33 Ten Years of ony Life. 



of Fredericksburg was fougiit^in December, 1862; and had 

 Burnside not been wise enough to profit by an unusually 

 stormy night, and to recross the river, the whole army would 

 have been lost, as it was standing on a plain surrounded 

 with hills which were occupied by the Confederates. Salni 

 was not in that battle. 



The 8th New York Regiment, and Stahl's whole division, 

 halted at a place near the Potomac, and Salm sent word for 

 me to come. I went down the river on a gunboat, and drove 

 from the landing to the camp in an ambulance. Salm's regi- 

 ment was encamped m a pine grove, on the slope of a hill not 

 far from a village where Stahl had established his head-quarters. 

 It was a beautiful spot, and the weather was extremely mild 

 and fine on December 25, Salm's and my birthday. The sun 

 was shining brightly, and the birds were singing in the grove. 



In the commencement of the war, each regiment had its 

 band ; but this was found superfluous, and afterwards only each 

 brigade or division had one. Stahl sent one of these bands to 

 serenade us in the morning, and the soldiers of the regiment 

 had prepared a surprise for us. They had laid out a little 

 garden with much taste, in the old Italian style. The beds, 

 into which it was divided, were surrounded with stones, of 

 which also figures were formed. Little shrubs and trees were 

 planted, and on one bed was standing what looked like an 

 enormous birthday cake. It was a soldier's joke, for a real 

 cake being out of the question, tliey had made one of mud, and 

 ornamented it as is done by the confectioners in Germany, 

 with green leaves, coloured sand, and stones representing fruit. 



We were then very badly off for food in the camp, for the 

 enemy had succeeded in capturing several provision trains. 

 For many days we had, indeed, nothing but salt pork — and 

 not much of it — and hard tack. The soldiers soaked the 

 latter in vv^ater, and fried it with the salt pork ; they prepared 

 a dish which was at least eatable. The officers had nothing else, 

 for the roads in Virginia were at that time bad beyond all descrip- 

 tion, and provision vendors were not permitted to come to the 

 camp at that time, for fear of being intercepted by the enemy, 

 and the regiment sutlers were long ago exhaused. 



When the officers came to congratulate us, we wished, of 

 course, to offer them some refreshment ; and with the utmost 

 difficulty Salm procured four bottles of very vile whiskey, for 



