Another topic of interest- health and medicine. With the 19th OVA spending sometimes months at a time in the same camp, disease became rampant. There was really no way around it, pretty much everyone in the batter was sick with something at some point. Throughout the war, the 19th only had about 6 deaths, all of which were from disease. In the letters I am reading there is always a mention of someone sick in the hospital. Many times the unit had to move out and the sick had to be left behind. Most of you probably know sanitary conditions in the Civil War were horrible. For a lot of wounds to the arms or legs the only option a doctor had was amputation. In one letter Watkins describes having to visit the hospital and seeing all of the amputated arms and legs laying in a pile. It was not a sight he wished anybody else to see.
That's it for the letters. Next I will begin looking at the 1878 recollection of the Civil War. More on that next post.
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