"Camp Near wolf run Shoals Va. Apr. 4th, 1863
"… R.E.Turner is very sick with the typhoid fever & they do not think that he will stand it until morning he was carryed to the hospital day before yesterday. the day before that he was out doors & it took considerable talking to make him stay in his tent.
"… I believe that I wrote you that we were a going to move our camp. well we went to work & cleaned up our ground & our company had got their tents all up (I would say stockades) when Lieut. Col. Farnham (who has a good deel more red tape than he has brains about him) said that we must turn round. So that every company had to move. our co. from one end of the camp to the other. Yesterday morning we commenced moving our stockade. that done then we moved just time enough to get it up before night. to day we have been to work a putting in our buncks & muding up the cracks in the stockade …~ Jabez H. Hammond, West Windsor, age 20, Sgt. Co. A, 12th Regt Letter No. 34
Rosto E Turner, age 17, Pvt, Co. A, 12th Regiment died 4/6/63, Buried: Baileys Mill Cemetery, Reading, VT
"April 4th. Cold, windy day. Can hardly keep my tent right side up. All quiet." ~ Diary of Oliver A. Browne, Co. K, 15th Regiment
"Union Mills, VA April 4th, 1863
"We now have to get our letters into the mail at 1 p.m., and our mail does not arrive here until half past two, which will account for my not having received yours when I wrote last, although it came to hand that same afternoon. Yours of the 31st ult, was received today.
"It is now Saturday night, cold, windy and sleety. Such weather in this latitude is hardly within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Last year corn was planted and the gardens made in March; this year not a rod of ground has been plowed. Then have been but few more uncomfortable days in which to be out than today. At battalion drill this morning I wore my great coat and was hardly comfortable. In my tent I have to keep my little stove nearly red hot in order to be comfortable. The wind blows my tent so I could not write were not my table so firm. It is made of a large box four feet by two, turned bottom upwards and nailed to four legs which are stakes driven into the ground....At this present moment I have had such a blast as compelled me to suspend writing.
"...I am detailed on a General Court Martial at Centerville for the trial of such prisoners as may be brought before us. I understand that there are several officers to be tried for various charges, and one private for murder. The Court met Friday morning, but as the Judge Advocate was not ready to proceed, adjourned until Monday morning at 9 a.m. The court will probably sit all the week."~ Lt. Col. Charles Cummings, Sixteenth Regiment, Letters April 4, 1863. VHS.
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