Cairo. Our Canton
boys came down on time, and right glad I am to have them here. Colonel Ross's
17th Regiment got here the same day by the river. The boys were sworn into our
company the day after they arrived, and the day following a lieutenant in the
Fulton Blues came over to get them to join his company. I am glad he was too
late. We have all been over to the Point to visit the Canton boys of the 17th,
and found them looking very well. Will Trites, alone, looks unwell. A few weeks
at home is what he really needs, for he will not give up work and go on the
sick list as he ought to, as long as he can stand. Billy Stockdale, Chancey
Black, George Shine, Billy Resor and Jesse Beeson are in No. 1 condition. Their
tents are pitched in old Bird's cornfield from which the corn has just been cut
and you can imagine that the stubble is not equal to feathers to lie upon. They
call us boys that live in barracks in Cairo, Sunday soldiers and Fourth of July
braves; the same names we applied to them when they were in Camp Mather. The
Canton boys in our company get along finely. They are in the best of spirits
and already appear quite soldierly. They are well satisfied with the company
which now numbers 90 men and will be full this week. We all room together
except John Wallace and Milo Farewell. We are now drilling about six hours a
day, but the greenhorns act as though they think it fun. We don't suffer from
the heat as much as one would think, and can you believe it the health of the
camp is better now than ever before. We have not in our company a man on the
sick list. Major Smith (our old friend Marion), says that the 17th have been
healthier at Bird's Point than they ever were before; and so every regiment
says that comes here. If there are any very old people in Canton that want to
live 50 or 60 years longer, advise them to come to Cairo. Mosquitoes and fleas
are around these times. The whole family are here.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 24-5
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