Though awakened at 3 a.m. and formed in line at 4, it was 8 a. m. before the orders to march were heard. Not a little grumbling accompanied this departure on a cold wintry day from semi-comfortable quarters for new camping places. One man's observations come down to us thus: "Why couldn't they let us sleep a while longer and then let us prepare and eat our breakfast, rather than make us stand in line on such a cold, cheerless morning?" Had all kept diaries the entries would have differed in no essential from the foregoing. The day proved to be a good one for marching and after reaching Brandy Station, the course was along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, through Culpeper Court House to a point possibly four miles beyond, when it was found that the Regiment had lost its bearings, thus necessitating a bivouac in a convenient stretch of woods. The burden of extra winter necessities and the frozen earth made the eighteen miles' march a trying one. Though it was "The night before Christmas" and many thoughts wandered northward to far away homes where the loved ones dwelt, there was little of the divine flavor to the night which settled down and enfolded these armed men, on the very outposts of the Union Army.
Christmas dawned as expected, but it did not seem just as it would under other circumstances; the "Merry Christmas" that passed from mouth to mouth seemed to lack some of the home fervor, yet all put the best foot forward and, determining to make the best of it, there was more than one expression of wonder as to whether "We'll be here a year hence?" Luckily, boxes from home came to cheer some of the men, a real demonstration of Santa Claus, and all the more welcome for this reason; the entire First Corps was included in this movement and the many campfires, that lit up the night, gave a gloss to what otherwise might have been cheerless; song and story made the evening pass rapidly away, and the ever melodious "taps" set these patriotic North men to slumber and the sweetest of dreams. There was an inspection in the forenoon of the 26th and orders to be ready to march in the afternoon. Starting at 3 p. m., the trip was only about two miles still nearer the Confederacy, along the railroad, halting at or near Mitchell's Station, the very last before reaching the Rapidan; here in a large field the brigade encamped in column by regiments. Rain falls on the 27th and this, coupled with the marshy character of the fields in which the Regiment is camped, makes moist beds for the men, though they try to obviate the situation by tearing boards from an unoccupied house and by the use of boughs and branches in getting the bunks off the saturated ground.