It was after dark, 6 o'clock on the evening, when the village was reached. Once a fairly prosperous Southern town, Poolesville revealed at this time a sorry spectacle of Dec. 21, '62 the ravages of war. Many of the men had straggled, unable to keep the pace of the hard march and only about one-fifth of the entire body arrived with the colors, but the delinquents limped loyally in, though late. Accommodations for the night had to be found wherever available, the village church holding many, the schoolhouse others; many found shelter in barns and not a few sought sleep on fence rails whose native hardness was softened a bit by straw obtained from a nearby strawstack, though its complete demolition was prevented by those soldiers who had managed to burrow into it. A sergeant of Company E who kept a small quantity of "commissary" for medicinal purposes had entrusted the precious flask to the keeping of John Locke, the most likely member to be faithful to his trust. Alas, when the sergeant called for the flask he got it empty, the contents had gone to help dry the thoroughly saturated comrades of Locke, who thought the boys would never have greater need. While in the morning of the 22d, some of the regiment were detailed for picket at Edward's Ferry, more remained in the village. Some of Scott's Nine Hundred, the regiment that had suffered from White's guerrillas about a week before, chose this day as one for wreaking vengeance on certain storekeepers, one of them Jesse Higgins by name, these natives being suspected of complicity with the enemy. The goods of the merchants were thrown out regardless and the lucky soldiers who chanced to be near helped themselves to whatever they liked best, though Companies B, H and K, being at the Ferry, missed their share of the wreckage. In Poolesville were thus halted the Thirty-ninth and the Fourteenth New Hampshire; the Tenth Vermont went further up the river and the Twenty-third Maine found its post lower down.

Duty along the Potomac was not unlike that performed some weeks before, but in the interval these men had learned a deal; not only had they been drilled but they had observed that all of the people resident in the vicinity were not wholly loyal, that many of them were ready to pass the desired word along to the enemy whenever opportunity offered, and for such reasons they determined to piece out their own rations with whatever was obtainable from the citizens. Nothing that was edible and transportable was safe from the predatory hands of the men and boys who, a very few months before, had been conspicuous in their own localities for their sterling honesty and straightforwardness. War and so-called necessity worked wonderful transformations in these well reared New Englanders. If all the stories that have been told in subsequent years may be believed, the marvel is that the natives had anything left to subsist upon. December 23rd brought the camp-stores and equipage by way of the canal, and a large force was set at work cutting away trees to make ready for the new camp. The site chosen for the camp was that on which the regiment had halted at the end of its first considerable march, that from Arlington in the preceding September. A large detail of men from the several companies, not on picket, worked hard through Wednesday the 27th, to properly pitch the tents and so collect the men into camp once more.

Of course the 25th of December came to Camp Davis, the name of the new winter quarters, just as it did to the rest of the world, but signs of Christmas were painfully lacking. One youth made this record, "To-day is Christmas; four of us went out of the lines and got a Christmas dinner and had it charged to Uncle Sam." Furnishing food to Union soldiers in those parts must have been like a lottery with the chances against getting anything back. Said another observer, "Christmas day! And we would not know it by the work going on in camp; dined on salt beef, more commonly known as 'salt-horse'." The later days of the month were devoted to properly equipping the camp which, for location, was the best yet occupied except for wood and water, the latter having to be brought fully half a mile, and the former was two miles off. For Dec. 28, '62 purposes of drill the parade ground was unexcelled and was extensive enough to admit of the maneuvers of an entire division at one time. Once more the Sibley tents are stockaded and the men believe that winter quarters are really realized. In the light of later years, the occupants of that camp claim that there was no better in the entire army. Though located on a level plain, it was so well drained that no amount of rain was able to render it disagreeable underfoot, a fact which no doubt contributed to the prevailing health of the men.

On Sunday, the 28th, as the men were falling in for inspection, their eyes were gladdened by the sight of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery, subsequently known to fame as "Sleepers," approaching Camp Davis. This event is thus cheerfully alluded to in John D. Billing's excellent history of the Battery, "'How are you, Boxford?' was the greeting from the Thirty-ninth Regiment, as soon as we were recognized, and it seemed like meeting old friends to fall in with those who had been encamped with us on the soil of Massachusetts." It was a strange stroke of fortune that should bring these Boxford neighbors again so near to each other, for the battery was assigned to the brigade and found a camping place close by. This day, too, brought to the ears of many, for the first time since leaving Massachusetts, the sound of a church bell, but it was not for these soldiers, who were still perfecting themselves in the school of the soldier; lessons so well learned that the Thirty-ninth stood second to none in discipline and soldierly appearance, and better still in general health, conditions largely due to the unceasing diligence of the Colonel, with whom drill seemed to be the chief end of man, especially those wearing uniforms. Long before daylight in the morning of the 30th, an alarm brought the men into line and four companies of the Thirty-ninth with a single section of Sleeper's Battery started off towards Conrad's Ferry where, as usual, a crossing of the rebels was reported. In light marching order, over the most difficult of roads, the party hastened to the scene, as supposed, of trouble. Though there were the reaching of an island in the river by means of a boat and a certain amount of fortifying, nothing came of the affair and at 1 p. m., tired and hungry the return trip was begun, ending at 4 o'clock, with every one out of conceit with military movements. On the last day in the month the Regiment was mustered for two months' pay, always a welcome exercise.