Diary Entry:
Rain, Hail, Snow all day and far into the night. we find our tents quite warm. five members of our company who have been in Hospital and on detached service returned to day. Mahan, Carey, Moris, McCallen and Cazier.
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Diary Entry:
Skirmish drill to day. Bailey tight. Sutler came yesterday.
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Diary Entry:
Sergt. Blake, Corp. Steitz, Peter Bosler and I having joined together, finished our shanty today and moved in. We have dug into the side of the hill and built a wall of logs about 2 1/2 feet high, banked the earth around it, and pitched our tents on it. our tent is ten feet long, and six wide. It is very comfortable.
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More Information:
To help combat the cold, soldiers were permitted to reinforce their tents by using logs and building them into a hillside to help block the wind.
Diary Entry:
Thanksgiving day. I was on Guard. Made my dinner on soup.
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Diary Entry:
To day about sundown our Regt. recieved [sic] orders to change camp, and at 9 O’c P.M. we started. Marched through Falmouth and encamped west of the town in a deep ravine.
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Diary Entry:
We are still in front of Fredericksburg. To day our Regt. was sent out on Picket, we have had very wet weather for a few days, which makes our shelter tents very uncomfortable to live in.
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Diary Entry:
Raining in the morning, we resumed our march early and at 2 O’c P.M. reached the neighborhood of Fredericksburg when we halted, and Companies A., G., and I., of our Regt. were sent out to the left on a reconnaissance, which proving satisfactory, we started back. Met our Brigade and three Batteries, where we situated to the left. We marched up a hill in five columns. Our Regt. had to climb an almost perpendicular hill. We had not formed in line of battle when we were order[ed] to another place before we were finally formed. Pettits battery opened on a Rebel battery, which he soon forced to leave in double quick time. They sent a few shell[s] at us which busted near to us but done no injury. the firing commenced at 3 1/2 O’clock. after it was over our Brigade took possession of the town of Falmouth. the 2nd Del. encamped just outside of the town, and in sight of Fredericksburg. We marched about 15 miles today, our rout[e] lay through a country about on a par with the balance of the route from Warrenton.
See the scanned diary pages 39 and 40 and a map of Cyrus’ progress through the war.
More Information:
General Burnside’s Army of the Potomac arrived at Stafford Heights (across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia), where they stayed for nearly a week, waiting for pontoons and boats to arrive to help the troops cross the Rappahannock so that they could enter Fredericksburg. Waiting for the pontoons to arrive gave General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia time to move more Confederate soldiers into the region to better defend Fredericksburg.
Source: National Park Service Battle of Fredericksburg History
Diary Entry:
Sunday resumed our march this morning at an early hour. Our route lay through a hilly, but [not] quite as barren a country as that we passed through yesterday. We halted about 4 O’clock, and encamped in a woods of much better timber than any I have before seen in Virginia. To day we marched about 14 miles, yesterday, 9 or 10 miles.
See scanned diary pages 38 and 39 and a map of Cyrus’ progress through the war.
Diary Entry:
We were recalled from Picket [duty] early this morning and at 8 O’c. the entire Corps was on the move, we passed Warrenton, which is a handsome little place, then through a barren country, halting, at 3 O’c P.M. in an old field. We are now on our way to Fredericksburg. The country from Harpers Ferry to Warrenton is fertile and well cultivated, but very hilly. This side of Warrenton, it is level, unproductive and poorly supplied with water.
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More Information:
After General Ambrose Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862, he revised the plan to move the 120,000 troops towards Richmond. Rather than continuing McClellan’s slog through central Virginia towards Richmond, he proposed moving across country 40 miles to Fredericksburg, Virginia. The city was targeted because it was near the Rappahannock River and ideally positioned along the main road between Richmond and Washington, D.C.
Source: National Park Service Battle of Fredericksburg History
Who was Cyrus Forwood?