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72 Windmill Point and Falmouth: January 6 to March 26, 1863 This was a comparatively uneventful period for the81st Pennsylvania Infantry. After Fredericksburg, Bates’ History of Pennsylvania Volunteers has the unit returning “to its quarters” where it “remained until the 26th of April, when the brigade moved from camp towards United States Ford.”1 Tuesday, January 6th, 1863. We at present lead as monotonous a life as it is possible to conceive . “Surgeons Call” every morning at 7 o’clock, then breakfast, reports all made out and sent in by 9 o’clock, and for the balance of the day nothing to do but loll about our tents and read newspapers , as they are about the only things we can get to read. Books would be very pleasant companions, but in case of a sudden move, we would be obliged to throw them away as we have no means of taking them with us. They could have been had in Fredericksburg in abundance and without cost, but as it was utterly impossible to carry them on a march, very few were brought away and those merely as mementos of our visit. Thursday, January 8th. This afternoon Lieutenant Colonel Robert M. Lee, Jr. arrived. He has been at home for a long time, suffering from a severe wound in the leg received at the battle of Fair Oaks on the 1st of June last. He joined the regiment about the time it was leaving Bolivar Heights2 and remained with it a few days, but on account of his wound was again obliged to return to Philadelphia, where he has remained ever windmill point and falmouth 73 since. During the time he was first at home, he was promoted from captain to the majorship of the regiment, and now, on account of the resignation of Colonel Charles F. Johnson,3 which took place a short time before my return, he has been appointed by Governor Curtin4 lieutenant colonel, and our former lieutenant colonel, Harry Boyd McKeen, has been commissioned colonel of the regiment. Friday, January 9th. Dr. Houston and I have now the most comfortable quarters in camp. We have two hospital tents, each of the following dimensions: in length 14 feet, in width 15 feet, in height (center) 11 feet with a wall 4 ½ feet, and a “fly” or extra roof of appropriate size. At the ends of the tents are lapels, so as to admit of the tents being joined and thrown into one with a continuous covering or roof. We have also an extra “fly,” which is pitched at one end in the form of a tent and closed up, leaving a small door for ingress and egress, so that the whole length of our establishment is 42 feet by 15 feet in width, divided into three rooms. The outer one, or fly, we call the kitchen; in this there is a small cast iron stove on which our cooking is done. We also take our meals there on the top of a box, dignified by the name of table. The next room is the hospital proper, where we have one patient and where also our hospital attendants sleep. The rear tent is our parlor, bedroom, and audience chamber; in fact, it is the “sanctum sanctorum” of the establishment. In it we have a large stove, from which we can have as much heat as desired. Our bedsteads are made of poles supported on stakes driven in the ground. The poles are covered thickly with “pine feathers,” alias the small twigs of pine trees. On these we have mattresses. Doctor’s made of hair, mine a sack stuffed with hay, and with as many blankets as we wish; we are as “snug as bugs in a rug.” We have gone into winter quarters, although the army has not, and we have about made up our minds to remain here awhile, as it is not probable we can find a more comfortable place. I must now give some description of our hospital corps. First, Dr. John Houston of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He joined the regiment in August last at Harrison’s Landing5 as windmill point and falmouth 74 assistant surgeon and is now about to be promoted to the position of surgeon of the regiment. I am much pleased, as he is a gentleman in every sense of the term. A man of marked ability and a genial companion, one with whom I can associate on the most intimate terms. Second...

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