The Soldiers' journal. (Rendezvous of Distribution, Va.) 1864-1865, 1864-04-06

you !; noW, from draining and matchmaking,
you can go from barrack to barrack, or from one
part of the camp to another, as dry shod as
though you were treading the streets of city.
Instead of finding it necessary to visit the
camp, and crawl through unwholesome tents to
relieve cases of extreme suffering, people come
now to admire the beauty of the location, the
perfection of the arrangements, the cleanliness
that is manifest, and the perfect system and good
order that is maintained in every department
Then Doctor could not show himself with any
mark about him to indicate his profession, but
he was besieged at once by more than a score of
applicants petitioning for medical advice,
| recommendation for discharge; the sick are
provided for in comfortable wards, and those
meriting discharges are promptly put in the way
of getting them
Then men sometimes lay for weeks and months
when more than anxious to get to their regi
ments; now they generally get onward quite as
fast as they desire, and sometimes considerably
faster. Then men who desired to do so, and who
were shrewd enough, would remain month after
month"; and manage to elude each call nOaO so
efficient is the system pursued, and so energeti-
cally is it carried out, that skulking playing
off is next to impossible. Then, so great was the
demand, and so small, comparatively, the sup
ply, or there were so many who knew not how to
convalescing were sometimes here several days
before their necessities, to clothing to make
them comfortable, could be provided for
SO complete the arrangements that if the
necessities of the demand it, persons
receive supply on the same day that they
rive in camp and this independent of the SAM
tary Commission, that is also here attending, as
it ever is, to the wants of the needy or suffering
soldier.
Then good book was rare treasure, to be
thought of as among the things that had been
enjoyed, rather than as among the things at pre-
sent attainable; nOW the neat building just at
the entrance of the camp shows conclusively how
the commanding officer provides for the quiet en-
joyment of those under his command, and the
estimate he places upon good literature
auxiliary to military power in maintaining
wholesome discipline; and if any wishes to
see the kind of reading that the friends at home
| have provided, let him but step inside and see
the well-flled shelves, filled, many of them, with
solid, first-class literature, among which may be
seen the histories of Bancroft, Hildreth, Pres
colt, Motley, Hume Gibbon, Rollins Macauly
the works of Irving, Hugh Miller, Cooper, Scott
and host of others, poets, statesmen, and histo-
| rians known in the present and the past.
Then there was other place of worship for
all the thousands assembled in camp, than the
private quarters of Que of the Surgeons, that he
kindly threw open for the purpose on Sunday
and on several evenings during the week, minis
| tering himself to the wants of the soul, after
having labored during the day in caring for the
wants of the body mow commodious chapel,
that will comfortably seat about thousand per-
sons, is of the first things that meets the eye
| as one enters the camp, and the Christian Com