About the middle of October, McClellan moved his army across the Potomac, east of the Blue Ridge, and bent his course southward. Later in the month, he began to incline eastwardly from the mountains, and finally concentrated his forces in the neighborhood of Warrenton, Virginia. On the 7th of November he was relieved of the command of the army of the Potomac, and Gen. Burnside, "under Federal dispensation," became his successor. The indications were that Fredericksburg was again to be occupied. Gen. Lee, with his usual foresight, divining his purpose, promptly made such disposition as was necessary to forestall him. McLaw's and Ransom's divisions were ordered to proceed at once to that city.

On the morning of the 23d we broke up our camp at Winchester, and after a long but pleasant day's march, reached the vicinity of Millwood; from thence we journeyed on to Paris, in Loudon County. Our march through this Arcadia of Virginia, with its picturesque scenery, and along those splendid and wonderful turnpikes, as they stretched out before us, formed a panorama never to be forgotten. The giant hills stood around like sentinels wrapped in their everlasting silence; behind these, still bolder hills, and again behind these, the blueness of the distant mountains. The day was glad with the golden brightness of an October sun, and as I gazed upon these mountains, clothed in their autumnal beauty, and in their everlasting fixity of repose, I could but contrast this grandeur and silence with the too recent scenes of blood and tumult upon the hills of Antietam. How brief, how insignificant is man's existence! Encamped so high above the world filled us with a sense of exaltation and awe. Fires were soon lighted, and the men, weary with marching, wrapped in their blankets, stretched themselves upon the ground to sleep, perchance to dream of firesides in distant homes where—

The next morning broke cold and threatening. We resumed our march and had proceeded but a few miles when the rain began to fall. Later in the day it came down in torrents, and the wind was blowing gales. About dark, in the midst of this storm, we were halted in a large hickory grove on the side of the Blue Ridge, near the small village of Upperville. Our men comprehended the situation at once, and, though thoroughly drenched and chilled, soon had their axes ringing in the forest, and large log fires were ablaze over the camp. The storm continued with fury all night, to sleep was impossible, and we were forced to pass the most disagreeable night we had ever experienced.

On the 29th we retraced our steps to Paris. On the following morning, acting as an escort to a foraging party, we proceeded to Middleboro. At night we returned to camp, rich in wagon loads of corn and provender, also securing a large lot of fine beeves. On the next day, leaving Paris, we moved by way of Salem in the direction of Culpepper Court-House, which place we reached on the 2d of November, and remained there until the 4th. Sergeant Harper Lindsay, while here, accepted the position of adjutant of the 45th North Carolina regiment, and Sergeant Chas. Campbell was promoted to orderly sergeant in his stead.

On the night of the 4th, after a tiresome day's march, we went into camp on the top of Cedar Mountain. We were halted on a bleak and barren hill with no fuel within our reach. Col. Cooke, under the circumstances, suspended "special orders" in reference to destroying private property, and gave the men permission to burn the rails from the fences near by. For this necessary disobedience some spiteful person reported him and he was placed in arrest, from which he was released next day without a court martial. After our company had made its fires and were busy trying to make a supper from their scanty rations, I strolled over to Cooke's headquarters and found him sitting moodily over his fire of rails. We began to discuss the officers of the brigade, and while he was idly turning a splinter he held in his fingers, it fell from his hand and stuck upright in the ground. He turned quickly to me, slapped me on the back and laughingly said: "John, that is an omen of good luck." I surmised to what he had reference—a probability of his promotion had been whispered—and replied, I did not take much stock in splinters, but I hoped in this instance the omen might be realized. In a few moments, several men from the regiment, with their canteens, passed near us and one of them, a lank, lean soldier, inquired of Cooke if he could tell him where the spring of water was. With some irritability in his tone he replied, "No, go hunt for it." The thirsty questioner, possibly recognizing him, made no reply, but turned away thinking, no doubt, under other circumstances, he would have answered him differently. The soldier had gone but a short distance when Cooke called him back, apologized for his hasty speech and indifference, and informed him kindly where he could find the water.

