Next, I got the fever and was put in a two-room shack with 17 other cases. The place had one door and one window in each room and they were always closed except when someone was passing through the door, which was very seldom. We had one old soldier for a nurse so you can imagine what kind of nursing we got. Nobody in after 9 o'clock in the evening. One morning they carried out two dead ones and I was a little afraid I would go the same way. That is the time I wished I was home with my mother. The rats and fleas were there by the millions and only four of us got out and then after convalescing a few weeks. Then I was ordered to help in the butcher shop, which I did until July 4, 1863, when our regiment was ordered with speed to join the army at Gettysburg. Left Yorktown on a steamer for Washington. Got there in the morning and got on the Ohio and Baltimore to Frederick City, Maryland, then marched cross country to Gettysburg, but it was too late for the fight. Then we marched with the army up to Hagerstown, then back to Edwards Ferry, over the Potomac River, out Louden Valley to Washington Junction, and there we entrained for Washington.

As our time was up we were sure happy boys and glad the marches were over, as we had not known what real marching was as we were not used to it. We came home by Bull Run, Washington, Baltimore, and Harrisburg, where we lay several days waiting for our discharge and pay. We were sent home in cattle cars and were very anxious. There was one fellow on top a car at Halifax, when he found the train did not stop there, stumbled or jumped off on the siding. I seen him go and yelled goodbye and figured he was a goner. Then there was so many wanted off there that the train slowed down and backed up into town and we all looked for the fellow and found him in the bar-room. It was a surprise, but a happy one.

Funny, but we never got in a real fight in the whole nine months of service and only lost one man by death. I saved over one hundred dollars my nine months and some saved more. We lived very cheaply. There was one boy in the company who wrote home once a week and his mother wrote telling him not to write so often as it cost too much for postage stamps. But the poor boy had a sweetheart at home and he wrote to her twice a week, unbeknownst to his mother. We used to have boxes sent from home, which contained such eats as pies, cookies, chickens, and the spirits of rye or corn, and some even got sauerkraut. We got our daily mail while we lay in camp but on our marches we were lucky if we got it weekly. We had some characters in our regiment and among them Richard Mertz beat them all.

THIRD ENLISTMENT

This is my last enlistment. I enrolled the 23^rd day of February 1863 at Harrisburg. I enlisted for three years or the duration of the war. I was sent to Carlisle to draw some of my gear before I joined my outfit, which was the 21^st Regiment Pennsylvania Cavalry, Company C. That night they had a fire in the Adjutant's office and some of our descript lists were burnt. We laid there about 5 weeks till they had things straightened out. Then we were moved to a different regiment. I went to a camp a camp at Chambersburg to a camp of instruction. Right away a man came around with a subscription list gathering money to buy the captain a sword. I told him where he could go with words suitable to the occasion. The captain was getting $100 a month and was getting only sixteen and they wanted me to help him buy a sword. I said pretty loud that he would be better off if he were a private, then he would at least have a musket. The next day the sergeant came around and said "you made a damn fool of yourself yesterday as the captain is a good friend of mine and you were slated for a sergeant, but now its all done and Captain Smith won't even let you have corporal stripes, even if you was a veteran of two enlistments." I told him I was sorry but could not help being right. He said I was the only one in the company that did not give, but I said that did not make me a worse soldier. He was not such a good soldier as he wanted to be for when we got in our first fighting, he chased a private from behind a stump so he could hide there. Then, whenever we were being shelled hard he would get behind some man. The next morning, we were ordered to take the Rebels' works and soon as we got over our breastworks, he dropped into a rifle pit and that was the last we saw of Wonder Smith. No doubt he was shell shocked, and good reason to be. Nevertheless, he got home and got a commission as Lieutenant Colonel in some enlisted men's regiment. (The last I ever heard of him he was in penitentiary for forging pension papers.) Not long afterwards, I was offered the position of corporal several times, but refused it for fear I would do some ovid act and be reduced to the ranks again, which was considered quite a disgrace. But I was often detailed to fill the position when they were short of non-commissioned officers.