p.

In putting on, or off, my coat, or even
brushing my boots, coat, or hair I
frequently give it a tweak that will
make it ache for an hour. When I
was at Hagarstown, a sore came on
the wrist, where the swelling used to
be, and seemed like a boil for a
while when the soreness left it, but
the bunch remained and looked the
same as a boil without a head. -
A day or two ago I thought I would see
what it was made of, so I took my
Eraser from the Desk and split open
the bunch and found a hard, white
dead gathering, like, as Doctor May
used to say a toad stool. I do not see
as it is any [underline]better[/underline], or [underline]worse[underline] for it.

We are still in Winter Quarters &
I do not see an immediate prospect
of our being out of them soon, though
we may be ordered out tomorrow.
No one here, knows more of it than this.
Some of our teams were ordered away
to haul Pontoons to the River a day
or two since, but a rain came on &

[page break]

the roads became so bad that it
was deemed best to postpone the ad-
vance for a while. The men are or-
dered to have five day's rations in
their Knapsacks constantly, and three
more ready to fill their Haversacks
till we do move. To accommodate
this amount of grub, the clothing to
be carried in the Knapsacks is re-
duced to one each, of shirts, drawers
and stockings. (of course one pair of the
latter). We are ordered to have ten
day's rations of Grain and four of Hay
constantly on hand. This, just for the
Animals at these Head Quarters
takes about forty-three thousand lbs.
of Oats & seventy-six thousand lbs. of
Hay, so you see we have something of
a pile to see to. But the Lt. is go-
ing to bed and I must close.
I shall answer Mary's letter soon.
Give my love to all.

Truly as ever

W. B. Stevens

To R. B. Stevens