Rock Island Argus., 1898-06-28
THOSE At THE FRONT.
Report That the Rock Island Bows
Will Leave Camp This
Week.
1 MARCH TO THE POTOMAC.

Holland Tell OF Their Experiences as
Tars in Uncle Sans Navy.
Gen. Garretson's brigade. consisting
of the 9th Illinois. to which Company
A belongs, Sth Ohio and 9th Massa-
chusetts, left Camp Alger early yes
terday morning for the Potomac
This march is of more than passing
interest, because the command made
up of these regiments is almost cer-
tain to leave camp the latter part of
the week.
Edward Dearth, the private
drowned in the Potomac river yester-
day, as mentioned in today's press dis
patch, is said to have originally en-
listed with Company F, Moline, but
the roster there fails to show his
| name.
Robert Boggess has letter from
Este Butfum, of Milan, one of Com
pany AS recruits, in which he SAYS.
after describing the trip from Rock
Island to Camp Alger: ''All the fell
lows We're glad to see us. They were
very sympathetic, and seemed sur
prised that we should come in the
face of all that had been written back
home by them. The boys are rough.
They can't fight, for they will be fined
s. apiece, so they take it out in GUS
sing each other. They quarrel over
every little thing. Each one has his
own things and they are charged to
him, and frequently borrowed ;
When this happens it generally leads
to whole round of cussing all the
way down the line. We have cool
nights here, and but one blanket
apiece. Two bunk together. Spick-
Ter and bunked together last night
on the. ground in pup tent. The
ground was not so hard. but the
blankets were thin. The older troops
have large tents and beds of bark and
leaves on poles raisel off terra firma.
| But ! must not tell il all
The Illinois state board of medical
examiners, consisting of Lieut.. Coils.
George n. Creider. of Springfield;
Charles G. Carter, of Rock Island. and
Daniel +. Williams. of Chicago, con-
vened ut Springfield yesterday to eX-
anime the medical officers who are to
assist in the examination of recruits
for the Sth and 9th Illinois regiments
of volunteer infantry. The surgeons
examined were A. A. Wesley, j. w.
Curtis. J. K. White. L. b. Bluitt, +.
5. Miller and X. 5. Porter. of Chicago;
W. X. Washburn. of Union, and An
drew Hall. of Mount Vernon. Sew
eral of the candidates are colored.
Letter From Sailor.
Mrs. Holland, of this city, has re-
ceived the following letter from hel
son, who is sailor in Uncle Sans
navy:
Key West, Fla, June 10. on Board
the Lancaster-Dear Mamma: This
is Sunday and we have just had din
ner. We had coffee, meat, potatoes
and One-third of loaf of baker g
bread. We have had to buy some
clothes, but not many-two white
suits at Sl.50 apiece, one blue suit
| (don't know the price) and a mat
tress and two covers, which cost 50.
and some soap. The kind of shoes
we get cost S1.95. At first we had
to sleep on deck, but now we have
hammocks. | am feeling all righ,
and am not the least bit homesick.
90 to church regularly. as we have 4
| young minister here and have service
every Sunday morning. don't wan,
you to worry bit about me, for we
have a good time and l guess l car
hold my own. We are going tc
change cooks every two weeks now in
order that each sailor can learn abou,
the ship. While | was cook / didn I
have chance to learn anything.
can't write any more letters until
get some stamps. This stamp just
came in time, else YOU would have
gotten postal instead of letter. A
man comes on the ship every da,
with pies, cookies, cigars, ETC., but hC
charges big prices. He will not
bring stamp over for less than II
cents, so all the boys send home fol
them.
| Write as soon as you get this, be
cause it takes such long time fol
letters to get here. Tell etervbod,
to write. 1t won't make any differ.
ence if do get four or five week
One fellow here got five in one mail
Tell me how Mig is by this time
and if he still hunts for me.
| | like hard tack now, for it i. bet
ter than the bread. We 90 to bed al
9 O'Clock and get up between and >
| All the boys are letting their mus
taches grow. but | am not satisfied
with that. so am raising sideburns
too. One of the marines here is al
Armenian. and he is the only on,
who doesn't think he's the Who'll,
thing.
| We don't have to work very hard
for we are divided up in division,
land each division has its work to do
I'VE have To scrub the decks ever,
morning and shine up some bras:
work and fix the awnings. We wasl
our clothes once a week. You Nigh
send me an ARGUS about once in tw,
weeks. for it seems good TO ret new
from home like that.
So far haven't had any troubl
with the officers
| Now don't forget to tell everybod
| to write