CAMP MILLINGTON,
BALTIMORE. On account of the heat we were not taken out for drill to-day. We
have cleaned up our quarters, for since getting our new and comfortable tents
we are quite particular about appearances. There is a friendly rivalry as to
which of the ten companies shall have the neatest quarters. All being exactly
alike to start with, it depends upon us to keep them neat and shipshape. The
cooks have tents as well as we, and altogether we are quite another sort from
what we were a week ago. It has been a regular clean up day with us. The brook
below us has carried off dirt enough from our clothing and bodies to make a
garden. While we were there close beside the railroad, a train loaded with
soldiers halted, and while we were joking with the men, someone fired a pistol
from another passing train, and a sergeant on the standing train was killed—whether
it was by accident or purposely done, no one knows; or whether the guilty one
will be found out and punished, no one of us can tell. But I wonder so few
accidents do happen. There are hundreds of revolvers in camp and many of them
in the hands of those who know no better how to use them than a child.
SOURCE:
Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 40-1
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