Foster, Joseph Milton, to parents, 13 June 1863

Foster, Joseph Milton, Private, Co. F, 37th Massachusetts Infantry, USA, to parents. Foster gives a trenchant look at the life of a Civil War soldier: one night of sleep in a week, constant picket duty, skirmishing, digging rifle pits and fortifications. His company dug three miles of rifle pits in one night: "I guess you would laugh to see 1,000 picks and shovels in the air to once..." He comments that the "one hundred pounder" they possess will "make the Rebs hop", but also that some of the Yankees have exchanged papers with the Confederates ("They seem to be tame if we let them alone but if we touch them they are like hornets"), and that sometimes rebels come through the lines to give themselves up.