When the infantry returned to
Orange Court-house, we were left to picket the
Rapidan at
Liberty Mills, and soon after went into winter quarters in a fine body of woods belonging to
Doctor Newman.
Here the brigade established an enviable reputation for good order.
Private property was everywhere respected, and the fences around camp and on the picket lines kept in good order.
When we broke up camp in the spring, some of the citizens said to me that they had nothing to complain of except the great destruction of timber, which they knew was unavoidable — declared their fences were in better order than they had been for a long time, and expressed the desire, should it be necessary to have troops quartered in their neighborhood again, to have our brigade sent back.