The officers gave a
dance in the upper part of the storehouse last night and the iron floor was
fine for dancing. All hands were invited to join in and all that felt able did.
Two men died yesterday, and last night another, all fever patients. Two were
from Company A, and the other from Company I. They were buried just back of the
quarters on hard ground, for this place. A catfish was caught by one of Company
A's men to-day, that looked just like our bullheads, only bigger. As he was
pulling him in over the mud the line broke, and I got the head for hitting him
with an axe before he got to the water. The head weighed 14½ lbs, and the whole
fish 52 lbs. A native that saw him said he was a big one, but not as big as
they sometimes grow. My family had a meal from the head and Company A had fish
for all their sick and part of the well ones.
SOURCE:
Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 74
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