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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 LIBRARY 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 OUT-DOOR PAPERS. 
 
 1 vol. 16mo. Cloth, $ 1.50. 
 
 Saints and theie Bodies. 
 
 Phtsical Cooeaqe. 
 
 A Letter to a Dyspeptic. 
 
 The Murdeb op the Innocents 
 
 Babbarisu and Citiuzation. 
 
 Gymnastics. 
 
 A New Codntebblast. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The IIeaith op otm Gnus. 
 
 April Bays. 
 
 My Odt-Door Study. 
 
 Wateb-Lilies. 
 
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 Tne Fbocession of tqe Jlowebs. 
 
 Snow. 
 
 MALBONE: 
 
 AN OLDPORT ROMANCE. 
 
 1 vol. IGmo. Cloth, S 1.50. 
 
 riELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Publishers. 
 
ARMY LIFE 
 
 A BLACK REGIMENT. 
 
 THOMAS WENTWOETH ^TGGrNSON, 
 
 Lai£ Colonel Isi South Caeouka VoLnsisEES. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 
 
 1870. 
 
 ~P <■-■-- 
 
lUf^fVERSIT 
 \- LIBRARY 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 University Press: Welch, Bigelow, 
 Cambridge. 
 
 Co., 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Inteoductokt r 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Camp Diaet 6 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Up the St. Maet's 62 f^ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Up the St. John's 97 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Our ON Picket 130 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A Night in the Water 152 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Up the Edisto . 167 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Baby of the Regiment ... . . 185 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Negeo Spieituals 197 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Life at Camp Shaw 223 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Florida Again? 234 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Negeo as a Soldiee 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Conclusion 264 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. RosTEK OP Officeks 269 
 
 B. The First Black Soldieks 272 
 
 C. General Saxton's Instkdctions . . . 278 
 
 X>. The Struggle for Pay 280 
 
 E. Farewell Address . ... 292 
 
 INDEX 295 
 
AMY LIFE O A BLACK REGIMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 THESE pages record some of the adventures of the 
 First South Carolina Volunteers, — the first slave 
 regiment mustered into the service of the United States 
 during the late civil war. It was, indeed, the first col- 
 ored regiment of any kind so mustered, except a portion 
 of the troops raised by Major-General Butler at New 
 Orleans. These scarcely belonged to the same class, 
 however, being recruited from the free colored popula- 
 tion of that city, a comparatively self-reliant and educated 
 race. " The darkest of them,'' said General Butler, 
 " were about the complexion of the late Mr. Webster." 
 The First South Carolina, on the other hand, con- 
 tained scarcely a freeman, had not one mulatto in ten, 
 and a far smaller proportion who could read or write 
 when enlisted. The only contemporary regiment of a 
 similar character was the " First Kansas Colored," 
 which began recruiting a little earlier, though it was not 
 mustered in — the usual basis of military seniority — 
 till later.* These were the only colored regiments 
 recruited during the year 1862. The Second South 
 Carolina and the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts followed 
 
 early in 1863. 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 1* A 
 
2 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 This is the way in which I came to the command of 
 this regiment. One day in Ngvember, 1862, 1 was sitting 
 at dinner with my lieutenants, John Goodell and Luther 
 Bigelow, in the barracks of the Fifty-First Massa- 
 chusetts, Colonel Sprague, when the following letter 
 was put into my hands : — 
 
 Beaufoet, S. C, November 5, 1862. 
 Mt deak Sir, — I am organizing the First Regi- 
 ment of South Carolina Volunteers, with every prospect 
 of success. Your name has been spoken of, in connec- 
 tion with the command of this regiment, by some friends 
 in whose judgment I have confidence. I take great 
 pleasure in offering you the position of Colonel in it, and 
 hope that you may be induced to accept. I shall not 
 fill the place until I hear from you, or suiRcient time 
 shall have passed for me to receive your reply. Should 
 you accept, I enclose a pass for Port Royal, of which I 
 trust you will feel disposed to avail yourself at once. 
 I am, with sincere regard, yours truly, 
 
 R. Saxton, 
 
 Brig.-Genl., Mil. Gov. 
 
 Had an invitation reached me to take command of a 
 regiment of Kalmuck Tartars, it could hardly have been 
 more unexpected. 1 had always looked for the arming 
 of the blacks, and had always felt a wish to be associated 
 with them ; had read the scanty accounts of General 
 Hunter's abortive regiment, and had heard rumors of 
 General Saxton's renewed efforts. But the prevalent 
 tone of public sentiment was still opposed to any such 
 attempts ; the government kept very shy of the experi- 
 ment, and it did not seem possible that the time had 
 come when it could be fairly tried. 
 
 For myself, I was at the head of a fine company 
 of my own raising, and in a regiment to which I was 
 already much attached. It did not seem desirable to 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 exchange a certainty for an uncertainty ; for who knew 
 but General Saxton might yet be thwarted in his efforts 
 by the pro-slavery influence that had still so much weight 
 at head-quarters ? It would be intolerable to go out to 
 South Carolina, and find myself, after all, at the head of 
 a mere plantation-guard or a day-school in uniform. 
 
 I therefore obtained from the War Department, 
 through Governor Andrew, permission to go and report 
 to General Saxton, without at once resigning my cap- 
 taincy. Fortunately it took but a few days in South 
 Carolina to make it clear that all was right, and the 
 return steamer took back a resignation of a Massachu- 
 setts commission. Thenceforth my lot was cast alto- 
 gether with the black troops, except when regiments or 
 detachments of white soldiers were also under my com- 
 mand, during the two years following. 
 
 These details would not be worth mentioning except 
 as they show this fact : that I did not seek the command 
 of colored troops, but it sought me. And this fact again 
 is only important to my story for this reason, that under 
 these circumstances I naturally viewed the new recruits 
 rather as subjects for discipline than for philanthropy. 
 I had been expecting a war for six years, ever since the 
 Kansas troubles, and my mind had dwelt on military 
 matters more or less during all that time. The best Mas- 
 sachusetts regiments already exhibited a high standard 
 of drill and discipline, and unless these men could be 
 brought tolerably near that standard, the fact of their 
 extreme blackness would aflford me, even as a philanthro- 
 pist, no satisfaction. Fortunately, I felt perfect confi- 
 dence that they could be so trained, — having happily 
 known, by experience, the qualities of their race, and 
 knowing also that they had home and household and 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 freedom to fight for, besides that abstraction of " the 
 Union." Trouble might perhaps be expected from white 
 officials, though this turned out far less than might have 
 been feared ; but there was no trouble to come from the 
 men, I thought, and none ever came. On the other 
 hand, it was a vast experiment of indirect philanthropy, 
 and one on which the result of the war and the destiny 
 of the negro race might rest ; and this was enough to 
 tax all one's powers. I had been an abolitionist too 
 long, and had known and loved John Brown too well, 
 not to feel a thrill of joy at last on finding myself in the 
 position where he only wished to be. 
 
 In view of all this, it was clear that good discipline 
 must come first ; after that, of course, the men must be 
 helped and elevated in all ways as much as possible. 
 
 Of discipline there was great need, — that is, of order 
 and regular instruction. Some of the men had already 
 been under fire, but they were very ignorant of drill and 
 camp duty. The officers, being appointed from a dozen 
 diffijrent States, and more than as many regiments, — 
 infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers, — had all that 
 diversity of methods which so confused our army in 
 those early days. The first need, therefore, was of an 
 unbi-oken interval of training. During this period, which 
 fortunately lasted nearly two months, I rarely left the 
 camp, and got occasional leisure moments for a frag- 
 mentary journal, to send home, recording the many odd 
 or novel aspects of the new experience. Camp-life was 
 a wonderfully strange sensation to almost all volunteer 
 officers, and mine lay among eight hundred men sud- 
 \ jJenly transformed from slaves into soldiers, and repre- 
 V senting a race affiictionate, enthusiastic, grotesque, and 
 dramatic beyond all others. Being such, they naturally 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 gave material for description. There is nothing like a 
 diary for freshness, — at least so I think, — and I shall 
 keep to the diary through the days of camp-life, and 
 throw the later experience into another form. Indeed, 
 that matter taies care of itself ; diaries and letter-writing 
 stop when field-service begins. 
 
 I am under pretty heavy bonds to tell the truth, and 
 only the truth ; for those who look back to the news- 
 paper correspondence of that period will see that this par- 
 ticular regiment lived for months in a glare of publicity, 
 such as tests any regiment severely, and certainly pre- 
 vents all subsequent romancing in its historian. As the 
 scene of the only effort on the Atlantic coast to arm the 
 negro, our camp attracted a continuous stream of visitors, 
 military and civil. A battalion of black soldiers, a spec- 
 tacle since so common, seemed then the most daring of 
 innovations, and the whole demeanor of this particular 
 regiment was watched with microscopic scrutiny by 
 friends and foes. I felt sometimes as if we were a plant 
 trying to take root, but constantly pulled up to see if we 
 were growing. The slightest camp incidents sometimes 
 came back to us, magnified and distorted, in letters of 
 anxious inquiry from remote parts of the Union. It was 
 no pleasant tiling to live under such constant surveillance ; 
 but it guaranteed the honesty of any success, while fear- 
 fully multiplying the penalties had there been a failure. 
 A single mutiny, — such as has happened in the infancy 
 of a hundred regiments, — a single miniature Bull Run, 
 a stampede of desertions, and it would have been all 
 over with us ; the party of distrust would have got the 
 upper hand, and there might not have been, during tha 
 whole contest, another effort to arm the negro. 
 
 I may now proceed, without farther preparation, to 
 the Diary. 
 
6 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 Camp Saxton, near Beaufort, S. C, 
 November 24, 1862. 
 
 YESTERDAY afternoon we were steaming over a 
 summer sea, the deck level as a parlor-floor, no land 
 in sight, no sail, until at last appeared one light-house, said 
 to be Cape Romaine, and then a line of trees and two dis- 
 tant vessels and nothing more. The sun set, a great illu- 
 minated bubble, submerged in one vast bank of rosy 
 suffusion ; it grew dark ; after tea all were on deck, the 
 people sang hymns ; then the moon set, a moon two days 
 old, a curved pencil of light, reclining backwards on a 
 radiant couch which seeued to rise from the waves to 
 receive it ; it sank slowly, and the last tip wavered and 
 went down like the mast of a vessel of the skies. To- 
 wards morning the boat stopped, and when I came on 
 deck, before six, — 
 
 " The watch-lights glittered on the land, 
 The ship-lights on the se.o." 
 
 Hilton Head lay on one side, the gunboats on the 
 other ; all that was raw and bare in the low buildings of 
 the new settlement was softened into picturesqueness by 
 the early light. Stars were still overhead, gulls wheeled 
 and shrieked, and the broad river rippled duskily towards 
 Beaufort. 
 
 The shores were low and wooded, like any New Eng- 
 land shore ; there were a few gunboats, twenty schoonei-s, 
 and some steamers, among them the famous " Planter," 
 
CAMP DIARY. 7 
 
 which Robert Small, the slave, presented to the nation. 
 The river-banks were soft and graceful, though low, and 
 as we steamed up to Beaufort on the flood-tide this 
 morning, it seemed almost as fair as the smooth and 
 lovely canals which Stedman traversed to meet his negro 
 soldiers in Surinam. The air was cool as at home, yet 
 the foliage seemed green, glimpses of stiff tropical vege- 
 tation appeared along the banks, with great clumps of 
 shrubs, whose pale seed-vessels looked like tardy blos- 
 soms. Then we saw on a picturesque point an old plan- 
 tation, with stately magnolia avenue, decaying house, 
 and tiny church amid the woods, reminding me of Vir- 
 ginia ; behind it stood a neat encampment of white tents, 
 " and there," said my companion, " is your future regi- 
 ment." 
 
 Three miles farther brought us to the pretty town of 
 Beaufort, with its stately houses amid Southern foliage. 
 Reporting to General Saxton, I had the luck to encoun- 
 ter a company of my destined command, marched in to 
 be mustered into the United States service. They were 
 unarmed, and all looked as thoroughly black as the 
 most faithful philanthropist could desire ; there did not 
 seem to be so much as a mulatto among them. Their 
 coloring suited me, all but the legs, which were clad in a 
 lively scarlet, as intolerable to my eyes as if I had been 
 a turkey. I saw them mustered ; General Saxton talked 
 to them a little, in his direct, manly way ; they gave 
 close attention, though their faces looked impenetrable. 
 Then I conversed with some of i;hem. The first to whom 
 I spoke had been wounded in a small expedition after 
 lumber, from which a party had just returned, and in 
 which they had been under fire and had done very well. 
 I said, pointing to his lame arm, — 
 
8 CMilfP DIARY. 
 
 " Did you think that was more than you bargained 
 for, my man ? " 
 
 His answer came promptly and stoutly, — 
 "I been a-tinking, Mas'r, dot 's jess what I went foi:" 
 I thought this did well enough for my very first inter- 
 change of dialogue with my recruits. 
 
 November 27, 1862. 
 
 Thanksgiving-Day; it is the first moment I have had 
 for writing during these three days, which have installed 
 me inlo a new mode of life so thoroughly that they seem 
 three years. Scarcely pausing in New York or in 
 Beaufort, there seems to have been for me but one step 
 from the camp of a Massachusetts regiment to this, and 
 that step over leagues of waves. 
 
 It is a holiday wherever General Saxfon's proclama- 
 tion reaches. The chilly sunshine and the pale blue 
 river seem like New England, but those alone. The air 
 is full of noisy drumming, and of gunshots ; for the prize- 
 shooting is our great celebration of the day, and the 
 drumming is chronic. My young barbarians are all at 
 play. I look out from the broken windows of this forlorn 
 plantation-house, through avenues of great live-oaks, 
 with their hard, shining leaves, and their branches hung 
 with a universal drapery of soft, long moss, like fringe- 
 trees struck with grayness. Below, the sandy soil, 
 scantly covered with coarse grass, bristles with sharp 
 palmettoes and aloes ; all the vegetation is stiff, shining, 
 semi-tropical, with nothing soft or delicate in its tex- 
 ture. Numerous plantation-buildings totter around, all 
 slovenly and unattractive, while the interspaces are filled 
 with all manner of wreck and refuse, pigs, fowls, dogs, 
 and omnipresent Ethiopian infancy. All this is the 
 
CAMP DIARY. 9 
 
 universal Southern panorama ; but five minutes' walk 
 beyond the hovels and the live-oaks will bring one to 
 something so un-Southern that the whole Southern coast 1/ 
 at this moment trembles at the suggestion of such a 
 thing, — the camp of a regiment of freed slaves. 
 
 One adapts one's self so readily to new surroundings 
 that already the full zest of the novelty seems passing 
 away from my perceptions, and I write these lines in an 
 eager effort to retain all I can. Already I am growing 
 used to the experience, at first so novel, of livisg among 
 five hundred men, and scarce a white face to be seen, — 
 of seeing them go through all their daily processes, eat- 
 ing, frolicking, talking, just as if they were white. Each 
 day at dress-parade I stand with the customary folding 
 of the arms before a regimental line of countenances 
 so black that I can hardly tell whether the men stand 
 steadily or not ; black is every hand which moves in 
 ready cadence as I vociferate, " Battalion ! Shoulder 
 arms ! " nor is it till the Une of white officers moves for- 
 ward, as parade is dismissed, that I am reminded that 
 my own face is not the color of coaL 
 
 The first few days on duty with a new regiment must 
 be devoted almost wholly to tightening reins ; in this 
 process one deals chiefly with the officers, and I have as 
 yet had but little personal intercourse with the men. 
 They concern me chiefly in bulk, as so many consumers 
 of rations, wearers of uniforms, bearers of muskets. But 
 as the machine comes into shape, I am beginning to 
 decipher the individual parts. At first, of course, they 
 all looked just alike ; the variety comes afterwards, and 
 they are just as distinguishable, the officers say, as so 
 many whites. Most of them are wholly raw, but there 
 are many who have already been for months in camp in 
 1* 
 
10 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 the abortive " Hunter Regiment," yet in that loose kind 
 of way which, like average militia training, is a doubt- 
 ful advantage. I notice that some companies, too, look 
 darker than others, though all are purer African than I 
 expected. This is said to be partly a geographical dif- 
 ference between the South Carolina and Florida men. 
 When the Rebels evacuated this region they probably 
 took with them the house-servants, including most of the 
 mixed blood, so that the residuum seems very black. 
 But the'toen brought from Fernandina the other day 
 average lighter in complexion, and look more intelligent, 
 and they certainly take wonderfully to the drill. 
 
 It needs but a few days to show the absurdity of 
 distrusting the military availability of these people. 
 ■ They have quite as much average comprehension as 
 whites of the need of the thing, as much courage (I 
 doubt not), as much previous knowledge of the gun, and, 
 above all, a readiness of ear and of imitation, which, for 
 purposes of drill, counterbalances any defect of mental 
 \ /training. To learn the drill, one does not want a set of 
 college professors ; one wants a squad of eager, active, 
 pliant school-boys ; and the more childlike these pupils 
 are the better. There is no trouble about the drill ; 
 they will surpass whites in that. As to camp-life, they 
 have little to sacrifice ; they are better fed, housed, and 
 clothed than ever in their lives before, and they ap- 
 pear to have few inconvenient vices. They are simple, 
 docile, and affectionate almost to the point of absurdity?' 
 The same men who stood fire in open field with perfect 
 coolness, on the late expedition, have come to me blub- 
 bering in the most irresistibly ludicrous manner on being 
 transferred from one company in the regiment to an- 
 other. 
 
CAMP DIARY. 11 
 
 In noticing the squad-drills I perceive that the men 
 learn less laboriously than whites that " double, double, 
 toil and trouble," which is the elementary vexation of 
 the drill-master, — that they more rarely mistake their 
 left for their right, — and are more grave and sedate / 
 •while under instruction. The extremes of jollity and / 
 sobriety, being greater with them, are less liable to ba / 
 intermingled; these companies can be driven with a 
 looser rein than my former one, for they restrain them- 
 selves ; but the moment they are dismissed from drill 
 ever)' tongue is relaxed and every ivory tooth visible. . 
 This morning I wandered about where the different 
 companies were target-shooting, and their glee was con- 
 tagious. Such exulting shouts of " Ki ! ole man," when 
 some steady old turkey-shooter brought his gun down 
 for an instant's aim, and then unerringly hit the mark ; 
 and then, when some unwary youth fired his piece into 
 the ground at half-cock, such infinite guffawing and 
 delight, such rolling over and over on the grass, such 
 dances of ecstasy, as made the " Ethiopian minstrelsy " X 
 of the stage appear a feeble imitation. 
 
 Evening. — Better still was a scene on which I stum- 
 hled to-night. Strolling in the cool moonlight, 1 was 
 attracted by a brilliant light beneath the trees, and cau- 
 tiously approached it. A circle of thirty or forty soldiers 
 sat around a roaring fire, while one old uncle, Cato by 
 name, was narrating an interminable tale, to the insatiable 
 delight of his audience. I came up into the dusky back- 
 ground, perceived only by a few, and he still continued. 
 It was a narrative, dramatized to the last degree, of his 
 adventures in escaping from his master to the Union 
 vessels ; and even I, who have heard the stories of 
 Harriet Tubman, and such wonderful slave-comedians, 
 
12 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 never witnessed such a piece of acting. When I came 
 upon the scene he had just come unexpectedly upon a 
 plantation-house, and, putting a bold face upon it, had 
 walked up to the door. 
 
 " Den I go up to de white man, berry humble, and say, 
 would he please gib ole man a mouthful for eat? 
 
 " He say he must hab de valeration ob half a dollar. 
 
 " Den I look berry sorry, and turn for go away. 
 
 " Den he say I might gib him dat hatchet I had. 
 
 " Den I say " (this in a tragic vein) " dat I must hab 
 dat hatchet for defend myself from de dogs ! " 
 
 [Immense applause, and one appreciating auditor says, 
 chuckling, " Dat was your arms, ole man," which brings 
 down the house again.] 
 
 " Den he say de Yankee pickets was near by, and I 
 must be very keerful. 
 
 " Den I say, ' Good Lord, Mas'r, am dey ? ' " 
 
 Words cannot express the complete dissimulation with 
 which these accents of terror were uttered, — this beins 
 precisely the piece of information he wished to obtain. 
 
 Then he narrated his devices to get into the house at 
 night and obtain some food, — how a dog flew at him, — 
 how the whole household, black and white, rose in pur- 
 suit, — how he scrambled under a hedge and over a hin-h 
 fence, etc., — all in a style of which Gough alone among 
 orators can give the faintest impression, so thorou^lily 
 dramatized was every syllable. 
 
 Then he described his reaching the river-side at last, 
 and trying to decide whether certain vessels held friends 
 or foes. 
 
 " Den I see guns on board, and sure sartin he Union 
 boat, and I pop my head up. Den I been-a-tink [think] 
 Seceshkey hab guns too, and my head go down again. 
 
CAMP DIARY. 13 
 
 Den I hide in de bush till morning. Den I open my 
 bundle, and take ole white shirt and tie him on ole pole 
 and wave him, and ebry time de wind blow, I been- 
 a-tremble, and drap down in de bushes," — because, 
 being between two fires, he doubted whether friend or 
 foe would see his signal first. And so on, with a succes- 
 sion of tricks beyond Molifere, of acts of caution, foresight, 
 patient cunning, which were listened to with infinite 
 gusto and perfect comprehension by every listener. 
 
 And all this to a bivouac of negro soldiers, with the 
 brilliant fire lighting up their red trousers and gleaming 
 from their shining black faces, — eyes and teeth all white 
 with tumultuous glee. Overhead, the mighty limbs of 
 a great live-oak, with the weird moss swaying in the 
 smoke, and the high moon gleaming faintly through. 
 
 Yet to-morrow strangers will remark on the hopeless, 
 impenetrable stupidity in the daylight faces of many of 
 these very men, the solid mask under which Nature has 
 concealed all this wealth of mother-wit. This very 
 comedian is one to whom one might point, as he hoed 
 lazily in a cotton-field, as a being the light of whose brain 
 had utterly gone out ; and this scene seems like coming 
 by night upon some conclave of black beetles, and finding 
 them engaged, with green-room and foot-lights, in enact- 
 ing " Poor Pillicoddy." This is their university ; every 
 young Sambo before me, as he turned over the sweet 
 potatoes and peanuts which were roasting in the 
 ashes, listened with reverence to the wiles of the ancient 
 Ulysses, and meditated the same. It is Nature's com- 
 pensation ; oppression simply crushes the upper faculties 
 of the head, and crowds everything into the perceptive 
 organs. Cato, thou reasonest well ! When I get into 
 any serious scrape, in an enemy's country, may I be 
 
4 
 
 14 CA3IP DIARY. 
 
 lucky enough to tave you at my elbow, to pull me out 
 of it! 
 
 The men seem to have enjoyed the novel event of 
 Thanksgiving-Day ; they have had company and regi-^ 
 mental prize-shootings, a minimum of speeches and a 
 maximum of dinner. Bill of fare : two beef-cattle and a 
 thousand oranges. The oranges cost a cent apiece, and 
 the cattle were Secesh, bestowed by General Saxby, 
 as they all call him. 
 
 Decemter 1, 1862. 
 
 r 
 
 t How absurd is the impression bequeathed by Slavery 
 
 'in regard to these Southern blacks, that they are sluggish 
 and inefficient in labor ! \ Last night, after a hard day's 
 work (our guns and the remainder of our tents being 
 just issued), an order came from Beaufort that we 
 should be ready in the evening to unload a steamboat's 
 cargo of boards, being some of those captured by them a 
 few weeks since, and now assigned for their use. I won- 
 dered if the men would grumble at the night-work ; but 
 the steamboat arrived by seven, and it was bright moon- 
 light when they went at it. Never have I beheld such 
 a jolly scene of labor. Tugging these wet and heavy 
 boards over a bridge of boats ashore, then across the 
 slimy beach at low tide, then up a steep bank, and all in 
 one great uproar of merriment,for two hours. Runnint' 
 most of the time, chattering all the time, snatching the 
 boards from each other's backs as if they were some 
 coveted treasure, getting up eager rivalries between 
 different compauies, pouring great choruses of ridicule 
 on the heads of all shirkers, they made the whole scene 
 so enlivening that I gladly stayed out in the moonlight 
 for the wliole time to watch it. And all tliis without 
 any urging or any promised reward, but simply as the 
 
CAMP DIARY. 15 
 
 most natural way of doing the thing. The steamboat 
 captain declared that they unloaded the ten thousand 
 feet of boards quicker than any white gang could have 
 done it ; and they felt it so little, that, when, later in the 
 night, I reproached one whom I found sitting by a camp- 
 fire, cooking a surreptitious opossum, telling him that he 
 ought to be asleep after such a job of work, he answered, 
 with the broadest grin, — 
 
 " O no, Gunnel, da's no work at all. Gunnel ; dat 
 only jess enough for stretch we," 
 
 December 2, 1862. 
 
 I believe I have not yet enumerated the probable 
 drawbacks to the success of this regiment, if any. We 
 are exposed to no direct annoyance from the white regi- 
 ments, being out of their way ; and we have as yet no 
 discomforts or privations which we do not share with 
 them. I do not as yet see the slightest obstacle, in the 
 nature of the blacks, to making them good soldiers, 
 but rather the contrary i_ They take readily to drill 
 do not object to discipline ; they are not especially 
 or inattentive ; they seem fully to understand the im- 
 portance of the contest, and of their share in it. They 
 show no jealousy or suspicion towards their officers.\ 
 
 They do show these feelings, however, towards the 
 Government itself; and no one can wonder. Here lies 
 the drawback to rapid recruiting. Were this a wholly 
 new regiment, it would have been full to overflowing, I 
 am satisfied, ere now. The trouble is in the legacy of 
 bitter distrust bequeathed by the abortive regiment of 
 General Hunter, — into which they were driven like 
 cattle, kept for several months in camp, and then turned 
 off without a shilling, by order of the War Department. 
 The formation of that regiment was, on the whole, a great 
 
 iiers, 
 , and. / 
 
16 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 injury to this one ; and the men who came from it, 
 though the best soldiers we have in other respects, are 
 the least sanguine and cheerful ; while those who now 
 refuse to enlist have a great influence in deterring others. 
 Our soldiers are constantly twitted by their families and 
 friends with their prospect of risking their lives in the 
 service, and being paid nothing ; and it is in vain that we 
 read them the instructions of the Secretary of War to 
 General Saxton, promising them the full pay of soldiers. 
 They only half believe it.* 
 
 Another drawback is that some of the white soldiers 
 delight in frightening the women on the plantations with 
 doleful tales of plans for putting us in the front rank in 
 all battles, and such silly talk, — the object being, per- 
 haps, to prevent our being employed on active service at 
 all. All these considerations they feel precisely as white 
 men would, — no less, no more ; and it is the compara- 
 tive freedom from such unfavorable influences which 
 makes the Florida men seem more bold and manly, as 
 they undoubtedly do. To-day General Saxton has re- 
 turned from Fernandina with seventy-six recruits, and 
 the eagerness of the captains to secure them was a sight 
 to see. Yet they cannot deny that some of the very best 
 men in the regiment are South Carolinians. 
 
 December 3, 1862. — 7 p. M. 
 What a life is this I lead ! It is a dark, mild, drizzling 
 evening, and as the foggy air breeds sand-flies, so it calls 
 out melodies and strange antics from this mysterious race 
 
 * With what utter humiliation were we, their officers, obliged to con- 
 fess to them, eighteen months afterwards, that it was tlieir distnist 
 wliich was wise, and our faitli in tlie pledges of the United States 
 Government which was foolishness ! 
 
CAMP DIARY. 17 
 
 of grown-up children witli whom my lot is cast. All 
 over the camp the lights glimmer in the tents, and as I 
 sit at my desk in the open doorway, there come mingled 
 sounds of stir and glee. Boys laugh and shout, — a 
 feeble flute stirs somewhere in some tent, not an officer's, — 
 a drum throbs far away in another, — wild kildeer-plover 
 flit and wail above us, like the haunting souls of dead 
 slave-masters, — and from a neighboring cook-fire comes 
 the monotonous sound of that strange festival, half pow-r^/ a ' 
 wow, half prayer-meeting, which they know only as a 
 " shout." These fires are usually enclosed in a little 
 booth, made neatly of palm-leaves and covered in at top, 
 a regular native African hut, in short, such as is pictured 
 in books, and such as I once got up from dried palm- 
 leaves for a fair at home. This hut is now crammed 
 with men, singing at the top of their voices, in one 
 of their quaint, monotonous, endless, negro-Methodist 
 chants, with obscure syllables recurring constantly, 
 and slight variations interwoven, all accompanied with 
 a regular drumming of the feet and clapping of the 
 hands, like castanets. Then the excitement spreads : 
 inside and outside the enclosure men begin to quiver 
 and dance, others join, a circle forms, winding monoto- 
 nously round some one in the centre ; some " heel and 
 toe" tumultuously, others merely tremble and stagger 
 on, others stoop and rise, others whirl, others caper side- 
 ways, all keep steadily circling like dervishes ; spectators 
 applaud special strokes of skill ; my approach only en- 
 livens the scene ; the circle enlarges, louder grows the 
 singing, rousing shouts of encouragement come in, half 
 bacchanalian, half devout, " Wake 'era, brudder ! " 
 " Stan' up to 'em, brudder ! " — and still the ceaseless 
 drumming and clapping, in perfect cadence, goes steadily 
 
 B 
 
18 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 on. Suddenly there comes a sort of snap, and the spell 
 > breaks, amid general sighing and laughter. And this 
 \ not rarely and occasionally, but night after night, while 
 I in/other parts of the camp the soberest prayers and 
 [exhortations are proceeding sedately. 
 . /La simple and lovable people, whose graces seem to 
 ^come by nature, and whose vices by training. Some of 
 the best superintendents confirm the first tales of inno- 
 cence, and Dr. Zachos told me last night that on his 
 plantation, a sequestered one, " they had absolutely no 
 vices." Nor have these men of mine yet shown any 
 worth mentioning ; since I took command I have heard 
 of no man intoxicated, and there has been but one small 
 quarrel. I suppose that scarcely a white regiment in 
 the army shows so little swearing. Take the " Progres- 
 sive Friends " and put them in red trousers, and I verily 
 believe they would fill a guard-house sooner than these 
 men. If camp regulations are violated, it seems to be 
 usually through heedlessness. They love passionately 
 lihree things besides their spiritual incantations ; name- 
 ' ly, sugar, home, and tobacco. This last affection brings 
 tears to their eyes, almost, when they speak of their 
 urgent need of pay ; they speak of their last-remem- 
 bered quid as if it were some deceased relative, too early 
 lost, and to be mourned forever. As for sugar, no white 
 man can drink coffee after they have sweetened it to 
 their liking, j 
 
 I see that the pride which military life creates may 
 cause the plantation trickeries to diminish. For instance, 
 these men make the most admirable sentinels. It is far 
 harder to pass the camp lines at night than in the camp 
 from which I came ; and I have seen none of that dispo- 
 sition to connive at the offences of members of one's own 
 
 ih 
 
 V/lv 
 
CAMP DIARY. 19 
 
 company which is so troublesome among white soldiers. 
 Nor are they lazy, either about work or drill ; in all 
 respects they seem better material for soldiers than I 
 had dared to hope. 
 
 There is one company in particular, all Florida men, 
 which I certainly think the finest-looking company I 
 ever saw, white or black ; they range admirably in size, 
 have remarkable erectness and ease of carriage, and 
 really march splendidly. Not a visitor but notices them ; 
 yet they have been under drill only a fortnight, and a 
 part only two days. They have all been slaves, and 
 very few are even mulattoes. 
 
 December 4, 1862. 
 
 " Dwelling in tents, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 
 This condition is certainly mine, — and with a multitude 
 of patriarchs beside, not to mention Cassar and Pompey, 
 Hercules and Bacchus. 
 
 A moving life, tented at night, this experience has 
 been mine in civil society, if society be civil before the 
 luxurious forest fires of Maine and the Adirondack, or 
 upon the lonely prairies of Kansas. But a stationary 
 tent life, deliberately going to housekeeping under can- 
 vas, I have never had before, though in our barrack life 
 at " Camp Wool " I often wished for it. 
 
