Camp Life! What?

Hi my name is Maryanne Elizabeth Rew,                                                 January 9,1863

I am a Union cook here and what I see here is just wrong.  These soldiers are sleeping in these Sibly tents; the sibly tents sleep 12 soldiers comfortably. Though sometimes they would use wedge tents since, they are easily portable and smaller. They don’t have much of an option for food but they drink coffee most of the time.  The coffee cups are pretty much just tin cups some carve theirs and some just use what they have. The tin cups are for coffee, soup, and other foods so these tin cups were being used over and over again since we didn’t always have water around us all the time.   Coffee was the most popular on the (short) list of food & drink. This food sometimes would be cooked through an outside fire. The coffee isn’t the coffee you drink today its unground beans that the men crushed with a rock a, gun butt or sometimes a bayonet then they were boiled in their tin cups.  This war has turned the north upside down and inside out, and to think this all started just because the confederates fired on Fort Sumter! What I think is not fair are officers get more comforts I think everyone should get an equal amount of comfort because we are all in this war together, right?  These soldiers are using these bags called a haversack to get around their food and drink. When they get bored they usually sit around and play poker, this war is just WRONG! Instead, of poker some put their pocket knives to use and whittle. Whittling has become a known art some even call it soldier art! The arts they make are unbelievable!  Since the soldiers don’t get as much comfort they are not getting sleep and they have to wake up earlier which is not fair. I also saw Ulysses S. Grant sleeping in what we call a “mansion” during this war it’s not FAIR! That’s the camp life here during the war don’t you think it’s just cruel and demeaning?