New Yorktown: Camp Life After The Civil War

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In February, Becca and her family moved from their farm and into town. Becca was unwilling at first and then decided she like the commotion. Alex wouldn’t agree to the town life for he liked the countryside. In a letter Alex wrote about camp life yet again. Camp life was discouraging to him. At night he would have to fight of the rats in the cold. He asked Becca to make him special gloves for shooting. Since Becca could find them in any shops she would have to make them. In a following letter Alex writes of the victory earned. Though he complains of the way many of the boys have been drinking. Charlie had his own complaints. He was tired of the regimental band and the music they played. On March 17th the invasion began. The Seventh sailed down the Potamac. Finally they had arrived Fortress Monroe. The town of Hampton nearby had been burned by …show more content…
The Rebel’s weren’t backing off. The commander was set to go to Yorktown and the Seventh did. Rebels opened fire to vessels in the river. The Seventh Michigan marched out of Yorktown as victors. As they marched through reoccurring rain, Alex heard thunder. Suddenly the Rebel’s opened fire. The Seventh started retreating, trying to get away from the fire. The next day the Seventh Michigan plowed ahead. Neither Charlie nor Alex thought they had injured everybody. They couldn’t imagine killing a person. It was beginning to be hard to lift your feet from the road as the rain fell heavily. It wasn’t far to Richmond. The camped that night in a place called Fair Oaks. From the camp they could hear the Rebels talking and singing at night. As it started to rain heavily once again, Charlie ran to his shelter. Lately he’d gotten used to sleeping in a wet uniform. It wasn’t until late afternoon once he’d woke up when they heard thunder again. Becca read about the Fair Oaks battle in the newspaper. The Jonesville boys were involved. It was their first real