 The accommodations here are about as liberal as my 
 quarters there, two wall-tents being placed end to end, 
 for office and bedroom, and separated at will by a " fly " 
 of canvas. There is a good board floor and mop-board, 
 efiectually excluding dampness and draughts, and every- 
 thing 'but sand, which on windy days penetrates every- 
 where. The oflace furniture consists of a good desk or 
 secretary, a very clumsy and disastrous settee, and a 
 remarkable chair. The desk is a bequest of the slave- 
 
20 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 holders, and the settee of the slaves, being ecclesiastical 
 in its origin, and appertaining to the little old church or 
 - " praise-house," now used for commissary purposes. The 
 chair is a composite structure : I found a cane seat on a 
 dust-heap, which a black sergeant combined with two 
 legs from a broken bedstead and two more from an oak- 
 bough. I sit on it with a pride of conscious invention, 
 mitigated by profound insecurity. Bedroom furniture, 
 a couch made of gun-boxes covered with condemned 
 blankets, another settee, two pails, a tin cup, tin basin 
 (we prize any tin or wooden ware as savages prize iron), 
 and a valise, regulation size. Seriously considered, noth- 
 ing more appears needful, unless ambition might crave 
 another chair for company, and, perhaps, something for a 
 wash-stand higher than a settee. 
 
 To-day it rains hard, and the wind quivers through the 
 closed canvas, and makes one feel at sea. All the talk 
 of the camp outside is fused into a cheerful and indis- 
 tinguishable murmur, pierced through at every moment 
 by the wail of the hovering plover. Sometimes a face, 
 black or white, peei's through the entrance with some 
 message. Since the light readily penetrates, though the 
 rain cannot, the tent conveys a feeling of charmed secur- 
 ity, as if an invisible boundary checked the pattering 
 drops and held the moaning wind. The front tent I 
 share, as yet, with my adjutant; in the inner apartment 
 I reign supreme, bounded in a nutshell, with no bad 
 dreams. 
 
 In all pleasant weather the outer " fly " is open, and 
 men pass and repass, a chattering throng. I think of 
 Emerson's Saadi, " As thou sittest at thy door, on the 
 desert's yellow floor," — for these bare sand-plains, gray 
 above, are always yellow when upturned, and there seems 
 a tinge of Orientalism in all our life. 
 
CAMP DIARY. 21 
 
 Thrice a day we go to the plantation-houses for our 
 meals, camp-arrangements being yet very imperfect. 
 The officers board in different messes, the adjutant and 
 I still clinging to the household of William Washington, 
 — William the quiet and the courteous, the pattern of 
 house-servants, William the noiseless, the observing, the 
 discriminating, who knows everything that can be got, 
 and how to cook it. William and his tidy, lady-like 
 little spouse Hetty — a pair of wedded lovers, if ever I 
 saw one — set our table in their one room, half-way be- 
 tween an unglazed window and a large wood-fire, such as 
 is often welcome. Thanks to the adjutant, we are pro- 
 vided with the social magnificence of napkins ; while 
 (lest pride take too high a flight) our table-cloth consists 
 of two " New York Tribunes " and a " Leslie's Pictorial." 
 Every steamer brings us a clean table-cloth. Here are 
 we forever supplied with pork and oysters and sweet 
 potatoes and rice and hominy and corn-bread and milk ; 
 also mysterious griddle-cakes of corn and pumpkin ; also 
 preserves made of pumpkin-chips, and other fanciful pro- 
 ductions of Ethiop art. Mr. E. promised the plantation- 
 superintendents who should come down here " all the 
 luxuries of home," and we certainly have much apparent, 
 if little real variety. Once William produced with some 
 palpitation something fricasseed, which he boldly termed 
 chicken ; it was very small, and seemed in some unde- 
 veloped condition of ante-natal toughness. After the 
 meal he frankly avowed it for a squirrel. 
 
 December 5, 1862. 
 Give these people their tongues, their feet, and their 
 leisure, and they are happy. At every twilight the air is 
 full of singing, talking, and clapping of hands in unison. 
 
22 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 One of their favorite songs is full of plaintive cadences ; 
 it is not, I think, a Methodist tune, and I wonder where 
 they obtained a chant of such beauty. 
 
 *' I can't stay behind, my Lord, I can't stay behind ! 
 0, my fatlier is gone, my father is gone. 
 My father is gone into lieaven, my Lord ! 
 I can't stay behind! 
 * Dere 's room enough, room enough, 
 Room enough in de heaven for de sojer: 
 Can't stay behind! " 
 
 It always excites them to have us looking on, yet they 
 sing these songs at all times and seasons. I have heard 
 this very song dimly droning on near midnight, and, 
 tracing it into the recesses of a cook-house, have found 
 an old fellow coiled away among the pots and provisions, 
 chanting away with his " Can't stay behind, sinner," till 
 I made him leave his song behind. 
 
 This evening, after working themselves up to the high- 
 est pitch, a party suddenly rushed off", got a barrel, and 
 mounted some man upon it, who said, " Gib anoder song 
 boys, and 1 'se gib you a speech." After some hesitation 
 and sundry shouts of " Rise de sing, somebody," and 
 " Stan' up for Jesus, brudder," irreverently put in by the 
 juveniles, they got upon the John Brown song, always a 
 favorite, adding a jubilant verse which I had never before 
 heard, — " We '11 beat Beauregard on de clare battle- 
 field." Then came the promised speech, and then no 
 less than seven other speeches by as many men, on a 
 variety of barrels, each orator being affectionately tu"-n-ed 
 to the pedestal and set on end by his special constituency. 
 Every speech was good, withouf exception ; with the 
 queerest oddities of phrase and pronunciation, there was 
 an invariable enthusiasm, a pungency of statement, and 
 
CAMP DIARY. 23 
 
 an understanding of the points at issue, which made them 
 all rather thrilling. Those long-winded slaves in 
 " Among the Pines " seemed rather fictitious and literary 
 in comparisonr The most eloquent, perhaps, was Cor- 
 poral Prince Lambkin, just arrived from Fernandina, 
 who evidently had a previous reputation among them. 
 His historical references were very interesting. He re- 
 minded them that he had predicted this war ever since 
 Fremont's time, to which some of the crowd assented ; he 
 gave a very intelligent account of that Presidential cam- 
 paign, and then described most impressively the secret 
 anxiety of the slaves in Florida to know all about Presi- 
 dent Lincoln's election, and told how they all refused to 
 work on the fourth of March, expecting their freedom to 
 date from that day. He finally brought out one of the 
 few really impressive appeals for the American flag that 
 I have ever heard. " Our mas'rs dey hab lib under de 
 flag, dey got dere wealth under it, and ebryting beautiful 
 for dere chilen. Under it dey hab grind us up, and put 
 us in dere pocket for money. But de fus' minute dey 
 tink dat ole flag mean freedom for we colored people, 
 dey pull it right down, and run up de rag ob dere own." 
 (Immense applause). " But we '11 neber desert de ole 
 flag, boys, neber ; we hab lib under it for eighteen hun- 
 dred sixty-two years, and we '11 die for it now." "With 
 which overpowering discharge of chronology-at-long- 
 range, this most effective of stump-speeches closed. I 
 see already with relief that there will be small demand 
 in this regiment for harangues from the officers ; give the 
 men an empty barrel for a stump, and they will do their 
 own exhortation. 
 
 December 11, 1862. 
 
 Haronn Alraschid, wandering in disguise through his 
 
24 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 imperial streets, scarcely happened upon a greater variety 
 of groups than I, in my evening strolls among our own 
 camp-fires. 
 
 Beside some of these fires the men are cleaning their 
 guns or rehearsing their drill, — beside others, smoking 
 in silence their very scanty supply of the beloved tobacco, 
 — beside others, telling stories and shouting with laugh- 
 ter over the broadest mimicry, in which they excel, and 
 in which the ofiicers come in for a full share. The ever- 
 ^ lasting " shout " is always within hearing, with its mix- 
 ture of piety and polka, and its castanet-like clapping of 
 the hands. Then there are quieter prayer-meetings, with 
 pious invocations and slow psalms, "deaconed out" from 
 memory by the leader, two lines at a time, in a sort of 
 wailing chant. Elsewhere, there are conversazioni around 
 fires, with a woman for queen of the circle, — her Nubian 
 face, gay headdress, gilt necklace, and white teeth, all re- 
 splendent in the glowing light. Sometimes the woman is 
 spelling slow monosyllables out of a primer, a feat which 
 always commands all ears, — they rightly recognizing a 
 mighty spell, equal to the overthrowing of monarohs, in 
 the magic assonance of cat, hat, pat, bat, and the rest of 
 it. Elsewhere, it is some solitary old cook, some aged 
 Uncle Tiff, with enormous spectacles, who is perusing a 
 hymn-book by the light of a pine splinter, in his deserted 
 cooking booth of palmetto leaves. By another fire there 
 is an actual dance, red-legged soldiers doing right-and-left, 
 and " now-lead-de-lady-ober," to the music of a violin 
 which is rather artistically played, and which may have 
 guided the steps, in other days, of Barnwells and Hugers. 
 And yonder is a stump-orator perched on his barrel, 
 pouring out his exhortations to fidelity in war and in 
 religion. To-night for the first time I have heard an 
 
CAMP DIARY. 25 
 
 harangue in a different strain, quite saucy, sceptical, and 
 defiant, appetJing to them in a sort of French material- 
 istic style, and claiming some personal experience of war- 
 fare. " You don't know notin' about it, boys. You tink 
 you 's brave enough ; how you tink, if you stan' clar in 
 de open field, — here you, and dar de Secesh ? You 's 
 got to hab de right ting inside o' you. You must hab it 
 'served [preserved] in you, like dese yer sour plums dey 
 'serve in de barr'l ; you 's got to harden it down inside o' 
 you, or it 's notin'." Then he hit hard at the religionists : 
 " When a man 's got de sperit ob de Lord in him, it 
 weakens him all out, can't hoe de corn." He had a great 
 deal of broad sense in his speech ; but presently some 
 others began praying vociferously close by, as if to drown 
 this free-thinker, when at last he exclaimed, " I mean to 
 fight de war through, an' die a good sojer wid de last 
 kick, — dat 's my prayer ! " and suddenly jumped off the 
 barrel. I was quite interested at discovering this reverse 
 side of the temperament, the devotional side preponder- 
 ates so enormously, and the greatest scamps kneel and 
 groan in their prayer-meetings with such entire zest. It 
 shows that there is some individuality developed among 
 them, and that they will not become too exclusively 
 pietistic 
 
 Their love of the spelling-book is perfectly inexhaust- 
 ible, — they stumbling on by themselves, or the blind 
 leading the blind, with the same pathetic patience which 
 they carry into everything. The chaplain is getting up 
 a schoolhouse, where he will soon teach them as regularly 
 as he can. But the alphabet must always be a very 
 incidental business in a camp. 
 
 December 14. 
 
 Passages from prayers'in the camp : -r- , 
 2 
 
26 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 " Let me so lib dat when I die I shall hab manners, 
 dat I shall know what to say when I see my Heabenly 
 Lord." 
 
 " Let me lib wid de musket in one hand an' de Bible 
 in de oder, — dat if I die at de muzzle ob de musket, die 
 in de water, die on de land, I may know I hab de bressed 
 Jesus in my hand, an' hab no fear." 
 
 " I hab lef my wife in de land o' bondage ; my little 
 ones dey say eb'ry night, Whar is my fader ? But when 
 I die, when de bressed raornin' rises, when I shall stan' 
 in de glory, wid one foot on de water an' one foot on de 
 land, den, O Lord, I shall see my wife an' my little chil'en 
 once more." 
 
 These sentences I noted down, as best I could, beside 
 the glimmering camp-fire last night. The same person 
 was the hero of a singular little contre-temps at a funeral 
 in the afternoon. It was our first funeral. The man 
 had died in hospital, and we had chosen a picturesque 
 burial-place above the river, near the old church, and 
 beside a little nameless cemetery, used by generations of 
 slaves. It was a regular military funeral, the coffin being 
 draped with the American flag, the escort marching be- 
 hind, and three volleys fired over the grave. During the 
 services there was singing, the chaplain deaconing out the 
 hymn in their favorite way. This ended, he announced 
 his text, — "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard 
 him, and delivered him out of all his trouble." Instantly, 
 to my great amazement, the cracked voice of the chorister 
 was uplifted, intoning the text, as if it were the first verse 
 of another hymn. So calmly was it done, so imperturbable 
 were all the black countenances, that I half began to con- 
 jecture that the chaplain himself intended it for a hymn, 
 though I could imagine no prospective rhyme for trouble 
 
CAMP DIARY. 27 
 
 unless it were approximated by dehhil, — which is, indeed, 
 a favorite reference, both with the men and with his Kev- 
 erence. But the chaplain, peacefully awaiting, gently 
 repeated his text after the chant, and to my great relief 
 the old chorister waived all further recitative, and let the 
 funeral discourse proceed. 
 
 Their memories are a vast bewildered chaos of Jewish 
 history and biography ; and most of the great events of 
 the past, down to the period of the American Eevolution, 
 they instinctively attribute to Moses. There is a fine 
 bold confidence in all their citations, however, and the 
 record never loses piquancy in their hands, though strict 
 accuracy may sufifer. Thus, one of my captains, last 
 Sunday, heard a colored exhorter at Beaufort proclaim, 
 " Paul may plant, and may polish, wid water, but it won't 
 do," in which the sainted ApoUos would hardly have 
 recognized himself. 
 
 Just now one of the soldiers came to me to say that he 
 was about to be married to a girl in Beaufort, and would 
 I lend him a dollar and seventy-five cents to buy the 
 wedding outfit? It seemed as if matrimony on such 
 moderate terms ought to be encouraged in these days ; 
 and so I responded to the appeal. 
 
 December 16. 
 To-day a young recruit appeared here, who had been 
 the slave of Colonel Sammis, one of the leading Florida 
 refugees. Two white companions came with him, who 
 also appeared to be retainers of the Colonel, and I asked 
 them to dine. Being likewise refugees, they had stories 
 to tell, and were quite agreeable : one was English born, 
 the other Floridian, a dark, sallow Southerner, very well 
 bred. After they had gone, the Colonel himself appeared, 
 
28 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 I fold him that I had been entertaining his white friends, 
 and after a while he quietly let out the remark, — 
 
 " Yes, one of those white friends of whom you speak is 
 a boy raised on one of my plantations ; he has travelled 
 with me to the North, and passed for white, and he always 
 keeps away from the negroes." 
 
 Certainly no such suspicion had ever crossed my mind. 
 
 I have noticed one man in the regiment who would 
 easily pass for white, — a little sickly drummer, aged 
 fifty at least, with brown eyes and reddish hair, who is 
 said to be the son of one of our commodores. I have seen 
 perhaps a dozen persons as fair, or fairer, among fugitive 
 slaves, but they were usually young children. It touched 
 me far more to see this man, who had spent more than 
 half a lifetime in this low estate, ^nd for whom it now 
 seemed too late to be anything but a " nigger." This offen- 
 sive word, by the way, is almost as common with them as 
 at the North, and far more common than with well-bred 
 slaveholders. They have meekly accepted it. " Want 
 to go out to de nigger houses, Sah," is the universal im- 
 pulse of sociability, when they wish to cross the lines. 
 " He hab twenty house-servants, an' two hundred head o' 
 nigger," is a still more degrading form of phrase, in which 
 the epithet is limited to the field-hands, and they esti- 
 mated like so many cattle. This want of self-respect of 
 course interferes with the authority of the non-commis- 
 sioned officers, which is always difficult to sustain, even 
 in white regiments. " He need n't try to play de white 
 man ober me,'' was the protest of a soldier against his 
 corporal the other day. To counteract this I have often 
 to remind them that they do not obey their officers because 
 they are white, but because they are their officers ; and 
 guard duty is an admirable school for this, because they 
 
CAMP DIARY. 29 
 
 readily understand that the sergeant or corporal of the 
 guard has for the time more authority than any commis- 
 sioned officer who is not on duty. It is necessary also for 
 their superiors to treat the non-commissioned officers with 
 careful courtesy, and I often caution the line officers never 
 to call them " Sam " or " Will," nor omit the proper 
 handle to their names. The value of the habitual cour- 
 tesies of the regular army is exceedingly apparent with 
 these men : an officer of polished manners can wind them 
 round his finger, while white soldiers seem rather to pre- 
 fer a certain roughness. The demeanor of my men to 
 each other is very courteous, and yet I see none of that 
 sort of upstart conceit which is sometimes oflFensive among 
 free negroes at the North, the dandy-barber strut. This 
 is an agreeable surprise, for I feared that freedom and 
 regimentals would produce precisely that. 
 
 They seem the world's perpetual children, docile, gay, 
 and lovable, in the midst of this war for freedom on which 
 they have intelligently entered. Last night, before 
 " taps," there was the greatest noise in camp that I had 
 ever heard, and I feared some riot. On going out, I 
 found the most tumultuous sham-fight proceeding in total 
 darkness, two companies playing like boys, beating tin 
 cups for drums. When some of them saw me they 
 seemed a little dismayed, and came and said, beseech- 
 ingly, — " Gunnel, Sah, you hab no objection to we 
 playin', Sah ? " — which objection I disclaimed ; but soon 
 they all subsided, rather to my regret, and scattered mer- 
 rily. Afterward I found that some other officer had told 
 them that I considered the aifair too noisy, so that I felt 
 a mild self-reproach when one said, " Gunnel, wish you 
 had let we play a little longer, Sah." Still I was not 
 sorry, on the whole ; for -these sham-fights between com- 
 
30 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 panics would in some regiments lead to real ones, and 
 there is a latent jealousy here between the Florida and 
 South Carolina men, which sometimes makes me anxious. 
 
 The officers are more kind and patient with the men 
 than I should expect, since the former are mostly young, 
 and drilling tries the temper ; but they are aided by 
 hearty satisfaction in the results already attained. I 
 have never yet heard a doubt expressed among the offi- 
 cers as to the superiority of these men to white troops in 
 aptitude for drill and discipline, because of their imitative- 
 ness and docility, and the pride they take in the service. 
 One captain said to me to-day, " I have this afternoon 
 taught my men to load-in-nine-times, and they do it bet- 
 ter than we did it in my former company in three months." 
 I can personally testify that one of our best lieutenants, 
 an Englishman, taught a part of his company the essen- 
 tial movements of the " school for skirmishers " in a single 
 lesson of two hours, so that they did them very passably, 
 though I feel bound to discourage such haste. However, 
 I " formed square " on the third battalion drill. Three 
 fourths of drill consist of attention, imitation, and a good 
 ear for time ; in the other fourth, which consists of the 
 application of principles, as, for instance, performing by 
 the left flank some movement before learned by the right, 
 they are perhaps slower than better educated men. Hav- 
 ing belonged to five different drill-clubs before entering 
 the army, I certainly ought to know something of the re- 
 sources of human awkwardness, and I can honestly say 
 that they astonish me by the facility with which they do 
 things. I expected much harder work in this respect. 
 
 The habit of carrying burdens on the head gives them 
 erectness of figure, even where physically disabled. I 
 have seen a woman, with a brimming water-pail balanced 
 
CAMP DIARY. 31 
 
 on her head, or perhaps a cup, saucer, and spoon, stop 
 suddenly, turn round, stoop to pick up a missile, rise 
 again, fling it, light a pipe, and go through many evolu- 
 tions with either hand or both, without spilling a drop. 
 The pipe, by the way, gives an odd look to a well-dressed 
 young girl on Sunday, but one often sees that spectacle. 
 The passion for tobacco among our men continues quite 
 absorbing, and I have piteous appeals for some arrange- 
 ment by which they can buy it on credit, as we have yet 
 no sutler. Their imploring, " Gunnel, we can't lib wid- 
 out it, Sah," goes to my heart ; and as they cannot read, 
 I cannot even have the melancholy satisfaction of supply- 
 ing them with the excellent anti-tobacco tracts of Mr. 
 Trask. 
 
 December 19. 
 
 Last night the water froze in the adjutant's tent, but 
 not in mine. To-day has been mild and beautiful. The 
 blacks say they do not feel the cold so much as the white 
 officers do, and perhaps it is so, though their health evi- 
 dently suffers more from dampness. On the other hand, 
 while drilling on very warm days, they have seemed to 
 suffer more from the heat than their officers. But they 
 dearly love fire, and at night will always have it, if pos- 
 sible, even on the minutest scale, — a mere handful of 
 splinters, that seems hardly more efficacious than a fric- 
 tion-match. Probably this is a natural habit for the 
 short-lived coolness of an out-door country ; and then 
 there is something delightful in this rich pine, which 
 burns like a tar-barrel. It was, perhaps, encouraged by 
 the masters, as the only cheap luxury the slaves had at 
 hand. 
 
 As one grows more acquainted with the men, their in- 
 dividualities emerge ; and I find, first their faces, then 
 
32 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 their characters, to be as distinct as those of whites. It 
 is very interesting the desire they show to do their duty, 
 and to improve as soldiers ; they evidently think about it, 
 and see the importance of the thing ; they say to me that 
 we white men cannot stay and be their leaders always 
 and that they must learn to depend on themselves, or else 
 relapse into their former condition. 
 
 Beside the superb branch of uneatable bitter oranges 
 which decks my tent-pole, I have to-day hung up a long 
 bough of finger-sponge, which floated to the river-bank. 
 As winter advances, butterflies gradually disappear : one 
 species (a Vanessa) lingers ; three others have vanished 
 since I came. Mocking-birds are abundant, but rarely 
 sing ; once or twice they have reminded me of the red 
 thrush, but are inferior, as I have always thought. The 
 colored people all say that it will be much cooler ; but 
 my ofiicers do not think so, perhaps because last winter 
 was so unusually mild, — with only one frost, they say. 
 
 December 20. 
 
 Philoprogenitiveness is an important organ for an ofii- 
 cer of colored troops ; and I happen to be well provided 
 with it. It seems to be the theory of all military usages, 
 in fact, that soldiers are to be treated like children ; and 
 these singular persons, who never know their own age till 
 they are past middle life, and then choose a birthday with 
 such precision, — " Fifty year old, Sah, de fus' last 
 April," — prolong the privilege of childhood. 
 
 I am perplexed nightly for countersigns, — their range 
 of proper names is so distressingly limited, and they make 
 such amazing work of every new one. At first, to be 
 sure, they did not quite recognize the need of any vari- 
 ation : one night some ofiicer asked a sentinel_3ij^ther he 
 
CAMP DIARY. 33 
 
 had the countersign yet, and was indignantly answered, 
 " Should tink I hab 'em, hab 'em for a fortnight " ; 
 which seems a long epoch for that magic word to hold 
 out. To-night I thought I would have " Fredericks- 
 burg," in honor of Burnside's reported victory, using the 
 rumor quickly, for fear of a contradiction. Later, in 
 comes a captain, gets the countersign for his own use, but 
 presently returns, the sentinel having pronounced it incor- 
 rect. On inquiry, it appears that the sergeant of the 
 guard, being weak in geography, thought best to substi- 
 tute the more familiar word, " Crockery-ware " ; which 
 was, with perfect gravity, confided to all the sentinels, and 
 accepted without question. O life ! what is the fun of 
 fiction beside thee ? 
 
 I should think they would suffer and complain these 
 cold nights ; but they say nothing, though there is a good 
 deal of coughing. I should fancy that the scarlet trousers 
 must do something to keep them warm, and wonder that 
 they dislike them so much, when they are so much like 
 their beloved fires. They certainly multiply firelight in 
 any case. I often notice that an infinitesimal flame, with 
 one soldier standing by it, looks like quite a respectable 
 conflagration, and it seems as if a group of them must 
 dispel dampness. ^ 
 
 December 21. 
 
 To a regimental commander no book can be so fasci- 
 nating as the consolidated Morning Report, which is ready 
 about nine, and tells how many in each company are sick, 
 absent, on duty, and so on. It is one's newspaper and 
 daily mail ; I never grow tired of it. If a single recruit 
 has come in, I am always eager to see how he looks on 
 paper. 
 
 To-n^fat the officers are rather depressed by rumors 
 
 2* 
 
34 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 of Burnside's being defeated, after all. I am fortunately 
 equable and undepressible ; and it is very convenient that 
 the men know too little of the events of the war to feel 
 excitement or fear. They know General Saxton and me, 
 — " de General " and " de Gunnel,'' — and seem to ask 
 /no further questions. We are the war. It saves a great 
 deal of trouble, while it lasts, this childlike confidence ; 
 nevertheless, it is our business to educate them to man- 
 hood, and I see as yet no obstacle. As for the rumor, the 
 world will no doubt roll round, whether Burnside is de- 
 feated or succeeds. 
 
 Christmas Day. 
 '" We '11 figlit for liberty 
 Till de Lord shall caU us home; 
 
 We 'n soon be free 
 Tm de Lord shall call us honie." 
 
 This is the hymn which the slaves at Georgetown, 
 South Carolina, were whipped for singing when Presi- 
 dent Lincoln was elected. So said a little drummer-boy, 
 as he sat at my tent's edge last night and told me his 
 story ; and he showed all his white teeth as he added, 
 " Dey tink ' de Lord ' meant for say de Yankees." 
 
 Last night, at dress-parade, the adjutant read General 
 Saxton's Proclamation for the New Year's Celebration. 
 I think they understood it, for there was cheering in all 
 the company-streets afterwards. Christmas is the great 
 festival of the year for this people; but, with New 
 Year's coming after, we could have no adequate pro- 
 gramme for to-day, and so celebrated Christmas Eve 
 with pattern simplicity. We omitted, namely, the mystic 
 curfew which we call "taps," and let them sit up and 
 burn their fires, and have their little prayer-meetings as 
 late as they desired ; and all night, as I waked at inter- 
 
CAMP DIARY. 35 
 
 vals, I could hear them praying and " shouting" and clat- 
 tering with hands and heels. It seemed to make them 
 very happy, and appeared to be at least an innocent 
 Christmas dissipation, as compared with some of the con- 
 vivialities of the " superior race " hereabouts. 
 
 December 26. 
 
 The day passed with no greater excitement for the men 
 than target-shooting, which they enjoyed. I had the 
 private delight of the arrival of our much-desired sur- 
 geon and his nephew, the captain, with letters and news 
 from home. They also bring the good tidings that Gen- 
 eral Saxton is not to be removed, as had been reported. 
 
 Two different stands of colors have arrived for us, and 
 will be presented at New Year's, — one from friends in 
 New York, and the other from a lady in Connecticut. I 
 see that " Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly " of De- 
 cember 20th has a higlily imaginative picture of the 
 muster-in of our first company, and also of a skirmish on 
 the late expedition. 
 
 I must not forget the prayer overheard last night by 
 one of the captains : " Lord ! when I tink ob dis Kis- 
 mas and las' )'ear de Kismas. Las' Kismas he in de 
 Secesh, and notin' to eat but grits, and no salt in 'em. 
 Dis year in de camp, and too much victual ! " This 
 " too much " is a favorite phrase out of their grateful 
 hearts, and did not in this case denote an excess of 
 dinner, — as might be supposed, — but of thanksgiving. 
 
 December 29. 
 Our new surgeon has begun his work most efiiciently : 
 he and the chaplain have converted an old gin-house into 
 a comfortable hospital, with ten nice beds and straw pal- 
 
36 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 lets. He is now, with a hearty professional faith, looking 
 round for somebody to put into it. I am afraid the regi- 
 ment will accommodate him ; for, although he declares 
 that these men do not sham sickness, as he expected, their 
 catarrh is an unpleasant reality. They feel the dampness 
 very much, and make such a coughing at dress-parade, 
 that I have urged him to administer a dose of cough- 
 mixture, all round, just before that pageant. Are the 
 colored race touffk ? is my present anxiety ; and it is 
 add that physical insufficiency, the only discouragement 
 »/not thrown in our way by the newspapers, is the only 
 discouragement which finds any place in our minds. They 
 are used to sleeping indoors in winter, herded before fires, 
 and so they feel the change. Still, the regiment is as 
 healthy as the average, and experience will teach us 
 something.* 
 
 December 30. 
 On the first of January we are to have a slight colla- 
 tion, ten oxen or so, barbecued, — or not properly barbe- 
 cued, but roasted whole. Touching the length of time 
 required to " do " an ox, no two housekeepers appear to 
 agree. Accounts vary from two hours to twenty-four. 
 We shall happily have enough to try all gradations of 
 roasting, and suit all tastes, from Miss A.'s to mine. But 
 fancy me proffering a spare-rib, well done, to some fair 
 lady ! What ever are we to do for spoons and forks and 
 plates ? Each soldier has his own, and is sternly held 
 responsible for it by " Army Regulations." But how 
 provide for the multitude ? Is it customary, I ask you, 
 
 * A second winter's experience removed all this solicitude, for 
 they learned to take care of themselves. During the first February 
 the sick-list averaged about ninety, during the second about thirty, 
 — this being the worst mouth in the year for blacks. 
 
CAMP DIARY. 37 
 
 to help to tenderloin with one's fingers ? Fortunately, 
 the Major is to see to that department. Great are the 
 advantages of military discipline : for anything perplex- 
 ing, detail a subordinate. 
 
 New Year's Eve. 
 
 My housekeeping at home is not, perhaps, on any very 
 extravagant scale. Buying beefsteak, I usually go to the 
 extent of two or three pounds. Yet when, this morning 
 at daybreak, the quartermaster called to inquire how 
 many cattle I would have killed for roasting, I turned 
 over in bed, and answered composedly, " Ten, — and 
 keep three to be fatted." 
 
 Fatted, quotha ! Not one of the beasts at present ap- 
 pears to possess an ounce of superfluous flesh. Never 
 were seen such lean kine. As they swing on vast spits, 
 composed of young trees, the firelight glimmers through 
 their ribs, as if they were great lanterns. But no matter, 
 they are cooking, — nay, they are cooked. 
 
 One at least is taken off to cool, and will be replaced 
 to-morrow to warm up. It was roasted three hours, and 
 well done, for I tasted it. It is so long since I tasted 
 fresh beef that forgetfulness is possible ; but I fancied 
 this to be successful. I tried to imagine that I liked the 
 Homeric repast, and certainly the whole thing has been 
 far more agreeable than was to be expected. The doubt 
 now is, whether I have made a sufficient provision for my 
 household. I should have roughly guessed that ten beeves 
 would feed as many million people, it has such a stupen- 
 dous sound ; but General Saxton predicts a small social 
 party of five thousand, and we fear that meat will run 
 short, unless they prefer bone. One of the cattle is so 
 small, we are hoping it may turn out veal. 
 
 For drink we aim at the simple luxury of molasses- 
 
38 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 and-water, a barrel per company, ten in all. Liberal 
 housekeepers may like to know that for a barrel of water 
 we allow three gallons of molasses, half a pound of gin- 
 ger, and a quart of vinegar, — this last being a new in- 
 gredient for my untutored palate, though all the rest are 
 amazed at my ignorance. Hard bread, with more mo- 
 lasses, and a dessert of tobacco, complete the festive 
 repast, destined to cheer, but not inebriate. 
 
 On this last point, of inebriation, this is certainly a 
 wonderful camp. For us it is absolutely omitted from 
 the list of vices. I have never heard of a glass of liquor 
 in the camp, nor of any effort either to bring it in or to 
 keep it out. A total absence of the circulating medium 
 might explain the abstinence, — not that it seems to have 
 that effect with white soldiers, — but it would not explain 
 the silence. The craving for tobacco is constant, and not 
 to be allayed, like that of a mother for her children ; but 
 I have never heard whiskey even wished for, save on 
 Christmas- Day, and then only by one man, and he spoke 
 with a hopeless ideal sighing, as one alludes to the Golden 
 Age. I am amazed at this total omission of the most 
 inconvenient of all camp appetites. It certainly is not 
 the result of exhortation, for there has been no occasion 
 for any, and even the pledge would scarcely seem effica- 
 cious where hardly anybody can write. 
 
 I do not think there is a great visible eagerness for to- 
 morrow's festival : it is not their way to be very jubilant 
 over anything this side of the New Jerusalem. They 
 know also that those in this Department are nominally 
 free already, and that the practical freedom has to be 
 maintained, in any event, by military success. But they 
 will enjoy it greatly, and we shall have a multitude of 
 people. 
 
CAMP DIARY. 39 
 
 January 1, 1863 (evening). 
 
 A happy New Tear to civilized people, — mere white 
 folks. Our festival has come and gone, with perfect suc- 
 cess, and our good General has been altogether satisfied. 
 Last night the great fires were kept smouldering in the 
 pit, and the beeves were cooked more or less, chiefly 
 more, — during which time they had to be carefully 
 watched, and the great spits turned by main force. 
 Happy were the merry fellows who were permitted to sit 
 up all night, and watch the glimmering flames that threw 
 a thousand fantastic shadows among the great gnarled 
 oaks. And such a chattering as I was sure to hear when- 
 ever I awoke that night ! 
 
 My first greeting to-day was from one of the most 
 stylish sergeants, who approached me with the following 
 little speech, evidently the result of some elaboration : — 
 
 " I tink myself happy, dis New Year's Day, for salute 
 my own Gunnel. Dis day las' year I was servant to a 
 Gunnel ob Secesh ; but now I hab de privilege for salute 
 my own Gunnel." 
 
