Leroy was buried
early this morning. My part in it was to form the company and march it by the
left flank to the grave. For fear this may not be plain I will add, that the
captain and orderly are always at the right of the line when the company is in
line for any purpose and that end of the line is the right flank. The tallest
men are on the right also and so on down to the shortest, which is Will
Hamilton and Charles Tweedy, who are on the left, or the left flank as it is called.
This arrangement brings the officers in the rear going to the grave, but when
all is over the captain takes command and marches the company back by the
right. I got through without a break and feel as if I was an old soldier
instead of a new one. But it is a solemn affair. Leroy was a favorite with us
and his death and this, our first military funeral, has had a quieting effect
on all. Last night the chaplain and some officers, good singers all, came in
and we almost raised the roof singing patriotic songs. Speeches were made and
we ended up with three cheers that must have waked the alligators out in the
swamp. Sweet potatoes and other things are beginning to come in and as they
sell for most nothing we are living high. But we are in bad shape as a whole.
Mumps have appeared and twenty-four new cases were found to-day. Colonel Smith,
our lieutenant-colonel, has been up the river to try and find out if better
quarters could not be had and has not succeeded. He is mad clear through, and
when asked where we were to go, said to hell, for all he could find out.
SOURCE:
Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, pp. 76-7
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