Charles Thiot, a splendid Georgia soldier, differed from most of his comrades in the ranks in that he was the owner of a large plantation, well-educated, and nearly fifty years of age. But he was very much like his associates in his hatred of camp routine. Near the end of his service he wrote that when the war was over he was going to buy two pups, name one of them ``fall-in'' and the other ``close-up,'' and then shoot them both, ``and that will be the end of 'fall-in' and' close-up'.''

The soldiers who comprised the rank and file of the Civil War armies were an earthy people. They talked and wrote much about the elemental functions of the body. One of the most common of camp maladies was diarrhoea. Men of more delicate sensibilities referred to this condition as ``looseness of the bowels''; but a much more common designation was ``the sh-ts.'' A Michigan soldier stationed in Georgia wrote in 1864: ``I expect to be tough as a knott as soon as I get over the Georgia Shitts.'' Johnny Rebs from the deep South who were plagued with diarrhoea after transfer to the Virginia front often informed their families that they were suffering from the ``the Virginia quickstep.''

A Georgia soldier gave his wife the following description of the cause and consequence of diarrhoea: ``I have bin a little sick with diorah two or three days. I eat too much eggs and poark it sowered [on] my stomack and turn loose on me.'' A Michigan soldier wrote his brother: ``I am well at present with the exception I have got the Dyerear and I hope thease few lines find you the same.''