On the 26th of July the regiment went out about two miles beyond the picket lines on the Little Rock road to cover the retreat of some colored troops and cavalry who had been very severely handled that morning at a creek some few miles west of town. On the 1st of August it went out again on the same road as before, but not quite so far, and remained on picket in the woods on the right of the road during the night, returning to camp the next morning. It 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.