Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

A NEW CAMP ESTABLISHED. 223
though, could the fatal diseases which prevailed in his absence,
have been foreseen, it is to be supposed that both he and
they would have insisted upon his remaining with the regiment. The generous argument with which General Hamer, —
who, alas, too soon required for himself all of Dr. Chamberlyn's justly renowned skill,-overruled the only objection
raised to the Surgeon's leave of absence, is yet fresh in my
memory.
But if, when at San Domingo, the regiment was weak in
numbers, it soon became much more efficient and formidable
than it ever had been, even than when it landed eight hundred strong, upon the coast. Soon after the battle, we set
about establishing a more permanent and orderly camp. The
ground chosen was on the east side of the grove, and when
marked off, was covered with an almost inpervious thicket
of thorns and aromatic shrubs. It was convenient to water,
and most of it well shaded by wide-spreading and venerable
oaks of extraordinary beauty. Some of the idlers complained
of the selection in consequence of the labor required to clear
out the undergrowth. But we were amply compensated for
that, in possessing a most comfortable camp. Nor was it a
work of much fatigue with our force. I well recollect the
merry day we spent in the peaceful and pleasant labor. It
was the first of October, and the weather was delicious.;No
" loud war-trumpet woke the morn," but the more pacific
notes of the'pioneer's march " summoned the whole regiment for fatigue duty. The battalion was formed, not as
usual, under arms, but under the useful tools of the husbandman. Axes and pickaxes, hatchets and spades, gleamed