Not many days afterwards the splinter omen was interpreted, and Col. John E. Cooke, of the 27th North Carolina regiment (though junior colonel of the brigade), was promoted for gallantry to brigadier general, and assigned to the command of Gen. J. G. Walker's brigade, who was transferred to the Mississippi department. I have introduced these incidents, merely to illustrate the noble traits of character of this gallant and courteous gentleman and soldier, who was acknowledged by Gen. Lee himself to be the brigadier of his army. Of his services with his North Carolina brigade history already leaves him a record. He is a man of chivalric courage, and possesses that magnanimity of heart which ever wins the affections of a soldier. He was beloved by his entire command. A truer sword was not drawn in defence of the South and her cause, and a more untarnished blade never returned to its scabbard when the unhappy conflict was over.

Upon the promotion of Col. Cooke—Lieut.-Col. Singletary having resigned on account of wounds—Major John A. Gilmer was promoted to Colonel, Capt. George F. Whitefield, of Company C, to Lieutenant-Colonel, and Capt. Jos. C. Webb, of the Orange Guards, to Major. The brigades in our division were also changed, and under the reassignment of regiments, Cooke's command consisted entirely of North Carolina troops, and was well known in Lee's army as "Cooke's North Carolina Brigade."

On the 8th of November we were moved to Madison Court-House, where we remained until the 18th. About the 15th the army of the Potomac was reported in motion, and their gun-boats and transports had entered Aquia Creek in their "on to Fredericksburg." On the morning of the 18th, our division received marching orders, and we also set out for Fredericksburg. The weather was very cold, and our march was made through rain and sleet; the ground was frozen, and some of our men being barefooted, their feet cut by the ice, left their bloody tracks along the route. The men, under all these hardships and exposures, were in excellent spirits, and no one escaped their gibes and jokes. Every few miles, growing in the corner of the fences and in the old field, the persimmon tree ever dear to a North Carolinian's soul appeared, and immediately discipline was forgotten, ranks broken, and the tree besieged. Sam Hiatt once remarked that the green persimmon was invaluable to an ordinary soldier, as a few of them would always draw his stomach to the proportions suited to a Confederate ration. On long marches the brigades marched by turns to the front. On one occasion, while we were seated on both sides of the road waiting for the rear brigades to pass to the front, a young and clever officer of our command, who had assiduously cultivated his upper lip, and by the aid of various tonsorial applications made pretense of possessing a mustache, stepped out into the middle of the road and commenced, as is usual with beginners, to toy with his hairs; presently a rough specimen of a soldier came trotting along astride of a pack mule, and as he neared the officer he halted his steed with a loud and long "whoa!" Leaning forward, with a quizzical look, he politely but firmly requested the officer "to please remove that mustache from the main highway and allow him and his mule to pass." [The mustache was raze-rd at Fredericksburg.]

On the 23d we reached the vicinity of Fredericksburg, and employed the interval—before the advance made by the enemy on the 11th of December—in strengthening our line, which reached from the Rappahannock, about one mile above Fredericksburg, along the hills in rear of that city to the Richmond & Fredericksburg Railroad.

About 11 o'clock on the morning of the 13th, Burnside, "whose turn it now was to wrestle with General Lee," massed his forces under cover of the houses of Fredericksburg and moved forward with his grand divisions to seize Marye's and Willis' Hills—

At the foot of Marye's Hill ran the Telegraph Road along which, for some four hundred yards, is a stone revetment. On the crest of the hill, at intervals, in pits, were posted nine guns of the Washington artillery, under Col. Walton. Three regiments of Cobb's brigade and commanded by him, were in position behind this stone wall at the foot of the hill. Some two hundred yards in a ravine, and immediately behind the Washington artillery, lay our (Cooke's) brigade. About one o'clock all the guns on Stafford Heights were directed against our guns on Marye's Hill, endeavoring to draw their fire so as to cover the advance of their infantry. Our artillery, instead of replying, remained silent until their infantry had deployed, when they poured a storm of canister into them. French's division came first, and they were swept away before the deployment was completed. The battle now lulled for some twenty minutes, when the enemy "entered the ring" with Hancock to the front.

