CHAPTER XI.

SPECIAL RATIONS. BOXES FROM HOME.

Sending for a Box—A Specimen Address—A Typical List of Contents—Impatience at its Non-arrival—Its Inspection at Headquarters—Its Reception at Camp—The Opening—Box-packing as an Art—The Whole Neighborhood Contributes—Soldiers Who Had No Boxes—The Box of the Selfish Man—His Onions—“We’ve Drank from the same Canteen”—THE ARMY SUTLER—His Stock-in-trade—His Prices—The Commissary—Army Fritters—Sutler’s Pies—Sutler’s Risks—Raiding the Sutler—What a Sutler Lost near Brandy Station—War Prices in Dixie 217