 That officer, with the utmost sincerity, reciprocated the 
 sentiment. 
 
 About ten o'clock the people began to collect by land, 
 and also by water, — in steamers sent by General Saxton 
 for the purpose ; and from that time all the avenues of 
 approach were thronged. The multitude were chiefly 
 colored women, with gay handkerchiefs on their heads, 
 and a sprinkling of men, with that peculiarly respectable 
 look which these people always have on Sundays and 
 holidays. There were many white visitors also, — la- 
 dies on horseback and in carriages, superintendents and 
 teachers, officers, and cavalry-men. Our companies were 
 marched to the neighborhood of the platform, and allowed 
 
40 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 to sit or stand, as at the Sunday services ; the platform 
 was occupied by ladies and dignitaries, and by the band 
 of the Eighth Maine, which kindly volunteered for the 
 occasion ; the colored people filled up all the vacant 
 openings in the beautiful grove around, and there was 
 a cordon of mounted visitors beyond. Above, the great 
 live-oak branches and their trailing moss ; beyond the 
 people, a glimpse of the blue river. 
 
 The services began at half past eleven o'clock, with 
 prayer by our chaplain, Mr. Fowler, who is always, on 
 such occasions, simple, reverential, and impressive. Then 
 the President's Proclamation was read by Dr. W. H. 
 Brisbane, a thing infinitely appropriate, a South Caro- 
 linian addressing South Carolinians ; for he was reared 
 among these very islands, and here long since emanci- 
 pated his own slaves. Then the colors were presented 
 to us by the Eev. Mr. French, a chaplain who brought 
 them from the donors in New York. All this was 
 according to the programme. Then followed an incident 
 so simple, so touching, so utterly unexpected and startling, 
 that I can scarcely believe it on recalling, though it gave 
 the key-note to the whole day. The very moment the 
 speaker had ceased, and just as I took and waved the 
 flag, which now for the first time meant anything to these 
 poor people, there suddenly arose, close beside the plat- 
 form, a strong male voice (but rather cracked and elderly), 
 into which two women's voices instantly blended, sing- 
 ing, as if by an impulse that could no more be repressed 
 than the morning note of the song-sparrow. — 
 
 " My Country, 't is of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty, 
 Of tliee I sing!" 
 
 People looked at each other, and then at us on the 
 
CAMP DIARY. 41 
 
 platform, to see whence came this interruption, not set 
 down in the bills. Firmly and irrepressibly the quaver- 
 ing voices sang on, verse after verse; others of the col- 
 ored people joined in ; some whites on the platform 
 began, but I motioned them to silence. I never saw any- 
 thing so electric ; it made all other words cheap ; it 
 seemed the choked voice of a race at last unloosed. 
 Nothing could be more wonderfully unconscious; art' 
 could not have dreamed of a tribute to the day of jubilee 
 that should be so affecting ; history will not believe it ; 
 and when I came to speak of it, after it was ended, tears 
 were everywhere. If you could have heard how quaint 
 and innocent it was ! Old Tiff and his children might 
 have sung it ; and close before me was a little slave-boy, 
 almost white, who seemed to belong to the party, and 
 even he must join in. Just think of it ! — - the first day 
 they had ever had a country, the first flag they had ever 
 seen which promised anything to their people, and here, 
 while mere spectators stood in silence, waiting for my 
 stupid words, these simple souls burst out in their lay, as 
 if they were by their own hearths at home ! When they 
 stopped, there was nothing to do for it but to speak, and 
 I went on ; but the life of the whole day was in those 
 unknown people's song. 
 
 Receiving the flags, I gave them into the hands of two 
 fine-looking men, jet black, as color-guard, and they also 
 spoke, and very effectively, — Sergeant Prince Rivers 
 and Corporal Robert Sutton. The regiment sang "March- 
 ing Along," and then General Saxton spoke, in his own 
 simple, manly way, and Mrs. Francis D. Gage spoke 
 very sensibly to the women, and Judge Stickney, from 
 Florida, added something ; then some gentlemen sang an 
 ode, and the regiment the Johu Brown song, and then 
 
42 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 they went to their beef and molasses. Everything was 
 very orderly, and they seemed to have a very gay time. 
 Most of the visitors had far to go, and so dispersed before 
 dress-parade, though the band stayed to enliven it. In 
 the evening we had letters from home, and General Sax- 
 ton had a reception at his house, from which I excused 
 myself; and so ended one of the most enthusiastic and 
 happy gatherings I ever knew. The day was perfect, 
 and there was nothing but success. 
 
 I forgot to say, that, in the midst of the services, it was 
 announced that General Fremont was appointed Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, — an announcement which was received 
 with immense cheering, as would have been almost any- 
 thing else, I verily believe, at that moment of high tide. 
 It was shouted across by the pickets above, — a way in 
 which we often receive news, but not always trustworthy. 
 
 January 3, 1863. 
 
 Once, and once only, thus far, the water has frozen in 
 my tent; and the next morning showed a dense white 
 frost outside. "We have still mocking-birds and crickets 
 and rosebuds, and occasional noonday baths in the river, 
 though the buttei'flies have vanished, as I remember to 
 have observed in Fayal, after December, I have been 
 here nearly six weeks without a rainy day ; one or two 
 slight showers there have been, once interrupting a drill, 
 but never dress-parade. For climate, by day, we might 
 be among the isles of Greece, — though it may be my 
 constant familiarity with the names of her sages which 
 suggests that impression. For instance, a voice just now 
 called, near my tent, — " Cato, whar 's Plato ? " 
 
 The men have somehow got the impression that it is 
 essential to the validity of a marriage that they should 
 
CAMP DIARY. 43 
 
 come to me for permission, just as they used to go to the 
 master ; and I rather encourage these little confidences, 
 because it is so entertaining to hear them. " Now, Gun- 
 nel," said a faltering swain the other day, " I want for 
 get me one good lady," which I approved, especially the 
 limitation as to number. Afterwards I asked one of the 
 bridegroom's friends whether he thought it a good match. 
 " yes, Gunnel," said he, in all the cordiality of friend- 
 ship, " John 's gwine for marry Venus." I trust the 
 goddess will prove herself a better lady than she ap- 
 peared during her previous career upon this planet. 
 But this naturally suggests the isles of Greece again. 
 
 January 7. 
 On first arriving, I found a good deal of anxiety among 
 the oflficers as to the increase of desertions, that being tha 
 rock on which the " Hunter Regiment " split. Now this 
 evil is very nearly stopped, and we are every day recov- 
 ering the older absentees. One of the very best things 
 that have happened to us was the half-accidental shoot- 
 ing of a man who had escaped from the guard-house, and 
 ■was wounded by a squad sent in pursuit. He has since 
 died ; and this very evening another man, who escaped 
 with him, came and opened the door of my tent, after 
 being five days in the woods, almost without food. His 
 clothes were in rags, and he was nearly starved, poor 
 foolish fellow, so that we can almost dispense with further 
 punishment. Severe penalties would be wasted on these 
 people, accustomed as they have been to the most violent 
 passions on the part of white men ; but a mild inexor- 
 ableness tells on them, just as it does on any other chil- 
 dren. It is something utterly new to them, and it is thus 
 far perfectly efficacious. They have a great deal of pride 
 
44 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 as soldiers, and a very little of severity goes a great way, 
 if it be firm and consistent. This is very encouraging. 
 
 The single question which I asked of some of the plan- 
 tation superintendents, on the voyage, was, " Do these 
 people appreciate justice ? " If they did it was evident 
 that all the rest would be easy. When a race is de- 
 graded beyond that point it must be very hard to deal 
 with them ; they must mistake all kindness for indul- 
 gence, all strictness for cruelty. With these freed slaves 
 there is no such trouble, not a particle : let an officer be 
 only just and firm, with a cordial, kindly nature, and he 
 Las no sort of difficulty. The plantation superintendents 
 and teachers have the same experience, they say ; but 
 we have an immense advantage in the military organ- 
 ization, which helps in _ two ways : it increases their 
 self-respect, and it gives us an admirable machinery for 
 discipline, thus improving both the fulcrum and th6 lever. 
 
 The wounded man died in the hospital, and the gen- 
 eral verdict seemed to be, " Him brought it on heself." 
 Another soldier died of pneumonia on the same day, and 
 we had the funerals in the evening. It was very impres- 
 sive. A dense mist came up, with a moon behind it, and 
 we had only the light of pine-splinters, as the procession 
 wound along beneath the mighty, moss-hung branches of 
 the ancient grove. The groups around the grave, the 
 dark faces, the red garments, the scattered lights, the 
 misty boughs, were weird and strange. The men sang 
 one of their own wild chants. Two crickets sang also, 
 one on either side, and did not cease their little monotone, 
 even when the three volleys were fired above the graves. 
 Just before the coffins were lowered, an old man whis- 
 pered to me that I must have their position altered, — 
 the heads must be towards the west ; so it was done, — 
 
CAMP DIARY. 45 
 
 though they are in a. place so veiled in woods that either 
 rising or setting sun will find it hard to spy them. 
 
 We have now a good regimental hospital, admirably 
 arranged in a deserted gin-house, — a fine well of our 
 own digging, within the camp lines, — a full allowance of 
 tents, all floored, — a wooden cook-house to every com- 
 pany, with sometimes a palmetto mess-house beside, — a 
 substantial wooden guard-house, with a fireplace five feet 
 " in de clar," where the men ofi" duty can dry themselves 
 and sleep comfortably in bunks afterwards. We have 
 also a great circular school-tent, made of condemned can- 
 vas, thirty feet in diameter, and looking like some of the 
 Indian lodges I. saw in Kansas. We now meditate a 
 regimental bakery. Our aggregate has increased from 
 four hundred and ninety to seven hundred and forty, 
 besides a hundred recruits now waiting at St. Augustine, 
 and we have practised through all the main movements 
 in battalion drill. 
 
 Affairs being thus prosperous, and yesterday having 
 been six weeks since my last and only visit to Beaufort, 
 I rode in, glanced at several camps, and dined with the 
 General. It seemed absolutely like re-entering the world ; 
 and I did not fully estimate my past seclusion till it oc- 
 curred to me, as a strange and novel phenomenon, that 
 the soldiers at the other camps were white. 
 
 January 8. 
 This morning I went to Beaufort again, on necessary 
 business, and by good luck happened upon a review and 
 drill of the white regiments. The thing that struck me 
 most was that same absence of uniformity, in minor 
 points, that I noticed at first in my own officers. The 
 best regiments in the Department are represented among 
 
46 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 my captains and lieutenants, and very well represented 
 too ; yet it has cost much labor to bring them to any uni- 
 formity in their drill. There is no need of this ; for the 
 prescribed " Tactics " approach perfection ; it is never 
 left discretionary in what place an officer shall stand, or 
 in what words he shall give his order. All variation 
 would seem- to imply negligence. Yet even West Point 
 occasionally varies from the " Tactics," — as, for instance, 
 in requiring the line officers to face down the line, when 
 each is giving the order to his company. In our strict- 
 est Massachusetts regiments this is not done. 
 
 It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master. 
 Yet the small points are not merely a matter of punctilio ; 
 for, the more perfectly a battalion is drilled on the parade- 
 ground, the more quietly it can be handled in action. 
 Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this : that, in 
 the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of dif- 
 ferent regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a 
 diversity of orders may throw everything into confusion. 
 Confusion means Bull Run. 
 
 I wished my men at the review to-day ; for, amidst all 
 the rattling and noise of artillery and the galloping of 
 cavalry, there was only one infantry movement that we 
 have not practised, and that was done by only one regi- 
 ment, and apparently considered quite a novelty, though 
 it is easily taught, — forming square by Casey's method : 
 forward on centre. 
 
 It is really just as easy to drill a regiment as a com- 
 pany, — perhaps easier, because one has more time to 
 think ; but it is just as essential to be sharp and decisive, 
 perfectly clear-headed, and to put life into the men. 
 A regiment seems small when one has learned how to 
 handle it, a mere handful of men ; and I have no doubt 
 
CAMP DIARY. 47 
 
 that a brigade or a division would soon appear equally 
 small. But to handle either judiciously, — ah, that is 
 another afikir ! 
 
 So of governing ; it is as easy to govern .a regiment as 
 a school or a factory, and needs like qualities, — system, 
 promptness, patience, tact; moreover, in a regiment one 
 has the aid of the admirable machinery of the army, so 
 that I see very ordinary men who succeed very tolerably. 
 
 Reports of a six months' armistice are rife here, and 
 the thought is deplored by all. I cannot believe it ; yet 
 sometimes one feels very anxious about the ultimate fate 
 of these poor people. After the experience of Hungary, 
 one sees that revolutions may go backward ; and the 
 habit of injustice seems so deeply impressed upon the 
 whites, that it is hard tcf believe in the possibility of any- 
 thing better. I dare not yet hope that the promise of 
 the President's Proclamation will be kept. For myself 
 I can be indiflFerent, for the experience here has been its 
 own daily and hourly reward ; and the adaptedness of 
 the freed slaves for drill and discipline is now thoroughly 
 demonstrated, and must soon be universally acknowl- 
 edged. But it would be terrible to see this regiment 
 disbanded or defrauded. 
 
 January 12. 
 
 Many things glide by without time to narrate them. 
 On Saturday we had a mail with the President's Second 
 Message of Emancipation, and the next day it was read 
 to the men. The words themselves did not stir them 
 very much, because they have been often told that they 
 were free, especially on New Year's Day, and, being 
 unversed in politics, they do not understand, as well as 
 we do, the importance of each additional guaranty. But 
 the chaplain spoke to them afterwards very effectively. 
 
48 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 as usual ; and then I proposed to them to hold up their 
 hands and pledge themselves to be faithful to those still 
 in bondage. They entered heartily into this, and the 
 scene was cfuite impressive, beneath the great oak- 
 branches, I heard afterwards that only one man refused 
 to raise his hand, saying bluntly that his wife was out of 
 slavery with him, and he did not care to fight. The 
 other soldiers of his company were very indignant, and 
 shoved him about among them while marching back to 
 their quarters, calling him " Coward." I was glad of 
 their exhibition of feeling, though it is very possible that 
 the one who had thus the moral courage to stand alone 
 among his comrades might be more reliable, on a pinch, 
 than some who yielded a more ready assent. But the 
 whole response, on their part, was very hearty, and will 
 be a good thing to which to hold them hereafter, at any 
 time of discouragement or demoralization, — which was 
 my chief reason for proposing it. With their simple 
 natures it is a great thing to tie them to some definite 
 committal ; they never forget a mai'ked occurrence, and 
 never seem disposed to evade a pledge. 
 
 It is this capacity of honor and fidelity which gives me 
 such entire faith in them as soldiers. Without it all 
 their religious demonstration would be mere sentimen- 
 tality. For instance, every one who visits the camp is 
 struck with their bearing as sentinels. They exhibit, in 
 this capacity, not an upstart conceit, but a steady, con- 
 scientious devotion to duty. They would stop their idol- 
 ized General Saxton, if he attempted to cross their beat 
 contrary to orders : I have seen them. No feeble or in- 
 competent race could do this. The officers tell many 
 amusing instances of this fidelity, but I think mine the 
 best. 
 
CAMP DIARY. 49 
 
 It was very dark the other night, — an unusual thing 
 here, — and the rain fell in torrents ; so I put on my 
 India-rubber suit, and went the rounds of the sentinels, 
 incognito, to test them. I can only say that I shall never 
 try such an experiment again, and have cautioned my 
 officers against it. 'T is' a wonder I escaped with life 
 and limb, — such a charging of bayonets and clicking of 
 gun-locks. Sometimes I tempted them by refusing to 
 give any countersign, but offering them a piece of tobacco, 
 which they could not accept without allowing me nearer 
 than the prescribed bayonet's distance. Tobacco is more 
 than gold to them, and it was touching to watch the strug- 
 gle in their minds ; but they always did their duty at 
 last, and I never could persuade them. One man, as if 
 wishing to crush all his inward vacillations at one fell 
 stroke, told me stoutly that he never used tobacco, though 
 I found next day that he loved it as much as any one of 
 them. It seemed wrong thus to tamper with their fidel- 
 ity ; yet it was a vital matter to me to know how far it 
 could be trusted, out of my sight. It was so intensely 
 dark that not more than one or two knew me, even after 
 I had talked with the very next sentinel, especially as 
 they had never seen me in India-rubber clothing, and I 
 can always disguise my voice. It was easy to distinguish 
 those who did make the discovery ; they were always 
 conscious and simpering when their turn came ; while the 
 others were stout and irreverent till I revealed myself, 
 and then rather cowed and anxious, fearing to have 
 offended. 
 
 It rained harder and harder, and when I had nearly 
 made the rounds I had had enough of it, and, simply 
 giving the countersign to the challenging sentinel, under- 
 took to pass within the lines. 
 
 3 D 
 
50 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 " Halt ! " exclaimed this dusky man and brother, bring- 
 ing down his bayonet, " de countersign not correck." 
 
 Now the magic word, in this case, was " Vicksburg," 
 in honor of a rumored victory. But as I knew that these 
 hard names became quite transformed upon their lips, 
 " Carthage " being familiarized into Cartridge, and " Con- 
 cord " into Corn-cob, how could I possibly tell what shade 
 of pronunciation my friend might prefer for this particular 
 proper name ? 
 
 "Vicksburg," I repeated, blandly, but authoritatively, 
 endeavoring, as zealously as one of Christy's Minstrels, 
 to assimilate my speech to any supposed predilection of 
 the Etliiop vocal organs. 
 
 " Halt dar ! Countersign not correck," was the only 
 answer. 
 
 The bayonet still maintained a position which, in a mil- 
 itary point of view, was impressive. 
 
 I tried persuasion, orthography, threats, tobacco, all in 
 vain. I could not pass in. Of course my pride was up ; 
 for was I to defer to an untutored African on a point 
 of pronunciation? Classic shades of Harvard, forbid! 
 Affecting scornful indifference, I tried to edge away, pro- 
 posing to myself to enter the camp at some other point, 
 where my elocution would be better appreciated. Not a 
 step could I stir. 
 
 " Halt ! " shouted my gentleman again, still holding me 
 at his bayonet's point, and I wincing and halting. 
 
 I explained to him the extreme absurdity of this pro- 
 ceeding, called his attention to the state of the weather, 
 which, indeed, spoke for itself so loudly that we could 
 hardly hear each other speak, and requested permission 
 to withdraw. The bayonet, with mute eloquence, refused 
 the application. 
 
CAMP DIARY. 51 
 
 There flashed into my mind, with more enjoyment in 
 the retrospect than I had experienced at the time, an ad- 
 venture on a lecturing tour in other years, when I had 
 spent an hour in trying to scramble into a country tavern, 
 after bed-time, on the coldest night of winter. On that 
 occasion I ultimately found myself stuck midway in the 
 window, with my head in a temperature of 80°, and my 
 heels in a temperature of — 10°, with a heavy window- 
 sash pinioning the small of my back. However, I had 
 got safe out of that dilemma, and it was time to put an 
 end to this one. 
 
 " Call the corporal of the guard," said I, at last, with 
 dignity, unwilling either to make a night of it or to yield 
 my incognito. 
 
 " Corporal ob de guard ! " he shouted, lustily, — " Post 
 Number Two ! " while I could hear another sentinel 
 chuckling with laughter. This last was a special guard, 
 placed over a tent, with a prisoner in charge. Presently 
 he broke silence. 
 
 " Who am dat ? " he asked, in a stage whisper. " Am 
 he a buckra [white man] ? " 
 
 " Dunno whether he been a buckra or not," responded, 
 doggedly, my Cerberus in uniform ; " but I 's bound to 
 keep him here till de corporal ob de guard come." 
 
 Yet, when that dignitary arrived, and I revealed my- 
 self, poor Number Two appeared utterly transfixed with 
 terror, and seemed to look for nothing less than immediate 
 execution. Of course I praised his fidelity, and the next 
 day complimented him before the guard, and mentioned 
 liim to his captain ; and the whole affair was very good 
 for them all. Hereafter, if Satan himself should approach 
 them in darkness and storm, they will take him for " de 
 Gunnel," and treat him with special severity. 
 
52 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 January 13. 
 
 In many ways the childish nature of this people shows 
 itself. I have just had to make a change of officers in a 
 company which has constantly complained, and with good 
 reason, of neglect and improper treatment. Two excel- 
 lent officers have been assigned to them ; and yet they 
 sent a deputation to me in the evening, in a state of utter 
 wretchedness. " We 's bery grieved dis evening, Gun- 
 nel ; 'pears like we could n't bear it, to lose de Cap'n and 
 de Lieutenant, all two togeder." Argument was useless ; 
 and I could only fall back on the general theory, that I 
 knew what was best for them, which had much more 
 effect ; and I also could cite the instance of another com- 
 pany, which had been much improved by a new captain, 
 as they readily admitted. So with the promise that the 
 new officers should not be " savage to we," which was 
 the one thing they deprecated, I assuaged their woes. 
 Twenty-four hours have passed, and I hear them singing 
 most merrily all down that company street. 
 
 I often notice how their griefs may be dispelled, like 
 those of children, merely by permission to utter them : if 
 they can tell their sorrows, they go away happy, even 
 without asking to have anything done about them. I 
 observe also a peculiar dislike of all intermediate control : 
 they always wish to pass by the company officer, and deal 
 with me personally for everything. General Saxton 
 notices the same thing with the people on the plantations 
 as regards himself I suppose this proceeds partly from 
 the old habit of appealing to the master against the over- 
 seer. Kind words would cost the master nothing, and 
 he could easily put off any non-fulfilment upon the over- 
 seer. Moreover, the negroes have acquired such consti- 
 tutional distrust of white people, that it is perhaps as 
 
CAMP DIARY. 53 
 
 much as they can do to trust more than one person at a 
 time. Meanwhile this constant personal intercourse is 
 out of the question in a well-ordered regiment ; and the 
 remedy for it is to introduce by degrees more and more 
 of system, so that their immediate officers will become all- 
 sufficient for the daily routine. 
 
 It is perfectly true (as I find everybody takes for 
 granted) that the first essential for an officer of colored 
 troops is to gain their confidence. But it is equally true, 
 though many persons do not appreciate it, that the admi- 
 rable methods and proprieties of the regular army are 
 equally available for all troops, and that the sublimest 
 philanthropist, if he does not appreciate this, is unfit to 
 command them. 
 
 Another childlike attribute in these men, which is less 
 agreeable, is a sort of blunt insensibility to giving physi- 
 cal pain. If they are cruel to animals, for instance, it 
 always reminds me of children pulling off flies' legs, in a 
 sort of pitiless, untaught, experimental way. Yet I 
 should not fear any wanton outrage from them. After 
 all their wrongs, they are not really revengeful ; and I 
 would far rather enter a captured city with them than 
 with white troops, for they would be more subordinate. 
 But for mere physical suffering they would have no fine 
 sympathies. The cruel things they have seen and under- 
 gone have helped to blunt them ; and if I ordered them 
 to put to death a dozen prisoners, I think they would' do 
 it without remonstrance. 
 
 Yet their religious spirit grows more beautiful to me 
 in living longer with them ; it is certainly far more so 
 than at first, when it seemed rather a matter of phrase 
 and habit. It influences them both on the negative and 
 the positive side. That is, it cultivates the feminine vir- 
 
54 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 tues first, — makes them patient, meek, resigned. This 
 is very evident in the hospital ; there is nothing of the 
 restless, defiant habit of white invalids. Perhaps, if they 
 had more of this, they would resist disease better. Im- 
 bued from childhood with the habit of submission, drink- 
 ing in through every pore that other-world trust which is 
 the one spirit of their songs, they can endure everything. 
 This I expected ; but I am relieved to find that their re- 
 ligion strengthens them on the positive side also, — gives 
 zeal, energy, daring. They could easily be made fanatics, 
 if I chose ; but I do not choose. Their whole mood is 
 essentially Mohammedan, perhaps, in its strength and its 
 weakness ; and I feel the same degree of sympathy that 
 I should if I had a Turkish- command, — that is, a sort of 
 sympathetic admiration, not tending towards agreement, 
 but towards co-operation. Their philosophizing is often 
 the highest form of mysticism ; and our dear surgeon de- 
 clares that they are all natural transcendentalists. The 
 white camps seem rough and secular, after this ; and I 
 hear our men talk about " a religious army," " a Gospel 
 army," in their prayer-meetings. They are certainly 
 evangelizing the chaplain, who was rather a heretic at 
 the beginning ; at least, this is his own admission. We 
 have recruits on their way from St. Augustine, where the 
 negroes are chiefly Roman Catholics ; and it will be in- 
 teresting to see how their type of character combines with 
 that elder creed. 
 
 It is time for rest ; and I have just looked dut into the 
 night, where the eternal stars shut down, in concave pro- 
 tection, over the yet glimmering camp, and Orion hangs 
 above my tent-door, giving to me the sense of strength 
 and assurance which these simple children obtain from 
 their Moses and the Prophets. Yet external Nature does 
 
CAMP DIARY. 55 
 
 its share in their training ; witness that most poetic of all 
 their songs, which always reminds me of the "Lyke- 
 Wake Dirge " in the " Scottish Border Minstrelsy," — 
 
 " I know moon-rise, I know star-rise; 
 
 Lay dis body down. 
 I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight, 
 
 To lay dis body down. 
 I 'n walk in de graveyard, I '11 walk throngh de graveyard, 
 
 To lay dis body down. 
 I '11 lie in de grave and stretch out my arms; 
 
 Lay dis body down. 
 I go to de Judgment in de evening ob de day 
 
 When I lay dis body down ; 
 And my soul and your soul will meet in de day 
 
 When I lay dis body down." 
 
 January 14. 
 In speaking of the military qualities of the blacks, I 
 should add, that the only point where I am disappointed 
 is one I have never seen raised by the most incredulous 
 newspaper critics, — namely, their physical condition. 
 To be sure they often look magnificently to my gymna- 
 sium-trained eye ; and I always like to observe them when 
 bathing, — such splendid muscular development, set off 
 by that smooth coating of adipose tissue which makes 
 them, like the South-Sea Islanders, appear even more 
 muscular than they are. Their skins are also of finer 
 grain than those of whites, the surgeons say, and certainly 
 are smoother and far more free from hair. But their 
 weakness is pulmonary ; pneumonia and pleurisy are 
 their besetting ailments ; they are easily made ill, — and 
 easily cured, if promptly treated : childish organizations 
 again. Guard-duty injures them more than whites, ap- 
 parently ; and double-quick movements, in choking dust, 
 set them coughing badly. But then it is to be remem- 
 
56 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 bered that this is their sickly season, from Janualy to 
 March, and that their healthy season will come in sum- 
 mer, when the whites break down. Still my conviction 
 of the physical superiority of more highly civilized races 
 is strengthened on the whole, not weakened, by observ- 
 ing them. As to availability for military drill and duty 
 in other respects, the only question I ever hear debated 
 among the officers is, whether they are equal or superior 
 to whites. J[ have never heard it suggested that they 
 were inferior, although I expected frequently to hear 
 such complaints from hasty or unsuccessful officers. 
 
 Of one thing I am sure, that their best qualities will be 
 wasted by merely keeping them for garrison duty. They 
 seem peculiarly fitted for offensive operations, and espe- 
 cially for partisan warfare ; they have so much dash and 
 such abundant resources, combined with such an Indian- 
 like knowledge of the country and its ways. These traits 
 have been often illustrated in expeditions sent after de- 
 serters. For instance, I despatched one of my best lieu- 
 tenants and my best sergeant with a squad of men to 
 search a certain plantation, where there were two sep- 
 arate negro villages. They went by night, and the force 
 was divided. The lieutenant took one set of huts, the 
 sergeant the other. Before the lieutenant had reached 
 his first house, every man in the village was in the woods, 
 innocent and guilty alike. But the sergeant's mode of 
 operation was thus described by a corporal from a white 
 regiment who happened to be in one of the negro houses. 
 He said that not a sound was heard until suddenly a red 
 leg appeared in the open doorway, and a voice outside 
 said, " Eally." Going to the door, he observed a similar 
 pair of red legs before every hut, and not a person was 
 allowed to go out, until the quarters had been thoroughly 
 
CAMP DIARY. 57 
 
 searched, and the three deserters found. This was man- 
 aged by Sergeant Prince Rivers, our color-sergeant, who 
 is provost-sergeant also, and has entire charge of the 
 prisoners and of the daily policing of the camp. He is a 
 'man of distinguished appearance, and in old times was 
 the crack coachman of Beaufort, in which capacity he 
 once drove Beauregard from this plantation to Charles- 
 ton, I believe. They tell me that he was once allowed to 
 present a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in 
 behalf of slaves, for the redress of certain grievances ; and 
 that a placard, offering two thousand dollars for his re- 
 capture, is still to be seen by the wayside between here 
 and Charleston. He was a sergeant in the old " Hunter 
 Regiment," and was taken by General Hunter to New 
 York last spring, where the chevrons on his arm brought 
 a mob upon him in Broadway, whom he kept off till the 
 police interfered. There is not a white officer in this 
 regiment who has more administrative ability, or more 
 absolute authority over the men ; they do not love him, 
 but his mere presence has controlling power over them. 
 He writes well enough to prepare for me a daily report 
 of his duties in the camp ; if his education reached a 
 higher point, I see no reason why he should not command 
 the Army of the Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I 
 should say, wine-black ; his complexion, like that of others 
 of my darkest men, having a sort of rich, clear depth, 
 without a trace of sootiness, and to my eye very hand- 
 some. His features are tolerably regular, and full of 
 command, and his figure superior to that of any of our 
 white officers, — being six feet high, perfectly propor- 
 tioned, and of apparently inexhaustible strength and 
 activity. His gait is like a panther's ; I never saw such 
 a tread. No anti-slavery novel has described a man of 
 3* 
 
58 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 such marked ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly in- 
 telligible ; and if there should ever be a black monarchy 
 in South Carolina, he will be its king. 
 
 January 15. 
 This morning is like May. Yesterday I saw bluebirds 
 and a butterfly ; so this winter of a fortnight is over. I 
 fancy there is a trifle less coughing in the camp. We 
 hear of other stations in the Department where the mor- 
 tality, chiefly from yellow fever, has been frightful. Dr. 
 is rubbing his hands professionally over the fear- 
 ful tales of the surgeon of a New York regiment, just 
 from Key West, who has had two hundred cases of the 
 fever. " I suppose he is a skilful, highly educated man," 
 said I. " Yes," he responded with enthusiasm. " Why, 
 he had seventy deaths ! " — as if that proved his supe- 
 riority past question. 
 
 January 19. 
 " And first, sitting prond as a king on his throne, 
 At the head of them all rode Sir Richard Tyrone." 
 
 But I fancy that Sir Richard felt not much better satis- 
 fied with his following than I to-day. J. R. L. said once 
 that nothing was quite so good as turtle-soup, except mock- 
 turtle ; and I have heard oiBcers declare that nothing was 
 so stirring as real war, except some exciting parade. 
 To-day, for the first time, I marched the whole regiment 
 through Beaufort and back, — the first appearance of 
 such a novelty on any stage. They did march splen- 
 didly ; this all admit. M 's prediction was ful- 
 filled: "Will not be in bliss? A thousand men, 
 
 every one as black as a coal ! " I confess it. To look 
 back on twenty broad double-ranks of men (for they 
 marched by platoons), — every polished musket havin<T 
 
CAMP DIARY. 59 
 
 a black face beside it, and every face set steadily to the 
 front, — a regiment of freed slaves marching on into the 
 future, — it was something to remember ; and when they 
 returned through the same streets, marching by the flank, 
 with guns at a " support," and each man covering his 
 file-leader handsomely, the effect on the eye was almost 
 as fine. The band of the Eighth Maine joined us at the 
 entrance of the town, and escorted us in. Sergeant 
 Eivers said ecstatically afterwards, in describing the 
 affair, " And when dat band wheel in before us, and 
 march on, — my God! I quit dis world altogeder." I 
 wonder if he pictured to himself the many dusky regi- 
 ments, now unformed, which I seemed to see marching 
 up behind us, gathering shape out of the dim air. 
 
 I had cautioned the men, before leaving camp, not to 
 be staring about them as they marched, but to look 
 straight to the front, every man ; and they did it with 
 their accustomed fidelity, aided by the sort of spontaneous 
 eye-for-effect which is in all their melodramatic natures. 
 One of them was heard to say exultingly afterwards, 
 " We did n't look to de right nor to de leff. I did n't see 
 notin' in Beaufort. Eb'ry step was worth a half a dollar.'' 
 And they alT marched as if it were so. They knew well 
 that they were marching through throngs of ofiicers and 
 soldiers who had drilled as many months as we had 
 drilled weeks, and whose eyes would readily spy out 
 every defect And I must say, that, on the whole, with 
 a {ew trivial exceptions, those spectators behaved in a 
 manly and courteous manner, and I do not care to write 
 down all the handsome things that were said. Whether 
 said or not, they were deserved ; and there is no danger 
 that our men will not take sufficient satisfaction in their 
 good appearance. I was especially amused at one of our 
 
60 CAMP DIARY. 
 
 recruits, who did not march in the ranks, and who said, 
 after watching the astonishment of some white soldiers, 
 " De buckra sojers look like a man who been-a-steal ar 
 sheep," — that is, I suppose, sheepish. 
 
