plenty of provisions and a good cook, there was no occasion
for us to complain of our fate.

The fourth day after the regiment left, winter set in in good earnest.
Snow fell to the depth of several inches, and the weather was bitterly
cold and severe. I contrasted my comfortable quarters, as I sat by a
blazing wood fire at night, with those of my comrades huddled in shelter
tents and shivering from cold, somewhere on their tedious march to the
front, and heartily pitied, while I could not alleviate, their
condition. With the aid of some of the convalescents I struck the tents,
turned over the camp stores and equipage, except a small part which was
to go forward to the quartermaster's department in Washington, settled
my accounts with the Government, and, through the kindness of the
quartermaster of the One Hundred and Eleventh New York, who loaned me
the use of his teams, hauled the balance of the baggage to Alexandria,
placed it on board a boat for Acquia Creek, and on the seventeenth of
December took leave of Camp Casey, and with thirteen men went forward to
join my regiment. It was found encamped near General Sumner's
headquarters on the heights opposite Fredericksburg, which place I
learned it reached after a week's march from Camp Casey, travelling
upwards of sixty miles--part of the time through the mud, and part
thereof through the snow and over the frozen ground. My friend, Captain
Lapham, who experienced the hardships of this never-to-be-forgotten
march, has already vividly described it to you in his admirable paper on
the Twelfth Rhode Island.

The terrible battle of Fredericksburg had been fought three days before
my arrival at Falmouth, and I knew of it only from others and from the
fearful havoc which it had made in the ranks of my comrades, upw