Diary of Corporal Lawrence Van Alstyne: Tuesday, December 2, 1862

On board the Arago again. That is, most of us are. Some were sent to the hospital instead, Leonard Loucks among them. Orders came in the night, we were routed out, tents struck and tied up. We waited until morning and then till 9 A. M., when we were put on a boat and taken back here, just what for nobody knows that will tell. I declare this "hog-pen," as Thompson called it, seems like home. There is a familiar smell to it, and the beds are dry too.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 67