Ransom W. Towle to [Family and Friends]
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Yesterday being an unusually busy Day with me and all quiet I did not write we
were cleaning up Company Streets and cleaning up generally, distributing new
clothing &c. Yesterday and Today the Enemy have been very quiet, only firing
occasionally. Pickets conversing quite neighborly. Our men gave them some Hard
Bread for three Canteens full of whiskey They say they get plenty of whiskey but
are short of provisions while we are now getting plenty of Hard Bread and Salt
Beef and little Whiskey which I think is
preferable. Last night we
had a smart thunder shower which cleared up cooler. This is a great relief after
the oppressive heat of the last few Days which has caused one or two cases of
Sun Stroke. The men have been worked Day and Night building Bridges cutting
timber and corduroying Roads &c. Corduroying is simply bridging miry Roads
by bedding Round timber six to ten inches in diameter close together into the
soft ground. The amount of this kind of Road made by Soldiers is enormous. Roads
here are naturally very soft and it requires the firmest kind of road for moving
heavy Artillery. This is one cause of the slow movements of this Army. Today we
were enjoying a little quiet rest when we got orders to fall in for Drill So
they mean to keep us budging about something it seems to me that if it were as
hard for the Officers to ride about during a drill as it is for us to lug our
Guns and Equipments, that they would not put us through quite so hard but this
is military and all we have to do is to submit. While I am writing a brisk
Cannonade has been opened some three miles up the river by the Enemy and our
Troop across the River but now is getting quiet. You have never written whether
you got the Books I sent or not. But is getting dark and I must stop.
Ransom.