Showing posts with label A Tents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Tents. Show all posts

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Dr. Seth Rogers to his Daughter, Sunday Evening, January 11, 1863

Sunday evening, January 11, 1863.

At service today the President's proclamation was read and the Colonel asked all who wanted to fight for liberty, to say “Aye.” The response would have satisfied greater enthusiasts than uncle Abraham. . . .

I have lost more than one hour's sleep since coming here, listening to the coughing of the soldiers in the night and in trying to contrive plans to meet the more obvious causes. In a climate so damp and with change of temperature so great between midday and midnight, I have steadily felt the importance of some means by which the soldier's A tents could, with their clothing, be more effectually dried and purified than is ordinarily done by the sun. To have a fire in a tent 7 x 8 for four men, without fireplaces, stove, or even an opening in the top, did not seem quite feasible, but we are trying in James's and one other company, an experiment which is likely to prove a success. Remembering the antiseptic influence of wood smoke, and also the primitive cabins from which many of our people came, we have, this evening, had fires built in the centre of the tents, the floor boards in the middle being removed and a hole being dug in the sand for the fuel. The soldiers enjoy this scheme. After the smoke ceases, the beds of coals make the tents seem very cosy. The Colonel is not backward in favoring every hygienic measure that offers any good to the soldiers. A few days experiment with two companies will settle the question by comparison of sick lists.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 343

Friday, March 23, 2018

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: April 20, 1864

Received orders to turn in A Tents and draw shelter tents in readiness to go to Washington for outfit. Went to town late on bus. Drake received commission and Brown acceptance of resignation, good all around. Gave an oyster supper. Was not present.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 113

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Captain Charles Fessenden Morse, January 6, 1863

Fairfax Station, January 6, 1863.

We have at last moved into a new camp, and are situated very comfortably; the men have good log houses with their shelter tents pitched on top, four men to each house; the camp is laid out with great regularity and is a very creditable place altogether; the officers have A tents (seven feet by seven feet) pitched on log walls, averaging a tent to two officers. We have been at work about ten days on this camp and are as well off now as we were at Sharpsburgh; no one knows, of course, whether we shall enjoy these good quarters, but we hope to do so, through the coming wet weather. The weather for the last three weeks has been remarkable, not a single storm and no severely cold days.

We had a division review on Saturday, and another one on Sunday. The first day, I was Officer of the Day and did not attend, but I went Sunday; it was before General Slocum; Captain Russell was in command, Mudge being sick. The review was a very fine one, about the best I ever saw. General Slocum told our brigade commander that our regiment was by far the best in his corps and the best he had ever seen in the service. The men did look finely; their clothes, of course, are old and worn, but their rifles, belts, and brasses shone right out. What a pride one could feel in an army, if every regiment in the service could be depended upon as ours can for any kind of work. I haven't any doubt but with good officers we could have the best army in the world.

Rumor says that Burnside will ask to be relieved before many days. Who will be our next commander, no one knows; Lord save us from Hooker, at all events!

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 117-8