Source: Goyne, Minetta Altgelt. Lone Star and Double Eagle; Texas Christian University Press; 1982, p. 140.
Used by permission.
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Rudolf to family

Camp Stevens

5 August 1864

…I got malaria several days ago. Carl and I are with the company again now. Milling has been given up, and they said that we would be leaving this area in a very short time. Till now we haven't got marching orders yet. But they are expected daily. Lt. [Edgar] Schramm was at Debray's headquarters a couple of days ago. There Sherwood told him that it is almost definite that we will be going back to Texas, and that in a course of a few weeks; however, there was also a possibility that we might have to go to the Black River, which would very much postpone our return to Texas. Let's hope that won't happen, because though Louisiana is not as terrible a state as people tried to make us believe before we had been here, Texas is more beautiful, after all. I thank Mother kindly for the friendly favor she offered by wanting to send us her mosquito bar. If only she does not need it herself. If you have mosquitoes yourselves, I hope that Carl's letter will arrive in time. When the regiment camps in a forest and has burned a fire for a couple of hours, the mosquitoes leave and one can sleep quite well. I thank Agnes for her paper. If we don't have bad luck with it, we'll have a supply for a long time. My fever seems not to amount to much this time… I have tried to get rid of it with cooking salt up to now, the way the Houston Telegraph indicated, but it was not a success. Since it is unpleasant for me to be out of commission, I have now made up my mind to take medicine. Our hospital pharmacy does not have quinine. The pharmacist told me they give iron sulfate and camphor now… He said that doesn't have such a violent effect as quinine but cures the fever pretty well… The prospect of going back to Texas pleases us very much; besides, we are in quite a good humor even without that. Most people seem to be convinced that it is better to adjust to the inevitable with good humor than to complain, and if sometimes a sick man does actually lose courage, we take pains, and usually with good results, to liven him up again. With many regards to you and Hedwig, I remain as ever your Rudolf.

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