WALL-TENTS COMPARATIVE COMFORT ON THE CONFEDERATE COAST
Although most comforts had disappeared from the Army of Northern Virginia by lS(il2, as well as from the armies in the West, the port garrisons like those around Charleston were able to keep their wall-tents. So great is the "luxury" among this mess of the Washington Light Infantry in garrison at Charleston, that they even have initials painted upon their water-bucket; and, wonder of wonders! there hangs a towel. One who inquired of a veteran as to the opportunities for toilet-making was answered thus: "On the march we generally had water enough to wash our hands and faces, but sometimes, especially when there was brisk skirmishing every day, the men didn't get a chance to wash their bodies for weeks together. It was fun in a country comparatively free from the enemy to see a column strike a river. Hundreds of the boys would be stripped in an instant, and the river banks would reécho with their shouts and splashing. It was only on garrison duty or in winter-quarters that the supreme luxury, laundry from home, could ever be attained." The men in this photograph from left to right are Sergeant W. A. Courtney, Privates H. B. Olney, V. W. Adams, and Sergeant R. A. Blum. The organization still existed, half a century after the scene above.