oceans of mud have thus far given Camp
Bayard a most unwelcome appearance. Our only remedy is to corduroy our
streets, which we do by bridging them with the straightest timber we can
find. Usually this is pine, with which thousands of acres of Virginia
are covered. As it is mostly of a recent growth, averaging about six
inches in diameter, and shooting up to an immense height before you can
reach the branches, it is well suited to our purpose.

Rough as these corduroyed streets are, they are very passable, and
prevent us from sinking with our horses into a bottomless limbo. On the
fourteenth of the month our picket details returned to camp, after being
several days on duty. The weather is becoming delightful. The sun is
often so brilliant and warm that we are compelled to seek shelter in our
tents or in the fragrant shades of the woods. We are reminded of
pleasant April weather in Northern New York. Under this _regime_ of old
Sol, the roads are rapidly improving, and should no adverse change
occur, we may look for some important army movement.

_January 21._--To-day we received two months' pay, and, as is usually
the case on pay-day, the boys are in excellent spirits. Whatever trouble
or difficulty the soldier may have, pay-day is a wonderful panacea, at
least if his pay-roll and accounts are all satisfactory and right. But
the men do not all make the same use of their money. Many on receiving
the "greenbacks" hasten to Adams' Express or despatch an agent, and send
home all the money we can spare. Some repair at once to their tents and
enter upon gambling schemes with cards generally, or other games; and it
is no uncommon thing to hear that some one has lost all he had, and has
gone so far even as to borrow more, in less than twelve hours of the
time he was paid. A small portion of the men visit the sutlers, those
army vampires, whose quarters are converted into scenes of dissipation,
drunkenness, and folly. Men whose families at home are waiting for means
to live, thus waste all their wages, disgrace themselves, and cast their
dependents upon the charities of the cold world.

_January 22._--For about two days the army has been prepared for an
advance across the Rappahannock. To-day the grand movement was
commenced. Several regiments, supposing that they never again would need
their winter huts, have burned or otherwise demolished them. But the
weather, which was fine at the outset, has suddenly changed, and about
ten