ater we could get was always warm, and generally muddy
and filthy. The latter was caused by the multitude of men using the
little streams, springs, or wells. Either of these, ordinarily abundant
for many more than ever used them, were hardly a cup full apiece for a
great army. Hence many a scrimmage took place for the first dash at a
cool well or spring. On our second or third day's march, such a scrap
took place between the advanced columns for a well, and in the melee one
man was accidentally pushed down into it, head first, and killed. He
belonged to one of the Connecticut regiments, I was told. We passed by
the well, and were unable to get water, because a dead soldier lay at
the bottom of it. His regiment probably got his body out, but we had to
march on without stopping to learn whether they did or not. The problem
of water for our army we found to be a troublesome one. Immediately we
halted, much of our rest would be taken up in efforts to get water. We
lost no opportunity to fill our canteens. Arriving in bivouac for the
night, the first thing was a detail to fill canteens and camp kettles
for supper coffee. We always bivouacked near a stream, if possible. But,
then, so many men wanting it soon roiled it for miles, so that our
details often had to follow the stream up three and four miles before
they could get clean water. This may seem a strong statement, but if one
will stop a moment and think of the effect upon even a good-sized
stream, of a hundred thousand men, besides horses and mules, all wanting
it for drinking, cooking, washing, and bathing (both the latter as
peremptory needs as the former), he will see that the statement is no
exaggeration.

An interesting feature of our first two days' march was the clearing out
of knapsacks to reduce the load. Naturally each man was loaded with
extras of various sorts, knicknacks of all varieties, but mostly
supposed necessaries of camp life, put in by loving hands at home, a
salve for this, a medicine for that, a keepsake from one and another,
some the dearest of earth's treasures, each insignificant in itself, yet
all taking room and adding weight to over-burdened shoulders. At the
mid-day halt, on the first day knapsacks being off for rest, they came
open and the sorting began. It was sad, yet comical withal, to notice
the things that went out. The most bulky and least treasured went first.
At the second halting, an hour later, still another sorting was made.
The