amp life. In addition to these, boxes of all
sizes, shapes and contents came into the camps in a continuous stream;
and the thousand nameless trifles--so precious because bearing the
impress of home--were received daily in every mess from the Rio Grande
to the Potomac. Still, as the winter wore on, news from the armies
became gloomier and gloomier, and each successive bulletin bore more
dispiriting accounts of discontent and privation, sickness and death.
Men who had gone into their first fight freely and gaily; who had heard
the whistling of bullets as if it had been accustomed music, gave way
utterly before the unseen foes of "winter quarters."

Here and there, a disciplinarian of the better sort--who combined
philosophy with strictness--kept his men in rather better condition by
constant watching, frequent and regular drills, rapid marches for
exercise, and occasional change of camp. But this was the exception,
and the general tone was miserable and gloomy. This could in part be
accounted for by the inexperience of the men, and of their immediate
commanders--the company officers--in whose hands their health and
spirits were in no small degree reposed. They could not be brought to
the use of those little appliances of comfort that camp life, even in
the most unfavorable circumstances, can afford--strict attention to the
utmost cleanliness in their persons and huts; care in the preparation
of their food, and in its cookery; and careful adherence to the simple
hygienic rules laid down in constant circulars from the medical and
other departments. Where men live and sleep in semi-frozen mud, and
breathe an atmosphere of mist and brush smoke--and every one knows the
wonderfully penetrating power of camp-fire smoke--it is not to be
expected that their comfort is enviably great; especially where they
have left comfortable homes, and changed their well-prepared, if
simple, food for the hard and innutritious army ration. But such
creatures of habit are we that, after a little, we manage by proper
care to make even that endurable.

Soldiers are like children, and require careful watching and constant
reminding that these small matters--which certainly make up the sum of
camp life--should be carefully attended to for their own good. Rigid
discipline in their enforcement is necessary in the beginning to get
novices properly started in the grooves. Once set going, they soon
become matters of course. But once let soldiers get accu