The Portland daily press., 1862-12-22
CAMP GROVER.
Montgomery Co. Md. Dec. i6. 1862,


Montgomery Co., Nd, Dec. l6, 1852.
My last letter was mostly upon the subject
OF cold weather. Happily that cold term was
not of long duration, for since Monday the Sth,
we have enjoyed most delightful days; sum
shining and warm as the finest DAYS in Nav. |
perceive BY the papers that the grand army
was not sighted in the visitation of those ex-
tensive travellers, Jack Frost and Boreas, as
warm tents and good fires are said to have
been as serviceable on the Rappahannock, as
ON the Potomac.
Last night we were visited by a severe rain
storm, which beat firiously upon our tents and
soaked through some of them. 1t cleared off
during the forenoon to-day, and we again ex-
perience the chilling effects of the northwest
wind.
1t occurs to me that brief description OF
our mode of living would be interesting to
your readers, most of whom have slight knOwl-
edge of the way our quarters are constructed,
&C. Well, first we have good cotton duck
tents for the officers; and for the privates, new
. tents OF a brown material, made OF hemp |
think. The officers tents are called wall tents
and are shaped like common house, the caves
about 1-2 feet from the ground. The others
are the A tents and have no walls, being all
roof and gable. But as we are somewhat
crowded for want of space, and wish to make
our quarters warmer withal, we have drawn
extensively from the oak forest adjacent to
the camp ground, and with the planks and
slabs riven from the butts of oak trees, we
have 'built up" our tents, making them two
or three feet higher, and a great deal warmer
than before. This is done ia different ways.
One method is to place the tmbers horizontal
ly edges up, and lock the corners together by
cutting notchesswith an axe in each piece,t thus
making strong and wOrkmanlike foundation
In cob-house style. The joints are plastered
with mortar or mud composed of the red soil
of this region which is naturally very adhe-
sive, and quite as good as much of the clay
found in Maine. After the foundation is laid,
the tent is raised, the end poles set on the top
OF the timbers, long oak pins driven into the
ground, the loops on the lower edge of the
tent hooked on" and you witness as cozy and
comfortable habitation as one would desire.
Not the least essential appendages TO our tent
are the fireplaces made of the brown stone pc
culiar to this state. All the private's tents.
most of the officers and the hospital have nice
fire-places with chi'nneys, the workmanship of
which is no discredit to the skill and ingenuity
of the Maine boys.
There is another mode of construction, which
is quite fashionable here, called stockading.
The stockade is composed of oak planks and
slabs about four feet long, set in the ground
endwise or 10 inches, and also made tight by
plastering the cracks. The tents are then
raised and the lower edge fastened on the out
side OF the oaken wall with wooden pins driven
into the ground or nails driven into the wall.
So yo1 understand that while we are trying
TO learn the art of war, We are practising the
arts of peace. Every man is either a carpen-
ter or stone-mason, and il is thought that if
we serve out our nine months term here,
"cribbed, cabined and confined" as we are that
our necessities before the exprat ion of said
term, will have given birth to many useful in
ventions and Improvements, which may yet
make UipfQr mi ri ipur oh
we. take no walled cities nor capture "any
rebel.n
Death has been busy in our ranks during the
past week, no less than seven having been TAX
en- from us since the Sth inst, viz: George
McIntire, Co. X, Porter, Me-, Dec. 9th Clark
S. Edwards, Co. X, Otisfeld, Dec. 9th; Ed
ward X. Fitz, Co. G, ,Danville, Dec. 9th; Darius
johnson, Co. b, Brownfeld, Dec. 13: and
Marshal +. Flint, Co. B, Sweden, Dec. 18th
all of typhoid pneumonia.
Truly the record of this regiment thus far
Is a sad one as regards the sanitary condition.
1t was composed Of as robust and healthy set
of men as ever was raised in Maine; the flow
er and pride Of Oxford and Androscoggin, and
portion of Cumberland. Injured to toll and
hardship, and of temperate habits. il was nat
urally supposed they could easily endure the
most severe duties Of the soldiers life, and
could not be affected by the climate peculiari-
ties of this section of country. The New
Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts regi-
ments with us have suffered, think, more
severely, as general thing, than ours; and
they are composed Of similar class of men
but the exposure in the cold and damp night
air, picketing on the river, or guarding the
camp, and the somewhat excessive abors OF
the men in repairing tents, and in general
camp dnties, perspiring freely, and cooling of
suddenly, have taxed the constitution OF many
OF our most hardy men, and those supposed to
be proof against the vicissitudes of the climate
have already fallen its first victims. 1t NAV be
the means of alleviating somewhat the sor
rows of bereaved friends in our native State
10 assure them that those who have died here
were well attended; at least, so far as kindl,
offices of iellow-soldiers and nurses could 20
and the efforts of officers and men have been
and continue to be, untiring to save the sicl
and dying.
The hospital accommodations have been
part OF the time entirely inadequate to the de
mand. While only twenty to thirty mel
could receive hospital nursing and attendance
about $50 were few DAYS since on the sicl
list Many were in high fever before the,
could be admitted to the hospital, but thos,
who did not go have been faithfully watche,
and nursed in their tents. 1t is said that tn