, so that
while about fifty beds were always occupied, the air was kept fresh and
pure. Typhoid fevers, typhoid pneumonias, diphtheria, and remittent
fevers were prevalent, while now and then the malaria manifested itself
in the form of the terrible spotted fever. Besides, as usually occurs
when the last named disease prevails in camps, some died suddenly from
unknown causes.

By the tenth of the month the majority of the men were unfit for duty.
In one company the three commissioned officers were in the hospital, and
but twelve men could be mustered for evening parade. The labors of the
medical officer who undertakes single-handed to minister to the wants of
a regiment of recruits can only be known to those who have tried it. Our
doctor was as much worn out by the perplexities of organizing his
department as by the actual attendance on the sick. New demands came
almost every hour of the day and night, and it was only when the
violence of disease had subsided, and another officer was added to the
medical staff, that our weary son of Galen found a degree of respite.

We were in the command of General Silas Casey, a noble specimen of a man
and a soldier. His manly dignity and kindly bearing impressed all with
profound respect for him, and although we were but a few weeks in his
command we never ceased to remember him with pleasure. The provisional
brigade and division to which we were attached was frequently reviewed
and drilled by the general, and made a fine appearance.

Thus the time passed until the opening of the New Year. Our men, like
most fresh soldiers, were anxious for a fight, and were heartily tired
of what they considered inglorious inactivity. Many of them expressed
great fears that they would be obliged to return home without ever
hearing the sound of battle. How greatly they were mistaken we shall see
as we trace the bloody campaigns of more than three years of hard
fighting.

Our friends at home were not unmindful of us. Boxes of clothing and
other comforts for the sick were sent in goodly numbers; so our sick
were well supplied with bedding and changes of clothing, as well as
jellies and other luxuries. Our friend, McMicheal, of Congress Hall,
Saratoga, thinking we could better celebrate the New Year with a good
dinner, sent us one worthy of his fame as a landlord. Could Mack have
heard the cheers of the boys that made the ground tremble as the four
hundred pounds of cooked chickens and turkeys were