New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1862-01-10
Letter from Camp carondelet..
speciel to the New Orleans Cresceut.t
g 4. 30 GAAr CARoEDELEr, Scar NAsassAs

| Special to the New Orleans Crescent
a.. y E.Ar CAnosDELEr, sE4R NAsassAs Z
| December q, 1861.
| Mr.. Editor Happy, happy New Year to you;
the legions of your readers, the PERSONAL of your
Office, from the poorest depiP to the porty King,
coupled with the wish that your valuable paper
may increase its prosperity, emblematisally with
its name, until it shall have rewarded its enterpris
ing proprietor with a real full moon Of success
intended to have written you few lines sooner !;
but as friend George (aH Gen. Mcclellan is pleas
antly called by the boys has thus far kindly re-
| Trained from attacking US, and has not turned
US over as the promised Christmas present as yet,
our generals thought proper to allow US some time
at least in 1861 to prepare comfortable headquar-
| ters for 1862. -E
The Eighth Brigade consequently fell back to
within two miles Of Manassas, to the right of the
Alexandria Railroad, where an abundance OF wood
I not only promises speedy construction of quar-
ters but likewise sets aside all doubts as to fire.
wood for the winter; no small consideration. in
| The health of the Brigade never was better
1 aside from the anxiety to have a brush with the
Yankees, the were never in better spirits, and,
surely, if you had only witnessed the universal en-
| ioyment the cordial exchange of festival cOurte-
sizes between officers and men, throughout the
| whole Brigade on Christmas day, you would have
come to the conclusion that even soldiers, amidst
every prvation and hardship, know how to getsup
| u
excelled in New Orleans itself. Your humble cor
1 respondent was in the very midst Of ALL and speaks
by the card in fact, after the grand expose of
barrel Of egg nogg in the camp Of the Contnentas,
| the serenade Of Capt. Mcfarland and Lieutenant
| Thompson, the only officers Of the company
1 present. all hands seemed to enjoy degree of,
hilarity, which, by strict construction of Hardee,
might readily be termed something else. It must
not, however, be supposed that this conVipal state
Of affairs confined itself to one company; not at
| all, every company in the Regiment and every
corps in the Brigade went at it with will, and ac-
complshed it beautifully and to their credit be
| it said, not disorderly occurrence of any kind
| marred the pleasure of the day. f
| Gen Taylor, who By the by is daily gaining in
1 the confidence and affection Of the officers and
men by his unwavering straight forward course,
| and who will, no doubt, when opportunity offers,
prove himself $ chip of the old block,' regaled
| the commanders Of his brigade, together with his
staff with sumptuous dinner and the usual spirit
nal appendages. All attended, and no doubt had a
| nice time of it.
| The weather for the past three weeks has been
really delightful and the roads are, comparatively
/ speaking, in excellent order for all purposes. Ma
nassas is daily growing in importance: houses are
fairly springing up in every direction, and as the
central depot Of the entire armyof the Potomac, it
presents daily more animated appearance. The
business in the Quarermaster's Department is i'm
mense, and is transacted by the jovial Major Tom
Fisher, assisted by Capt. Stewart and others, with
grace and swiftness really commendable. Near
the junction proper, large andicommodious hos
pitfalls have been erected, by which the enormous
transportation of sick soldiers to different parts OF
Virginia will be greatly abated and lastly but by
no means least, deserves mention, the Commissary
Department at that depot. It is really an institu
ton by itself; imagine provisions tor the whole
army of the Potomac to arrive ON one single rail.
road line, then unoaded stored and given to the
different corps, between Winchester and Occoquan,
in one one-story frame building about l30 feet
long.
This almost appears incredible, but is neverthe
laos frJ,n Ia hHh hrif- do
regimental cemmissaries are first examined and
approved By the Chief Comnlissary of the post,
which important place was, pto few weeks,
very worthily filled by Major Blair, an old army
army is greatly Indebted for the prompt supplies
furnished. He is succeeded by Major Cole, quite
a young gentleman, combining with undoubted
business habits very agreeable manners. The re-
QUESTION once approved a delay yof few minutes,
and you proceed 20 the Commissary.
Having successfully made your way through sew
eral hundred wagons, you are met by rosy and
good looking gentleman of middle height, about 40
years DID, with the ever ready greeting" what
can do for you this morning." This is no less a
parsonage than the popular Post ComInissary,
Capt. G. S McKenny. TO attempt description Of
him would do him injustice, andlet it suffice that
untiring energy and gentlemany bearing to all !;
Justice is done to all alike, whether Colonel Or a
private, and it is to this last, incur army, not an
over common characteristic, thathe owes that uni
|
in contact with him. Your Transportation ready, a
clerk is assigned to you and in less than an hour q
whole brigade is furnished with raons for three
four days, as the case may be. In many instances
the provisions have to be reloaded and sent to other
points on the railroad, and there delivered to their
respective claimants. All this is performed by
not more than FIVE clerks while three clerks make
out all invoices, receipts, cash accounts, and the
hundred official reports now-a.days required by the
departments. Thus force of eight clerks, work
ing Systematically together, perform the enormous
duties required in the Comnissary Department for
the whole army of the Potomac a fact alike credit
able to themselves and to the leading spirit of all:
An day yesterday very heavyfring was heard
in the direction of Occoquan, and even as late as
II O'Clock last night quite a number of heavy guns
disturbed our slumhers. What took place beyond
the firing no one knows as yet and if worth re-
lating, the telegraph will bring it to you very
likely before it will reach your humble cores
pondent.
This letter being already spun out to almost an
objectionable length, allow me to subscribe my
| self. in conclusion, as Yours,
OCCASIONAL.
Il News from, the Carolina Coast.