Diary of Corporal Lawrence Van Alstyne: December 20, 1862

One day is so much like another that the history of one will do for several. I think about everything that can be done for our comfort is being done. There must be some reason for our being kept here and it is probably because of so much sickness. It would not do to take us where others would catch our diseases and yet it is tough lines we are having. Chaplain Parker does everything he can to keep up our spirits, even to playing boy with us. A new doctor has come to take the place of one that died while we lay off Newport News.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 75