For sometime, I have been complaining about the cold. Someone must have heard me because I can now complain about the heat. I should not be surprised. I have lived here long enough to know how the weather is this time of year.
The change in weather does not make the digging any easier, only different. Before, when it was cold, the ground was hard to dig. Now that it is warm, the digging is easier but there is more water and more mud.
The rations are about the same. There is some corn meal coming through and the boys can make corn dodgers which are a welcome change from hard crackers. Flour has disappeared as has any sort of fresh vegetation. Sometimes, when we are digging, we uncover plant material that looks edible. Whatever it is, it ends up in the pot at night and no one questions it. It is filling if nothing else.
Two nights ago, Corporal Flynn was making his rounds as our mess was preparing supper. He asked what we were having and Bill Caston, our cook for the night, raised the ladle from the cook pot to show him. There was what appeared to have been at one time an animal. I hadn't seen it get captured or skinned, nor did its appearence give me any clue as to its origins when alive. I ate it and felt satisfied.
It is even getting hard to get drunk.
Our uniforms are wearing out faster than they are getting replaced, either from government sources or family and friends. Our muskets have not tasted powder for awhile. Indeed, our shovels are more seasoned than our bayonets. There are too many hardships to list here. Life is certainly bad. Even so, this will be a good Christmas for Virginia and Tennessee are here. We have been reinforced.
One brigade of Tennesseans, the 8th and 16th regiments under Donelson, arrived a short while ago. There are two light artillery batteries from Virginia, the Turner Artillery from Goochland County, and the Caroline Artillery from Caroline County. I hope that the Virginians camp hard by as I want to ask them about the Old Virginny that I miss so much.
South Carolina is not alone and now, neither am I.
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