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Chapter 7: battle of Fredericksburg and Marye's Heights.
We continued the march through the valley to
Warrenton, where
General McClellan was relieved of the command of the army and
General Burnside succeeded him. Nearly all the men were sad at the loss of
McClellan.
He was our first love, and the men were loyal and devoted to him. I did not share in this sorrow.
My faith had become shaken when we retreated from before
Richmond, and when he allowed
Lee's army to get away from
Antietam I was disgusted, and glad to see a change.
Sad as the army felt at the loss of
McClellan, they were loyal to the cause for which they had enlisted, and followed their new commander as faithfully as they had the old.
We arrived at
Falmouth about the middle of November, and went into camp two miles from the town; here we spent our second Thanksgiving.
No dance for the officers this year.
We had a dinner of hard tack and salt pork, and should have passed a miserable day had not the commissary arrived with a supply of “
Poland water,” and the officers were given a canteen each.
The men had the pleasure of hearing our sweet voices in songs of praise from the “home of the fallen,” as our tent was called.
We remained undisturbed until the morning of December 11, when we were ordered to the banks of the
Rappahannock River, opposite
Fredericksburg.
Here we found a pontoon