About this time our brigade was moved to the crest of the hill. The 46th, 48th and 15th regiments were halted on the hill on the line of the batteries, while our regiment (27th), in the midst of a terrific fire, passed rapidly through the Washington artillery, and double-quicked down the steep incline into the Telegraph Road and joined in the fire. During our advance Col. Gilmer was severely wounded in the leg, but succeeded in reaching the foot of the hill.

Hancock was repulsed with terrible slaughter. Gen. Cobb had been previously killed, and Gen. Kershaw now took command of the troops in the road. After we had reached our position behind the stone wall, Gen. Cooke received a severe wound in the head and was carried from the field. The command of the brigade now devolved upon Col. Hall of the 46th regiment, who moved his and the other regiments of the brigade into the Telegraph Road. The enemy now made his third effort, when Howard's and Sturgis' and Getty's divisions advanced bravely to the desperate work assigned them. We took heavy toll from their columns, and, like their predecessors, they fell back in confusion. Lastly came the sixth and final assault by Humphrey's division, of Hooker's corps, and charge it did, as game as death. They, too, had to bite the dust, and their broken and shattered columns fled in disorder to the city, leaving the field strewn with their slain.

About 9 o'clock we threw forward our pickets and, in the darkness, many of their raw recruits came into our lines, their guns and accoutrements perfectly new; some of them had not fired a shot and could scarcely tell their nativity.

We remained in line of battle during the night, expecting and hoping for a renewal of the assault on the next day. The 14th (Sunday) came, however, and went away without a renewal. On the 15th we were moved a few hundred yards farther to our left, and remained in this position until the morning of the 16th, when it was discovered that the enemy, availing himself of the darkness of the night, had recrossed the river.

"A river has always been considered a good line of defence by most writers on the art of war, provided certain principles be observed in defending. When Napoleon crossed the Danube, in 1809, in the presence of the Archduke Charles, who was a good general, he was forced to retreat to the islands of Lobau and Enzersdorf, after the bloody days of Essling. Had not the Archduke assumed the offensive so vigorously, the Emperor's loss would not have been so great, and he could have remained on the left bank." This later "Essling" army was fairly and terribly beaten, forced to recross the river, after great loss of life and labor, and was spared (thanks to his bridges and darkness of the night) utter annihilation.

Burnside testified, before the committee on the conduct of the war, that he had, in round numbers, one hundred thousand men, all of whom were engaged in this battle, and that he failed because it was found impossible to get the men up to the works; that the Confederates' fire was too hot for them. Of Lee's forces, only about twenty thousand men were actively engaged. The casualties in our company, owing to the protection afforded us by the stone wall behind which we were posted, were comparatively few. Private William D. Archer, a splendid specimen of a soldier, was killed; Privates James M. Hardin severely, and Frank G. Chilcutt slightly, wounded. On the 16th, we were removed to near Hamilton's Crossing, and remained in camp there until the 3d day of January, 1863. While here, some of our officers and men were in demand, and Lieut. B. G. Graham was detailed as brigade ordnance officer. Silas C. Dodson was appointed clerk in the commissary department under Major Hays, and David H. Edwards, quartermaster-sergeant. On the 4th of December, Private John W. Reid was transferred to the 48th North Carolina regiment, having been elected to the position of lieutenant in one of its companies. On the 17th, Corporal Will L. Bryan, having contracted a severe cold on the march from Madison Court-House, died in camp. Private Thos. J. Rhodes was appointed corporal in his stead.