Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, November 1, 1863

November 1.

I overheard a rough compliment for our guard this morning. A couple of white soldiers were taking a lot of Government horses along the road where our guards are instructed to examine passes. As they approached, one said to the other, "I shouldn't think they'd bother us when we have all these horses." "Humph!" said the other, "they'd stop a feller here if the horses all went to hell."

My practice of taking one at his word was justified at a late hour last night in the case of a delinquent who got into the guard-house. He was suddenly attacked with excruciating tooth-ache and insisted upon being brought to me for relief. Instead of the expected anodyne and exemption from the guard-house he was relieved of his tooth and sent back.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 396

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Monday, January 9, 1865

We remained in camp all day.¹ It rained most of the day. No news of any importance.

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¹ I had been suffering with the doctor some days when on this day it became so bad that I made up my mind to go to the doctor and have the tooth extracted. I arrived at the doctor's tent, he directed me to an ancient chair and asked me to show him the tooth. I pointed out the exact tooth, he hooked on, at the same time telling me to hold on to the chair, and pulled. He succeeded in bringing the tooth, but it was not the aching one. I however, concluded that one tooth at a time was enough, even if it was the wrong one, and returned to my rancho with the hope that it would soon quit aching. But the last state of that tooth was worse than the first.—A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 245