XI. special rations.--boxes from home.--sutlers.
If there was a red-letter day to be found anywhere in the army life of a soldier,it occurred when he was the recipient of a box sent to him by the dear ones and friends he left to enter the service. Whenever it became clear, or even tolerably clear, that the army was likely to make pause in one place for at least two or three weeks, straightway the average soldier mailed a letter home to mother, father, wife, sister, or brother, setting forth in careful detail what he should like to have sent in a box at the earliest possible moment, and stating with great precision the address that must be put on the cover, in order to have it reach its destination safely. Here is a specimen address:-- “ Sergeant John J. Smith,“Can we all forget the bills on Sutler's ledger haply yet,
Which we feared he would remember, and we hoped he would forget?
May we not recall the morning when the foe were threatening harm,
And the trouble chiefly bruited was, “The coffee isn't warm?
”
Company A., 19th Mass. Regiment,
Second brigade, Second Division, Second Corps,
Army of the Potomac,
Stevensburg, Va. Care Capt. James Brown.” As a matter of fact much of this address was unnecessary, and the box would have arrived just as soon and safely if
