History of Buchanan County, Iowa 1842 to 1881
Transcribed by Tommy Joe Fulton and Peggy Hoehne
page 170
LETTER NO. LXXVIII.
CAMP FRANKLIN, DUBUQUE, September 4, 1862.
MR. EDITOR: - We are in camp two miles above Dubuque. On our arrival in the city we learned that no barracks had been constructed for our accommodation, and we were therefore quartered temporarily at the various hotels. We were kindly cared for, and, on our departure for the camp, three rousing cheers were given for our respective landlords - "California" excepted. On our arrival in camp we found everything in confusion - barracks not completed - preparations for cooking, eating, etc., not yet made. The soldiers took hold with a good will, and soon our barracks were completed, bunks arranged, and for the first time we gathered around the crackling campfire, to partake of Uncle Sam's first evening repast, and to realize, as we had not done before, the intimate relations which bound us together for weal or woe, as members of the same company - the same regiment - and as an organized company of that mighty host against which the enemies of liberty were to hurl themselves and be broken.
At reveille the roll is called; then an hour's drill before breakfast. Guard mounting at nine o'clock A. M. - drill from ten to half past eleven A. M. Drill one hour and a half in the afternoon, dress-parade in the evening and roll call at night; this is the programme for the present. The camp of the Twenty-first is just above us, and I learn that their hospital is full. There is no hospital yet erected for the Twenty-seventh, but all the boys are sure, if required, they will receive the prompt attention of Dr. H. H. Hunt. His appointment as assistant surgeon gives great satisfaction to his numerous friends from Buchanan. There are about twenty barracks on the encampment grounds, rudely constructed of rough pine boards, and each barrack designed to accommodate one company. The situation at the camp is most picturesque and even grand. We are in a level tract of land raised some twenty feet perhaps above the river, and, to the westward, stretches a long chain of steep and rocky hills, . . .
C. H. L