Life in Washington DC in winter 1863/1864

Further to an earlier IPBiz post

https://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2019/10/another-civil-war-book.html

one notes a post by the book's author titled

The year Washington, D.C. trembled (and danced) behind its barricades which appeared on November 3, 2019.

Talking about the winter of 1863-1864, the text mentions "the great U.S. Patent Office Ball":


The season had begun as always with a New Year’s reception at the Executive Mansion,
hosted by the Lincolns, then had launched itself into a frenzy whose outward manifestation
was the city’s newest obsession: dancing. Washingtonians were crazy about it.
They were seen spinning through quadrilles, waltzes, and polkas at the great U.S. Patent Office Ball,
the Enlistment Fund Ball, and at “monster hops” at Willard’s hotel and the National.



Colfax, later to be Vice-President, is mentioned:


Politicians such as Secretary of State William Seward and Congressman Schuyler “Smiler” Colfax threw musical soirees.



See an earlier IPBiz post which noted:


Related to "Mayor Pete" of South Bend, U.S. Grant's first vice-president was
Schuyler Colfax of South Bend, Indiana, who was the first person to have served as Vice-President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.


[Query: Is "Mayor Pete" Smiler2?]

Of the fortifications surrounding Washington D.C.:


For in the winter of 1863-64, Washington was the most heavily defended city on earth.
Beyond its houses and public buildings stood 37 miles of elaborate trenches and fortifications
that included 60 separate forts, manned by 50,000 soldiers. Along this armored front bristled some
900 cannons, many of large caliber, enough to blast entire armies from the face of the earth.



Of the XXII Corps, wikipedia notes


XXII Corps was a corps in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
It was created on February 2, 1863, to consist of all troops garrisoned in Washington, D.C.,[2] and
included three infantry divisions and one of cavalry (under Judson Kilpatrick, which left
to join the Army of the Potomac during the Gettysburg Campaign). Many of its units were transferred to the Army of the Potomac during Grant's Overland Campaign.[2]