to accommodate the passage of wagon trains, on the 11th and remained until the 19th.  Up to this time it was not fully understood by the authorities in Richmond which route McClellan would take to reach Richmond, whether by way of Fredericksburg or Yorktown, but now scouts reported large transports, laden with soldiers, being shipped down the Potomac to the mouth of the James and York Rivers.  This left no doubt in the minds of the authorities that the Peninsula was to be the base of operations.  We continued our march on the 19th, crossed the Rapidan, and encamped around Orange Court House.

Beauregard, whom the soldiers loved dearly, and in whom they had every confidence as a leader, was transferred to the West, to join General A.S.  Johnston, who had come from California and was organizing an army in Southern Tennessee.

Magruder, commanding at Yorktown, reporting large bodies disembarking in his front, Kershaw’s Brigade, with several others, were placed upon cars and hurried on through Richmond to his support, leaving the other portion of the army to continue the march on foot, or on cars, wherever met.  At Richmond we were put on board small sail boats and passed down the James River for the seat of war.  This was a novel mode of transportation for most of the soldiers on board.  It was a most bitter day and night.  A cold east wind blowing from the sea, with a mist of sleet, the cold on the deck of the little vessel became almost unbearable.  About two hundred were placed on board of each, and it being so cold we were forced to go below in the “hold,” leaving only a little trap door of four feet square as our only means of ventilation.  Down in the hold, where these two hundred men were packed like sardines in a box, caused us to almost suffocate, while to remain on deck five minutes would be to court death by freezing.  Thus one would go up the little ladder, stick his head through the door a moment for a breath of fresh air, then drop back and allow another the pleasure of a fresh breathing spell.  So we alternated between freezing and smothering all the way, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles or more.  I had read of the tortures of the “middle passage” and the packing of the slave ships, but I do not think it could have exceeded our condition.

Now it must be remembered that for the most of the time on our march we were separated from our wagon trains that had our tents, cooking utensils, and other baggage.  Many novel arrangements were resorted to for cooking.  The flour was kneaded into dough on an oil cloth spread upon the ground, the dough pulled into thin cakes, pinned to boards or barrel heads by little twigs or wooden pegs, placed before the fire, and baked into very fair bread.  Who would think of baking bread on a ram-rod?  But it was often done.  Long slices of dough would be rolled around the iron ram-rods, then held over the fire, turning it over continually to prevent burning, and in this way we made excellent bread, but by a tedious process.  It is needless to say the meats were cooked by broiling.  We parched corn when flour was scarce, and often guards had to be placed over the stock at feed time to prevent soldiers from robbing the horses of their corn.