August 15th, 1863. So hot to-day that none but necessary duties have been ordered. Palm leaf fans were in demand, and most of the day we lay upon our beds under the awnings, in very primitive attire, making industrious use of them. There is little of military interest to note. Lee apparently is resting from his labors, and we are doing the same, besides trying to do something to fill up the old regiments. Several of them have been ordered home to see if their renown will not be an inducement for men to join them. Crosses’s old regiment, the Fifth New Hampshire, is amongst them. Volunteers are not to be had now in any number, and these big bounty men and substitutes are not worth having, as they very generally desert the first chance they get. It is too bad the enthusiasm should have waned so seriously. Our armies in the last two months have won great victories. Gettysburg with nearly twenty thousand loss to the enemy. Vicksburg said to be thirty thousand, and two hundred guns, Port Hudson a couple of thousand men, besides minor affairs, aggregating a tremenduous reduction in the enemy’s force, and immense loss of territory. If we could just get enough men to bring the old regiments up to their original strength, the war would soon be ended.
About 12 M. orders came from corps headquarters to issue three days’ rations, and have the troops in readiness for an immediate movement.
