The Most Agreeable Bunk in the Regiment: A Buckeye Boy at Patterson Creek

W riting to his sister Flora in far-off Wisconsin, Private Herbert Smalley of the 7 th Ohio reported how well soldiering agreed with him; as a matter of fact, he bragged that he had “the most agreeable bunk in the regiment.” “I wish you could be here beside me a moment, looking over my portfolio at the motley crowd who are scoffing their allowance of hard bread,” he noted. “The different portions of the glove are pretty well represented here in our bunk. We have a downeast Yankee, several Germans, a Welshman, a Swiss, three Englishmen, an Irishman, a Californian, and three Buckeyes. I think we have the most agreeable bunk in the regiment. We have three farmers, one rolling mill man, one furnace man, one file cutter, one tailor, one watchmaker, one second-hand theater actor, one sailor, one fisherman, one brakeman, one jack-of-all-trades, and one printer besides one candidate for the lunatic asylum. Don’t you think we have quite a...