November 25th, 1775
Snowed this day, so we could neither drill nor build our earthworks. We engaged in some few brief exercises, but were ragged in our showing. Several of the men have no shoes, protecting their feet with rags wound around them only, and their discomfort was extreme. When we returned to the barracks, they lit a great fire to thaw the ice around their feet and lay shivering, arranged radiant around the flames. There being no chimney in the warehouse, we were obliged to open a window at the upper story to release the smoke, which also swiftly draws out the warmth.
I fear sleep tonight will be difficult.
It is rumored that a great force of rebels approaches from the Carolinas. I am told by Will that I should not fear Carolinian numbers so much as Virginian sharpshooters, who, armed with rifles, can far outreach the musket in range and fatal accuracy. Their uniform is simply their hunting-shirts, on which, it is said, they have embroidered the words Liberty or Death.
The fear of these shirtmen expressed among our ranks is so great that they might themselves be messengers of Hades, for they appear in the tales of those who have fought them in earlier battles as faceless and invisible, a loud crack and a death, and they are gone.
We spent much of our day without activity. For a time, we were entertained by Will and John’s ready store of wit and comic roguery as they engaged each other in kicking games. (“Stand still! I get two on your shin!”—“Not true! Don’t count!”)
The wind made its moan about the walls of our rude barracks, and we all fell silent, thinking perhaps on the rebels who await us. Without employment, we had little to do but listen to the boards rattle. At length, our dinner being completed, I took the opportunity to read in Virgil.
After a time, I glanced up from the trance in which the tale had engaged me to find the men of my mess staring mistrustfully at me and at my book.
“You read,” said one fellow, and it was not a question; but an announcement of that fact, so that all might know.
Covered with blushes, I hid my volume, but they knew it was there, this artifact of the conqueror.