Saturday, August 6th.
Four hundred men from the regiment were ordered on fatigue on the line of the Second Corps, and were employed to change a mortar battery into a gun battery. While wandering around through a camp near our own, I met Dr. Hoyt, whom I knew in Canandaigua, N. Y., when I was a law student in that village, and who is Surgeon of the 126th and now attached to one of the Division hospitals of the Second Corps. Noticing my generally dilapidated appearance and deliberate movements, he inquired what the matter was, and upon my telling him of my experience at City Point, and of one or two similar though less profound and protracted fainting spells, he said that I had undoubtedly had a light or partial sunstroke, and advised me to be very careful about exposing myself to heat or exertion, and thought I had better at once come to his hospital where he would have me admitted and could himself treat me. This was the first time that I had received any intimation that I was a victim of sun-stroke, and no suspicion of it had ever entered my mind for I had supposed that such a visitation meant instant death, having once seen a man fall forward out of the ranks and never move after he struck the ground and been informed that it was a case of sun-stroke, but from the symptoms which the doctor mentioned I was impressed with the possible accuracy of his diagnosis. However, I declined his kind offer to take me under his care and went back to camp.
