We must not put any hollow logs in for a foundation like the one you told of in Ohio, where one end came on the outside and the other on the inside of the field. I never think of that story of the old sow trying to get into the field after the farmer had turned both ends on the outside, without a good laugh. It seems you have heard that small pox is prevalent here. Don't be scared. There was but three or four cases and they were in the 30th Regt.
Deaths are frequent enough but from other causes.
We are losing a man a day on an average. The boys are buried on a hill just above the camp, and the roll of the muffled drum and the blank discharge of a dozen muskets is the solemn reminder that another soldier has gone to his last bivouac. Father, I begin to hate war and I have seen nothing of it either. There is so much contention among the boys so much that we hear from the Potomac, about treachery, of McClellan and a never ending dispute about the freedom of the slaves. Just now too we are having a fearful rumpus about the rations.