nst touching any, for fear of mistake and being
blown up. It is needless to say these instructions were carried out to
the letter and no mistake ever made. On several occasions, even before
we had our first quarters completed, a report would come occasionally
that the enemy was approaching or quartered near our front, and out we
would go to meet them, but invariably it proved to be a false alarm or
the enemy had retired. Once in December the enemy made a demonstration
to our right, and we were called out at night to support the line
where the attack was made. After a few rounds of shelling and a few
bullets flying over our heads (no harm being done), at daylight we
returned to our camp. Our lines had been so extended that to man our
works along our front we had not more than one man to every six feet.
Still with our breastworks so complete and the protection beyond the
line, it is doubtful whether the enemy could have made much headway
against us. All the timber and debris in our front for more than one
thousand yards had been felled or cleared away.

The ladies of Richmond had promised the soldiers a great Christmas
dinner on Christmas day, but from some cause or other our dinner did
not materialize. But the soldiers fared very well. Boxes from home
were now in order, and almost every day a box or two from kind and
loving friends would come in to cheer and comfort them. Then, too, the
blockaders at Wilmington and Charleston would escape the Argus eyes
of the fleet and bring in a cargo of shoes, cloth, sugar, coffee, etc.
Even with all our watchfulness and the vigilance of the enemy on the
James, that indefatigable and tireless Jew, with an eye to business,
would get into Richmond with loads of delicacies, and this the soldier
managed to buy with his "Confederate gray-backs." They were drawing
now at the rate of seventeen dollars per month, worth at that
time about one dollar in gold or one dollar and seventy cents in
greenbacks. The Jews in all countries and in all times seemed to fill
a peculiar sphere of usefulness. They were not much of fighters, but
they were great "getters." They would undergo any hardships or risks
for gain, and while our government may not have openly countenanced
their traffic, still it was thought they "winked" at it. I do know
there were a lot of Jews in Richmond who could go in and out of our
lines at will. Sometimes they were caught, first by one army and then
by another, and their goods or