Chapter 18: back to Petersburg and winter quarters
- Return to Petersburg -- Hatcher's Run -- the attack on Ft. Steadman -- a successful charge
The corps remained in the camp near Middletown until November 9th, the men doing only picket and guard duty. Then it retired to Kernstown where a slight skirmish with the enemy occurred on the morning of the 10th. Picket and guard duty continued until the 1st of December, when the corps broke camp and marching to Stevenson's Station entrained for Washington. The next day it embarked on steamers and arrived at City Point on the 4th. There cars were taken to Parke's Station. Here the railroad was left and the corps or a portion of it, relieved the 3d Division of the 5th Corps, and occupied their finely laid out, and well constructed winter quarters near the Jerusalem plank road, the position we had left five months before. The regiment now numbered not far from 175 men and was commanded by Colonel Olcott. On the 9th of December a reconnaisance was made to the vicinity of Hatcher's Run. Rain and then snow made farther operations impossible, and the corps returned to camp and went into winter quarters.
Of these weeks of rest and recuperation, Beckwith writes:
We passed the holidays in pretty good shape, but the first lot of boxes of goodies that were permitted to be sent us had been rifled of their contents, much to our discontent, and it would have gone hard with the thieves, if we could have gotten hold of them.
However, others soon came, which consoled us
