January 2, 1862.
We've waited patiently until after New Year for the box of
provisions, and nary box yet. Have given it up for a goner. We're just as much
obliged to you as though we had received it. We haven't yet eaten all the
tomatoes, etc., that came with the quilts. Partly because we are too lazy to
cook them, but mostly because we don't hanker arter them. Beans, bacon and
potatoes are our special hobbies or favorites rather, and we are never
dissatisfied on our inner man's account when we have them in abundance and of
good quality. Company H of the 17th, Captain Boyd, was down here on the 30th.
All the boys save Chancy Black and Billy Stockdale were along. We had a grand
time, Nelson's, Boyd's and our boys being together for the first time in the
war. Yesterday, New Year, the camp enjoyed a general frolic. A hundred or two
cavalry boys dressed themselves to represent Thompson's men and went galloping
around camp scattering the footmen and making noise enough to be heard in
Columbus. The officers of the 11th Infantry were out making New Year calls in
an army wagon with 30 horses to it, preceded by a splendid band. The “boys” got
a burlesque on the “ossifers.” They hitched 20 mules to a wagon and filled it
with a tin pan and stovepipe band, and then followed it in 60-mule wagon around
the camp and serenaded all the headquarters.
General Paine said to-day that our regiment and the 11th
would move in a week, but I don't believe it.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 50-1
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