SOLDIER 71 



sadly. But I really believe his sickness has saved his life. 

 He never would have come out alive from the charge the 

 regiment made on the 27th of May. 



We are having just the tallest kind of dog-days. We 

 spend all our time in trying to keep cool. You would laugh 

 if you could see us at meals, in simply shirt and drawers, 

 while our respected colored boy, Oliver, squats on his heels 

 in front of us and keeps off the flies from our precious per- 

 sons. This same Oliver is a case. Speaking of Mobile the 

 other day he said, "Reckon you could n't feel dis nigga 

 much in dat are town; specks he was born and raised dere, 

 yah, yah, yah! Reckons he knows ebry hole dere from 

 de liquor-shops to de meeting houses," etc. 



We see by the papers Pennsylvania is again in danger. 

 Were we only home, some of us would again be up a-girding 

 on our armor and be marching along. But we trust you 

 will do it without our aid and the Southerners will get so 

 blessedly licked they won't know which end they are 

 standing on. 



Excuse this scrawl, but being a little under the weather 

 have been writing lying flat on my back. 



As ever with love, 



Henry. 



I have got some potatoes, 10 cents, a bit of mackerel, 

 and a couple of bottles of porter, and mean to celebrate the 

 4th to-night. 



Three days after this letter was written, the dispatch 

 from General Grant, just referred to, was received. The 

 booming of great guns, the cheers of the Union soldiers and 

 strains of patriotic music informed the besieged that some- 



