In Their Own Words
June 15, 1863
Illness Prevented Civil War Soldier from Marching
A Georgia soldier wrote home to his wife; he was not on the march north because of illness.
“…I wrote to you, I think, about the 4th of this month. I was not well then and got pretty sick. On the 6th inst. our Reg. received marching orders, and I much against my will had to be left behind. I had high fever nearly all the time and was quite weak. … We were then put in this hospital. It is badly crowded and nothing extra anyway. We got here yesterday morning. I have fever more or less every day but I am stronger and much better I think than when I left camp, and I hope to be well soon.”
Source: Jeffrey C. Lowe and Sam Hodges (eds.), Letters to Amanda: The Civil War Letters of Marion Hill Fitzpatrick, Army of Northern Virginia (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1998), p. 73.
