t was understood that a
projected attack by the enemy on the defences of the town was the cause
of this movement. Nothing of the kind, however, took place.

The heat was now intense, and the sickness increased with alarming
rapidity. The building of quarters was given up or postponed, and the
houses, more or less finished, occupied as well as they could be.
Company E managed to complete--walls and roof--one of the four
prescribed barracks, but, being destitute of chinking, in a rainstorm
it afforded but poor shelter. Being composed of log and frame houses,
board and canvas shanties, the camp of the Sixth Regiment presented, by
autumn, a melancholy variety indeed.

Bast was detached for provost duty in Helena on the 16th; on the 18th
Schafer was detached for provost duty, and Praxl as nurse in the post
hospital on the 19th. J. J. Mueller was detached as cook in the
regimental hospital (now in town) on the 20th.

The following men of the company died while at Helena, viz.: Jean
Rossion on July 25th; Joseph Rachel, July 27th; Louis Wetterau, August
5th; Frederick Schoenheiter on the 10th, Michael Boos on the 18th;
August Willialms on the 23rd, and Henry Reuter on the 25th. The latter
was the last of the company that died at Helena; all seven dying of
disease. They were buried with the rest of the regimental dead on the
summit of a rising ground about one-half mile northwest of the camp.
Properly marked boards were placed at their graves.

In September the sick men had become so numerous that large numbers
were sent north. Of Company E there went as follows: On the 1st of the
month, Bristle was sent to the hospital at Memphis; Corporal Hoscheid,
wagoner Henricks, Foglesang, Metz, Mueckenhausen, Rehse, Thiele, and H.
Wetterau, sick, were sent to the hospital at Jefferson Barracks, Mo.,
on the 3rd; Sergeants Leitner and Stiefel, Corporals Neierburg,
Juergens, and Radke, and Ferlein, Gabbert, Hauck, Holtzmer, John,
Kilian, Kraemer, Krueger, M. Mueller, Munson, Schene, Steck, and Temme,
sick, were also sent to Jefferson Barracks hospital, on the 19th. F.
Henricks rejoined on the 21st, and on the same day Sergeant Rohde was
relieved.

At about this time the once strong Sixth Regiment had become the shadow
of its former self, and added little to the effective strength of the
garrison of the post. It was pitiable to look at the companies as they
marched to dress parade; very often having but half a dozen men in
line.

Gant