Blicks Station, Va.,
September 22d, 1864.
Blicks is the name of a station on the new railroad, near our camp. A spur runs from this road to each camp, and storehouses are being built. Nothing is being done here at present but building and drill. All hands are busy. Not an idle man in all this army, that is able to do duty. Old fortifications are being strengthened and new ones built, and drilling is pushed with as much vigor as fortifications and railroads. Barely enough men are left in the rifle pits to watch the enemy; the rest are drilling—drilling—in squads, by companies, battalions, brigades, and, twice a week, an entire division at a time.
This place has become a camp of instruction for recruits. Some regiments are nearly full. The Fifty-fifth Massachusetts has received over two hundred “Yankees” direct from Germany.
Glorious news from the “Valley” today. A dispatch was read to the men on drill, giving the news of the day up to 6 p. m. of yesterday. The air was rent with shouts that could be heard for miles. We fully understand the importance of a genuine, decisive victory in that quarter. I am waiting, with feverish anxiety, the details of Sheridan’s achievements. We are having beautiful weather—rain enough to lay the dust, but not enough to make the roads muddy.