 After passing and repassing through the town, we 
 marched to the parade-ground, and went through an 
 hour's drill, ft)rming squares and reducing them, and 
 doing other things which look hard on paper, and are 
 perfectly easy in fact ; and we were to have been re- 
 viewed by General Saxton, but he had been unexpect- 
 edly called to Ladies Island, and did not see us at all, 
 which was the only thing to mar the men's enjoyment. 
 Then we marched back to camp (three miles), the men 
 singing the " John Brown Song," and all manner of 
 things, — as happy creatures as one can well conceive. 
 
 It is worth mentioning, before I close, that we have 
 just received an article about " Negro Troops," from the 
 London Spectator, which is so admirably true to our 
 experience that it seems as if written by one of us. I 
 am confident that there never has been, in any American 
 newspaper, a treatment of the subject so discriminating 
 and so wise. 
 
 January 21 . 
 
 To-day brought a visit from Major-General Hunter and 
 his staff, by General Saxton's invitation, — the former 
 having just arrived in the Department. I expected them 
 at dress-parade, but they came during battalion drill, 
 rather to my dismay, and we were caught in our old 
 clothes. It was our first review, and I dare say we did 
 tolerably ; but of course it seemed to me that the men 
 never appeared so ill before, — just as one always thinks 
 a party at one's own house a failure, even if the guests 
 seem to enjoy it, because one is so keenly sensitive to 
 
CAMP DIARY. 61 
 
 every little thing that goes wrong. After review and 
 drill, General Hunter made the men a little speech, at 
 my request, and told them that he wished there were 
 fifty thousand of them. General Saxton spoke to them 
 afterwards, and said that fifty thousand muskets were on 
 their way for colored troops. The men cheered both 
 the generals lustily ; and they were complimentary after- 
 wards, though I knew that the regiment could not have 
 appeared nearly so weU as on its visit to Beaufort. I 
 suppose I felt like some anxious mamma whose children 
 have accidentally appeared at dancing-school in their old 
 clothes. 
 
 General Hunter promises us all we want, — pay when 
 the funds arrive, Springfield rifled muskets, and blue 
 trousers. Moreover, he has graciously consented that we 
 should go on an expedition along the coast, to pick up 
 cotton, lumber, and, above all, recruits. I declined an 
 offer like this just after my arrival, because the regiment 
 was not drilled or disciplined, not even the officers ; but 
 it is all we wish for now. 
 
 " Wliat care I how black I be ? 
 Forty pounds will marry me," 
 
 quoth Mother Goose. Forty rounds will marry us to the 
 American Army, past divorcing, if we can only use them 
 well. Our success or failure may make or mar the pros- 
 pects of colored troops. But it is well to remember in 
 advance that military success is really less satisfactory 
 than any other, because it may depend on a moment's 
 turn of events, and that may be determined by some 
 trivial thing, neither to be anticipated nor controlled. 
 Napoleon ought to have won at Waterloo by all reason- 
 able calculations ; but who cares ? All that one can 
 expect is, to do one's best, and to take with equanimity 
 the fortune of war. 
 
62 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 UP THE ST. MART'S. 
 
 IF Sergeant Rivers was a natural king among my 
 dusky soldiers, Corporal Robert Sutton was the nat- 
 ural prime-minister. If not in aU respects the ablest, he 
 was the wisest man in our ranks. As large, as powerful, 
 and as black as our good-looking Color-Sergeant, but 
 more heavily built and with less personal beauty, he had 
 a more massive brain and a far more meditative and sys- 
 tematic intellect. Not yet grounded even in the spelling- 
 book, his modes of thought were nevertheless strong, 
 lucid, and accurate ; and he yearned and pined for intel- 
 lectual companionship beyond all ignorant men whom I 
 have ever met. I believe that he would have talked all 
 day and all night, for days together, to any officer who 
 could instruct him, until his companion, at least, fell 
 asleep exhausted. His comprehension of the whole prob- 
 lem of Slavery was more thorough and far-reaching than 
 that of any Abolitionist, so far as its social and military 
 aspects went ; in that direction I could teach him noth- 
 ing, and he taught me much. But it was his methods of 
 thought which always impressed me chiefly : superficial 
 brilliancy he left to others, and grasped at the solid 
 truth. 
 
 Of course his interest in the war and in the regiment 
 was unbounded ; he did not take to drill with especial 
 readiness, but he was insatiable of it, and grudged every 
 moment of relaxation. Indeed, he never had any such 
 moments ; his mind was at work aU the time, even when 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 63 
 
 he was singing hymns, of which he had endless store. 
 He was not, however, one of our leading religionists, but 
 his moral code was solid and reliable, like his mental pro- 
 cesses. Ignorant as he was, the " years that bring the 
 philosophic mind" had yet been his, and most of my 
 young officers seemed boys beside him. He was a Flo- 
 rida man, and had been chiefly employed in lumbering 
 and piloting on the St. Mary's River, which divides 
 Florida from Georgia. Down this stream he had escaped 
 in a " dug-out," and after thus finding the way, had re- 
 turned (as had not a few of my men in other cases) to 
 bring away wife and child. " I would n't have lefiT my 
 child. Gunnel," he said, with an emphasis that sounded 
 the depths of his strong nature. And up this same river 
 he was always imploring to be allowed to guide an expe- 
 dition. 
 
 Many other men had rival propositions to urge, for they 
 gained self-confidence from drill and guard-duty, and 
 were growing impatient of inaction. " Ought to go to 
 work, Sa, — don't believe in we lyin' in camp eatin' up 
 de perwisions." Such were the quaint complaints, which 
 I heard with joy. Looking over my note-books of that 
 period, I find them filled with topographical memoranda, 
 jotted down by a flickering candle, from the evening talk 
 of the men, — notes of vulnerable points along the coast, 
 charts of rivers, locations of pickets. I prized these con- 
 versations not more for what I thus learned of the coun- 
 try than for what I learned of the men. One could thus 
 measure their various degrees of accuracy and their aver- 
 age military instinct ; and I must say that in every re- 
 spect, save the accurate estimate of distances, they stood 
 the test well. But no project took my fancy so much, 
 after all, as that of the delegate from the St. Mary's 
 River. 
 
64 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 The best peg on which to hang an expedition in the 
 Department of the South, in those days, was the promise 
 of lumber. Dwelling in the very land of Southern pine, 
 the Department authorities had to send North for it, at 
 a vast expense. There was reported to be plenty in 
 the enemy's country, but somehow the colored soldiers 
 were the only ones who had been lucky enough to obtain 
 any, thus far, and the supply brought in by our men, after 
 flooring the tents of the white regiments and our own, 
 was running low. An expedition of white troops, four 
 companies, with two steamers and two schooners, had 
 lately returned empty-handed, after a week's foraging ; 
 and now it was our turn. They said the mills were all 
 burned ; but should we go up the St. Mary's, Corporal 
 Sutton was prepared to offer more lumber than we 
 had transportation to carry. This made the crowning 
 charm of his suggestion. But there is never any danger 
 of erring on the side of secrecy, in a military department ; 
 and I resolved to avoid all undue publicity for our plans, 
 by not finally deciding on any until we should get outside 
 the bar. This was happily approved by my superior 
 officers, Major-General Hunter and Brigadier- General 
 Saxton ; and I was accordingly permitted to take three 
 steamers, with four hundred and sixty-two officers and 
 men, and two or three invited guests, and go down the 
 coast on my own responsibility. We were, in short, to 
 win our spurs ; and if, as among the Araucanians, our 
 spurs were made of lumber, so much the better. The 
 whole history of the Department of the South had been 
 defined as " a military picnic," and now we were to take 
 our share of the entertainment. 
 
 It seemed a pleasant share, when, after the usual vex- 
 ations and delays, we found ourselves (January 23, 1863) 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 65 
 
 gliding down the full waters of Beaufort Eiver, the three 
 vessels having sailed at different hours, with orders to 
 rendezvous at St. Simon's Island, on the coast of Geor- 
 gia. Until then, the flag-ship, so to speak, was to be the 
 " Ben De Ford," Captain Hallett, — tliis being by far the 
 largest vessel, and carrying most of the men. Major 
 Strong was in command upon the " John Adams," an 
 army gunboat, carrying a thirty-ponnd Parrott gun, two 
 ten-pound Parrotts, and an eight-inch howitzer. Captain 
 Trowbridge (since promoted Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
 regiment) had charge of the famous " Planter," brought 
 away from the Rebels by Eobert Small ; she carried a 
 ten-pound Parrott gun, and two howitzers. The John 
 Adams was our main reliance. She was an old East 
 Boston ferry-boat, a " double-ender," admirable for river- 
 work, but unfit for sea-service. She drew seven feet of 
 water ; the Planter drew only four ; but the latter was 
 very slow, and being obliged to go to St. Simon's by an 
 inner passage, would delay us from the beginning. She 
 delayed us so much, before the end, that we virtually 
 parted company, and her career was almost entirely sep- 
 arated from our own. 
 
 From boyhood I have had a fancy for boats, and have 
 seldom been without a share, usually more or less frac- 
 tional, in a rather indeterminate number of punts and 
 wherries. But when, for the first time, I found myself at 
 sea as Commodore of a fleet of armed steamers, — for 
 even the Ben De Ford boasted a six-pounder or so, — 
 it seemed rather an unexpected promotion. But it is a 
 characteristic of army life, that one adapts one's self, as 
 coolly as in a dream, to the most novel responsibilities. 
 One sits on court-martial, for instance, and decides on the 
 life of a fellow-creature, without being asked any incon- 
 
66 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 venient questions as to previous knowledge of Black- 
 stone ; and after such an experience, shall one shrink 
 from wrecking a steamer or two in the cause of the na- 
 tion ? So I placidly accepted my naval establishment, 
 as if it were a new form of boat-club, and looked over 
 the charts, balancing between one river and another, as 
 if deciding whether to pull up or down Lake Quinsiga- 
 mond. If military life ever contemplated the exercise 
 of the virtue of humility under any circumstances, this 
 would perhaps have been a good opportunity to begin its 
 practice. But as the " Regulations " clearly contem- 
 plated nothing of the kind, and as I had never met with 
 any precedent which looked in that direction, I had 
 learned to check promptly all such weak proclivities. 
 
 Captain Hallett proved the most frank and manly of 
 sailors, and did everything for our comfort. He was soon 
 warm in his praises of the demeanor of our men, which 
 was very pleasant to hear, as this was the first time that 
 colored soldiers in any number had been conveyed on 
 board a transport, and I know of no place where a white 
 volunteer appears to so much disadvantage. His mind 
 craves occupation, his body is intensely uncomfortable, 
 the daily emergency is not great enough to call out his 
 heroic qualities, and he is apt to be surly, discontented, 
 and impatient even of sanitary rules. The Southern 
 black soldier, on the other hand, is seldom sea-sick (at 
 least, such is my experience), and, if properly managed, 
 is equally contented, whether idle or busy ; he is, more- 
 over, so docile that all needful rules are executed with 
 cheerful acquiescence, and the quarters can therefore be 
 kept clean and wholesome. Very forlorn faces were soon 
 visible among the officers in the cabin, but I rarely saw 
 such amonq; the men. 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 67 
 
 Pleasant still seemed our enterprise, as we anchored at 
 early morning in the quiet waters of St. Simon's Sound, 
 and saw the light fall softly on the beach and the low 
 bluffs, on the picturesque plantation-houses which nestled 
 there, and the graceful naval vessels that lay at anchor 
 before us. When we afterwards landed the air had that 
 peculiar Mediterranean translucency which Southern 
 islands wear; and the plantation we visited had the 
 loveliest tropical garden, though tangled and desolate, 
 which I have ever seen in the South. The deserted 
 house was embowered in great blossoming shrubs, and 
 filled with hyacinthine odors, among which predominated 
 that of the little Chickasaw roses which everywhere 
 ■ bloomed and trailed around. There were fig-trees and 
 date-palms, crape-myrtles and wax-myrtles, Mexican 
 agaves and English ivies, japonicas, bananas, oranges, 
 lemons, oleanders, jonquils, great cactuses, and wild Flo- 
 rida lilies. This was not the plantation which Mrs. 
 Kemble has since made historic, although that was on 
 the same island ; and I could not waste much sentiment 
 over it, for it had belonged to a Northern renegade, 
 Thomas Butler King. Yet I felt then, as I have felt a 
 hundred times since, an emotion of heart-sickness at this 
 desecration of a homestead, — and especially when, look- 
 ing from a bare upper window of the empty house upon 
 a range of broad, flat, sunny roofs, such as children love 
 to play on, I thought how that place might have been 
 loved by yet innocent hearts, and I mourned anew the 
 sacrilege of war. 
 
 I had visited the flag-ship Wabash ere we left Port 
 Royal Harbor, and had obtained a very kind letter of 
 introduction from Admiral Dupont, that stately and 
 courtly potentate, elegant as one's ideal French marquis ; 
 
68 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 and under these credentials I received polite attention 
 from the naval officers at St. Simon's, — Acting Volun- 
 teer Lieutenant Budd, of the gunboat Potomska, and 
 Acting Master Moses, of the barque Fernandina. They 
 made valuable suggestions in regard to the different rivers 
 along the coast, and gave vivid descriptions of the last 
 previous trip up the St. Mary's undertaken by Captain 
 Stevens, U. S. N., in the gunboat Ottawa, when he 
 had to fight his way past batteries at every bluff in 
 descending the narrow and rapid stream. I was warned 
 that no resistance would be offered to the ascent, but 
 only to our return ; and was further cautioned against 
 the mistake, then common, of underrating the courage of 
 the Eebels. " It proved impossible to dislodge those 
 fellows from the banks," my informant said ; " they had 
 dug rifle-pits, and swarmed like hornets, and when fairly 
 silenced in one. direction they were sure to open upon us 
 from another." All this sounded alarming, but it was 
 nine months since the event had happened ; and although 
 nothing had gone up the river meanwhile, I counted on 
 less resistance now. And something must be risked 
 anywhere. 
 
 We were delayed all that day in waiting for our con- 
 sort, and improved our time by verifying certain rumors 
 about a quantity of new railroad-iron which was said to 
 be concealed in the abandoned Rebel forts on St. Simon's 
 and Jekyll Islands, and which would have much value at 
 Port Royal, if we could only unearth it. Some of our 
 men had worked upon these very batteries, so that they 
 could easily guide us ; and by the additional discovery 
 of a large flat-boat we were enabled to go to work in 
 earnest upon the removal of the treasure. These iron 
 bars, surmounted by a dozen feet of sand, formed an in- 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. (39 
 
 vulnerable roof for the magazines and bomb-proofs of the 
 fort, and the men enjoyed demolishing them far more 
 than they had relished their construction. Though the 
 day was the 24th of January, 1863, the sun was very 
 oppressive upon the sands ; but all were in the highest 
 spirits, and worked with the greatest zeal. The men 
 seemed to regard these massive bars as their first tro- 
 phies ; and if the rails had been wreathed with roses, 
 they could not have been got out in more holiday style. 
 Nearly a hundred were obtained that day, besides a 
 quantity of five-inch plank with which to barricade the 
 very conspicuous pilot-houses of the John Adams. 
 
 Still another day we were delayed, and could still keep 
 at this work, not neglecting some foraging on the island, 
 from which horses, cattle, and agricultural implements 
 were to be removed, and the few remaining colored fam- 
 ilies transferred to Fernandina. I had now become quite 
 anxious about the missing steamboat, as the inner pas- 
 sage, by which alone she could arrive, was exposed at 
 certain points to fire from Rebel ' batteries, and it would 
 have been unpleasant to begin with a disaster. I remem- 
 ber that, as I stood on deck, in the still and misty even- 
 ing, listening with strained senses for some sound of ap- 
 proach, I heard a low continuous noise from the distance, 
 more wild and desolate than anything in my memory can 
 parallel. It came from within the vast girdle of mist, 
 and seemed like the cry of a myriad of lost soiils upon 
 the horizon's verge ; it was Dante become audible : and 
 yet it was but the accumulated cries of innumerable sea- 
 fowl at the entrance of the outer bay. 
 
 Late that night the Planter arrived. We left St. 
 
 Simon's on the following morning, reached Fort Clinch 
 
 . by four o'clock, and there transferring two hundred men 
 
70 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 to the very scanty quarters of the John Adams, allowed 
 the larger transport to go into Fernandina, while the two 
 other vessels were to ascend the St. Mary's River, unless 
 (as proved inevitable in the end) the defects in the boiler 
 of the Planter should oblige her to remain behind. That 
 night I proposed to make a sort of trial-trip up stream, as 
 iar as Township Landing, some fifteen miles, there to 
 pay our respects to Captain Clark's company of cavalry, 
 whose camp was reported to lie near by. This was in- 
 cluded in Corporal Sutton's programme, and seemed to 
 me more inviting, and far more useful to the men, than 
 any amount of mere foraging. The thing really desirable 
 appeared to be to get them under fire as soon as possible, 
 and to teach them, by a few small successes, the applica- 
 tion of what they had learned in camp. 
 
 I had ascertained that the camp of this company lay 
 five miles from the landing, and was accessible by two 
 roads, one of which was a lumber-path, not commonly 
 used, but which Corporal Sutton had helped to construct, 
 and along which he could easily guide us. The plan was 
 to go by night, surround the house and negro cabins at 
 the landing (to prevent an alarm from being given), then 
 to take the side path, and if all went well, to surprise the 
 camp ; but if they got notice of our approach, through 
 their pickets, we should, at worst, have a fight, in which 
 the best man must win. 
 
 The moon was bright, and the river swift, but easy of 
 navigation thus far. Just below Township I landed a 
 small advance force, to surround the houses silently. 
 With them went Corporal Sutton ; and when, after 
 rounding the point, I went on shore with a larger body 
 of men, he met me with a silent chuckle of delight, and 
 with the information that there was a negro in a neigh- 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 71 
 
 boring cabin who had just come from the Rebel camp, and 
 could give the latest information. While he hunted up 
 this valuable auxiliary, I mustered my detachment, win- 
 nowing out the men who had coughs (not a few), and 
 sending them ignominiously on board again : a process I 
 had regularly to perform, during this first season of 
 catarrh, on all occasions where quiet was needed. The 
 only exception tolerated at this time was in the case of 
 one man who offered a solemn pledge, that, if unable to 
 restrain his cough, he would lie down on the ground, 
 scrape a little hole, and cough into it unheard. The 
 ingenuity of this proposition was irresistible, and the 
 eager patient was allowed to pass muster. 
 
 It was after midnight when we set off upon our excur- 
 sion. I had about a hundred men, marching by the 
 flank, with a small advanced guard, and also a few 
 flankers, where the ground permitted. I put my Flo- 
 rida company at the head of the column, and had by 
 my side Captain Metcalf, an excellent officer, and Ser- 
 geant Mclntyre, his first sergeant. We plunged pres- 
 ently into pine woods, whose resinous smell I can still 
 remember. Corporal Sutton marched near me, with his 
 captured negro guide, whose first fear and sullenness had 
 yielded to the magic news of the President's Proclama- 
 tion, then just issued, of which Governor Andrew had 
 sent me a large printed supply ; — we seldom found men 
 who could read it, but they all seemed to feel more se- 
 cure when they held it in their hands. We marched on 
 through the woods, with no sound but (he peeping of the 
 frogs in a neighboring marsh, and the occasional yelping 
 of a dog, as we passed the hut of some " cracker." This 
 yelping always made Corporal Sutton uneasy; dogs are 
 the detective ofl3.cers of Slavery's police. 
 
72 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 We had halted once or twice to close up the ranks, and 
 had marched some two miles, seeing and hearing nothing 
 more. I had got all I could out of our new guide, and 
 was striding on, rapt in pleasing contemplation. All had 
 gone so smoothly that I had merely to fancy the rest as 
 being equally smooth. Already I fancied our little de- 
 tachment bursting out of the woods, in swift surprise, 
 upon the Rebel quarters, — already the opposing com- 
 mander, after hastily firing a charge or two from his 
 revolver (of course above my head), had yielded at dis- 
 cretion, and was gracefully tendering, in a stage attitude, 
 his unavailing sword, — when suddenly — 
 
 There was a trampling of feet among the advanced 
 guard as they came confusedly to a halt, and almost at 
 the same instant a more ominous sound, as of galloping 
 horses in the path before us. The moonlight outside the 
 woods gave that dimness of atmosphere within which is 
 more bewildering than darkness, because the eyes cannot 
 adapt themselves to it so well. Yet I fancied, and others 
 aver, that they saw the leader of an approaching party 
 mounted on a white horse and reining VDi^ the p^tjiway^ii ■ 
 others, again, declare that he drew a pistol from the 
 holster and took aim ; others heard the words, " Charge 
 in upon them ! Surround them ! " But all this was con- 
 fused by the opening rifle-shots of our advanced guard, 
 and, as clear observation was impossible, I made the men 
 fix their bayonets and kneel in the cover on each side the 
 pathway^ and I saw with delight the brave fellows, with 
 Sergeant McTntyre at their head, settling down in the 
 grass as coolly and warily as if wild turkeys were the 
 only game. Perhaps at the first shot a man fell at my 
 elbow. I felt it no more than if a tree had fallen, — I 
 was so busy watching my own men and the enemy, and 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 73 
 
 planning what to do next. Some of oui- soldiers, misun- 
 derstanding the order, " Fix bayonets," were actually 
 charging with them, dashing off into the dim woods, witfi 
 nothing to charge at but the vanishing tail of an imagi- 
 nary horse, — for we could really see nothing. This zeal 
 I noted with pleasure, and also with anxiety, as our great- 
 est danger was from confusion and scattering; and for 
 infantry to pursue cavalry would be a novel enterprise. 
 Captain Metcalf stood by me well in keeping the men 
 steady, as did Assistant Surgeon Minor, and Lieutenant, 
 now Captain, Jackson. How the men in the rear were 
 behaving I could not tell, — not so coolly, I afterwards 
 found, because they were more entirely bewildered, sup- 
 posing, until the shots came, that the column had simply 
 halted for a moment's rest, as had been done once or 
 twice before. They did not know who or where their 
 assailants might be, and the fall of the man beside me 
 created a hasty rumor that I was killed, so that it was on 
 the whole an alarming experience for them. They kept 
 together very tolerably, however, while our assailants, 
 dividing, rode along on each side through the open pine- 
 barren, firing into our ranks, but mostly over the heads 
 of the men. My soldiers in turn fired rapidly, — too 
 rapidly, being yet beginners, — and it was evident that, 
 ilim as it was, both sides had opportunity to do some 
 execution. 
 
 I could hardly tell whether the fight had lasted ten 
 minutes or an hour, when, as the enemy's fire had evi- 
 dently ceased or slackened, I gave the order to cease 
 firing. But it was very difiicult at first to make them 
 desist : the taste of gunpowder was too intoxicating. 
 One of them was heard to mutter, indignantly, " Why de 
 Gunnel order Gease firing, when de Secesh blazin' away 
 i 
 
74 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 at de rate ob ten dollar a day ? " Every incidental oc- 
 currence seemed somehow to engrave itself upon my 
 perceptions, without interrupting the main course of 
 thought. Thus I know, that, in one of the pauses of the 
 afThir, there came wailing through the woods a cracked 
 female voice, as if calling back some stray husband who 
 hfid run out to join in the affray, " John, John, are you 
 going to leave me, John ? Are you going to let me and 
 the children be killed, John ?" I suppose the poor thing's 
 fears of gunpowder were very genuine ; but it was such a 
 wailing squeak, and so infinitely ludicrous, and John was 
 probably ensconced so very safely in some hollow tree, 
 that I could see some of the men showing all their white 
 teeth in the very midst of the fight. But soon this sound, 
 with all others, had ceased, and left us in peaceful posses- 
 sion of the field. 
 
 I have made the more of this little affair because it 
 was the first stand-up fight in which my men had been 
 engaged, though they had been under fire, in an irregular 
 way, in their small early expeditions. To me personally 
 the event was of the greatest value : it had given us all 
 an opportunity to test each other, and our abstract sur- 
 mises were changed into positive knowledge. Hereafter 
 it was of small importance what nonsense might be talked 
 or written about colored troops ; so long as mine did not 
 flinch, it made no difference to me. My brave young 
 officers, themselves mostly new to danger, viewed the 
 matter much as I did ; and yet we were under bonds of 
 life and death to form a correct opinion, which was more 
 than could be said of the Northern editors, and our ver- 
 dict was proportionatelj' of greater value. 
 
 I was convinced from appearances that we had been 
 victorious, so far, though I could not suppose that this 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 75 
 
 would be the last of it. We knew neither the numbers 
 of the enemy, nor their plans, nor their present con- 
 dition : whether they had surprised us or whether we 
 had surprised them was all a mystery. Corporal Sutton 
 was urgent to go on and complete the enterprise. All 
 my impulses said the same thing ; but then I had the 
 most explicit injunctions from General Saxton to risk as 
 little as possible in this first enterprise, because of the 
 fatal effect on public sentiment of even an honorable 
 defeat. We had now an honorable victory, so far as it 
 went ; the officers and men around me were in good 
 spirits, but the rest of the column might be nervous ; 
 and it seemed so important to make the first fight an 
 entire success, that I thought it wiser to let well alone ; 
 nor have I ever changed this opinion. For one's self, 
 Montrose's verse may be well applied, " To win or lose 
 it all." But one has no right to deal thus lightly with 
 the fortunes of a race, and that was the weight which I 
 alwa}s felt as resting on our action. If my raw infantry 
 force had stood unflinchingly a night-surprise from " de 
 boss cavalry," as they reverentially termed them, I felt 
 that a good beginning had been made. All hope of sur- 
 prising the enemy's camp was now at an end ; I was will- 
 ing and ready to fight the cavalry over again, but it 
 seemed wiser that we, not they, should select the ground. 
 Attending to the wounded, therefore, and making as 
 we best could stretchers for those who were to be car- 
 ried, including the remains of the man killed at the first 
 discharge (Private William Parsons of Company G), 
 and others who seemed at the point of death, we marched 
 through the woods to the landing, — expecting at every 
 moment to be involved in another fight. This not oc- 
 curring, I was more than ever satisfied that we had won 
 
76 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 a victory ; for it was obvious that a mounted force would 
 not allow a detachment of infantry to march two miles 
 through open woods by night without renewing the fight, 
 unless they themselves had suflFered a good deal. On 
 arrival at the landing, seeing that there was to be no 
 immediate afiray, I sent most of the men on board, and 
 called for volunteers to remain on shore with me and hold 
 the plantation-house till morning. They eagerly offered ; 
 and I was glad to see them, when posted as sentinels by 
 Lieutenants Hyde and Jackson, who stayed with me, 
 pace their beats as steadily and challenge as coolly as 
 veterans, though of course there was some powder wasted 
 on imaginary foes. Greatly to my surprise, however, we 
 had no other enemies to encounter. "We did not yet 
 know that we had killed the first lieutenant of the cavalry, 
 and that our opponents had retreated to the woods in 
 dismay, without daring to return to their camp. This 
 at least was the account we heard from prisoners after- 
 wards, and was evidently the tale current in the neigh- 
 borhood, though the statements published in Southern 
 newspapers did not correspond. Admitting the death of 
 Lieutenant Jones, the Tallahassee Floridian of February 
 14th stated that " Captain Clark, finding the enemy in 
 strong force, fell back with his command to camp, and 
 removed his ordnance and commissary and other stores, 
 with twelve negroes on their way to the enemy, captured 
 on that day." 
 
 In the morning, my invaluable surgeon, Dr. Rogers, 
 sent me his report of killed and wounded ; and I have 
 been since permitted to make the following extracts from 
 his notes : " One man killed instantly by ball through the 
 heart, and seven wounded, one of whom will die. Braver 
 men never lived. One man with two bullet-holes through 
 
VP THE ST. MARY'S. *J'J 
 
 the large muscles of the shoulders and neck brought off 
 from the scene of action, two miles distant, two muskets ; 
 and not a murmur has escaped his lips. Another, Rob- 
 ert Sutton, with three wounds, — one of which, being on 
 the skull, may cost him his life, — would not report him- 
 self tiU compelled to do so by his officers. While dress- 
 ing his wounds, he quietly talked of what they had done, 
 and of what they yet could do. To-day I have had the 
 Colonel order him to obey me. He is perfectly quiet 
 and cool, but takes this whole affair with the religious 
 bearing of a man who realizes that freedom is sweeter 
 than life. Yet another soldier did not report himself at 
 all, but remained all night on guard, and possibly I should 
 not have known of his having had a buck-shot in his 
 shoulder, if some duty requiring a sound shoulder had 
 not been required of him to-day.'' This last, it may be 
 added, had persuaded a comrade to dig out the buck- 
 shot, for fear of being ordered on the sick-list. And one 
 of those who were carried to the vessel — a man wounded 
 through the lungs — asked only if I were safe, the con- 
 trary having been reported. An officer may be pardoned 
 some enthusiasm for such men as these. 
 
 The anxious night having passed away without aa 
 attack, another problem opened with the morning. For 
 the first time, my officers and men found themselves in 
 possession of an enemy's abode ; and though there was 
 but little temptation to plunder, I knew that I must here 
 begin to draw the line. I had long since resolved to 
 prohibit absolutely all indiscriminate pilfering and wan- 
 ton outrage, and to allow nothing to be taken or destroyed 
 but by proper authority. The men, to my great satisfac- 
 tion, entered into this view at once, and so did (perhaps 
 a shade less readily, in some cases) the officers. The 
 
78 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 greatest trouble was with the steamboat hands, and I 
 resolved to let them go ashore as little as possible. Most 
 articles of furniture were abeady, however, before our 
 visit, gone from the plantation-hOuse, which was now used 
 only as a picket-station. The only valuable article was 
 a piano-forte, for which a regular packing-box lay invit- 
 ingly ready outside. I had made up my mind, in accord- 
 ance with the orders given to naval commanders in that 
 department,* to burn all picket-stations, and all villages 
 from which I should be covertly attacked, and nothing 
 else ; and as this house was destined to the flames, I 
 should have left the piano in it, but for the seductions of 
 that box. With such a receptacle all ready, even to the 
 cover, it would have seemed like flying in the face of 
 Providence not to put the piano in. I ordered it re- 
 moved, therefore, and afterwards presented it to the 
 school for colored children at Fernandina. This I men- 
 tion because it was the only article of property I ever 
 took, or knowingly suffered to be taken, in the enemy's 
 country, save for legitimate military uses, from first to 
 last ; nor would I have taken this, but for the thought of 
 the school, and, as aforesaid, the temptation of the box. 
 If any other officer has been more rigid, with equal oppor- 
 tunities, let him cast the first stone. 
 
 I think the zest with which the men finally set fire to 
 the house at my order was enhanced by this previous 
 abstemiousness ; but there is a fearful fascination in the 
 
 * " It is my desire to avoid the destruction of private property, 
 tiiiless used for picliet or guard-stations, or for otlier military purposes, 
 by tlie enemy. ... Of course, if fired upon from any place, it is your 
 duty, if possible, to destroy it."— Letter of Admiral Dupont, 
 cmnmanding South Atlantic Squadron, to Lieutenant-Comjiakdek 
 Hughes of United Slates Gunboat MoliawTc, Fernandina Hai-bor. 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 79 
 
 use of fire, which every child knows in the abstract, and 
 which I found to hold true in the practice. On our way 
 down river we had opportunity to test this again. 
 
 The ruined town of St. Mary's had at that time a bad 
 reputation, among both naval and military men. Lying 
 but a short distance above Fernandina, on the Georgia 
 side, it was occasionally visited by our gunboats. I was 
 informed that the only residents of the town were three 
 old women, who were apparently kept there as spies, — 
 that, on our approach, the aged crones would come out 
 and wave white handkerchiefs, — that they would receive 
 us hospitably, profess to be profoundly loyal, and exhibit 
 a portrait of Washington, — that they would solemnly 
 assure us that no Rebel pickets had been there for many 
 weeks, — but that in the adjoining yard we should find 
 fresh horse-tracks, and that we should be fired upon by 
 guerillas the moment we left the wharf. My officers had 
 been much excited by these tales; and I had assured 
 them that, if ttiis programme were literally carried out, 
 we would straightway return and burn the town, or what 
 was left of it, for our share. It was essential to show my 
 ofiicers and men that, while rigid against irregular out- 
 rage, we could still be inexorable against the enemy. 
 
