1863.--General Hooker assumes Command of the Army of the Potomac. --Demoralization.--Reorganization.--A Cavalry Corps.--General George D. Stoneman in Command.--Death of Sergeant May.--Forests of the Old Dominion.--The Cavalryman and his Faithful Horse.--Scenes in Winter Quarters.--Kilpatrick.--His Character.--Qualifications of the True Soldier.--A New Horse.--A Mulish Mule.--Kilpatrick's Colored Servants in Trouble.--Terrific Hail-Storm.--Major E. F. Cooke Honored.--Colonel Clarence Buel. On the twenty-sixth of January, General Joseph Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, whose vicissitudes and defeats have well-nigh broken its spirit and wiped out its efficiency. The patriotic fire is burning dimly in shrines where it has blazed brightly before. The tide of military life has possibly reached its lowest ebb, and the signs of the times are ominous of ill. Desertions are reported to be fearfully large. For this many of our friends at the North are responsible. Not only do their letters speak discouraging words to the soldier, but many of them sent by express citizens' clothes, with which many of the boys quickly invest themselves, throwing away the blue, and thus disguised find their way to their false friends at home. I esteem him false to me who would thus rob me of my honor. I would rather say, "despoil me of my life, but my integrity never." Discouraging as all this depression of mind and dispersion of comrades may be, many still remain steadfast at their trust and unflinchingly go ahead in the discharge of their duty. General Hooker's first work seems to be in the direction of checking this loosening of discipline, and in reorganizing and strengthening the bands of military order. As the infantry needed but little further solidification, the commander-in-chief turned his attention to the cavalry. In the possible efficiency of this arm of the service the general seems to have full faith. But it is currently reported that the general has said "that he has yet failed to see or hear of a dead cavalryman." Of course this cannot be strictly true, for we could cite him multitudes, including our noble Bayard, whose bravery and sacrifice of themselves upon their country's altar, are worthy of recognition at the hand of their commander. But it is quite evident that the cavalry has not yet come up to the beau-ideal of the general. And, indeed, it has been a source of wonderment to us, that while the efficiency of the infantry is known to depend largely upon its organization into brigades, divisions, and corps, with their general commander, the same may not be true of the cavalry.