Camp of the 5th Mass. Cav’y
Point Lookout, Md., January 1, 1865
I am back in camp and working out my salvation after a fashion. I have almost nothing to do and so enjoy a good deal of leisure. This would make my life unbearable had I not systematically gone to work to occupy myself. When I returned I brought back with me a number of books and these make my evenings something to look forward to. That I may be sure and enjoy them, I never open my books in the day time, but, until my lamps are lighted I busy myself with some sort of work. I write all my letters, transact business, study tactics, and in the afternoon drill the regiment; but when dusk comes, then comes my pleasure. At about five o’clock I have a bright fire blazing in my quarters, my lamps are lighted, and then I make myself a cigarette and feeling that I have earned my evening, settle down to my books. I never go out, and people rarely drop in on me, so that a long evening is given me from five to eleven o’clock. These I enjoy intensely. . . .
