July 7, 1864.
The shooting still continues in our front, but hear no Rebel
artillery. The water here is excellent, and everybody seems to get a few
blackberries. We also stew grapes and green apples, and everything that ever
was eaten by anti-cannibals. There is so much confounded fighting to be
attended to that we can't forage any, and though fresh beef is furnished to the
men regularly there is some scurvy. I have seen several black-mouthed,
loose-toothed fellows, hankering after pickles. Teamsters and hangers-on who
stay in the rear get potatoes, etc., quite regularly. I do not believe the
Johnnies intend fighting again very strongly this side of the river. Our scouts
say that between the river and Atlanta the works run line after line as thickly
as they can be put in. Per contra, two women who came from Atlanta on
the 6th say that after we get across the river we will have no fighting, that
Johnston is sending his troops to Savannah, Charleston, Mobile and Richmond,
except enough to fight us at different river crossings. Our scouts also say
that the Rebels are deserting almost by thousands, and going around our flanks
to their homes in Tennessee, Kentucky, etc. I have not been in a house in
Georgia, but several citizens I have met in camp said they had heard many
soldiers say they would never cross the river with Johnston since the charge of
the 27th.
Harrow has kept our brigade in reserve, and I think he will
continue to do so unless a general battle is fought. We have suffered more
heavily than any other two brigades in the army, and when we started we were
one of the smallest. I am willing to see some of the others go in a while,
though I want to help if Johnston will stand a fair fight in open ground. The
chigres are becoming terrific. They are as large as the blunt end of a No. 12
and as red as blood. They will crawl through any cloth and bite worse than a
flea, and poison the flesh very badly. They affect some more than others. I get
along with them comparatively well, that is, I don't scratch more than
half the time. Many of the boys anoint their bodies with bacon rinds, which the
chigres can't go. Salt-water bathing also bars chigres, but salt is too scarce
to use on human meat. Some of the boys bathing now in a little creek in front of
me; look like what I expect “Sut Lovegood's” father did after plowing through
that hornet's nest. All done by chigres. I believe I pick off my neck and
clothes 30 varieties of measuring worm every day. Our brigade quartermaster
yesterday found, under his saddle in his tent, a rattlesnake, with six rattles
and a button.
This is the 68th day of the campaign. We hope to end it by
August 1st, though if we can end the war by continuing this until January 1st,
'65, I am in. Reinforcements are coming in every day, and I don't suppose we
are any weaker than when we left Chattanooga. The Rebels undoubtedly are,
besides the natural demoralization due to falling back so much must be awful.
My health is excellent. Remember me to all the wounded boys of the 103d you
see.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 274-6
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