Also, 1st Lieutenant Charles Ives (Co. F) from Upper Alton died today.
Charles Johnson described the sicknesses and disease faced by the soldiers
Erysipelas prevailed as an epidemic, and many suffered terribly from this disease. When it attacked the face, its favorite site, the features were horribly swollen and distorted, the eyes closed, and when all was painted over with iodine, a frequent local remedy, the sufferer's countenance was as inhuman-like as can be imagined.
Erysipelas, measles, rheumatism, typhoid fever, dysentery and other fatal troubles carried off many men during the winter. For a time scarce a day passed but one or more men died at our regimental hospital. As one poor fellow after another was carried out in his pine coffin I remember thinking of the sad news the next outgoing mail would convey to friends away up North. Some wife, mother or sister; would, for a time, lead a sadder life and carry a heavier heart. Before death, in the great majority of cases, the sufferer seemed to pass into a listless condition, wherein indifference was manifested for everything about him; the past and the future seemed alike to be ignored. The mind appeared, in all cases, to fail with the body, and sensation became blunted, so that the so-called "agony of death" was never seen.
