Camp Architecture (January 1864)

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The ingenuity and taste of the American soldier is strikingly illustrated in the variety of architecture which he adorns his summer quarters. Camps were surrounded with neat hedges, arches bearing the corps badge and other devices were erected at the entrances. The forests were ransacked for the brightest foliage, branches of the pine, cedar, and holly were laboriously collected, and the work of beautifying the quarters continued as long as material could be procured. Tents were sheltered from the sun by roofs of deftly woven twigs and leaves. Sometimes a framework was erected around a number of tents, upon which was fastened a thick covering of evergreens, completely hiding the interior, and forming a home delightfully cool, even in the hottest days.

Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War - Plate 57