"The fever and the fluxes..."

Sunday, July 13, 1862, Laurel Church, Virginia

Our new camp is now established and I would suppose that it is somewhat better than our last one that we gave up in order to go forth and whip McClellan. This new place is Laurel Church, on the river road south of Richmond. The water is a little better here than when we were in the swamps by the Chickahominy. It is still quite hot when it is not raining and raining when it is not hot. We drill in the heat of the sun and in the humid aftermaths of the rain.

When we are not drilling, we are putting ourselves back together from our recent battles. We are all becoming adept at playing the seamstress and there is much to sew. One can follow the progress of this regiment by the trail of buttons that have taken leave of their uniforms. Anyone with a scrap of fabric that might prove useful for mending  rips and holes has many friends.

Some few packages from the ladies have caught up with us. The Ladies Aid Society of Lancaster sent a package with a letter enclosed written by their president, Mrs. M. P. Crawford listing who made what garment or foodstuff. There were several pies but the package must have  taken too long to find us as none of them were edible. One of them looked like it was once a strawberry rhubarb pie and that would have been mighty tasty. There were some eggs packed in sawdust and straw and those were mighty good.

Castles got a package from his people at home. There was nothing to eat  but he did try on some new trousers. Many of us have wore out our shoes and there are no replacements. None of the packages had any shoes. When is Richmond, less than ten miles away, going to start clothing our army?

During one of our several battles of late, we repeatedly encountered much that was abandoned by the retreating Yankees. We would have liked to have taken our share of the spoils but our officers were insisting that we not stop, that we should push on. At one point, and I cannot remember at which of the battles it occured, we were running after the Yankees and I saw that I was running straight towards a fat Yankee knapsack. I resolved to catch it on the run and rejoice in its contents later. As I grabbed it by the strap, a bullet severed it and the knapsack had to be sadly abandoned.

The sick lists grow longer. There are some worrys that our numbers may be reduced through sickness to the point where we will no longer be able to discharge our duty. The fever and the fluxes are our chief afflictions.

The Yankees are still around somewhere but until we or they feel refreshed enough to try at one another again, things will be quiet.