Potomac Creek Station Va
March 9th 1863
“Lydia,, your letter of the (date
unknown) came to hand in due
time and I will hasten to answer it
this evening by candle light as all our
time is employed in daylight with
drilling cleaning armes &c, &c the
dailey Routine is as follows “Revellie,,
6 oclock in the morning & Roll call
feed horses and curry them get Breakfast,
Company drill at 9, Water Call at 11,
feed at noon, company drill at one,
water call at 3, Dress Parade at 5 feed
horses at 6 get supper and then ply
“Poker,, or “eucher,, untill 8 oclock at night
then fall in for Roll call & from that
time untill [6?] oclock in the morning we have to ourselves
Yestarday being Sunday we had Brigade
Dress parade and Review the whole Brigade
was all to gether for the first time and
[page 2]
if we did not have a swim in mud you
never saw one, several times the front
Rank men sunk horses and all down into
the mud all over untill the Rear rank
had passed over them then they came up
like [junk?] whales spouting mud high in
the air. Our Regt. was drilled by Col.
[Delfuct?] this forenoon he is in command
of the Brigade at Present he is one
French man he puts in the “De,, and all
such flabbergab so the devile could hardly
understand him, but he is a bully little
cuss, he gave us high Praise he says we
will stand No. 1 in the Brigade soon
We have to do every thing up in style now,
and perfect as Regulars. An order has
bee isheud to the effect that any man
in this Brigade who shall give himself up
as a prisiner of war (unless wounded) to
the enemy shall have charged on the pay
Rolls against him horse and equipments
and all armes that he may have taken
belonging to the Government
[page 3]
this to stand against him untill
again in action where an equal
number of the Enemy are kill or captured,
and if not reprieved he must pay for
all propperty lost by his capture, so
you see if men wont fight they make them
“Doer,, All our teames have been turned
over but two to the Regt. and we have
been supplied with mules at the rate
of I mule to 10 men. Some of them
are the worst and vishious devils I ever
saw We got Pack saddles to day I Put
one on and you ought to see the little devile
kick, he kicks himself up behind and
stood on his forelegs and kicked some
thing less them 2 hours with out comeing
to the ground I expect if he had his
own way he would be kicking there yet
some of the boys have undertook to ride
them but but the laws of gravitation
wont let them stay on the mule
I expect some of us will get hurt with
the damed things yet I have the oversee
[page 4]
ing of the [deufs?] (mules I mean) to attend
to and Packing the saddles,, (I always
thought there never was any thing more
stuborn than a woman, but I believe
a mule is a little ahead)
There long look for new company
joined us to day (2 of them) I have
not seen any one that I knew
yet (neither have I seen any one
out side of our Regt. since I left home
that I know) Our new companeys
are not mounted but expect to get
horses here soon Mud, Mud,
[jeus?] of mud here we cannot
move without being in it up knee
deep Weather warm but Rainy
no weather for making shugar
here and if there was there
is no maple here nothing but
[schub?] pines
“Pete,, [Osen?]