Life settled into a routine by the first of August. That didn’t mean it got easy. All the soldiers, white and black, had worked in the woods for weeks. The racial issues that plagued the black regiments hadn’t gone away, but by August they lurked in the background–part of the routine.
New Plan and new route–more on August
The details of daily living and working—eating; sleeping; recreating (or lack thereof) and, above all, gouging a highway out of the forbidding wilderness, one mile at a time—had fallen into a pattern that more or less applied to all of the regiments. The road emerged, threading its way through the vast wilderness; and everybody focused on completing it.
The mosquitoes disappeared in August, but the North Country had more creatures than one up its sleeve. Swarming Gnats, accompanied by “no-see-ums”, replaced the mosquitoes; made the mosquitoes seem almost gentle by comparison. Small, built for speed, a gnat used its tiny mandibles to attack and eat a man’s flesh, leaving behind a swollen, itching clot of blood. Gnats especially favored ears, but they weren’t picky, and clothing offered no protection. One surveyor, eyes swollen and ears bloody, found six more gnats in his navel.
The North Country finally dried out in August, but that, too, offered the troops only temporary relief. The endless mud dried into endless red dust that swirled to cover duffle bags, pack the creases in fatigues and abrade vital machine parts. Soldiers of the 93rd, convoyed by truck to Teslin Post, arrived unrecognizable, their faces totally obscured by red dust.
Life in the field had become routine; but no amount of routine could make it easy.