 We had previously planned, to stop at this town, on 
 our way down river, for some valuable lumber which we 
 had espied on a wharf; and gliding down the swift cur- 
 rent, shelling a few bluffs as we passed, we soon reached 
 it. Punctual as tlie figures in a panorama appeared the 
 old ladies with their white handkerchiefs. Taking pos- 
 session of the town, much of which had previously been 
 destroyed by the gunboats, and stationing the color-guard, 
 to their infinite delight, in the cupola of the most con- 
 spicuous house, I deployed skirmishers along the exposed 
 
80 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 suburb, and set a detail of men at work on the lumber. 
 After a stately and decorous interview with the queens of 
 society of St. Mary's, — is it Scott who says that nothing 
 improves the manners like piracy ? — I peacefully with- 
 drew the men when the work was done. There were 
 fnces of disappointment among the officers, — for all felt a 
 spirit of mischief after the last night's adventure, — when, 
 just as we had fairly swung out into the stream and were 
 under way, there came, like the sudden burst of a trop- 
 ical tornado, a regular little hail-storm of bullets into the 
 open end of the boat, driving every gunner in an instant 
 from his post, and surprising even those who were look- 
 ing to be surprised. The shock was but for a second ; 
 and though the bullets had pattered precisely like the 
 sound of hail upon the iron cannon, yet nobody was hurt. 
 With very respectable promptness, order was restored, 
 our own shells were flying into the woods from which the 
 attack proceeded, and we were steaming up to the wharf 
 again, according to promise. 
 
 Who shall describe the theatrical attitudes assumed by 
 the old ladies as they reappeared at the front-door, — 
 being luckily out of direct range, — and set the handker- 
 chiefs in wilder motion than ever ? They brandished 
 them, they twirled them after the manner of the domestic 
 mop, they clasped their hands, handkerchiefs included. 
 Meanwhile their friends in the wood popped away stead- 
 ily at us, with small etfect ; and occasionally an invisible 
 field-piece tliundered feebly from another quarter, with 
 equally invisible results. Reaching the wharf, one com- 
 pany, under Lieutenant (now Captain) Danilson, was 
 promptly deployed in search of our assailants, who soon 
 grew silent. Not so the old ladies, when I announced to 
 them my purpose, and added, with extreme regret, that, 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. gl 
 
 as the wind was high, I should burn only that half of the 
 town which lay to leeward of their house, which did not, 
 after all, amount to much. Between gratitude for this 
 degree of mercy, and imploring appeals for greater, the 
 treacherous old ladies manoeuvred with clasped hands 
 and demonstrative handkerchiefs around me, imioairing 
 the effect of their eloquence by constantly addressing me 
 as " Mr. Captain " ; for I have observed, that, while the 
 sternest officer is greatly propitiated by attributing to him 
 a rank a httle higher than his own, yet no one is ever 
 molhfied by an error in the opposite direction. I tried, 
 however, to disregard such low considerations, and to 
 strike the correct mean between the sublime patriot and 
 the unsanctified incendiary, while I could find no refuge 
 from weak contrition save in greater and greater depths 
 of courtesy ; and so melodramatic became our interview 
 that some of the soldiers still maintain that " dem dar ole 
 Secesh women been a-gwine for kiss de Gunnel," before 
 we ended. But of this monstrous accusation I wish to 
 register an explicit denial, once for all. 
 
 Dropping down to Fernandina unmolested after this 
 affair, we were kindly received b)' the military and naval 
 commanders, — Colonel Hawley, of the Seventh Connec- 
 ticut (now Brigadier-General Hawley), and Lieutenant- 
 Commander Hughes, of the gunboat Mohawk. It turned 
 out very opportunely that both of these oiRcers had spe- 
 cial errands to suggest still farther up the St. Mary's, 
 and precisely in the region where I wished to go. Colonel 
 Hawley showed me a letter from the War Department, 
 requesting him to ascertain the possibility of obtaining a 
 supply of brick for Fort Clinch from the brickyard which 
 had furnished the original materials, but which had not 
 been visited since the perilous river-trip of the Ottawa. 
 
 4* F 
 
82 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 Lieutenant Hughes wished to obtain information for the 
 Admiral respecting a Rebel steamer, — the Berosa,— 
 said to be lying somewhere up the river, and awaiting 
 her chance to run the blockade. I jumped at the oppor- 
 tunity. Berosa and brickyard, — both were near Wood- 
 stock, the former home of Corporal Sutton ; he was ready 
 and eager to pilot us up the river ; the moon would be 
 just right that evening, setting at 3h. 19m. A. m. ; and 
 our boat was precisely the one to undertake the expedi- 
 tion. Its double-headed shape was just what was needed 
 in that swift and crooked stream ; the exposed pilot- 
 houses had been tolerably barricaded with the thick 
 planks from St. Simon's ; and we further obtained some 
 sand-bags from Fort Clinch, through the aid of Captain 
 Sears, the of&cer iu charge, who had originally suggested 
 the expedition after brick. In return for ibis aid, the 
 Planter was sent back to the wharf at St. Mary's, to 
 bring away a considerable supply of the same precious 
 article, which we had observed near the wharf. Mean- 
 while the John Adams was coaling from naval supplies, 
 through the kindness of Lieutenant Hughes ; and the 
 Ben De Ford was taking in the lumber which we had 
 yesterday brought down. It was a great disappointment 
 to be unable to take the latter vessel up the river ; but I 
 was unwillingly convinced that, though the depth of water 
 might be sufficient, yet her length would be unmanage- 
 able in the swift current and sharp turns. The Planter 
 must also be sent on a separate cruise, as her weak and 
 disabled machinery made her useless for my purpose. 
 Two hundred men were therefore transferred, as before, 
 to the narrow hold of the John Adams, in addition to the 
 company permanently stationed on board to work the 
 guns. At seven o'clock on the evening of January 29th, 
 beneath a lovely moon, we steamed up the river. 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 83 
 
 Never sKall I forget the mystery and excitement of 
 that night. I know nothing in life more fascinating than 
 the nocturnal ascent of an unknown river, leading far 
 into an enemy's country, where one glides in the dim 
 moonlight between dark hiUs and meadows, each turn of . 
 the channel making it seem like an inland lake, and cut- 
 ting you off as by a barrier from all behind, — with no 
 sign of human life, but an occasional picket-fire left glim- 
 mering beneath the bank, or the yelp of a dog from some 
 low-lying plantation. On such occasions every nerve is 
 strained to its utmost tension ; all dreams of romance 
 appear to promise immediate fulfilment ; all lights on 
 board the vessel are obscured, loud voices are hushed ; 
 you fancy a thousand men on shore, and yet see nothing ; 
 the lonely river, unaccustomed to furrowing keels, lapses 
 by the vessel with a treacherous sound ; and all the senses 
 are merged in a sort of anxious trance. Three times I 
 have had in full perfection this fascinating experience ; 
 but that night was the first, and its zest was the keenest. 
 It will come back to me Ln dreams, if I live a thousand 
 years. 
 
 I feared no attack during our ascent, — that danger 
 ■was for our return ; but I feared the intricate navigation 
 of the river, though I did not fully know, till the actual 
 experience, how dangerous it was. "We passed without 
 trouble far above the scene of our first fight, — the Bat- 
 tle of the Hundred Pines, as my ofiicers had baptized it ; 
 and ever, as we ascended, the banks grew steeper, the 
 current swifter, tLe channel more tortuous and more en- 
 cumbered with projecting branches and drifting wood. 
 No piloting less skilful than that of Corporal Sutton and 
 his mate, James Bezzard, could have carried us through, 
 I thought ; and no side-wheel steamer less strong than a 
 
84 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 ferry-boat could have borne the crash and force with 
 which we struck the wooded banks of the river. But the 
 powerful paddles, built to break the Northern ice, could 
 crush the Southern pine as well ; and we came safely out 
 of entanglements that at first seemed formidable. We 
 had the tide with us, which makes steering far more diffi- 
 cult ; and, in the sharp angles of the river, there was 
 often no resource but to run the bow boldly on shore, let 
 the stern swing round, and then reverse the motion. As 
 the reversing machinery was generally out of order, the 
 engineer stupid or frightened, and the captain excited, 
 this involved moments of tolerably concentrated anxiety. 
 Eight times we grounded in the upper waters, and once 
 lay aground for half an hour ; but at last we dropped 
 anchor before the little town of Woodstock, after moon- 
 set and an hour before daybreak, just as I had planned, 
 and so quietly that scarcely a dog barked, and not a soul 
 in the town, as we afterwards found, knew of our arrival. 
 As silently as possible, the great flat-boat which we had 
 brought from St. Simon's was filled with men. Major 
 Strong was sent on shore with two comjianies, — those 
 of Captain James and Captain Metcalf, — with instruc- 
 tions to surround the town quietly, allow no one to leave 
 it, molest no one, and hold as temporary prisoners every 
 man whom he found. I watched them push off into the 
 darkness, got the remaining force ready to land, and then 
 paced the deck for an hour in silent watchfulness, waiting 
 for rifle-shots. Not a sound came from the shore, save 
 the barking of dogs and the morning-crow of cocks; the 
 time seemed interminable ; but when daylight came, I 
 landed, and found a pair of scarlet trousers pacing on 
 their beat before every house in the village, and a small 
 squad of prisoners, stunted and forlorn as Falstaff's rag- 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 85 
 
 ged regiment, already in hand. I observed with delight 
 the good demeanor of. my men towards these folorn 
 Anglo-Saxons, and towards the more tumultuous women. 
 Even one soldier, who threatened to throw an old ter- 
 magant into the river, took care to append the courteous 
 epithet " Madam." 
 
 I took a survey of the premises. The chief house, a 
 pretty one with picturesque outbuildings, was that of Mrs. 
 A., who owned the mills and lumber-wharves adjoining. 
 The wealth of these wharves had not been exaggerated. 
 There was lumber enough to freight half a dozen steam- 
 ers, and I half regretted that I had agreed to take down 
 a freight of bricks instead. Further researches made me 
 grateful that I had already explained to my men the dif- 
 ference between public foraging and private plunder. 
 Along the river-bank I found building after building 
 crowded with costly furniture, all neatly packed, just as 
 it was sent up from St. Mary's when that town was aban- 
 doned. Pianos were a drug ; china, glass-ware, mahog- 
 any, pictures, all were here. And here were my men, 
 who knew that their own labor had earned for their mas- 
 ters these luxuries, or such as these ; their own wives and 
 children were still sleeping on the floor, perhaps, at Beau- 
 fort or Fernandina ; and yet they submitted, almost with- 
 out a murmur, to the enforced abstinence. Bed and 
 bedding for our hospitals they might take from those 
 store-rooms, — such as the surgeon selected, — also an 
 old flag which we found in a corner, and an old field- 
 piece (which the regiment still possesses), — but after 
 this the doors were closed and left unmolested. It cost 
 a struggle to some of the men, whose wives were desti- 
 tute, I know ; but their pride was very easily touched, 
 and when this abstinence was once recognized as a rule. 
 
86 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 they claimed it as an honorj, in this and all succeeding 
 expeditions. I flatter myself that, if they had once been 
 set upon wholesale plundering, they would have done it 
 as thoroughly as their betters ; but I have always been 
 infinitely grateful, both for the credit and for the disci- 
 pline of the regiment, — as well as for the men's subse- 
 quent lives, — that the opposite method was adopted. 
 
 "When the morning was a little advanced, I called on 
 Mrs. A., who received me in quite a stately way at her 
 own door with " To what am I indebted for the honor of 
 this visit, Sir ? " The foreign name of the family, and 
 the tropical look of the buildings, made it seem (as, in- 
 deed, did all the rest of the adventure) like a chapter out 
 of " Amyas Leigh " ; but as I had happened to hear that 
 the lady herself was a Philadelphian, and her deceased 
 husband a New-Yorker, I could not feel even that modi- 
 cum of reverence due to sincere Southerners. However, 
 I wished to present my credentials ; so, calling up my 
 companion, I said that I believed she had been previously 
 acquainted with Corporal Robert Sutton ? I never saw 
 a finer bit of unutterable indignation than came over the 
 face of my hostess, as she slowly recognized him. She 
 drew herself up, and dropped out the monosyllables of 
 her answer as if they were so many drops of nitric acid. 
 " Ah," quoth my lady, " we called him Bob ! " 
 
 It was a group for a painter. The whole drama of the 
 war seemed to reverse itself in an instant, and my tall, 
 well-dressed, imposing, philosophic Corporal dropped 
 down the immeasurable depth into a mere plantation 
 " Bob " again. So at least in my imagination ; not to 
 that person himself. Too essentially dignified in his na- 
 ture to be moved by words where substantial realities 
 were in question, he simply turned from the lady, touched 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 87 
 
 his hat to me, and asked if I would wish to see the slave- 
 jail, as he had the keys in his possession. 
 
 If he fancied (hat I was in danger of being overcome 
 by blandishments, and needed to be recalled to realities, 
 it was a master-stroke. 
 
 I must say that, when the door of that villanous edi- 
 fice was thrown open before me, I felt glad that my main 
 interview with its lady proprietor had passed before I 
 saw it. It was a small building, like a Northern corn- 
 barn, and seemed to have as prominent and as legitimate 
 a place among the outbuildings of the establishment. In 
 the middle of the door was a large staple with a rusty 
 chain, like an ox-chain, for fastening a victim down. 
 When the door had been opened after the death of the 
 late proprietor, my informant said, a man was found pad- 
 locked in that chain. "We found also three pairs of stocks 
 of various construction, two of which had smaller as well 
 as larger holes, evidently for the feet of women or chil- 
 dren. In a building near by we found something far 
 more complicated, which was perfectly unintelligible till 
 the men explained all its parts : a machine so contrived 
 that a person once imprisoned in it could neither sit, stand, 
 nor lie, but must support the body half raised, in a posi- 
 tion scarcely endurable. I have since bitterly reproached 
 myself for. leaving this piece of ingenuity behind; but it 
 would have cost much labor to remove it, and to bring 
 away the other trophies seemed then enough. I remem- 
 ber the unutterable loathing with which I leaned against 
 the door of that prison-house ; I had thought myself sea- 
 soned to any conceivable horrors of Slavery, but it seemed 
 as if the visible presence of that den of sin would choke 
 me. Of course it would have been burned to the ground 
 by us, but that this would have involved the sacrifice of 
 
88 TIP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 every other building and all the piles of lumber, and for 
 the moment it seemed as if the sacrifice would be right- 
 eous. But I forbore, and only tooli as trophies the in- 
 struments of torture and the keys of the jail. 
 
 We found but few colored people in this vicinity ; some 
 we brought away with us, and an old man and woman 
 preferred to remain. All the white males whom we found 
 I took as hostages, in order to shield us, if possible, from 
 attack on our way down river, explaining to . them that 
 they would be put on shore when the dangerous points 
 were passed. I knew that their wives could easily send 
 notice of this fact to the Rebel forces along the river. 
 My hostages were a forlorn-looking set of " crackers," 
 far inferior to our soldiers in physique, and yet quite 
 equal, the latter declared, to the average material of the 
 Southern armies. None were in uniform, but this proved 
 nothing as to their being soldiers. One of them, a mere 
 boy, was captured at his own door, with gun in hand. It 
 was a fowling-piece, which he used only, as his mother 
 plaintively assured me, "to shoot little birds with." As 
 the guileless youth had for this purpose loaded the gun 
 with eighteen buck-shot, we thought it justifiable to con- 
 fiscate both the weapon and the owner, in mercy to the 
 birds. 
 
 We took from this place, for the use of the army, a 
 flock of some thirty sheep, forty bushels of rice, some 
 other provisions, tools, oars, and a little lumber, leaving 
 all possible space for the bricks which we expected to 
 obtain just below. I should have gone farther up the 
 river, but for a dangerous boom which kept back a great 
 number of logs in a large brook that here fell into the 
 St. Mary's ; the stream ran with force, and if the Rebels 
 had wit enough to do it, they might in ten minutes so 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 89 
 
 choke the river with drift-wood as infinitely to enhance 
 our troubles. So we dropped down stream a mile or 
 two, found the very brickyard from which Fort Clinch 
 had been constructed, — still stored with bricks, and 
 seemingly unprotected. Here Sergeant Rivers again 
 planted his standard, and the men toiled eagerly, for sev- 
 eral hours, in loading our boat to the utmost with the 
 bricks. Meanwhile we questioned black and white wit- 
 nesses, and learned for the first time that the Rebels 
 admitted a repulse at Township Landing, and that Lieu- 
 tenant Jones and ten of their number were killed, — 
 though this I fancy to have been an exaggeration. They 
 also declared that the mysterious steamer Berosa was 
 lying at . the head of the river, but was a broken-down 
 and worthless affair, and would never get to sea. The 
 result has since proved this ; for the vessel subsequently 
 ran the blockade and foundered near shore, the crew 
 barely escaping with their lives. I had the pleasure, as 
 it happened, of being the first person to forward this in- 
 formation to Admiral Dupont, when it came through the 
 pickets, many months after, — thus concluding my report 
 on the Berosa. 
 
 Before the work at the yard was over the pickets re- 
 ported mounted men in the woods near by, as had pre- 
 viously been the report at "Woodstock. This admonished 
 us to lose no time ; and as we left the wharf, immediate 
 arrangements were made to have the gun-crews all in 
 readiness, and to keep the rest of the men below, since 
 their musketry would be of little use now, and I did not 
 propose to risk a life unnecessarily. The chief obstacle 
 to this was their own eagerness ; penned down on one 
 side, they popped up on the other ; their officers, too, 
 were eager to see what was going on, and were almost 
 
90 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 as hard to cork down as the men. Add to this, that the 
 vessel was now very crowded, and that I had to be chiefly 
 on the hurricane-deck with the pilots. Captain Clifton, 
 master of the vessel, was brave to excess, and as much 
 excited as the men ; he could no more be kept in the 
 little pilot-house than they below ; and when we had 
 passed one or two bluflfs, with no sign of an enemy, he 
 grew more and more irrepressible, and exposed himself 
 conspicuously on the upper deck. Perhaps we all were 
 a little lulled by apparent safety ; for myself, I lay down 
 for a moment on a settee in a state-room, having been on 
 my feet, almost without cessation, for twenty-four hours. 
 Suddenly there swept down from a bluflp above us, on 
 the Georgia side, a mingling of shout and roar and rattle 
 as of a tornado let loose ; and as a storm of bullets came 
 pelting against the sides of the vessel, and through a win- 
 dow, there went up a shrill answering shout from . our 
 own nien. It took but an instant for me to reach the 
 gun-deck. After all my efforts the men had swarmed 
 once more from below, and already, crowding at both 
 ends of the boat, were loading and firing with inconceiv- 
 able rapidity, shouting to each other, " Nebber gib it 
 uj) ! " and of course having no steady aim, as the vessel 
 glided and whirled in the swift current. Meanv/hile the 
 ofiicers in charge of the large guns had their crews in 
 order, and our shells began to fly over the bluffs, which, 
 as we now saw, should have been shelled in advance, 
 only that we had to economize ammunition. The other 
 soldiers I drove below, almost by main force, with the 
 aid of their ofncers, wlio behaved exceedingly well,, giv- 
 ing the men leave to fire from the open port-holes which 
 lined the lower deck, almost at the water's level. In the 
 very midst of the melee Major Strong came from the 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 91 
 
 upper deck, with a face of horror, and whispered to me, 
 " Captain Clifton was killed at the first shot by my side." 
 
 If he had said that the vessel was on fire the shock 
 would hardly have been greater. Of course, the military 
 commander on board a steamer is almost as helpless as 
 an unarmed man, so far as the risks of water go. A 
 seaman must command there. In the hazardous voyage 
 of last night, I had learned, though unjustly, to distrust 
 every official on board the steamboat except this excit- 
 able, brave, warm-hearted sailor ; and now, among these 
 added dangers, to lose him ! The responsibility for his 
 life also thrilled me ; he was not among my soldiers, and 
 yet he was killed. I thought of his wife and children, of 
 whom he had spoken ; ]jut one learns to think rapidly in 
 war, and, cautioning the Major to silence, I went up to 
 the hurricane-deck and drew in the helpless body, that it 
 should be safe from further desecration, and then looked 
 to see where we were. 
 
 "We were now gliding past a safe reach of marsh, while 
 our assailants were riding by cross-paths to attack us at 
 the next bluflf. It was Eeed's Bluff where we were first 
 attacked, and Scrubby Bluif, I think, was. next. They 
 were shelled in advance, but swarmed manfully to t}^. 
 banks again as we swept round one of the sharp angles 
 of the stream beneath their fire. My men were now 
 pretty well imprisoned below in the hot and crowded 
 hold, and actually fought each other, the officers after- 
 wards said, for places at the open port- holes, from which 
 to aim. Others implored to be landed, exclaiming that 
 they " supposed de Gunnel knew best," but it vyas 
 "mighty mean" to be shut up down below, when they 
 might be "fightin' de Secesh iyi de clar field." This 
 clear field, and no favor, was what they thenceforward 
 
92 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 sigbed for. But in such difficult navigation it would 
 Lave been madness to think of landing, although one 
 daring Rebel actually sprang upon the large boat which 
 we towed astern, where he was shot down by one of our 
 sergeants. This boat was soon after swamped and aban- 
 doned, then taken and repaired by the Rebels at a later 
 date, and finally, by a piece of dramatic completeness, 
 was seized by a party of fugitive slaves, who escaped in 
 it to our lines, and some of whom enlisted in my own 
 regiment. 
 
 It has always been rather a mystery to me why the 
 Rebels did not fell a few trees across the stream at some 
 of the many sharp angles where we might so easily have 
 been thus imprisoned. This, however, they did not at- 
 tempt, and with the skilful pilotage of our trusty Corporal, 
 — philosophic as Socrates through all the din, and occa- 
 sionally relieving his mind by taking a shot with his rifle 
 through the high port-holes of the pilot-house, — we 
 glided safely on. The steamer did not ground once on 
 the descent, and the mate in command, Mr. Smith, did 
 his duty very well. The plank sheathing of the pilot- 
 house was penetrated by few bullets, though struck by so 
 many outside that it was visited as a curiosity after our 
 return ; and even among the gun-crews, though they had 
 no protection, not a man was hurt. As we approached . 
 some wooded bluff, usually on the Georgia side, we could 
 see galloping along the hillside what seemed a regiment 
 of mounted riflemen, and could see our shell scatter them 
 ere we approached. Shelling did not, however, prevent 
 a rather fierce fusilade from our old friends of Captain 
 Clark's company at '^Yaterman's Bluff", near Township 
 Landing ; but even this did no serious damage, and this 
 was the last. 
 
UP THE ST. MARY'S. 93 
 
 It was of course impossible, while thus runnincr the 
 gauntlet, to put our hostages ashore, and I could only 
 explain to them that they must thaiik their own friends 
 for their inevitable detention. I was by no means proud 
 of their forlorn appearance, and besought Colonel Haw- 
 ley to take them off my hands ; but he was sending no 
 flags of truce at that time, and liked their looks no better 
 than I did. So I took them to Port Roj'al, where they 
 were afterwards sent safely across the lines. Our men 
 were pleased at taking them back with us, as they had 
 already said, regretfully, " S'pose we leave dem Secesh 
 at Femandina, General Saxby won't see 'em," — as if 
 they were some new natural curiosity, which indeed they 
 were. One soldier further suggested the expediency of 
 keeping them permanently in camp, to be used as marks 
 for the guns of the relieved guard every morning. But 
 this was rather an ebiallition of fancy than a sober propo- 
 sition. 
 
 Against these levities I must put a piece of more tragic 
 eloquence, which I took down by night on the steamer's 
 deck from the thrilling harangue of Corporal Adam AU- 
 ston, one of our most gifted prophets, whose influence 
 over the men was unbounded. " When I heard," he said, 
 " de bombshell a-screamin' troo de woods like de Judg- 
 ment Day, I said to myself, ' If my head was took off to- 
 night, dey could n't put my soul in de torments, perceps 
 [except] God was my enemy ! ' And when de rifle-bul- 
 lets came whizzin' across de deck, I cried aloud, ' God 
 help my congregation ! Boys, load and fire ! ' " 
 
 I must pass briefly over the few remaining days of our 
 cruise. At Fernandina we met the Planter, which had 
 been successful on her separate expedition, and had de- 
 stroyed extensive salt-works at Crooked River, under 
 
94 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 charge of the energetic Captain Trowbridge, efficiently 
 aided by Captain Rogers. Our commodities being in 
 part delivered at Fernandina, our decks being full, coal 
 nearly out, and time up, we called once more at St. 
 Simon's Sound, bringing away the remainder of our 
 railroad-iron, with some which the naval officers had pre- 
 viously disinterred, and then steamed back to Beaufort. 
 Arriving there at sunrise (February 2, 1863), I made 
 my way with Dr. Rogers to General Saxton's bedroom, 
 and laid before him the keys and shackles of the slave- 
 prison, with my report of the good conduct of the men, 
 — as Dr. Rogers remarked, a message from heaven and 
 another from hell. 
 
 Slight as this expedition now seems among the vast 
 events of the war, the future student of the newspapers 
 of that day will find that it occupied no little space in their 
 columns, so intense was the interest which then attached 
 to the novel experiment of employing black troops. So 
 obvious, too, was the value, during this raid, of their local 
 knowledge and their enthusiasm, that it was impossible 
 not to find in its successes new suggestions for the war. 
 Certainly I would not have consented to repeat the en- 
 terprise with the bravest white troops, leaving Corporal 
 Sutton and his mates behind, for I should have expected 
 to fail. For a year after our raid the Upper St. Mary's 
 remained unvisited, till in 1864 the large force with 
 wliich we held Florida secured peace upon its banks ; 
 then Mrs. A. took the oath of allegiance, the Government 
 bought her remaining lumber, and the John Adams again 
 ascended with a detachment of my men under Lieutenant 
 Parker, and brought a portion of it to Fernandina. By 
 a strange turn of fortune. Corporal Sutton (now Ser- 
 geant) was at this time in jail at Hilton Head, under 
 
UP THE ST. MAEY'S. 95 
 
 sentence of court-martial for an alleged act of mutiny, — • 
 an affair in which the general voice of our officers sus- 
 tained him and condemned bis accusers, so that he soon 
 received a full pardon, and was restored in honor to his 
 place in the regiment, which he has ever since held. 
 
 Nothing can ever exaggerate the fascinations of war, 
 whether on the largest or smallest scale. When we set- 
 tled down into camp-life again, it seemed like a butterfly's 
 folding its wings to re-enter the chrysalis. None of us 
 could listen to the crack of a gun without recalling in- 
 stantly the sharp shots that spilled down from the bluffs 
 of the St. Mary's, or hear a sudden trampling of horse- 
 men by night without recalling the sounds which startled 
 us on the Field of the Hundred Pines. The memory of 
 our raid was preserved in the camp by many legends of 
 adventure, growing vaster and more incredible as time 
 wore on, — and by the morning appeals to the surgeon 
 of some veteran invalids, who could now cut off all re- 
 proofs and suspicions with " Doctor, I 's been a sickly 
 pusson eber since de expeditious." But to me the most 
 vivid remembrancer was the flock of sheep which we had 
 " lifted." The Post Quartermaster discreetly gave us the 
 charge of them, and they filled a gap in the landscape and 
 in the larder, — which last had before presented one un- 
 varied round of impenetrable beef. Mr. Obadiah Old- 
 buck, when he decided to adopt a pastoral life, and 
 assumed the provisional name of Thyrsis, never looked 
 upon his flocks and herds with more unalloyed content- 
 ment than I upon that fleecy family. I had been familiar, 
 in Kansas, with the metaphor by which the sentiments of 
 an owner were credited to his property, and had heard 
 of a proslavery colt and an antislavery cow. The fact 
 that these sheep were but recently converted from " Se- 
 
96 UP THE ST. MARY'S. 
 
 cesh " sentiments was their crowning charm. Methought 
 they frisked and fattened in the joy of their deliverance 
 from the shadow of Mrs. A.'s slave-jail, and gladly 
 contemplated translation into mutton-broth for sick or 
 wounded soldiers. The very slaves who once, perchance, 
 were sold at auction with yon aged patriarch of the flock, 
 had now asserted their humanity, and would devour him 
 as hospital rations. Meanwhile our shepherd bore a 
 sharp bayonet without a crook, and I felt myself a peer 
 of Ulysses and Rob Eoy, — those sheep-stealers of less 
 elevated aims, — when I met in my daily rides these 
 wandering trophies of our wider wanderings. 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 97 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 THERE was not'much stirring in the Department of 
 the South early in 1863, and the St. Mary's expe- 
 dition had afforded a new sensation. Of course the few 
 officers of colored troops, and a larger number who wished 
 to become such, were urgent for further experiments in 
 the same line ; and the Florida tax-commissioners were 
 urgent likewise. I well remember the morning when, 
 after some preliminary correspondence, I steamed down 
 from Beaufort, S. C, to Hilton Head, with General 
 Saxton, Judge S., and one or two others, to have an in- 
 terview on the matter with Major-General Hunter, then 
 commanding the Department. 
 
 Hilton Head, in those days, seemed always like some 
 foreign military station in the tropics. The long, low, 
 white buildings, with piazzas and verandas on the water- 
 side ; the genei'al impression of heat and lassitude, exist- 
 ence appearing to pulsate only with the sea-breeze ; the 
 sandy, almost impassable streets ; and the firm, level 
 beach, on which everybody walked who could get there : 
 all these suggested Jamaica or the East Indies. Then 
 the head-quarters at the end of the beach, the Zouave 
 sentinels, the successive anterooms, the lounging aids, the 
 good-natured and easy General, — easy by habit and 
 energetic by impulse, — all had a certain air of Southern 
 languor, rather picturesque, but perhaps not altogether 
 bracing. General Hunter received us, that day, with his 
 usual kindliness ; there was a good deal of pleasant chat ;. 
 5 G 
 
98 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 Miles O'Reilly was called in to read his latest verses ; and 
 then we came to the matter in hand. 
 
 Jacksonville, on the St. John's River, in Florida, had 
 been already twice taken and twice evacuated ; having 
 been occupied by Brigadier-General Wright, in March, 
 1862, and by Brigadier- General Brannan, in October of 
 the same year. The second evacuation was by Major- 
 General Hunter's own order, on the avowed ground that 
 a garrison of five thousand was needed to hold the place, 
 and that this force could not be spared. The present 
 proposition was to take and hold it with a brigade of less 
 than a thousand men, carrying, however, arms and uni- 
 forms for twice that number, and a month's rations. The 
 claim was, that there were fewer rebel troops in the De- 
 partment than formerly, and that the St. Mary's expedi- 
 tion had shown the advantage possessed by colored troops, 
 in local knowledge, and in the confidence of the loyal 
 blacks. It was also urged, that it was worth while to risk 
 something, in the eiFort to hold Florida, and perhaps 
 bring it back into the Union. 
 
 My chief aim in the negotiation was to get the men 
 into action, and that of the Florida Commissioners to get 
 them into Florida. Thus far coinciding, we could heart- 
 ily co-operate ; and though General Hunter made some 
 reasonable objections, they were yielded more readily than 
 I had feared; and finally, before half our logical ammuni- 
 tion was exhausted, the desired permission was given, and 
 the thing might be considered as done. 
 
 We were now to leave, as we supposed forever, the 
 camp which had thus far been our home. Our vast 
 amount of surplus baggage made a heavy job in the 
 loading, inasmuch as we had no wharf, and everything 
 had to be put on board by means of flat-boats. It was 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 99 
 
 completed by twenty-four hours of steady work ; and 
 after some of the usual uncomfortable delays which wait 
 on military expeditions, We were at last afloat. 
 
 I had tried to keep the plan as secret as possible, and 
 had requested to have no definite orders, until we should 
 be on board ship. But this larger expedition was, less 
 within my own hands than was the St. Mary's affair, and 
 the great reliance for concealment was on certain counter 
 reports, ingeniously set afloat by some of the Florida 
 men. These reports rapidly swelled into the most enor- 
 mous tales, and by the time they reached the New York 
 newspapers, the expedition was "a great volcano about 
 bursting, whose lava will burn, flow, and destroy," — ■ 
 " the sudden appearance in arms of no less than five 
 thousand negroes," — "a liberating host," — " not the 
 phantom, but the reality, of servile insurrection." "What 
 the undertaking actually was may be best seen in the in- 
 structions which guided it.* 
 
 In due time, after touching at Fernandina, we reached 
 the difficult bar of the St. John's, and were piloted safely 
 
 * Head-quaktees, Beaufokt, S. C, 
 March 5, 1S63. 
 
