June 8th—Privates Everett A. Denny, Company E, and John A. Paige, Company B, as clerks at headquarters Defences of New Orleans. Private Paige returned to his company for duty June 26th.
June 14th—Corporal Alfred Thayer was made chief-wagoner, vice Wagoner John Willy, Company B, ordered to his company. Private George A. Davis, Company D, on duty in Company E, was made wagoner. Private Warren A. Clark, Company B, was made wagoner.
The deaths in June were:
June 5th—Private Nelson Wright, Company E, typhoid fever.
June 13th—Private Buckley Waters, Company E, chronic diarrhœa.
June 19th—Private Lewis E. Wales, Company B, typhoid fever.
June 30th—Private Benjamin Gould, Company G, congestion of the brain.
The case of Private Waters was not considered fatal up to the time of his death. The surgeons were inclined to think he was suffering more from home-sickness than disease. He died quietly in the evening, as the glee club, composed of Sergeant Hunt, Company I, Sergeant Waterman, Company D, Quartermaster Burrell, and Lieutenant Powers, Company F, were singing an appropriate song in the headquarters office, adjoining the hospital ward. They did not know that Waters was dying, and when the nurse asked some one in the ward to stop it Waters requested them not to do so, as he preferred to listen to the song.
Notwithstanding the general orders issued April 24th by General Sherman, to prevent sending North bodies of deceased persons until after decomposition had ceased, in order to prevent any quarantine to Government vessels, the bodies of Privates Nelson Wright and Lewis E. Wales were prepared and partially embalmed by the regimental surgeons for transportation home.
The operation was performed in the rear of the hospital, a guard being posted to prevent men from coming near who had curiosity to witness it. The skin upon the chest was first cut, and after removing a small bone in the upper part was laid back upon each side a sufficient distance for work. Interior parts of the chest were then taken out and examined, followed by removing the bowels; the vacant space thus left was filled with charcoal, the skin replaced and sewed together. The body was then packed in liquor, with the heart separate, and was ready to be sent home. The parts of bodies removed were properly buried. This process is similar to that of dressing cattle for market.