Pay day is always an event in the army, almost every man being dead broke long before the paymaster comes around.–Diary of Josiah Marshall Favill.

August 1st. The regiment was mustered for pay during the morning, after which the men signed the rolls. Pay day is always an event in the army, almost every man being dead broke long before the paymaster comes around. The men, generally speaking, are improvident, and some of them great gamblers, soon getting rid of their cash; many send home a large proportion of their pay to their families, and the express companies do a big business in money packages every pay day; we are all paid in paper money, and sometimes with coupon, interest-bearing notes; my pay amounts to about one hundred and sixty dollars per month, a third of which I send home for safekeeping, the balance I spend. There are a good many professional gamblers in the army, who, many think, enlisted for the sole purpose of despoiling their comrades; at any rate, there are certain men in our brigade who regularly gather in the bulk of the money. Gambling is forbidden to officers, as well as private soldiers by the regulations, but it is a complete dead letter. The regiment received to-day a new set of camp kettles, to replace their old ones, abandoned on the great retreat. The men were delighted. Since our arrival in this camp each man has cooked his own rations in his tin cup, and his bill of fare has in consequence been extremely limited. Now, again, the company cooks take charge, and the men will have more leisure and better fare.