 Colonel, — Yon ■will please proceed with your command, the First 
 and Second Regiments South Carolina Volunteers, which are now 
 embarked upon the steamers John Adams, Boston, and Burnside, to 
 l-'crnandina, Florida. 
 
 Relying upon your military skill and judgment, I shall give you no 
 special directions as to your procedure after you leave Femandina. I 
 expect, however, that you will occupy Jacksonville, Florida, and in- 
 trench yourselves there. 
 
 The main objects of your expedition are to cai-ry the proclamation 
 of freedom to the enslaved ; to call all loyal men into the service of the 
 United States; to occupy as much of the State of Florida as possible 
 with the forces under your command; and to neglect no means con- 
 sistent, with the usages of civilized warfare to weaken, harass, and 
 
100 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 over. Admiral Dupont had furnished a courteous letter 
 of introduction,! and we were cordially received by Com- 
 mander Duncan of the Norwich, and Lieutenant Watson, 
 commanding the Uiicas. Like all officers on blockade 
 duty, they were impatient of their enforced inaction, and 
 gladly seized the opportunity for a different service. It 
 was some time since they had ascended as high as Jack- 
 sonville, for their orders were strict, one vessel's coal was 
 low, the other was in infirm condition, and there were 
 rumors of cotton-clads and torpedoes. But they gladly 
 agreed to escort us up the river, so soon as our own armed 
 gunboat, the John Adams, should arrive, — she being un- 
 accountably delayed. 
 
 We waited twenty-four hours for her, at the sultry 
 mouth of that glassy river, watching the great pelicans 
 
 annoy those who are in rebellion against the Government of the United 
 States. 
 
 TiTisting that the blessing of our Heavenly Father wiU rest upon 
 your noble enterprise, 
 
 I am yours, sincerely, 
 
 E. Saxton, 
 Brig.-Gen., Mil. Gov. Dept. of the South. 
 Colonel Higginson, Comdg. Expeditionary Corps. 
 
 t Flag Ship Wabash, 
 Port Eoyal Haubok, S. C, March 6, 1863. . 
 Sir, — I am informed by Major-General Hunter that he is sending 
 Colonel Higginson on an important mission in the southerly part of his 
 Department. 
 
 I have not been made acquainted with the objects of this mission, 
 but any assistance that you can offer Colonel Higginson, which will 
 not interfere with your other duties, you are authorized to give. 
 Respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 S. F. Dui'ONT, 
 
 Rear-Adm. Comdg. S. Ail. BlocTc. Squad. 
 To the Senior Officer present at the different Blockading Stations on 
 the Coast of Georgia and Florida. 
 
VP THE ST. JOHN'S. 101 
 
 ■which floated lazily on its tide, or sometimes shooting 
 one, to admire the great pouch, into which one of the 
 soldiers could insert his foot, as into a boot. " He hold 
 one quart," said the admiring experimentalist. " Hi ! 
 boy," retorted another quickly, " neber you bring dat 
 quart measure in my peck o' corn." The protest came 
 very promptly, and was certainly fair ; for the strange 
 receptacle would have held nearly a gallon. 
 
 We went on shore, too, and were shown a rather pa- 
 thetic little garden, which the naval officers had laid out, 
 indulging a dream of vegetables. They lingered over 
 the little microscopic sprouts, pointing them out tenderly, 
 as if they were cradled babies. I have often noticed this 
 touching weakness, in gentlemen of that profession, on 
 lonely stations. 
 
 "We wandered among the bluffs, too, in the little de- 
 serted hamlet once called "Pilot Town." The ever- 
 shifting sand had in some cases almost buried the small 
 houses, and had swept around others a circular drift, at a 
 few yards' distance, overtopping their eaves, and leaving 
 each the untouched citadel of this natural redoubt. There 
 was also a dismantled lighthouse, an object which always 
 seems the most dreary symbol of the barbarism of war, 
 when one considers the national beneficence which reared 
 and kindled it. Despite the service rendered by this 
 once brilliant light, tiiere were many wrecks which had 
 been strown upon the beach, victims of the most formid- 
 able of the Southern river-bars. As I stood with my foot 
 on the half-buried ribs of one of these vessels, — so dis- 
 tinctly traced that one might almost fancy them human, 
 — the old pilot, my companion, told me the story of the 
 wreck. The vessel had formerly been in the Cuba trade ; 
 and her owner, an American merchant residing in Ha- 
 
102 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 vana, had christened her for liis young daughter. I asked 
 the name, and was startled to recognize that of a favorite 
 young cousin of mine, beside the bones of whose repre- 
 sentative I was thus strangely standing, upon this lonely 
 shore. 
 
 It was well to have something to relieve the aiixiety 
 naturally felt at the delay of the John Adams, — anxiety 
 both for her safety and for the success of our enterprise. 
 The Rebels had repeatedly threatened to burn the whole 
 of Jacksonville, in case of another attack, as they had 
 previously burned its mills and its great hotel. It seemed 
 as if the news of our arrival must surely have travelled 
 thirty miles by this time. All day we watched every 
 smoke that I'ose among the wooded hills, and consulted 
 the compass and the map, to see if that sign announced 
 the doom of our expected home. At the very last mo- 
 ment of the tide, just in time to cross the bar that day, 
 the missing vessel arrived ; all anxieties vanished ; I 
 transferred my quarters on board, and at two the next 
 morning we steamed up the river. 
 
 Again there was the dreamy delight of ascending an 
 unknown stream, beneath a sinking moon, into a region 
 where peril made fascination. Since the time of the first 
 explorers, I suppose that those Southern waters have 
 known no sensations so dreamy and so bewitching as 
 those which this war has brought forth. I recall, in this 
 case, the faintest sensations of our voyage, as Ponce de 
 Leon may have recalled those of his wandering search, 
 in the same soft zone, for the secret of the mystic foun- 
 tain. I remember how, during that night, I looked for 
 the first time through a powerful night-glass. It had 
 always seemed a thing wholly inconceivable, that a mere 
 lens could change darkness into light ; and as I turned 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 103 
 
 the instrument on the preceding gunboat, and actually 
 discerned the man at the wheel and the officers standing 
 about him, — all relapsing into vague gloom again at the 
 "withdrawal of the glass, — it gave A feeling of childish 
 delight Yet it seemed only in keeping with the whole 
 enchantment of the scene ; and had I been some Alad- 
 din, convoyed by genii or giants, I could hardly have felt 
 more wholly a denizen of some world of romance. 
 
 But the river was of difficult navigation ; and we be- 
 gan to feel sometimes, beneath the keel, that ominous, 
 sliding, grating, treacherous arrest of motion which makes 
 the heart shudder, as the vessel does. There was some 
 solicitude about 'torpedoes, also, — a peril which became 
 a formidable thing, one year later, in the very channel 
 where we found none. Soon one of our consorts grounded, 
 then another, every vessel taking its turn, I believe, and 
 then in turn getting off, until the Norwich lay hopelessly 
 stranded, for that tide at least, a few miles below Jack- 
 sonville, and out of sight of the city, so that she could 
 not even add to our dignity by her visible presence from 
 afar. 
 
 This was rather a serious matter, as the Norwich was 
 our main naval reliance, the Uncas being a small steamer 
 of less than two hundred tons, and in such poor condition 
 that Commander Duncan, on finding himself aground, at 
 first quite declined to trust his consort any farther alone. 
 But, having got thus far, it was plainly my duty to risk 
 the remainder with or without naval assistance ; and this 
 being so, the courageous officer did not long object, but 
 allowed his dashing subordinate to steam up with us to 
 the city. This left us one naval and one army gunboat; 
 and, fortunately, the Burnside, being a black propeller, 
 always passed for an armed vessel among the Rebels, and 
 we rather encouraged that pleasing illusion. 
 
104 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 We had aimed to reach Jacksonville at daybreak ; biit 
 these mishaps delayed us, and we had several hours of 
 fresh, early sunshine, lighting up the green shores of that 
 lovely river, wooded to the water's edge, with sometimes an 
 emerald meadow, opening a vista to some picturesque 
 house, — all utterly unlike anything we had yet seen in 
 the South, and suggesting rather the Penobscot or Ken- 
 nebec. Here and there we glided by the ruins of some 
 saw-mill burned by the Rebels on General Wx-ight's ap- 
 proach ; but nothing else spoke of war, except, perhaps, 
 the silence. It was a delicious day, and a scene of fas- 
 cination. Our Florida men were wild with delight ; and 
 when we rounded the point below the city, and saw from 
 afar its long streets, its brick warehouses, its white cot- 
 tages, and its overshadowing trees, — all peaceful and 
 undisturbed by flames, — it seemed, in the men's favorite 
 phrase, " too much good," and all discipline was merged, 
 for the moiBfint, in a buzz of ecstasy. 
 
 The city was still there for us, at any rate ; though 
 none knew what perils might be concealed behind those 
 quiet buildings. Yet there were children playing on the 
 wharves ; careless men, here and there, lounged down to 
 look at us, hands in pockets ; a few women came to their 
 doors, and gazed listlessly upon us, shading their eyes 
 with their hands. We drew momently nearer, in silence 
 and with breathless attention. The gunners were at their 
 posts, and the men in line. It was eight o'clock. We 
 were now directly opposite the town : yet no sign of dan- 
 ger was seen ; not a rifle-shot was heard ; not a shell rose 
 hissing in the air. The Uncas rounded to, and dropped 
 anchor in the stream ; by previous agreement, I steamed 
 to an upper pier of the town, Colonel Montgomery to a 
 lower one ; the little boat-howitzers were run out upon 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 105 
 
 the wliarves, and presently to the angles of the chief 
 streets ; and the pretty town was our own without a shot. 
 In spite of our detention, the surprise had been complete, 
 and not a soul in Jacksonville had dreamed of our com- 
 ing. 
 
 The day passed quickly, in eager preparations for de- 
 fence ; the people could or would give us no definite in- 
 formation about the Rebel camp, which was, however, 
 known to be near, and our force did not permit our going 
 out to surprise it. The night following was the most 
 anxious I ever spent. "We were all tired out ; the com- 
 panies were under arms, in various parts of the town, to 
 . be ready for an attack at any moment. My temporary 
 quarters were beneath the loveliest grove of linden-trees, 
 and as I reclined, half-dozing, the mocking-birds sang all 
 night like nightingales, — their notes seeming to trickle 
 down through the sweet air from amid the blossoming 
 boughs. Day brought relief and the sense of due posses- 
 sion, and we could see what we had won. 
 
 Jacksonville was now a United States post again : the 
 only post on the main-land in the Department of the 
 South. Before the war it had three or four thousand 
 inhabitants, and a rapidly growing lumber-trade, for 
 which abundant facilities were evidently provided. The 
 wharves were capacious, and the blocks of brick ware- 
 houses along the lower street were utterly unlike any- 
 thing we had yet seen in that region, as were the neat- 
 ness and thrift everywhere visible. It had been built up 
 by Northern enterprise, and much of the property was 
 owned by loyal men. It had been a great resort for in- 
 valids, though the Rebels had burned the large hotel 
 which once accommodated them. Mills had also been 
 burned ; but the dwelling-houses were almost all in good 
 5* 
 
106 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 condition. The quarters for the men were admirable ; 
 and I took official possession of the handsome brick 
 house of Colonel Sunderland, the established head-quar- 
 ters through every occupation, whose accommodating 
 flag-stafi"had literally and repeatedly changed its colors. 
 The seceded Colonel, reputed author of the State ordi- 
 nance of Secession, was a New-Yorker by birth, and we 
 found his law-card, issued when in practice in Easton, 
 Washington County, New York. He certainly had good 
 taste in planning the inside of a house, though time had 
 impaired its condition. There was a neat office with 
 ample bookcases and no books, a billiard-table with no 
 balls, gas-fixtures without gas, and a bathing-room with- 
 out water. There was a separate building for servants' 
 quarters, and a kitchen with every convenience, even to 
 a few jars of lingering pickles. On the whole, there was 
 an air of substance and comfort about the town, quite 
 alien from the picturesque decadence of Beaufort. 
 
 The town rose gradually from the river, and was 
 bounded on the rear by a long, sluggish creek, beyond 
 which lay a stretch of woods, affiDrding an excellent covert 
 for the enemy, but without great facilities for attack, as 
 there were but two or three fords and bridges. This 
 brook could easily be held against a small force, but could 
 at any time and at almost any point be readily crossed 
 by a large one. North of the town the land rose a little, 
 between the river and the sources of the brook, and then 
 sank to a plain, which had been partially cleared by a 
 previous garrison. For so small a force as ours, however, 
 this clearing must be extended nearer to the town ; oth- 
 erwise our lines would be too long for our numbers. 
 
 This deficiency in numbers at once became a source of 
 serious anxiety. While planning the expedition, it had 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 107 
 
 seemed so important to get the men a foothold in Florida 
 that I was willing to risk everything for it. But this 
 important post once in our possession, it began to show 
 some analogies to the proverbial elephant in the lottery. 
 To hold it permanently with nine hundred men was not, 
 perhaps, impossible, with the aid of a gunboat (I had left 
 many of my own regiment sick and on duty in Beaufort, 
 and Colonel Montgomery had as yet less than one hun- 
 dred and fifty) ; but to hold it, and also to make forays 
 up the river, certainly required a larger number. "We 
 came in part to recruit, but had found scarcely an able- 
 bodied negro in the city ; all had been removed farther 
 up, and we must certainly contrive to follow them. I 
 was very unwilling to have, as yet, any white troops 
 under my command, with the blacks. Finally, however, 
 being informed by Judge S. of a conversation with Colonel 
 Hawley, commanding at Fernandina, in which the latter 
 had offered to send four companies and a light battery to 
 swell our force, — in view of the aid given to his position 
 by this more advanced post, I decided to authorize the 
 energetic Judge to go back to Fernandina and renew the 
 negotiation, as the John Adams must go thither at any 
 rate for coal. 
 
 Meanwhile all definite display of our force was avoided ; 
 dress-parades were omitted; the companies were so dis- 
 tributed as to tell for the utmost ; and judicious use was 
 made, here and there, of empty tents. The gunboats and 
 transports moved impressively up and down the river, 
 from time to time. The disposition of pickets was varied 
 each night to perplex the enemy, and some advantage 
 taken of his distrust, which might be assumed as equalling 
 our own. The citizens were duly impressed by our sup- 
 ply of ammunition, which was really enormous, and all 
 
108 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 these things soon took efFect. A loyal •woman, who came 
 into town, said that the Rebel scouts, stopping at her 
 house, reported that there were " sixteen hundred ne- 
 groes all over the woods, and the town full of them 
 besides." " It was of no use to go in. General Fin- 
 negan had driven them into a bad place once, and should 
 not do it again." " They had lost their captain and their 
 best surgeon in the first skirmish, and if the Savannah 
 people wanted the negroes driven away, they might come 
 and do it themselves." Unfortunately, we knew that 
 they could easily come from Savannah at any time, as 
 there was railroad communication nearly all the way ; 
 and every time we heard the steam-whistle, the men were 
 convinced of their arrival. Thus we never could ap- 
 proach to any certainty as to their numbers, while they 
 could observe, from the bluffs, every steamboat that as- 
 cended the river. 
 
 To render our weak force still more available, we bar- 
 ricaded the approaches to the chief streets by constructing 
 barriers or felling trees. It went to my heart to sacrifice, 
 for this purpose, several of my beautiful lindens ; but it 
 was no time for assthetics. As the giants lay on the 
 ground, still scenting the air with their abundant bloom, 
 I used to rein up my horse and watch the children play- 
 ing hide-and-seek among their branches, or some quiet 
 cow grazing at the foliage. Nothing impresses the mind 
 in war like some occasional object or association that be- 
 longs apparently to peace alone. 
 
 Among all these solicitudes, it was a great thing that 
 one particular anxiety vanished in a daj'. On the former 
 expedition the men were upon trial as to their courage ; 
 now they were to endure another test, as to their de- 
 meanor as victors.. Here were five hundred citizens, 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 109 
 
 nearlj all white, at the mercy of their former slaves. To 
 some of these whites it was "the last crowning humili- 
 ation, and they were, or professed to be, in perpetual 
 fear. On the other hand, the most intelligent and lady- 
 like woman I saw, the wife of a Rebel captain, rather 
 surprised me by saying that it seemed pleasanter to have 
 these men stationed there, whom they had known all their 
 lives, and who had generally borne a good character, than 
 to be in the power of entire strangers. Certainly the 
 men deserved the confidence, for there was scarcely an 
 exception to their good behavior. I think they thor- 
 oughly felt that their honor and dignity were concerned 
 in the matter, and took too much pride in their character 
 as soldiers, — to say nothing of higher motives, — to tar- 
 nish it by any misdeeds. They watched their officers 
 vigilantly and even suspiciously, to detect any disposition 
 towards compromise ; and so long as we pursued a just 
 course it was evident that they could be relied on. Yet 
 the spot was pointed out to me where two of our leading 
 men had seen their brothers hanged by Lynch law ; many 
 of them had private wrongs to avenge ; and they all had 
 utter disbelief in all pretended loyalty, especially on the 
 part of the women. 
 
 One citizen alone was brought to me in a sort of escort 
 of honor by Corporal Prince Lambkin, — one of the color- 
 guard, and one of our ablest men, — the same who had 
 once made a speech in camp, reminding his hearers that 
 they had lived under the American flag for eighteen hun- 
 dred and sixty-two years, and ought to live and die under 
 it. Corporal Lambkin now introduced his man, a Ger- 
 man, with the highest compliment in his power, " He 
 hab true colored-man heart." Surrounded by mean, 
 cajoling, insinuating white men and women who were all 
 
110 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 that and worse, I was quite ready to appreciate the qual- 
 ity he thus proclaimed. A colored-man heart, in the 
 Eebel States, is a fair synonyme for a loyal heart, and it 
 is about the only such synonyme. In this case, I found 
 afterwards that the man in question, a small grocer, had 
 been an object of suspicion to the whites from his readi- 
 ness to lend money to the negroes, or sell to them on 
 credit; in which, perhaps, there may have been some 
 mixture of self-interest with benevolence. 
 
 I resort to a note-book of that period, well thumbed 
 and pocket-wom, which sometimes received a fragment 
 of the day's experience. 
 
 "March 16, 1863. 
 
 " Of course, droll things are constantly occurring. Every 
 white man, woman, and child is flattering, seductive, and 
 professes Union sentiment ; every black ditto believes 
 that every white ditto is a scoundrel, and ought to be 
 shot, but for good order and military discipline. The 
 Provost Marshal and I steer between them as blandly 
 as we can. Such scenes as succeed each other ! Rush 
 of indignant Africans. A white man, in woman's clothes, 
 has been seen to enter a certain bouse, — undoubtedly a 
 spy. Further evidence discloses the Roman Catholic 
 priest, a peaceful little Frenchman, in his professional 
 apparel. — Anxious female enters. Some sentinel has 
 shot her cow by mistake for a Rebel. The United States 
 cannot think of paying the desired thirty dollars. Let 
 her go to the Post-Quartermaster and select a cow from 
 his herd. If there is none to suit her (and, indeed, not 
 one of them gave a drop of milk, — neither did hers), 
 let her wait till the next lot comes in, — that is all. — 
 Yesterday's operations gave the following total yield : 
 Thirty ' contrabands,' eighteen horses, eleven cattle, ten 
 
VP THE ST. JOHN'S. HI 
 
 saddles and bridles, and one new army-wagon. At this 
 rate we shall soon be self-supporting cavalry. 
 
 " Where complaints are made of the soldiers, it almost 
 always turns out that the women have insulted them 
 most grossly, swearing at them, and the like. One un- 
 pleasant old Dutch woman came in, bursting with wrath, 
 and told the whole narrative of her blameless life, diver- 
 sified with sobs : — 
 
 " ' Last January I ran oif two of my black people from 
 St. Mary's to Fernandina,' (sob,) — ' then I moved down 
 there myself, and at Lake City I lost six women and a 
 boy,' (sob,) — ' then I stopped at Baldwin for one of the 
 ■wenches to be confined,' (sob,) — ' then I brought them 
 all here to live in a Christian country ' (sob, sob). ' Then 
 the blockheads ' [blockades, that is, gunboats] ' came, and 
 they all ran ofi" with the blockheads,' (sob, sob, sob,) ' and 
 left me, an old lady of forty-six, obliged to work for a 
 living.' (Chaos of sobs, without cessation.) 
 
 " But when I found what the old sinner had said to the 
 soldiers I rather wondered at their self-control in not 
 throttling her." 
 
 Meanwhile skirmishing went on daily in the outskirts 
 of the town. There was a fight on the very first day, 
 when our men killed, as before hinted, a Rebel surgeon, 
 which was oddly metamorphosed in the Southern news- 
 papers into their killing one of ours, which certainly 
 never happened. Every day, after this, they appeared 
 in small mounted squads in the neighborhood, and ex- 
 changed shots with our pickets, to which the gunboats 
 would contribute their louder share, their aim being rather 
 embarrassed by the woods and hills. "We made reconnois- 
 sances, too, to learn the country in different directions, 
 
112 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 and were apt to be fired upon during these. Along the 
 farther side of what we called the " Debatable Land " 
 there was a line of cottages, hardly superior to negro 
 huts, and almost all empty, where the Rebel pickets re- 
 sorted, and from whose windows they fired. By de- 
 grees all these nests were broken up and destroyed, 
 though it cost some trouble to do it, and the hottest 
 skirmishing usually took place around them. 
 
 Among these little affairs was one which we called 
 "Company K's Skirmish," because it brought out the 
 fact that this company, which was composed entirely of 
 South Carolina men, and had never shone in drill or dis- 
 cipline, stood near the head of the regiment for coolness 
 and courage, — the defect of discipline showing itself 
 only in their extreme unwillingness to halt when once 
 let loose. It was at this time that the small comedy of 
 the Goose occurred, — an anecdote which Wendell Phil- 
 lips has since made his own. 
 
 One of the advancing line of skirmishers, usually an 
 active fellow enough, was observed to move clumsily and 
 irregularly. It soon appeared that he had encountered 
 a fine specimen of the domestic goose, which had surren- 
 dered at discretion. Not wishing to lose it, he could yet 
 find no way to hold it but between his legs ; and so he 
 went on, loading, firing, advancing, halting, always with 
 the goose writhing and struggling and hissing in this 
 natural pair of stocks. Both happily came off unwounded, 
 and retired in good order at the signal, or some time af- 
 ter it ; but I have hardly a cooler thing to put on record. 
 
 Meanwhile, another fellow left the field less exultingly ; 
 for, after a thoroughly courageous share in the skirmish, 
 he came blubbering to his captain, and said, — 
 
 " Cappen, make Cassar gib me my cane." 
 
VP THE ST. JOHN'S. 113 
 
 It seemed that, during some interval of the fighting, 
 he had helped himself to an armful of Rebel sugar-cane, 
 such a^ they all delighted in chewing. The Roman hero, 
 during another pause, had confiscated the treasure ; 
 whence these tears of the returning warrior. I never 
 could accustom myself to these extraordinary intermin- 
 glings of manly and childish attributes. 
 
 Our most untiring scout during this period was the 
 chaplain of my regiment, — the most restless and daring^ 
 spirit we had, and now exulting in full liberty of action. 
 He it was who was daily permitted to stray singly where 
 no other oflScer would have been allowed to go, so irre- 
 sistible was his appeal, " You know I am only a chap- 
 lain." Methinks I see our regimental saint, with pistols 
 in belt and ai Ballard rifle slung on shoulder, putting 
 spurs to his steed, and cantering away down some ques- 
 tionable wood-path, or returning with some tale of Rebel 
 haunt discovered, or store of foraging. He would track 
 an enemy like an Indian, or exhort him, when appre- 
 hended, like an early Christian. Some of our devout 
 soldiers shook their heads sometimes over the chaplain's 
 little eccentricities. 
 
 " Woffor Mr. Chapman made a preacher for ? " said 
 one of them, as usual transforming his title into a patro- 
 nymic. " He 's de JigMingest more Yankee I eber see in 
 all my days." 
 
 And the criticism was very natural, though they could 
 not deny that, when the hour for Sunday service came, 
 Mr. F. commanded the respect and attention of all. 
 Thiit hour never came, however, on our first Sunday in 
 Jacksonville ; we were too busy and the men too scat- 
 tered ; so the chaplain made his accustomed foray be- 
 yond the lines instead. 
 
114 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 "Is it not Sunday?" slyly asked an unregenerate 
 lieutenant. 
 
 " Nay," quoth his Reverence, waxing fervid 5 '" it is 
 the Day of Judgment." 
 
 This reminds me of a raid up the river, conducted by 
 one of our senior captains, an enthusiast whose gray 
 beard and prophetic manner always took me back to 
 the Fifth-Monarchy men. He was most successful that 
 day, bringing back horses, cattle, provisions, and pris- 
 oners ; and one of the latter complained bitterly to me 
 of being held, stating that Captain IJ. had promised him 
 speedy liberty. But that doughty official spurned the 
 imputation of such weak blandishments, in this day of 
 triumphant retribution. 
 
 " Promise him ! " said he, " I promised him nothing 
 but the Day of Judgment and Periods of Damnation ! " 
 
 Often since have I rolled beneath my tongue this sav- 
 ory and solemn sentence, and I do not believe that since 
 the days of the Long Parliament there has been a more 
 resounding anathema. 
 
 In Colonel Montgomery's hands these up-river raids 
 reached the dignity of a fine art. His conceptions of 
 foraging were rather more Western and liberal than 
 mine, and on these excursions he fully indemnified him- 
 self for any undue abstinence demanded of him when in 
 camp. I remember being on the wharf, with some naval 
 officers, when he came down from his first trip. The 
 steamer seemed an animated hen-coop. Live poultry 
 hung from the foremast shrouds, dead ones from the 
 mainmast, geese hissed from the binnacle, a pig paced 
 the quarter-deck, and a duck's wings were seen fluttering 
 from a line which was wont to sustain duck-trousers. 
 Tlie naval heroes, mindful of their own short rations, and 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. II5 
 
 taking high views of one's duties in a conquered country, 
 looked at me reproachfully, as who should say, " Shall 
 these things be ? " In a moment or two the returning 
 foragers had landed. 
 
 " Captain ," said Montgomery, courteously, " would 
 
 you allow me to send a remarkably fine turkey for your 
 use on board ship ? " 
 
 " Lieutenant ," said Major Corwin, " may I ask 
 
 your acceptance of a pair of ducks for your mess ? " 
 
 Never did I behold more cordial relations between 
 army and navy than sprang into existence at those sen- 
 tences. So true it is, as Charles Lamb says, that a sin- 
 gle present of game may diffuse kindly sentiments through 
 a whole community. 
 
 These little trips were called " rest " ; there was no 
 other rest during those ten days. An. immense amount 
 of picket and fatigue duty had to be done. Two redoubts 
 were to be built to command the Northern Valley ; all 
 the intervening grove, which now afforded lurking- 
 ground for a daring enemy, must be cleared away ; and 
 a few houses must be reluctantly razed for the same pur- 
 pose. The fort on the left was named Fort Higginson, 
 and that built by my own regiment, in return, Fort 
 Montgomery. The former was necessarily a hasty work, 
 and is now, I believe, in ruins ; the latter was far more 
 elaborately constructed, on lines well traced by the Fourth 
 New Hampshire during the previous occupation. It did 
 great credit to Captain Trowbridge, of my regiment (for- 
 merly of the New York Volunteer Engineers), who had 
 charge of its construction. 
 
 How like a dream seems now that period of daily skir- 
 mishes and nightly watchfulness ! The fatigue was so 
 constant that the days hurried by. I felt the need of 
 
116 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 some occasional change of ideas, and having just received 
 from the North Mr. Brook's beautiful translation of Jean 
 Paul's " Titan," I used to retire to my bedroom for some 
 ten minutes every afternoon, and read a chapter or two. 
 It was more refreshing than a nap, and will always be to 
 me one of the most fascinating books in the world, with 
 this added association. After all, what concerned me 
 was not so much the fear of an attempt to drive us out 
 and retake the city, — for that would be against the 
 whole policy of the Rebels in that region, — as of an 
 effort to fulfil their threats and burn it, by some noc- 
 turnal dash. The most valuable buildings belonged to 
 Union men, and the upper part of the town, built chiefly 
 of resinous pine, was combustible to the last degree. In 
 case of fire, if the wind blew towards the river, we might 
 lose steamers and all. I remember regulating my degree 
 of disrobing by the direction of the wind ; if it blew from 
 the river, it was safe to make one's self quite comfort- 
 able ; if otherwise, it was best to conform to Suwarrow's 
 idea of luxury, and take off one spur. 
 
 So passed our busy life for ten days. There were no 
 tidings of reinforcements, and I hardly knew whether I 
 wished for them, — or rather, I desired them as a choice 
 of evils ; for our men were giving out from overwork, and 
 the recruiting excursions, for which we had mainly come, 
 were hardly possible. At the utmost, I had asked for 
 the addition of four companies and a light battery. Judge 
 of my surprise when two infantry regiments successively 
 arrived ! I must resort to a scrap from tlie diary. Per- 
 haps diaries are apt to be thought tedious ; but I would 
 rather read a page of one, whatever the events described, 
 than any mor.e deliberate narrative, — it gives glimpses 
 80 much more real and vivid. 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. I17 
 
 " Head-quahters, Jacksonville, 
 
 Match 20, 1863, Midnight. 
 
 " For the last twenty-four hours we have been sending 
 women and children out of town, in answer to a demand 
 by flag of truce, with a threat of bombardment. [N. B. 
 I advised them not to go, and the majority declined doing 
 so.] It was designed, no doubt, to intimidate ; and in 
 our ignorance of the force actually outside, we have had 
 to recognize the possibility of danger, and work hard at 
 our defences. At any time, by going into the outskirts, 
 we can have a skirmish, which is nothing but fun ; but 
 when night closes in over a small and weary garrison, 
 there sometimes steals into my mind, like a chill, that 
 most sickening of all sensations, the anxiety of a com- 
 mander. This was the night generally set for an attack, 
 if any, though I am pretty well satisfied that they have 
 not strength to dare it, and the worst they could probably 
 do is to burn the town. But to-night, instead of enemies, 
 appear friends, — our devoted civic ally. Judge S., and 
 a whole Connecticut regiment, the Sixth, under Major 
 Meeker ; and though the latter are aground, twelve miles 
 below, yet they enable one to breathe more freely. I 
 only wish they were black ; but now I have to show, not 
 only that blacks can fight, but that they and white soldiers 
 can act in harmony together." 
 
 That evening the enemy came up for a reconnoissance, 
 in the deepest darkness, and there' were alarms all night. 
 The next day the Sixth Connecticut got afloat, and came 
 up the river ; and two days after, to my continued amaze- 
 ment, arrived a part of the Eighth Maine, under Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Twichell. This increased my command 
 to four regiments, or parts of regiments, half white and 
 
118 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 half black. Skirmisliing had almost ceased, — our de- 
 fences being tolerably complete, and looking from without 
 much more effective than they really were. We were 
 safe from any attack by a small force, and hoped that the 
 enemy could not spare a large one from Charleston or 
 Savannah. All looked bright without, -and gave leisure 
 for some small anxieties within. 
 
 It was the first time in the war (so far as I know) that 
 white and black soldiers had served together on regular 
 duty. Jealousy was still felt towards even the officers of 
 colored regiments, and any difficult contingency would be 
 apt to bring it out. The white soldiers, just from ship- 
 board, felt a natural desire to stray about the town ; and 
 no attack from an enemy would be so disastrous as the 
 slightest collision between them and the black provost- 
 guard. I shudder, even now, to think of the train of 
 consequences, bearing on the whole course of subsequent 
 national events, which one such mishap might then have 
 produced. It is almost impossible for us now to remem- 
 ber in what a delicate balance then hung the whole ques- 
 tion of negro enlistments, and consequently of Slavery. 
 Fortunately for my own serenity, I had great faith in the 
 intrinsic power of military discipline, and also knew that 
 a common service would soon produce mutual respect 
 among good soldiers ; and so it proved. But the first 
 twelve hours of this mixed command were to me a 
 more anxious period than any outward alarms had 
 created. 
 
 Let us resort to the note-book again. 
 
 "Jacksonville, M.arch 22, 1863. 
 " It is Sunday ; the bell is ringing for church, and Rev. 
 Mr. F., from Beaufort, is to preach. This afternoon our 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 119 
 
 good quartermaster establishes a Sunday-school for our 
 liitle colony of ' contrabands,' now numbering seventy. 
 
 " Sunday Afternoon. 
 
 " The bewildering report is confirmed ; and in addition 
 to the Sixth Connecticut, which came yesterday, appears 
 part of the Eighth Maine. The remainder, with its 
 colonel, will be here to-morrow, and, report says, Major- 
 General Hunter. Now my hope is that we may go to 
 some point higher up the river, which we can hold for 
 ourselves. There are two other points [Magnolia and 
 Pilatka], which, in themselves, are as favorable as this, 
 and, for getting recruits, better. So I shall hope to be 
 allowed to go. To take posts, and then let white troops 
 garrison them, — that is my programme. 
 
