Our Third and Fourth
Detachments are camped for the winter at Land's End, under the command of
Lieutenant John M. West, and supported by the Fourteenth Virginia Infantry,
Colonel Hodges commanding. The third gun is stationed immediately on the James
River where the Warwick empties into it, and the fourth gun one-and-a-half
miles up the Warwick River, supported by Company "K," Fourteenth
Virginia Infantry, Captain Claiborne, of Halifax county, Va., commanding. We
have comfortable log cabins, built by our own men, with glass windows, plank
floors, kitchen attached, etc., and our cuisine bears favorable comparison with
home fare. Time does not hang very heavily on my hands, for I am now drilling a
company of infantry from Halifax county, Captain Edward Young's, in artillery
tactics, previous to their making a change into that branch of the service.
Then we get up an occasional game of ball, or chess, or an old hare hunt, or
send reformed Bob to the York River after oysters, we preferring the flavor of
York River oysters to those of Warwick River.
Fortunately we have
managed to scrape up quite a goodly number of books, and being in close
communication with Richmond, we hear from our friends daily.
Soon the spring
campaign will open, and then farewell to the quiet pleasures of "Rebel
Hall," farewell to the old messmates, for many changes will take place
upon the reorganization of our army during the spring. No more winters during
the war will be spent as comfortably and carelessly as this[.] Soon it will be
a struggle for life, and God only knows how it will all end.
My health has but
little improved, but I had rather die in the army than live out.
SOURCE: William S.
White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 110
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