The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-05-30
(Uur War Correspondence. J
(Uur War Correspondence.)
A Soldiers Letter-No Is.
CANr NEAR WHITE OAK CHURCH, Va,
May "a


EprroR FREEMAN Since the battles every
thing on the surface of events here has looked
remarkable smooth. There is no hustle or prep
aration nor a curious anxiety in regard to some
important move, that may be at any moment ex.
pected, nobody knowing when it will take place
or what it will be. Everything is as quiet and
comes along in an every day sort of way, as
much as if we had always stayed here and al
ways expected to. No eight,daJ ration orders
are issued periodically for constant observance,
no talk in military circles, or in circles not SC
military, of an approaching summer campaign,
and we are not compelled to be eternally ready,
as we were for a month or 80 previous to
tour last adventure in Dixies Land. There
seems to be tacit understanding that for the
present our work is done, and now it only re
mains for us to rest idly on our oars content with
the work already accomplished and unconcerned
for the future
Camps are fast assuming slick. summer
like appearance. Policing, alias sweeping, il
the rage of the hour. AS far as pine boughs
made into brooms, can make camp look clean
they are so and nothing offensive shall be al
lowed to lie loose anywhere about the camps to
breed disease and make the air unhealthy. Yam
,kee ingenuity is taxed to its utmost in devising
means to counterfeit the suns burning rays,anC
make our tents as cool and as comfortable al
lpossibe. Natural shade is taken advantage o
IL
&ificial shade is made in its place The 4th anC
9Th regiments are very neatly situated. Th'
ground Is gentle swell covered with low bush,
a-pine trees which have ali been trimmed up to {
certain hight, and where rot thick enough
7others were planted leaving the tops to form {
complete canopy of boughs overhead, and max
,cool sabterranean abode, well lighted and airy
lThe streets are clearly swept and everything
Aooks neat and tidy The 5th seems to have
been less fortunate in the selection ola location
not 80 much tor want of taste as on account o
the unhealthiness of the place. 1t is said near
Nv half of the men were sick or 80 enervated OIL
TO be unfit for hard duty. The surgeon attribu
ted the cause, understand, to the water used
and very likely he was right. They are doins
better now. The ID is situated apart from thu
rest, as usua-in consequence of our singular
character, Isuppose,-on an elevated piece o
ground in the edge of the woods, where the coo
brsezes, when there are any, can fan away the
heat, and where the shade of the tall pines car
mitigate in measure the burning of Vir
.sgria sun. a9id"
o. The art Of building up comfortable quarters
like every other art, improves greatly by prac
-tiee Certainly we have never fixed up ou
40 shanties in . way more pleasant and com
Portable than we have them now. Our shelter
tsnts we Iasten to poles and stakes several fee
from the ground on all sides. We build ou
ga hunks " to the same height under them
aRtre we haven place to sleep clean from tn
.groand and where the air can circulate freel
sa,nder and all around us. We have a roof t
tqcoyer as, and, if we wish, We can close up tn
ends of the tent and curtain the space from th
caves to the ground. Plenty of old materia
for doing this can be picked up in the camps Q
those regiments that are going home, and th
bows are bot slow in finding it. Thus it can
seen we have all the advantages Of a good wa
tent niiuus great many of its Disadvantage
The brigade is in the neighborhood of for
miles from Falmouth and about two from Pot
mac Creek. Here we live, move, and have OF
:. rations every day. So far we have had but Il
2utle duty to do in this camp, except such irreg
asrdutiss as could be handiiy devised toikesp