 " What makes the thing more puzzling is, that the 
 Eighth Maine has only brought ten days' rations, so that 
 they evidently are not to stay here ; and yet where they 
 go, or why they come, is a puzzle. Meanwhile we can 
 sleep sound o' nights ; and if the black and white babies 
 do not quarrel and pull hair, we shall do very well." 
 
 Colonel Eust, on arriving, said frankly that he knew 
 nothing of the plans prevailing in the Department, but 
 that General Hunter was certainly coming soon to act 
 for himself; that it had been reported at the North, and 
 even at Port Royal, that we had all been captured and 
 shot (and, indeed, I had afterwards the pleasure of read- 
 ing my own obituary in a Northern Democratic journal), 
 and that we certainly needed reinforcements ; that he 
 himself had been sent with orders to carry out, so far as 
 possible, the original plans of the expedition ; that he 
 regarded himself as only a visitor, and should remain 
 chiefly on shipboard, — - which he did. He would relieve 
 
120 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 the black provost-guard by a white one, if I approved, — 
 which I certainly did. But he said that he felt bound to 
 give the chief opportunities of action to the colored troops, 
 ■ — which I also approved, and which he carried out, not 
 quite to the satisfaction of his own eager and daring 
 officers. 
 
 I recall one of these enterprises, out of which we ex- 
 tracted a good deal of amusement ; it was baptized the 
 Battle of the Clothes-Lines. A white company was out 
 scouting in the woods behind the town, with one of my 
 best Florida men for a guide ; and the captain sent back 
 a message that he had discovered a Rebel camp with 
 twenty-two tents, beyond a creek, about four miles away ; 
 the officers and men had been distinctly seen, and it 
 would be quite possible to capture it. Colonel Rust at 
 once sent me out with two hundred men to do the work, 
 recalling the original scouts, and disregarding the appeals 
 of his own eager officers. We mai-ched through the open 
 pine woods, on a delightful afternoon, and met the return- 
 ing party. Poor fellows ! I never shall forget the long- 
 ing eyes they cast on us, as we marched forth to the field 
 of glory, from which they were debarred. We went 
 three or four miles out, sometimes halting to send for- 
 ward a scout, while I made all the men lie down in the 
 long, thin grass and beside the fallen trees, till one could 
 not imagine that there was a person there. I remember 
 how picture'sque the effect was, when, at the signal, all 
 rose again, like Roderick Dhu's men, and the green wood 
 appeared suddenly populous with armed life. At a cer- 
 tain point forces were divided, and a detachment was 
 sent round the head of the creek, to flank the unsuspect- 
 ing enemy ; while we of the main body, stealing with 
 caution nearer and nearer, through ever denser woods, 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 121 
 
 swooped down at last in triumph upon a solitary farm- 
 house, — where the family-washing had been hung out 
 to dry ! This was the " Rebel camp " ! '- 
 
 It is due to Sergeant Greene, my invaluable guide, to 
 say that he had from the beginning discouraged any high 
 hopes of a crossing of bayonets. He had early explained 
 that it was not he who claimed to have seen the tents 
 and the Rebel soldiers, but one of the officers, — and 
 had pointed out that our undisturbed approach was hardly 
 reconcilable with the existence of a hostile camp so near. 
 This impression had also pressed more and more upon 
 my own mind, but it was our business to put the thing 
 beyond a doubt. Probably the place may have been 
 occasionally used for a picket-station, and we found fresh 
 horse-tracks in the vicinity, and there was a quantity of 
 iron bridle-bits in the house, of which no clear explana- 
 tion could be given ; so that the armed men may not 
 have been wholly imaginary. But camp there was none. 
 After enjoying to the utmost the fun of the thing, there- 
 fore, we borrowed the only horse on the premises, hung 
 all the bits over his neck, and as I rode him back to 
 camp, they clanked like broken chains. We were joined 
 on the way by our dear and devoted surgeon, whom I 
 had left behind as an invalid, but who had mounted his 
 horse and ridden out alone to attend to our wounded, 
 his green sash looking quite in harmony with the early 
 spring verdure of those lovely woods.. So came we back 
 in triumph, enjoying the joke all the more because some 
 one else was responsible. We mystified the little com- 
 munity at first, but soon let out the secret, and witticisms 
 abounded for a day or two, the mildest of which was the 
 assertion that the author of the alarm must have been 
 " three sheets in the wind." 
 6 
 
122 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 Another expedition was of more exciting character. 
 For several days before the arrival of Colonel Rust a 
 reconnoissance had been planned in the direction of the 
 enemy's camp, and he finally consented to its being car- 
 ried out. By the energy of Major Corwin, of the Second 
 South Carolina Volunteers, aided by Mr. Holden, then a 
 gunner on the Paul Jones, and afterwards made captain 
 of the same regiment, one of the ten-pound Parrott guns 
 had been mounted on a hand-car, for use on the railway. 
 This it was now proposed to bring into service. I took 
 a large detail of men from the two white regiments and 
 from my own, and had instructions to march as far as the 
 four-mile station on the railway, if possible, examine the 
 country, and ascertain if the Rebel camp had been re- 
 moved, as was reported, beyond that distance. I was 
 forbidden going any farther from camp, or attacking the 
 Rebel camp, as my force comprised half our garrison, and 
 should the town meanwhile be attacked from some other 
 direction, it would be in great danger. 
 
 I never shall forget the delight of that march through 
 the open pine barren, with occasional patches of uncertain 
 swamp. The Eighth Maine, under Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Twichell, was on the right, the Sixth Connecticut, under 
 Major Meeker, on the left, and my own men, under Major 
 Strong, in the centre, having in charge the cannon, to 
 which they had been trained. Mr. Heron, from the 
 John Adams, acted as gunner. The mounted Rebel 
 pickets retired before us through the woods, keeping 
 usually beyond range of the skirmishers, who in a long 
 line — white, black, white — were deployed transversely. 
 For the first time I saw the two colors fairly alternate on 
 the military chessboard ; it had been the object of much 
 labor and many dreams, and I liked the pattern at last. 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 123 
 
 Nothing was said about the novel fact by anybody, — it 
 all seemed to come as matter-of-course ; there appeared 
 to be no mutual distrust among the men, and as for the 
 officers, doubtless " each crow thought its own young the 
 whitest," — I certainly did, although doing full justice to 
 the eager courage of the Northern portion of my com- 
 mand. Especially I watched with pleasure the fresh de- 
 light of the Maine men, who had not, like the rest, been 
 previously in action, and who strode rapidly on with 
 their long legs, irresistibly recalling, as their gaunt, ath- 
 letic frames and sunburnt faces appeared here and there 
 among the pines, the lumber regions of their native 
 State, with which I was «iot unfamiliar. 
 
 "We passed through a former camp of the Rebels, from 
 which everything had been lately removed ; but when 
 the utmost permitted limits of our reconnoissance were 
 reached, there were stiU no signs of any other camp, and 
 the Eebel cavalry still kept provokingly before us. Their 
 evident object was to lure us on to their own stronghold, 
 and had we fallen into the trap, it would perhaps have 
 resembled, on a smaller scale, the Olustee of the follow- 
 ing year. "With a good deal of reluctance, however, I 
 caused the recall to be sounded, and, after a slight halt, 
 we began to retrace our steps. 
 
 Straining our eyes to look along the reach of level 
 railway which stretched away through the pine barren, 
 we began to see certain ominous puffs of smoke, which 
 might indeed proceed from some fire in the woods, but 
 were at once set down by the men as coming from the 
 mysterious locomotive battery which the Eebels were 
 said to have constructed. Gradually the smoke grew 
 denser, and appeared to be moving up along the track, 
 keeping pace with our motion, and about two miles dis- 
 
124 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 tant. I watclied it steadily through a field-glass from 
 our own slowly moving battery : it seemed to move when 
 we moved and to halt when wS halted. Sometimes in 
 the dim smoke I caught a glimpse of something blacker, 
 raised high in the air like the threatening head of some 
 great gliding serpent. Suddenly there came a sharp 
 puff of lighter smoke that seemed like a forked tongue, 
 and then a hollow report, and we could see a great black 
 projectile hurled into the air, and falling a quarter of a 
 mile away from us, in the woods. I did not at once 
 learn that this first shot killed two of the Maine men, and 
 wounded two more. This was fired wide, but the numer- 
 ous shots which followed were admirably aimed, and sel- 
 dom failed to fall or explode close to our own smaller 
 battery. 
 
 It was the first time that the men had been seriously 
 exposed to artillery fire, — a danger more exciting to 
 the ignorant mind than any other, as this very war has 
 shown.* So I watched them anxiously. Fortunately 
 there were deep trenches on each side the raUway, with 
 many stout, projecting roots, forming very tolerable bomb- 
 proofs for those who happened to be near them. The 
 
 * Take this for an example : "The effect was electrical. The Reb- 
 els were the best men in Ford's command, being Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Showalter's Californians, and they are brave men. They had dis- 
 mounted and sent their horses to the rear, and were undoubtedly de- 
 termined upon a desperate fight, and their superior numbers made 
 them confident of success. But they never fought with artillery, and 
 a cannon has more terror for them than ten thousand rifles and all the 
 wild Caraanches on the plains of Texas. At first glimpse of the shin- 
 ing brass monsters there was a visible wavering in the determined 
 front of the enemy, and as the shells came screaming over their heads 
 the scare was complete. They broke ranks, fled for their horses, 
 scrambled on the first that came to hand, and skedaddled in the direc- 
 tion of Brownsville," — New York Evening Post, September 25, 1864, 
 
UP THE ST JOHN'S. 125 
 
 enemy's gun was a sixty-four-pound Blakely, as we after- 
 ward found, whose enormous projectiles moved very 
 slowly and gave ample time to cover, — insomuch; that, 
 while the fragments of shell fell all around and amongst 
 us, not a man was hurt. This soon gave the men the 
 most buoyant confidence, and they shouted with childish 
 delight over every explosion. 
 
 The moment a shell had burst or fallen unburst, our 
 little gun was invariably fired in return, and that with 
 some precision, so far as we could judge, its range also 
 being nearly as great. For some reason they showed 
 no disposition to overtake us, in which attempt their lo- 
 comotive would have given them an immense advantage 
 over our heavy hand-car, and their cavalry force over 
 our infantry. Nevertheless, I rather hoped that they 
 would attempt it, for then an effort might have been 
 made to cut them off in the rear by taking up some rails. 
 As it was, this was out of the question, though they 
 moved slowly, as we moved, keeping always about two 
 miles away. When they finally ceased firing we took 
 up the rails beyond us before withdrawing, and thus kept 
 the enemy from approaching so near the city again. But 
 I shall never forget that Dantean monster, rearing its 
 black head amid the distant smoke, nor the solicitude 
 with which I watched for the puff which meant danger, 
 and looked round to see if my chickens were all under 
 cover. The greatest peril, after all, was from the pos- 
 sible dismounting of our gun, in which case we should 
 have been very apt to lose it, if the enemy had showed 
 any dash. There may be other such tilts of railway 
 artillery on record during the war ; but if so, I have not 
 happened to read of them, and so have dwelt the longer 
 on this. 
 
126 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 This was doubtless the same locomotive battery whicli 
 had previously fired more than once upon the town, — 
 running up within two miles and then withdrawing, while 
 it was deemed inexpedient to destroy the railroad, on our 
 part, lest it might be needed by ourselves in turn. One 
 night, too, the Eebel threat had been fulfi.lled, and they 
 had shelled the town with the same battery. They had 
 the range well, and every shot fell near the post head- 
 quarters. It was exciting to see the great Blakely shell, 
 showing a light as it rose, and moving slowly towards us 
 like a comet, then exploding and scattering its formidable 
 fragments. Yet, strange to say, no serious harm was 
 done to life or limb, and the most formidable casualty 
 was that of a citizen who complained that a shell had 
 passed through the wall of his bedroom, and carried off 
 his mosquito curtain in its transit. 
 
 Little knew we how soon these small entertainments 
 would be over. Colonel Montgomery had gone up the 
 river with his two companies, perhaps to remain per- 
 manently ; and I was soon to follow. On Friday, March 
 27th, I wrote home : " The Burnside has gone to 
 Beaufort for rations, and the John Adams to Fernan- 
 diua for coal ; we expect both back by Sunday, and on 
 Monday I hope to get the regiment off to a point farther 
 up, ■ — Magnolia, thirty-five miles, or Pilatka, seventy- 
 five, — either of which would be a good post for us. 
 General Hunter is expected every day, and it is strange 
 he has not come." The very next day came an official 
 order recalling the whole expedition, and for the third 
 time evacuating Jacksonville. 
 
 A council of military and naval officers was at once 
 called (though there was but one thing to be done), and 
 the latter were even more disappointed and amazed than 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 127 
 
 the former. This was especially the case with the senior 
 naval officer, Captain Steedman, a South-Carolinian by 
 birth, but who had proved himself as patriotic as he was 
 courteous and able, and whose presence and advice had 
 been of the greatest value to me. He and all of us felt 
 keenly the wrongfulness of breaking the pledges which 
 we had been authorized to make to these people, and of 
 leaving them to the mercy of the Rebels once more. 
 Most of the people themselves took the same view, and 
 eagerly begged to accompany us on our departure. They 
 were allowed to bring their clothing and furniture also, 
 and at once developed that insane mania for aged and 
 valueless trumpery which always seizes upon the human 
 race, I believe, in moments of danger. With the great- 
 est difficulty we selected between the essential and the 
 non-essential, and our few transports were at length loaded 
 to the very water's edge on the morning of March 29th, 
 
 — Colonel Montgomery having by this time returned 
 from up-river, with sixteen prisoners, and the fruits of 
 foraging in plenty. 
 
 And upon that last morning occurred an act on the 
 part of some of the garrison most deeply to be regretted, 
 and not to be excused by the natural indignation at their 
 recall, — an act which, through the unfortunate eloquence 
 of one newspaper correspondent, rang through the nation, 
 
 — the attempt to burn the town. I fortunately need not 
 dwell much upon it, as I was not at the time in command 
 of the post, — as the white soldiers frankly took upon 
 themselves the whole responsibility, — and as all the 
 fires were made in the wooden part of the citj', which 
 was occupied by them, while none were made in the 
 brick part, where the colored soldiers were quartered. 
 It was fortunate for our reputation that the newspaper 
 
128 UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 
 
 accounts generally agreed in exculpating us from all 
 share in the matter ; * and the single exception, which 
 one correspondent asserted, I could never verify, and do 
 not believe to have existed. It was stated by Colonel 
 Eust, in his official report, that some twenty-five build- 
 ings in all were burned, and I doubt if the actual num- 
 ber was greater ; but this was probably owing in part to 
 a change of wind, and did not diminish the discredit of 
 the transaction. It made our sorrow at departure no less, 
 though it infinitely enhanced the impressiveness of the 
 scene. 
 
 The excitement of the departure was intense. The 
 embarkation was so laborious that it seemed as if the 
 flames must be upon us before we could get on board, 
 and it was also generally expected that the Rebel skir- 
 mishers would be down among the houses, wherever prac- 
 ticable, to annoy us to the utmost, as had been the case 
 at the previous evacuation. They were, indeed, there, 
 as we afterwards heard, but did not venture to molest us. 
 The sight and roar of the tlames, and the rolling clouds 
 of smoke, brought home to the impressible minds of the 
 black soldiers all their favorite imagery of the Judgment- 
 Day ; and those who were not too much depressed by 
 disappointment were excited by the spectacle, and sang 
 and exhorted without ceasing. 
 
 * " The colored regiments had nothing at all to do with it; they be- 
 haved with propriety throughout." — Boston Journal Correspondence. 
 (" Carleton.") 
 
 " The negro troops took no part whatever in the peipetration of this 
 YsmAaiiim." — New Yorh Tribune Correspondence. ("N. P.") 
 
 " We know not whether we are most rej oiced or saddened to observe, 
 by the general ooncuiTence of accounts, that the negro soldiers had 
 nothing to do with the barbarous act." — Boston Journal Editm-ial, 
 April 10, 1S63. 
 
UP THE ST. JOHN'S. 129 
 
 With heavy hearts their officers floated down the 
 lovely river, which we had ascended with hopes so 
 buoyant; and from that day to this, the reasons for 
 our recall have never been made public. It was com- 
 monly attributed to proslavery advisers, acting on the 
 rather impulsive nature of Major-General Hunter, with 
 a view to cut short the career of the colored troops, and 
 stop their recruiting. But it may have been simplj^ the 
 scarcity of troops in the Department, and the renewed 
 conviction at head-quarters that we were too few to hold 
 the post alone. The latter theory was strengthened by 
 the fact that, when General Seymour reoccupied Jack- 
 sonville, the following year, he took with him twenty 
 thousand men instead of one thousand, — and the san- 
 guinary battle of Olustee found him' with too few. 
 
 6* 
 
130 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 ONE can hardly imagine a body of men more discon- 
 solate than a regiment suddenly transferred from 
 an adventurous life in the enemy's country to the quiet 
 of a sheltered camp, on safe and familiar ground. The 
 men under my command were deeply dejected when, on 
 a most appropriate day, — the First of April, 1863, — 
 they found themselves unaccountably recalled from Flo- 
 rida, that region of delights which had seemed theirs by 
 the right of conquest. My dusky soldiers, who based 
 their whole walk and conversation strictly on the ancient 
 Israelites, felt that the prophecies were all set at naught, 
 and that they were on the wrong side of the Red Sea ; 
 indeed, I fear they regarded even me as a sort of reversed 
 Moses, whose Pisgah fronted in the wrong direction. 
 Had they foreseen how the next occupation of the Prom- 
 ised Land was destined to result, they might have acqui- 
 esced with more of their wonted cheerfulness. As it 
 was, we were very glad to receive, after a few days of 
 discontented repose on the very ground where we had 
 once been so happy, an order to go out on picket at Port 
 Royal Ferry, with the understanding that we might re- 
 main there for some time. 
 
 This picket station was regarded as a sort of military 
 picnic by the regiments stationed at Beaufort, South 
 Carolina ; it meant blackberries and oysters, wild roses 
 and magnolias, flowery lanes instead of sandy barrens, 
 and a sort of guerilla existence in place of the camp rou- 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 131 
 
 tine. To the colored soldiers especially, with their love 
 of country life, and their extensive personal acquaintance 
 on the plantations, it seemed quite like a Christmas fes- 
 tival. Besides, they would be in sight of the enemy, and 
 who knew but there might, by the blessing of Providence, 
 be a raid or a skirmish ? If they could not remain on 
 the St. John's River, it was something to dwell on the 
 Coosaw. In the end they enjoyed it as much as they 
 expected, and though we " went out" several times sub- 
 sequently, until it became an old story, the enjoyment 
 never waned. And as even the march from the camp to 
 the picket lines was something that could not possibly have 
 been the same for any white regiment in the service, it is 
 worth while to begin at the beginning and describe it. 
 
 A regiment ordered on picket was expected to have 
 reveille at daybreak, and to be in line for departure by 
 sunrise. This delighted our men, who always took a 
 childlike pleasure in being out of bed at any unreason- 
 able hour ; and by the time I had emerged, the tents 
 were nearly all struck, and the great wagons were lum- 
 bering into camp to receive them, with whatever else 
 was to be transported. The first rays of the sun must 
 fall upon the line of these wagons, moving away across 
 the wide parade-ground, followed by the column of men, 
 who would soon outstrip them. But on the occasion 
 which I especially describe the sun was shrouded, and, 
 when once upon the sandy plain, neither camp nor town 
 nor river could be seen in the dimness ; and when I rode 
 forward and looked back there was only visible the long, 
 moving, shadowy column, seeming ralher awful in its 
 snake-like advance. There was a swaying of flags and 
 multitudinous weapons that might have been camels' 
 necks for all one could see, and the whole thing might 
 
132 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 have been a caravan upon the desert. Soon we de- 
 bouched upon the " Shell Road," the wagon-train drew 
 on one side into the fog, and by the time the sun ap- 
 peared the music ceased, the men took the " route step," 
 and the fun began. 
 
 The " route step " is an abandonment of all military 
 strictness, and nothing is required of the men but to keep 
 four abreast, and not lag behind. They are not required 
 to keep step, though, with the rhythmical ear of our 
 soldiers, they almost always instinctively did so ; talk- 
 ing and singing are allowed, and of this privilege, at 
 least, they eagerly availed themselves. On this day 
 they were at the top of exhilaration. There was one 
 broad grin from one end of the column to the other ; 
 it might soon have been a caravan of elephants instead 
 of camels, for the ivory and the blackness ; the chatter 
 and the laughter almost drowned the tramp of feet and 
 the clatter of equipments. At cross-roads and plantation 
 gates the colored people thronged to see us pass ; every 
 one found a friend and a greeting. " How you do, 
 aunty ? " " Huddy (how d' ye), Budder Benjamin ? " 
 " How you find yourself dis mornin', Tittawisa (Sister 
 Louisa) ? " Such salutations rang out to everybody, 
 known or unknown. In return, venerable, kerchiefed 
 matrons courtesied laboriously to every one, with an un- 
 failing " Bress de Lord, budder." Grave little boys, 
 blacker than ink, shook hands with our laughing and 
 utterly unmanageable drummers, who greeted them with 
 this sure word of prophecy, " Dem 's de drummers for 
 de nex' war ! " Pretty mulatto girls ogled and coquetted, 
 and made eyes, as Thackeray would say, at half the 
 young fellows in the battalion. Meantime the singing 
 was brisk along the whole column, and when I sometimes 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 133 
 
 reined up to see them pass, the chant of each company, 
 entering my ear, drove out from the other ear the strain 
 of the preceding. Such an odd mixture of things, mili- 
 tary and missionary, as the successive waves of song 
 drifted by! First, "John Brown," of course; then, 
 " What make old Satan for follow me so ? " then, 
 " Marching Along " ; then, " Hold your light on Ca- 
 naan's shore " ; then, " When this cruel war is over " 
 (a new favorite, sung by a few) ; yielding presently to 
 a grand burst of the favorite marching song among them 
 all, and one at which every step instinctively quickened, 
 so light and jubilant its rhythm, — 
 
 " All true children gwine in de wilderness, 
 Gwine in de wilderness, gwine in de wilderness, 
 Tme believers gwine in de wilderness, 
 To take away de sins ob de world," — 
 
 ending in a " Hoigh ! " after each verse, — a sort of 
 Irish yell. For all the songs, but especially for their 
 own wild hymns, they constantly improvised simple 
 verses, with the same odd mingling, — the little facts 
 of to-day's march being interwoven with the depths 
 of theological gloom, and the same jubilant chorus 
 annexed to all ; thus, — 
 
 " We 're gwine to de Ferry, 
 
 De bell done ringing; 
 Gwine to de landing, 
 
 De bell done ringing; 
 Trust, believer, 
 
 0, de bell done ringing; 
 Satan 's behind me, 
 
 De bell done ringing; 
 'T is a misty morning, 
 
 De beU done ringing; 
 
134 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 de road am sandy, ' 
 
 De tell done ringing; 
 Hell been open, 
 
 De bell done ringing " ; — 
 
 and so on indefinitely. 
 
 The little drum-corps kept in advance, a jolly crew, 
 their drums slung on their backs, and the drum-sticks' 
 perhaps balanced on their heads. "With them went the 
 ofiicers' servant-boys, more uproarious still, always ready 
 to lend their shrill treble to any song. At the head of 
 the whole force there walked, by some self-imposed pre- 
 eminence, a respectable elderly female, one of the com- 
 pany laundresses, whose vigorous stride we never could 
 quite overtake, and who had an enormous bundle bal- 
 anced on her bead, while she waved in her hand, like a 
 sword, a long-handled tin dipper. Such a picturesque 
 medley of fun, war, and music I believe no white regi- 
 ment in the service could have shown ; and yet there 
 was no straggling, and a single tap of the drum would at 
 any moment bring order out of this seeming chaos. So 
 we marched our seven miles out upon the smooth and 
 shaded road, — beneath jasmine clusters, and great pine- 
 cones dropping, and great bunches of misletoe still in 
 bloom among the branches. Arrived at the station, the 
 scene soon became busy and more confused ; wagons were 
 being unloaded, tents pitched, water brought, wood cut, 
 fires made, while the "field and staff" could take pos- 
 session of the abandoned quarters of their predecessors, 
 and we could look round in the lovely summer morning 
 to " survey our empire and behold our home." 
 
 The only thoroughfare by land between Beaufort and 
 Charleston is the " Shell Road," a beautiful avenue, 
 which, about nine miles from Beaufort, strikes a ferry 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 135 
 
 across the Coosaw River. War abolished the ferry, and 
 made the river the permanent barrier between the oppos- 
 ing picket lines. For ten miles, right and left, these 
 lines extended, marked by well-worn footpaths, follow- 
 ing the endless windings of the stream ; and they never 
 varied until nearly the end of the war. Upon their 
 maintenance depended our whole foothold on the Sea 
 Islands ; and upon that again finally depended the whole 
 campaign of Sherman. But for the services of the col- 
 ored troops, which finally formed the main garrison of 
 the Department of the South, the Great March would 
 never have been performed. 
 
 There was thus a region ten or twelve miles square of 
 which I had exclusive military command. It was level, 
 but otherwise broken and bewildering to the last degree. 
 No road traversed it, properly speaking, but the Shell 
 Eoad. All the rest was a wild medley of cypress swamp, 
 pine barren, muddy creek, and cultivated plantation, in- 
 tersected by interminable lanes and bridle-paths, through 
 which we must ride day and night, and which our horses 
 soon knew better than ourselves. The regiment was dis- 
 tributed at different stations, the main force being under 
 my immediate command, at a plantation close by the 
 Shell Road, two miles from the ferry, and seven miles 
 from Beaufort. Our first picket duty was just at the 
 time of the first attack on Charleston, under Dupont and 
 Hunter ; and it was generally supposed that the Confed- 
 erates would make an effort to recapture the Sea Islands. 
 My orders were to watch the enemy closely, keep in- 
 formed as to his position and movements, attempt no 
 advance, and, in case any were attempted from the other 
 side, to delay it as long as possible, sending instant notice 
 to head-quarjers. As to the delay, that could be easily 
 
136 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 guaranteed. Thei-e were causeways on the Shell Eoad 
 which a single battery could hold against a large force ; 
 and the plantations were everywhere so intersected by 
 hedges and dikes that they seemed expressly planned for 
 defence. Although creeks wound in and out everywhere, 
 yet these were only navigable at high tide, and at all 
 other times were impassable marshes. There were but 
 few posts where the enemy were within rifle range, and 
 their occasional attacks at those points were soon stopped 
 by our enforcement of a pithy order from General Hun- 
 ter, " Give them as good as they send." So that, with 
 every opportunity for being kept on the alert, there was 
 small prospect of serious danger ; and all promised an 
 easy life, with only enough of care to make it pleasant. 
 The picket station was therefore always a coveted post 
 among the regiments, combining some undeniable impor- 
 tance with a kind of relaxation ; and as we were there 
 three months on our first tour of duty, and returned there 
 several times afterwards, we got well acquainted with it. 
 The whole region always reminded me of the descriptions 
 of La Vendee, and I always expected to meet Henri 
 Larochejaquelein riding in the woods. 
 
 How can I ever describe the charm and picturesque- 
 ness of that summer life? Our house possessed four 
 spacious rooms and a piazza ; around it were grouped 
 sheds and tents ; the camp was a little way off on one 
 side, the negro-quarters of the plantation on the other ; 
 and all was immersed in a dense mass of waving and 
 murmuring locust-blossoms. The spring days were 
 always lovely, while the evenings were always con- 
 veniently damp ; so that we never shut the windows 
 by day, nor omitted our cheerful fire by night. In- 
 doors, the main head-quarters seemed like.the camp of 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 137 
 
 some party of young engineers in time of peace, only 
 ■with a little female society added, and a good many 
 martial associations thrown in. A large, low, dilapi- 
 dated room, with an immense fireplace, and with win- 
 dow-panes chiefly broken, so that the sashes were still 
 open even when closed, — such was our home. The 
 walls were scrawled with capital charcoal sketches by R. 
 of the Fourth New Hampshire, and with a good map of 
 the island and its wood-paths by C. of the First Massa- 
 chusetts Cavalry. The room had the picturesqueness 
 which comes everywhere from the natural grouping of 
 articles of daily use, — swords, belts, pistols, rifles, field- 
 glasses, spurs, canteens, gauntlets, — while wreaths of 
 gray moss above the windows, and a pelican's wing three 
 feet long over the high mantel-piece, indicated more 
 deliberate decoration. This, and the whole atmosphere 
 of the place, spoke of the refining presence of agreeable 
 women; and it was pleasant when they held their little 
 court in the evening, and pleasant all day, with the differ- 
 ent visitors who were always streaming in and out, — 
 officers and soldiers on various business ; turbaned women 
 from the plantations, coming with complaints or question- 
 ings ; fugitives from the main-land to be interrogated; 
 visitors riding up on horseback, their hands full of jas- 
 mine and wild roses ; and the sweet sunny air all per- 
 fumed with magnolias and the Southern pine. From 
 the neighboring camp there was a perpetual low hum. 
 Louder voices and laughter re-echoed, amid the sharp 
 sounds of the axe, from the pine woods ; and sometimes, 
 when the relieved pickets were discharging their pieces, 
 there came the hollow sound of dropping rifle-shots, as in 
 skirmishing, — perhaps the most unmistakable and fas- 
 cinating association that war bequeaths to the memory of 
 the ear. 
 
138 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 Our domestic arrangements were of the oddest descrip- 
 tion. From the time when we began housekeeping by 
 taking down .the front-door to complete therewith a little 
 office for the surgeon on the piazza, everything seemed 
 upside down. I slept on a shelf in the corner of the 
 parlor, bequeathed me by Major F., my jovial prede- 
 cessor, and, if I waked at any time, could put my head 
 through the broken window, arouse my orderly, and ride 
 off to see if I could catch a picket asleep. We used to 
 spell the word picquet, because that was understood to be 
 the correct thing, in that Department at least ; and they 
 used to say at post head-quarters that as soon as the offi- 
 cer in command of the outposts grew negligent, and was 
 guilty of a h, he was ordered in immediately. Then the 
 arrangements for ablution were peculiar. We fitted up 
 a bathing-place in a brook, which somehow got appro- 
 priated at once by the company laundresses ; but I had 
 my revenge, for I took to bathing in the family wash- 
 tub. After all, however, the kitchen department had the 
 advantage, for they used my solitary napkin to wipe the 
 mess-table. As for food, we found it impossible to get 
 chickens, save in the immature shape of eggs ; fresh pork 
 was prohibited by the surgeon, and other fresh meat came 
 rarely. We could, indeed, hunt for wild turkeys, and 
 even deer, but such hunting was found only to increase 
 the appetite, without corresponding supply. Still we 
 bad our luxuries, — large, delicious drum-fish, and alli- 
 gator steaks, — like a more substantial fried halibut, — 
 which might have afforded the theme for Charles Lamb's 
 dissertation on Roast Pig, and by whose aid " for the 
 first time in our lives we tasted craclding." The post 
 bakery yielded admirable bread ; and for vegetables and 
 fruit we had very poor sweet potatoes, and (in their sea- 
 
OUT ON PICKET. I39 
 
 son) an unlimited supply of the largest blackberries. For 
 beverage, we had the vapid milk of that region, in -which, 
 if you let it stand, the water sinks instead of the cream's 
 rising ; and the delicious sugar-cane syrup, which we had 
 brought from Florida, and which we drank at all hours. 
 Old Floridians say that no one is justified in drinking 
 ■whiskey, while he can get cane-juice ; it is sweet and 
 spirited, without cloying, foams like ale, and there were 
 little spots on the ceiling of the dining-room where pur 
 lively beverage had popped out its cork. We kept it 
 in a whiskey-bottle ; and as whiskey itself was abso- 
 lutely prohibited among us, it was amusing to see the 
 surprise of our military visitors when this innocent sub- 
 stitute was brought in. They usually liked it in the end, 
 but, like the old Frenchwoman over her glass of water, 
 wished that it were a sin to give it a relish. As the 
 foaming beakers of molasses and water were handed 
 round, the guests would make with them the courteous 
 little gestures of polite imbibing, and would then quaff 
 the beverage, some with gusto, others with a slight after- 
 look of dismay. But it was a delicious and cooling 
 drink while it lasted ; and at all events was the best and 
 the worst we had. 
 
