Thursday 27. Well, Lee, I have just eat breakfast. I bought one pound of dried beef
at 40¢ and 3 sections of sausage for 25¢. It was awful high, but we had
nothing to eat but coffee and crackers, so I was determined to have something while
my credit was good at the sutlers. I guess my bill will be a dollar or two, but some
of the boys will owe the sutlers twelve or fifteen dollars. Eggs is there for 10¢. I think it's a disgrace to our Reg to let a sutlers swindle the boys out of
their hard earned money. We have had no whiskey since we left Donelson. They have
it at one dollar and a half a pint, and the very cheapest kind at that. I swore off
drinking any more of such stuff at Ft. Donelson. What I drank there made me so
drunk, I could not walk. Hugh had to lead me into our tent and put me to bed, and
he was very near as drunk as me. I have not tasted whiskey since, nor never will I
drink such stuff again. But if I could get some no. one brandy, I would drink a little
every day, for I do believe it would be good for us to have a little, but it is
impossible to get such here. And I guess it is a good thing we cannot get it. This
is a clear and warm morning. I think we are going to have good weather from this
on. Some of the Reg are sending their overcoats home. We would send ours if we had
a chance, but have not. Two thirds of the boys will throw theirs away when we leave
here. I think most of the Regs will leave their tents when they start on a march.
The boys would rather leave the tents and have their napsacks hauled. I think it
would be the best way to risk the weather and sleep out in rain or any weather,
rather than carry such a load on our backs, for it is awful to have to carry a
gear, forty pounds of cartridges, napsack and, these days, rations in our haversacks
with ten or fifteen straps buckled tight around and over you. Especially in warm
weather. McKee is still some better this morning. I noticed he wound into crackers
pretty steep at breakfast. I see a few Northern ladies here on visit to their
friends, and they really look like another kind of animal than our Southern Belles.
In fact, you could
