On the tenth of December the colonel received a letter from the adjutant general of the state, stating that I had been appointed first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment and would be commissioned as such just as soon as he would furnish the date of Fiske’s appointment as assistant adjutant general of volunteers. I feel very proud of this appointment, and of the colonel’s good opinion. It is only about three months since I joined the regiment, unknown to every officer in it, and now enjoy the distinction of holding the most sought for subaltern position in it.
What a delightful prospect ahead, to think of riding, instead of marching. My feet are not good enough for tramping, and after every march I have been partially disabled; from this time hence, I hope to ride, but as we have not been paid yet, I shall have to wait awhile before I can buy a horse; in the meantime McKibben, our good natured quartermaster, is furnishing me with an animal that requires infinite skill to ride; he is a constitutional kicker, and don’t like any one on his back, so I have the opportunity of exercising an animal that requires a good deal of skill to manage, all of which will be useful to me I hope.
On Christmas day the camp was en fete; in the morning, we had a full dress review and inspection; and were then dismissed for the day, only the guard being on duty. Most of the officers went to Alexandria; the others dispersed amongst their friends in other commands, every one in search of amusement. I remained in camp to dinner, and had a very good one, with enough of liquid refreshment to properly digest it. In the afternoon, the major and I rode out towards Edsals Hill, some five miles distance on the railroad, where our division picket line was established; up to this time our regiment had not been on picket duty, and were eager to get out to the front, to have a possible glimpse of the enemy; it is now under orders for this duty, for a tour of four days, and so we rode out to examine the ground beforehand. The road was bad, and the country desolate and impoverished, but the ride did us good, and we returned to camp in the best of spirits.
The following morning the regiment turned out, six hundred strong, fully equipped, blankets rolled, and supplied with forty rounds of ammunition, and four days’ cooked rations; marching immediately after breakfast for the picket line, Parisen in command. I rode for the first time at the head of the regiment, and found it a very great improvement to trudging on foot. When we arrived on the ground the regiment formed in line, and details were made for reserves and picket post when we proceeded to relieve the withdrawing regiment, which was drawn up in line to receive us; taking our instructions from the old guard, we soon prepared the details, and I was ordered to go out and relieve the pickets, which proved most fascinating; for the first time, we formed the fringe of the army, and were to be its eyes and ears. All in front of us was an unknown region, with rare opportunities for adventure, and the men as well as officers, seemed delighted at the change; after relieving all the posts, drawing a plan, and marking the picket posts down on it, I returned to the reserve headquarters, meeting on the way the major, at an old log house, chatting away with an old woman and a pretty young girl. They told us all about the country; that the Johnnies picketed the same position, some time ago; visited them every day asking similar questions, and equally interested in getting news of our doings; they were reticent, and did not tell us anything of consequence, but the girl enjoyed being talked to and we were nothing loth to accommodate her. Notwithstanding it rained the first day and night very heavily, we managed to keep moderately dry; the men in little brush shelters, packed so closely, and stood up at such an acute angle that the rain ran down, without going through. We used a dilapidated old log cabin for headquarters, which, as it had a large fire place, was quite comfortable. In the evening, all hands sat around the blazing fire, told stories, and smoked our pipes; later on, arranging our saddles for pillows on the floor, we lay down, and slept tolerably well; being on grand guard duty, of course we did not take off our clothes, or arms, and on this account did not sleep very soundly. The following morning we started on a scouting expedition as far as Burk’s Station. We got together all the officers and men we could mount, with two full companies of infantry, under La Valley; the weather had become clear, cold, and bright, and we started about ten o’clock, in fine form, the officers riding ahead, pretty well deployed, the infantry following, along the railroad track; we had a glorious gallop, keeping our eyes open for the sight of a gray back. When we approached a house we completely encircled it, cocked our pistols, and rode up together; then two or three dismounted, and went in whilst the others kept watch; in this way we visited every house within our line of march, in order to satisfy ourselves there was no one there belonging to the other side; our interviews with the feminine housekeepers, who were not the least afraid, were sometimes very amusing; they had no hesitation in pitching into us, and calling us all sorts of hard names, but we took it good naturedly, and quite enjoyed their frankness; they told us, among other things, that the rebels frequently came out on just such expeditions as we were on and with similar objects in view, and some of them, were good enough to wish we might meet them and get captured. In fact we wanted to meet some of them, and have a little skirmish, but went quite up to the station without meeting any one whatever. There we found a couple of large houses, and a deserted camp of log huts, accomodations for a brigade. While looking over these splendidly built huts, we got a glimpse of the rebels pickets, several men and a couple of small fires being in sight. The men were greatly pleased at seeing a real enemy, but did not molest them. In one of the large houses we found a very old, blind gentleman, and two young women, his daughters; he mistook us for rebels, and made himself very agreeable, bringing out milk and pies, and inviting us to help ourselves. By the time his good things were despatched, La Valley with his blue coated infantry came up, and gave us away. The old man was greatly chagrined, but did not say anything. After quite a stay to rest the men and horses, we bid our host good bye, promising to call again soon. Leaving La Valley to return by the road, we put spurs to our horses, and enjoyed a magnificent gallop across the country, reaching the picket reserve on Edson Hill about dusk, much pleased with our first experience of scouting. At the end of the four days, we were in turn relieved, and marched back to camp.
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Note: This part of the “diary” is more of a recollection than a day by day diary. I am splitting it up for posting on Daily Observations from the Civil War at what appear to be appropriate points; these may differ somewhat from actual historical records.
