s. The regiment moved off by the flank to cut
their way through the darkness and encamp _somewhere_, until daylight.
We first tumbled down a steep embankment, at least twelve feet, the
men falling on all sides, then into a brook two feet deep and six feet
wide, and finally brought up against a rail fence. Tearing this down
we passed into a field and halted, not deeming it best to proceed
farther. The men spread out in every direction in the darkness, each
one bringing in what he could find in the shape of wood to build
fires.

There was a house near by which we supposed to be vacant, and the men
in the darkness had taken all the fence and wood, and had even pulled
the clapboards from the house as high as they could be reached. When
morning came, we found it to be an elegant wood house painted white,
and the owner thereof at first made quite a fuss, but when he found so
many of the men nearly frozen to death, he concluded _it was all for
his country_. It was on that night that the Quartermaster-Sergeant
found that one of the men had bored a hole into a barrel of coffee,
which he had mistaken for whiskey, and was shaking it up good,
wondering why it would not run. Daylight finally came and we found
that we were on the outskirts of the city and within sixty rods of the
112th N.Y. Vols., whose generous Colonel hearing the noise in the
night, reconnoitered and finding that we were Union troops, ordered
all his cooks up to make us hot coffee. Kettle after kettle of hot
coffee all sweetened, was brought to us, which we drank in large
quantities before getting thoroughly warmed through. This was a
perfect godsend to us, and a more thoughtful action could not have
been done by the Colonel. We fully appreciated it, as was shown by the
fast friendship between the two regiments thereafter. Some half dozen
of the men nearly died, by being chilled through, being several days
before they were able to do duty. The officers arrived next morning on
the regular train.

CHAPTER IV.

1863.

SIEGE OF SUFFOLK.

During the siege of Suffolk the Sixteenth took an active part on the
defensive side, and had the honor of two engagements with the enemy,
in one sally losing one killed and seven wounded, and in a sort of
half battle across the Nansemond river, two killed and eight wounded.

"But though we did not suffer much from the enemy, we did a good deal
from General Peck. This fidgetty old man kept fortifying and
re-fortifying u