April 9th. Captain Fiske returned to-day from sick leave, and resumed his duties of adjutant general. The general, in relieving me, complimented me gracefully on the performance of my duties, and told me not to forget to call upon him. I returned to the regiment, and resumed the duties of regimental adjutant. Neither Seth nor I much relished the change, but made the best of it.
This day the army was supplied, or at least our division, with shelter tents, the tent d’abri, of the French soldier, which is the greatest boon thus far granted the enlisted men. It is so very important, and necessary to health as well as comfort, that I wonder we have not had them sooner. Up to this time, the only shelter from the elements the men have had was such as pine or cedar branches afforded, and in consequence of the great amount of rain that has fallen they have all had a hard time of it, many giving way, and going back to the hospitals. Now they will always have their tents with them, ready for immediate use. They are simply small pieces of canvas seven feet by five, made to button together, every man carrying one piece. The operation of spreading them for use is very simple; you take two sticks cut with crotches about three feet long, stick them into the ground, seven feet apart, and upon these lay a light ridge pole, then two men button their pieces together, throw it over the ridge pole, pull it tight and fasten it down to the ground with pegs, little loops being made in the shelter tent for that purpose, and the tent is complete. When this is done, spread a rubber blanket over the ground, carefully turning up the edges against the sides of the tent to keep the water out in case of rain; make up the bed of blankets with knapsacks for pillows, and you may then creep in, and sleep as comfortably and securely, in ordinary weather, as in a full sized tent. When the march is resumed, the piece of tent is folded with the blankets, and all the rest abandoned.
We received orders still further reducing officers’ baggage, Regimental, field, and staff are not to have any wagons, but must put up with pack horses; brigade headquarters get one wagon only, which will make General French wink worse than ever. The trains have been and still are much too large, and the order is important, and will add to the efficiency of the army. At present it takes about a third of the army to look out for wagon trains, and they monopolize the roads completely.
Over ten thousand men are at work building corduroy roads, the native roads being utterly impassable for artillery or wagons. They seem to be in many places nothing but quicksand, and the wagons go down almost out of sight; the country is flat and without drainage, so the water stands in small lakes sometimes over a foot deep. These corduroy roads are substantial, but beastly things to ride over, the horses frequently getting their hoofs caught between the poles. Fatigue duty at present is about all the army has to do. The first duty I did with the regiment was to detail the bulk of it to work on the docks at Cheesman’s Bay, which are already in such shape that vessels can land troops upon them, and by working night and day we hope to have them ready for horses and stores by to-morrow. I rode down to the dock in the evening to see how matters stood, and found the bay covered with almost every variety of vessel and transport under the sun. At least a dozen bands were playing, and our deserted sand beds and quiet waters of a day or two ago transformed into the bustle and confusion of an immense commercial port.
We hear to-day that the rebels have taken position at Yorktown, and are fortifying a line across the peninsula upon the identical ground once occupied by Cornwallis and the British Army in 1781, and our first duty will be the siege of Yorktown; and this is why so much dock building and corduroy road work is being done, as Ship Point is to be the base of supplies during the siege. We also got the glorious news of the battle of Corinth, and capture of Island No. 15, which put us in fine spirits, and made us anxious to deal a blow in this quarter. We are just beginning to hammer the confederacy now with our new weapons, and I think the country will not be disappointed in the result.