 We used to have reveille at six, and breakfast about 
 seven ; then the mounted couriers began to arrive from 
 half a dozen different directions, with written reports of 
 what had happened dui-ing the night, — a boat seen, a 
 picket fired upon, a battery erecting. These must be 
 consolidated and forwarded to head-quarters, with the 
 daily report of the command, — so many sick, so many 
 on detached service, and all the rest. This was our 
 morning newspaper, our Herald and Tribune ; I never 
 got tired of it. Then the couriers must be furnished 
 
140 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 with countersign and instructions, and sent off again. 
 Tliea we scattered to our various rides, all disguised as 
 duty ; one to inspect pickets, one to visit a sick soldier, 
 one to build a bridge or clear a road, and still another 
 to head- quarters for ammunition or commissary stores. 
 Galloping through green lanes, miles of triumphal arches 
 of wild roses, — roses pale and large and fragrant, min- 
 gled with great boughs of the white cornel, fantastic 
 masses, snowy surprises, — such were our rides, ranging 
 from eight to fifteen and even twenty miles. Back to a 
 late dinner with our various experiences, and perhaps 
 specimens to match, — a thunder-snake, eight feet long ; 
 a live opossum, with the young clinging to the natural 
 pouch ; an armful of great white, scentless pond-lilies. 
 After dinner, to the tangled garden for rosebuds or early 
 magnolias, whose cloying fragrance will always bring 
 back to me the full zest of those summer days ; then 
 dress-parade and a little drill as the day grew cool. In 
 the evening, tea ; and then the piazza or the fireside, 
 as the ease might be, — chess, cards, — perhaps a little 
 music by aid of the assistant surgeon's melodeon, a few 
 pages of Jean Paul's " Titan," almost my only book, and 
 carefully husbanded, — perhaps a mail, with its infinite 
 felicities. Such was our day. 
 
 Night brought its own fascinations, more solitary and 
 profound. The darker they were, the more clearly it 
 was our duty to visit the pickets. The paths that had 
 grown so fanailiar by day seemed a wholly new labyrinth 
 by night ; and every added shade of darkness seemed to 
 shift and complicate them all anew, till at last man's skill 
 grew utterly baffled, and the clew must be left to the in- 
 stinct of the horse. Riding beneath the solemn starlight, 
 or soft, gray mist, or densest blackness, the frogs croak- 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 141 
 
 ing, the strange " chuckwill's-widow " droning his omi- 
 nous note above my head, the mocking-bird dreaming in 
 music, the great Southern fireflies rising to the tree-tops, 
 or hovering close to the ground like glow-worms, till the 
 horse raised his hoops to avoid them ; through pine woods 
 and cypress swamps, or past sullen brooks, or white tents, 
 or the dimly seen huts of sleeping negroes ; down to the 
 glimmering shore, where black statues leaned against 
 trees or stood alert in the pathways ; — never, in all the 
 days of my life, shall I forget the magic of those haunted 
 nights. 
 
 We had nocturnal boat service, too, for it was a part 
 of our instructions to obtain all possible information about 
 the enemy's position ; and we accordingly, as usual in 
 such cases, incurred a great many risks that harmed 
 nobody, and picked up much information which did 
 nobody any good. The centre of these nightly recon- 
 noissances, for a long time, was the wreck of the George 
 Washington, the story of whose disaster is perhaps worth 
 telling. 
 
 Till about the time when we went on picket, it had 
 been the occasional habit of the smaller gunboats to make 
 the circuit of Port Royal Island, — a practice wliich was 
 deemed verj' essential to the safety of our position, but 
 which the Rebels effectually stopped, a few daj's after our 
 arrival, by destroying the army gunboat George Wash- 
 ington with a single shot from a light battery. I was 
 roused soon after daybreak by the firing, and a courier 
 soon came dashing in with the particulars. Forwarding 
 these hastily to Beaufort (for we had then no telegraph), 
 I was soon at the scene of action, five miles away. Ap-'' 
 preaching, I met on the picket paths man after man who 
 had escaped from the wreck across a half-mile of almost 
 
142 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 impassable marsh. Never did I see such, objects, — some 
 stripped to their shirts, some fully clothed, but all having 
 every garment Uterally j)asted to their bodies with mud. 
 Across the river, the Rebels were retiring, having done 
 their work, but were still shelling, from greater and 
 greater distances, the wood through which I rode. Ar- 
 rived at the spot nearest the wreck (a point opposite to 
 what we called the Brickyard Station), I saw the burn- 
 ing vessel aground beyond a long stretch of marsh, out of 
 which the forlorn creatures were still flounderinff. Here 
 and there in the mud and reeds we could see the labor- 
 ing heads, slowly advancing, and could hear excruciating 
 cries from wounded men in the more distant depths. It 
 was the strangest mixture of war and Dante and Robin- 
 son Crusoe. Our energetic chaplain coming up, I sent 
 him with four men, under a flag of truce, to the place 
 whence the worst cries proceeded, while I went to an- 
 other part of the marsh. During that morning we got 
 them all out, our last achievement being the rescue of 
 the pilot, an immense negro with a wooden leg, — an 
 article so particularly unavailable for mud travelling, that 
 it would have almost seemed better, as one of the men 
 suggested, to cut the traces, and leave it behind. 
 
 A naval gunboat, too, which had originally accompa- 
 nied this vessel, and should never have left it, now came 
 back and took off the survivors, though there had been 
 several deaths from scalding and shell. It proved that 
 the wreck was not aground after all, but at anchor, hav- 
 ing foolishly lingered till after daybreak, and having thus 
 given time for the enemy to bring down their guns. 
 The first shot had struck tlie boiler, and set the vessel on 
 fire ; after which the officer in command had raised a 
 white flag, and then escaped with his men to our shore ; 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 143 
 
 and it was for this flight in the wrong direction that they 
 were shelled in the marshes by the Rebels. The case 
 furnished in *his respect some parallel to that of the 
 Kearsage and Alabama, and it was afterwards cited, I 
 believe, official^ or unofficially, to show that the Rebels 
 had claimed the right to punish, in this case, the course 
 of action which they approved in Semmes. I know that 
 they always asserted thenceforward that the detachment 
 on boEird the George Washington had become rightful 
 prisoners of war, and were justly fired upon when they 
 tried to escape. 
 
 This was at the time of the first attack on Charleston, 
 and the noise of this cannonading spread rapidly thither, 
 and brought four regiments to reinforce Beaufort in a 
 hurry, under the impression that the town was already 
 taken, and that they must save what remnants they could. 
 General Saxton, too, had made such capital plans for de- 
 fending the post that he could not bear not to have it 
 attacked ; so, while the Rebels brought down a force to 
 keep us from taking the guns ofi" the wreck, I was also 
 supplied with a section or two of regular artillery, and 
 some additional infantry, with which to keep them from 
 it ; and we tried to " make believe very hard," and rival 
 the Charleston expedition on our own island. Indeed, 
 our affair came to about as much, — nearly nothing, — 
 and lasted decidedly longer ; for both sides nibbled away 
 at the guns, by night, for weeks afterward, though I be- 
 lieve the mud finally got them, — at least, we did not. 
 We tried in vain to get the use of a steamboat or floating 
 derrick of any kind ; for it needed more mechanical in- 
 genuity than we possessed to transfer anything so heavy 
 to our small boats by night, while by day we did not go 
 near the wreck in anything larger than a " dug-out." 
 
144 OVT ON PICKET. 
 
 One of these nocturnal visits to tlie wreck I recall with 
 peculiar* gusto, because it brought back that contest with 
 catarrh and coughing among my own warrjfcrs which had 
 so ludicrously beset me in Florida. It was always fas- 
 cinating to be on those forbidden water^Hby night, steal- 
 ing out with muffled oars through the creeks and reeds, 
 our eyes always strained for other voyagers, our ears 
 listening breathlessly to all the marsh sounds, — black- 
 fish splashing, and little wakened reed-birds that fled 
 wailing away over the dim river, equally safe on either 
 side. But it always appeared to the watchful senses that 
 we were making noise enough to be heard at Fort Sum- 
 ter ; and somehow the victims of catarrh seemed always 
 the most eager for any enterprise requiring peculiar cau- 
 tion. In this case I thought I had sifted them before- 
 hand ; but as soon as we were afloat, one poor boy near 
 me began to wheeze, and I turned upon him in exasper- 
 ation. He saw his danger, and meekly said, " I won't 
 cough. Gunnel ! " and he kept his word. For two mor- 
 tal hours he sat grasping his gun, with never a chirrup. 
 But two unfortunates in the bow of the boat developed 
 symptoms which I could not suppress ; so, putting in at 
 a picket station, with some risk I dumped them in mud 
 knee-deep, and embarked a substitute, who after the first 
 five minutes absolutely coughed louder than both the 
 others united. Handkerchiefs, blankets, over-coats, suf- 
 focation in its direst forms, were all tried in vain, but 
 apparently the Rebel pickets slept through it all, and we 
 explored the wreck in safety. I think they were asleep, 
 for certainly across the level marshes there came a nasal 
 sound, as of the " Conthieveracy " in its slumbers. It 
 may have been a bull-frog, but it sounded like a human 
 snore. 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 145 
 
 Picket life was of course the place to feel the charm 
 of natural beauty on the Sea Islands. We had a world 
 of profuse and tangled vegetation around us, such as 
 would have been a dream of delight to me, but for the 
 constant sense of responsibility and care which came be- 
 tween. Amid this preoccupation, Nature seemed but a 
 mirage, and not the close and intimate associate I had 
 before known. I pressed no flowers, collected no insects 
 or birds' eggs, made no notes on natural objects, revers- 
 ing in these respects all previous habits. Yet now, in 
 the retrospect, there seems to have been infused into me 
 through- every pore the voluptuous charm of the season 
 and the place ; and the slightest corresponding sound or 
 odor now calls back the memory of those delicious days. 
 Being afterwards on picket at almost every season, I 
 tasted the sensations of all ; and though I hardly then 
 thought of such a result, the associations of beauty will 
 remain forever. 
 
 In February, for instance, — though this was during a 
 later period of picket service, — the woods were usually 
 draped with that " net of shining haze" which marks our 
 Northern May ; and the house was embowered in wild- 
 plum-blossoms, small, white, profuse, and tenanted by 
 murmuring bees. There were peach-blossoms, too, and 
 the yellow jasmine was opening its multitudinous buds, 
 climbing over tall trees, and waving from bough to bough. 
 There were fresh young ferns and white bloodroot in the 
 edges of woods, matched by snowdrops in the garden, 
 beneath budded myrtle and Petisporum. In this wilder- 
 ness the birds were busy ; the two main songsters being 
 the mocking-bird and the cardinal-grosbeak, which mo- 
 nopolized aE the parts of our more varied Northern 
 orchestra save the tender and liquid notes, which in 
 7 J 
 
146 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 South Carolina seemed unattempted except by some 
 stray blue-bird. Jays were as loud and busy as at the 
 North in autumn ; there were sparrows and wrens ; and 
 sometimes I noticed the shy and whimsical chewink. 
 
 From this early spring-time onward, there seemed no 
 great difference in atmospheric sensations, and only a 
 succession of bloom. After two months one's notions of 
 the season grew bewildered, just as very early rising be- 
 wilders the day. In the army one is perhaps roused 
 after a bivouac, marches before daybreak, halts, fights, 
 somebody is killed, a long day's life has been lived, and 
 after all it is not seven o'clock, and breakfast is not ready. 
 So when we had lived in summer so long as hardly to 
 remember winter, it suddenly occurred to us that it was 
 not yet June. One escapes at the South that mixture of 
 hunger and avarice which is felt in the Northern sum- 
 mer, counting each hour's joy with the sad consciousness 
 that an hour is gone. The competisatiBg loss is in miss- 
 ing those soft, sweet, liquid sensations of the Northern 
 spring, that burst of life and joy, those days of heaven 
 that even April brings ; and this absence of childhood in 
 the year creates a feeling of hardness in the season, like 
 that I have suggested in the melody of the Southern 
 birds. It seemed to me also that the woods had not 
 those pure, clean, innocent odors which so abound in the 
 New England forest in early spring; but there was 
 something luscious, voluptuous, almost oppressively fra- 
 grant about the magnolias, as if they belonged not to 
 Hebe, but to Magdalen. 
 
 Such immense and lustrous butterflies I had never 
 seen but in dreams ; and not even dreams had pre- 
 pared me for sand-flies. Almost too small to be seen, 
 they inflicted a bite which appeared larger than them- 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 147 
 
 selves, — a positive wound, more torturing than that of a 
 mosquito, and leaving more annoyance behind. These 
 tormentors elevated dress-parade into the dignity of a 
 military engagement. I had to stand motionless, with 
 my head a mere nebula of winged atoms, while tears 
 rolled profusely down my face, from mere muscular irrita- 
 tion. Had I stirred a finger, the whole battalion would 
 have been slapping its cheeks. Such enemies were, 
 however, a valuable aid to discipline, on the whole, as 
 they abounded in the guard-house, and made that institu- 
 tion an object of unusual abhorrence among the men. 
 
 The presence of ladies and the homelike air of every- 
 thing, made the picket station a very popular resort 
 while we were there. It was the one agreeable ride 
 from Beaufort, and we often had a dozen people unex- 
 pectedly to dinner. On such occasions there was some- 
 times mounting in hot haste, and an eager search among 
 the outlying plantations for additional chickens and eggs, 
 or through the company kitchens for some of those vil- 
 lanous tin cans which everywhere marked the progress of 
 our army. In those cans, so far as my observation went, 
 all fruits relapsed into a common acidulation, and all 
 meats into a similarity of tastelessness ; while the " con- 
 densed milk " was best described by the men, who often 
 unconsciously stumbled on a better joke than they knew, 
 and always spoke of it as condemned milk. 
 
 We had our own excursions too, — to the Barnwell 
 plantations, with their beautiful avenues and great live- 
 oaks, the perfection of Southern beauty, — to Hall's Isl- 
 and, debatable ground, close under the enemy's fire, where 
 half-wild cattle were to be shot, under military precautions, 
 like Scottish moss-trooping, — or to the ferry, where it 
 was fascinating to the female mind to scan the Rebel 
 
148 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 pickets through a field-glass. Our horses liked the by- 
 ways far better than the level hardness of the Shell 
 Eoad, especially those we had brought from Florida, 
 which enjoyed the wilderness as if they had belonged to 
 Marion's men. They delighted to feel the long sedge 
 brush their flanks, or to gallop down the narrow wood- 
 paths, leaping the fallen trees, and scaring the bright 
 little lizards which shot across our track like live rays 
 broken from the sunbeams. We had an abundance of 
 horses, mostly captured and left in our hands by some 
 convenient delay of the post quartermaster. We had 
 also two side-saddles, which, not being munitions of war, 
 could not properly (as we explained) be transferred like 
 other captured articles to the general stock ; otherwise 
 the P. Q. M. (a married man) would have showed no 
 unnecessary delay in their case. For miscellaneous ac- 
 commodation was there not an ambulance, — that most 
 inestimable of army conveniences, equally ready to carry 
 the merry to a feast or the wounded from a fray. " Am- 
 bulance " was one of those words, rather numerous, 
 which Ethiopian lips were not framed by Nature to ar- 
 ticulate. Only the highest stages of colored culture 
 could compass it ; on the tongue of the many it was 
 transformed mystically as " amulet," or ambitiously as 
 " epaulet," or in culinary fashion as " omelet." But it 
 was our experience that an ambulance under any name 
 jolted equally hard. 
 
 Besides these divertisements, we had more laborious 
 vocations, — a good deal of fatigue, and genuine though 
 small alarms. The men went on duty every third day 
 at furthest, and the officers nearly as often, — most of 
 the tours of duty lasting twenty-four hours, though the 
 stream was considered to watch itself tolerably well by 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 149 
 
 daylight. This kind of responsibility suited the men ; 
 and we had already found, as the whole army afterwards 
 acknowledged, that the constitutional watchfulness and 
 distrustfulness of the colored race made them admirable 
 sentinels. Soon after we went on picket, the command- 
 ing general sent an aid, with a cavalry escort, to visit all 
 the stations, without my knowledge. They spent the 
 whole night, and the oflScer reported that he could not 
 get within thirty yards of any post without a challenge. 
 This was a pleasant assurance for me ; since our position 
 seemed so secure, compared with Jacksonville, that I 
 had feared some relaxation of vigilance, while yet the 
 safety of all depended on our thorough discharge of 
 duty. 
 
 Jacksonville had also seasoned the men so well that 
 they were no longer nervous, and did not waste much 
 powder on false alarms. The Rebels made no formal 
 attacks, and rarely attempted to capture pickets. Some- 
 times they came stealing through the creeks in " dug- 
 outs," as we did on their side of the water, and occasion- 
 ally an officer of ours was fired upon while making his 
 rounds by night. Often some boat or scow would go 
 adrift, and sometimes a mere dark mass of river-weej 
 would be floated by the tide past the successive stations, 
 eliciting a challenge and perhaps a shot from each. I 
 remember the vivid way in which one of the men stated 
 to his officer the manner in which a faithful picket should 
 do his duty, after challenging, in case a boat came in 
 sight. " Fus' ting I shoot, and den I shoot, and den I 
 shoot again. Den I creep-creep up near de boat, and 
 see who dey in 'em ; and s'pose anybody pop up he head, 
 den I shoot agnin. S'pose I fire my forty rounds. I 
 tink he hear at de camp and send more mans," — which 
 
150 OUT ON PICKET. 
 
 seemed a reasonable presumption. This soldier's name 
 was Paul Jones, a daring fellow, quite worthy of his 
 namesake. 
 
 In time, however, they learned quieter methods, and 
 would wade far out in the water, there standing motion- 
 less at last, hoping to surround and capture these floating 
 boats, though, to their great disappointment, the prize 
 usually proved empty. On one occasion they tried a 
 still profounder strategy ; for an oiSeer visiting the pick- 
 ets after midnight, and hearing in the stillness a porten- 
 tous snore from the end of the causeway (our most im- 
 portant station), straightway hurried to the point of 
 danger, with wrath in his soul. But the sergeant of the 
 squad came out to meet him, imploring silence, and ex- 
 plaining that they had seen or suspected a boat hovering 
 near, and were feigning sleep in order to lure and cap- 
 ture those who would entrap them. 
 
 The one military performance at the picket station of 
 which my men were utterly intolerant was an occasional 
 flag of truce, for which this was the appointed locality. 
 These farces, for which it was our duty to furnish the 
 stock actors, always struck them as being utterly des- 
 picable, and unworthy the serious business of war. 
 They felt, I suppose, what Mr. Pickwick felt, when he 
 heard his counsel remark to the counsel for the plaintiff, 
 that it was a very fine morning. It goaded their souls 
 to see the young ofiicers from the two opposing armies 
 salute each other courteously, and interchange cii'ars. 
 They despised the object of such negotiations, which was 
 usually to send over to the enemy some family of Rebel 
 women who had made themselves quite intolerable on 
 our side, but were not above collecting a subscription 
 among the Union ofiicers, before departure, to replenish 
 
OUT ON PICKET. 151 
 
 their wardrobes. The men never showed disrespect to 
 these women by word or deed, but they hated them from 
 the bottom of their souls. Besides, there was a griev- 
 ance behind all this. The Eebel order remained unre- 
 voked which consigned the new colored troops and their 
 officers to a felon's death, if captured ; and we all felt 
 that we fought with ropes round our necks. " Dere 's 
 no flags ob truce for us," the men would contemptuously 
 say. "When de Secesh fight de Fus' Souf" (First 
 South Carolina), " he fight in earnest." Indeed, I my- 
 self took it as rather a compliment when the commander 
 on the other side — though an old acquaintance of mine 
 in Massachusetts and in Kansas — at first refused to 
 negotiate through me or my officers, — a refusal which 
 was kept up, greatly to the enemy's inconvenience, until 
 our men finally captured some of the opposing pickets, 
 and their friends had to waive all scruples in order to 
 send them supplies. After this there was no trouble, 
 and I think that the first Rebel officer in South Carolina 
 who officially met any officer of colored troops under a 
 flag of truce was Captain John C. Calhoun. In Florida 
 we had been so recognized long before ; but that was 
 when they wished to frighten us out of Jacksonville. 
 
 Such was our life on picket at Port Royal, — a thing 
 whose memory is now fast melting into such stuff as 
 dreams are made of. "We stayed there more than two 
 months at that time ; the first attack on Charleston ex- 
 ploded with one puff, and had its end ; General Hunter 
 was ordered North, and the busy Gilmore reigned in his 
 stead ; and in June, when the blackberries were all eaten, 
 we were summoned, nothing loath, to other scenes and 
 encampments new. 
 
152 A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 A NIGHT IN THE WATEE. 
 
 YES, that was a pleasant life on picket, in the deli- 
 cious early summer of the South, and among the 
 endless flowery forests of that blossoming isle. In the 
 retrospect I seem to see myself adi-ift upon a horse's back 
 amid a sea of roses. The various outposts were within 
 a six-mile radius, and it was one long, delightful gallop, 
 day and night. I have a faint impression that the moon 
 shone steadily every night for two months ; and yet I re- 
 member certain periods of such dense darkness that in 
 riding through the wood-paths it was really unsafe to go 
 beyond a walk, for fear of branches above and, roots be- 
 low ; and one of my officers was once shot at by a Rebel 
 scout who stood unperceived at his horse's bridle. 
 
 To those doing outpost-duty on an island, however 
 large, the main-land has all the fascination of forbidden 
 fruit, and on a scale bounded only by the horizon. 
 Emerson says that every house looks ideal until we 
 enter it, — and it is certainly so, if it be just the other 
 side of the hostile lines. Every grove in that blue dis- 
 tance appears enchanted ground, and yonder loitering 
 gray-back leading his horse to water in the farthest dis- 
 tance, makes one thrill with a desire to hail him, to slioot 
 at him, to capture him, to do anything to bridge this in- 
 exorable dumb space that lies between. A boyish feel- 
 ing, no doubt, and one that time diminishes, without ef- 
 facing ; yet it is a feeling which lies at the bottom of 
 many rash actions in war, and of some brilliant ones. 
 
A NIGHT IN THE WATER. I53 
 
 For one, I could never quite outgrow it, though restricted 
 by duty from doing many foolish things in consequence, 
 and also restrained by reverence for certain confidential 
 advisers whom I had always at hand, and who considered 
 it their mission to keep me always on short rations of 
 personal adventure. Indeed, most of that sort of enter- 
 tainment in the army devolves upon scouts detailed for 
 the purpose, volunteer aides-de-camp and newspaper- 
 reporters, — other officers being expected to be about 
 business more prosaic. 
 
 All the excitements of war are quadrupled by dark- 
 ness ; and as I rode along our outer lines at night, and 
 watched the glimmering flames which at regular intervals 
 starred the opposite river-shore, the longing was irre- 
 sistible to cross the barrier of dusk, and see whether it 
 were men or ghosts who hovered round those dying em- 
 bers. I had yielded to these impulses in boat-adventures 
 by night, — for it was a part of my instructions to ob- 
 tain all possible information about the Rebel outposts, — 
 and fascinating indeed it was to glide along, noiselessly 
 paddling, with a dusky guide, through the endless in- 
 tricacies of those Southern marshes, scaring the reed- 
 birds, which wailed and fled away into the darkness, and 
 penetrating several miles into the interior, between hostile 
 fires, where discovery might be death. Yet there were 
 drawbacks as to these enterprises, since it is not easy for 
 a boat to cross still water, even on the darkest night, 
 without being seen by watchful eyes ; and, moreover, the 
 extremes of high and low tide transform so completely 
 the whole condition of those rivers that it needs very 
 nice calculation to do one's work at precisely the right 
 time. To vary the experiment, I had often thought of 
 trying a personal reconnoissance by swimming, at a 
 7* 
 
154 A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 certain point, whenever circumstances should make it an 
 object. 
 
 The opportunity at last arrived, and I shall never for- 
 get the glee with which, after several postponements, I 
 finally rode forth, a little before midnight, on a night 
 which seemed made for the purpose. I had, of course, 
 kept my own secret, and was entirely alone. The great 
 Southern fireflies were out, not haunting the low ground 
 merely, like ours, but rising to the loftiest tree-tops with 
 weird illumination, and anon hovering so low that my 
 horse often stepped the higher to avoid them. The 
 dewy Cherokee roses brushed my face, the solemn 
 " Chuckwill's-widow " croaked her incantation, and the 
 rabbits raced phantom-like across the shadowy road. 
 Slowly in the darkness I followed the well-known path 
 to the spot where our most advanced outposts were 
 stationed, holding a causeway which thrust itself far out 
 across the separating river, — thus fronting a similar 
 causeway on the other side, while a channel of perhaps 
 three hundred yards, once traversed by a ferry-boat, 
 rolled between. At low tide this channel was the whole 
 river, with broad, oozy marshes on each side ; at high 
 tide the marshes were submerged, and the stream was a 
 mile wide. This was the point which I had selected. 
 To ascertain the numbers and position of the picket on 
 the opposite causeway was my first object, as it was a 
 matter on which no two of our officers agreed. 
 
 To this point, therefore, I rode, and dismounting, after 
 being duly challenged by the sentinel at the causeway- 
 head, walked down the long and lonely path. The tide 
 was well up, though still on the flood, as I desired ; and 
 each visible tuft of marsh-grass might, but for its motion- 
 lessness, have been a prowling boat. Dark as the night 
 
A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 155 
 
 had appeared, the water was pale, smooth, and phospho- 
 rescent, and I remember that the phrase " wan water," so 
 familiar in the Scottish ballads, struck me just then as 
 peculiarly appropriate, though its real meaning is quite 
 different. A gentle breeze, from which I had hoped for 
 a ripple, had utterly died away, and it was a warm, 
 breathless Southern night. There was no sound but the 
 faint swash of the coming tide, the noises of the reed- 
 birds in the marshes, and the occasional leap of a fish ; 
 and it seemed to my overstrained ear as if every foot- 
 step of my own must be heard for miles. However, I 
 could have no more postponements, and the thing must 
 be tried now or never. 
 
 Reaching the farther end of the causeway, I found my 
 men couched, like black statues, behind the slight earth- 
 work there constructed. I expected that my proposed 
 immersion would rather bewilder them, but knew thiit 
 they would say nothing, as usual. As for the lieutenant 
 on that post, he was a steady, matter-of-fact, perfectly dis- 
 ciplined Englishman, who wore a Crimean medal, and 
 never asked a supei-fluous question in his life. If I had 
 casually remarked to him, " Mr. Hooper, the Genei-nl 
 has ordered me on a brief personal reconnoissance to the 
 Planet Jupiter, and I wish you to take care of my watch, 
 lest it should be damaged by the Precession of the Equi- 
 noxes," he would have responded with a brief " All riglit, 
 Sir," and a quick mihtary gesture, and have put the thing 
 in his pocket. As it was, I simply gave him the watcli, 
 and remarked that I was going to take a swim. 
 
 I do not remember ever to have experienced a greater 
 sense of exhilaration than when I slipped noiselessly inio 
 the placid water, and struck out into the smooth, eddying 
 current for the opposite shore. The night was so still 
 
156 A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 and lovely, my black statues looked so dream-like at theii* 
 posts behind the low earthwork, the opposite arm of the 
 causeway stretched so invitingly from the Rebel main, 
 the horizon glimmered so low around me, — for it always 
 appears lower to a swimmer than even to an oarsman, — 
 that I seemed floating in some concave globe, some magic 
 crystal, of which I was the enchanted centre. With each 
 little ripple of my steady progress all things hovered and 
 changed ; the stars danced and nodded above ; where 
 the stars' ended the great Southern fireflies began ; and 
 closer than the fireflies, there clung round me a halo of 
 phosphorescent sparkles from the, soft salt water. 
 
 Had I told any one of my purpose, I should have had 
 warnings and remonstrances enough. The few negroes 
 who did not believe in alligators believed in sharks ; the 
 sceptics as to sharks were orthodox in respect to alliga- 
 tors ; while those who rejected both had private prejudices 
 as to snapping-turtles. The surgeon would have threat- 
 ened intermittent fever, the first assistant rheumatism, 
 and the second assistant congestive chills ; non-swimmers 
 would have predicted exhaustion, and swimmers cramp ; 
 and all this before coming within bullet-range of any hos- 
 pitalities on the other shore. But I knew the folly of 
 most alarms about reptiles and fishes ; man's imagination 
 peoples the water wilh many things which do not belong 
 there, or prefer to keep out of his way, if they do ; fevers 
 and congestions were the surgeon's business, and I always 
 kept people to their own department ; cramp and exhaus- 
 tion were dangers I could measure, as I had often done ; 
 bullets were a more substantial danger, and I must take 
 the chance, — if a loon could dive at the flash, why not 
 I ? If I were once ashore, I should have to cope with the 
 Eebels on their own ground, which they knew better than 
 
A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 157 
 
 I ; but the water was my ground, where I, too, had been 
 at home from boyhood. 
 
 I swam as swiftly and softly as I could, although it 
 seemed as if water never had been so still before. It 
 appeared impossible that anything uncanny should hide 
 beneath that lovely mirror ; and yet when some floating 
 wisp of reeds suddenly coiled itself around my neck, or 
 some unknown thing, drifting deeper, coldly touched my 
 foot, it caused that undefinable shudder which every swim- 
 mer knows, and which especially comes over one by 
 night. Sometimes a slight sip of brackish water would 
 enter my lips, — for I naturally tried to swim as low as 
 possible, — and then would follow a slight gasping and 
 contest against choking, that seemed to me a perfect con- 
 vulsion ; for I suppose the tendency to choke and sneeze 
 is always enhanced by the circumstance that one's life 
 may depend on keeping still, just as yawning becomes 
 irresistible where to yawn would be social ruin, and just 
 as one is sure to sleep in church, if one sits in a conspic- 
 uous pew. At other times, some unguarded motion would 
 create a splashing which seemed, in the tension of my 
 senses, to be loud enough to be heard at Richmond, al- 
 though it really mattered not, since there are fishes in 
 those rivers which make as much noise on special occa- 
 sions as if they were misguided young whales. 
 
 As I drew near the opposite shore, the dark causeway 
 projected more and more distinctly, to my fancy at least, 
 and I swam more softly still, utterly uncertain as to how 
 far, in the stillness of air and water, my phosphorescent 
 course could be traced by eye or ear. A slight ripple 
 would have saved me from observation, I was more than 
 ever sure, and I would have whistled for a fair wind as 
 eagerly as any sailor, but that ray breath was worth to 
 
158 A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 me more than anything it was likely to bring. The 
 water became smoother and smoother, and nothing broke 
 the dim surface except a few clumps of rushes and my 
 unfortunate head. The outside of this member gradually 
 assumed to its inside a gigantic magnitude ; it had always 
 • annoyed me at the hatter's from a merely animal big- 
 ness, with no commensurate contents to show for it, and 
 now I detested it more than ever. A physical feeling of 
 turgescence and congestion in that region, such as swim- 
 mers often feel, probably increased the impression. I 
 thought with envy of the Aztec children, of the headless 
 horseman of Sleepy floUow, of Saint Somebody with his 
 head tucked under his arm. Plotinus was less ashamed 
 of his whole body than I of this inconsiderate and stupid 
 appendage. To be sure, I might swim for a certain dis- 
 tance under water. But that accomplishment I had re- 
 served for a retreat, for I knew that the longer I stayed 
 down the more surely I should have to snort like a wal- 
 rus when I came up again, and to approach an enemy 
 with such a demonstration was not to be thought of. 
 
 Suddenly a dog barked. We had certain information 
 that a pack of hounds was kept at a Rebel station a few 
 miles off, on purpose to hunt runaways, and I had heard 
 from the negroes almost fabulous accounts of the instinct 
 of these animals. I knew that, although water baffled 
 their scent, they yet could recognize in some manner the 
 approach of any person across water as readily as by 
 land ; and of the vigilance of all dogs by night every 
 traveller among Southern plantations has ample demon- 
 stration. I was now so near that I could dimly see the 
 figures of men moving to and fro upon the end of the 
 causeway, and could hear the dull knock, when one 
 struck his foot against a piece of timber. 
 
A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 159 
 
 As my first object was to ascertain whether there were 
 sentinels at that time at tliat precise point, I saw that I 
 was approaching the end of my experiment. Could I 
 have once reached the causeway unnoticed, I could have 
 lurked in the water beneath its projecting timbers, and 
 perhaps made my way along the main shore, as I had 
 known fugitive slaves to do, while coming from that side. 
 Or had there been any ripple on the water, to confuse the 
 aroused and watchful eyes, I could have made a circuit 
 and approached the causeway at another point, though I 
 had already satisfied myself that there was only a narrow 
 channel on each side of it, even at high tide, and not, as 
 on our side, a broad expanse of water. Indeed, this 
 knowledge alone was worth all the trouble I had taken, 
 and to attempt much more than this, in the face of a curi- 
 osity already roused, would have been a waste of future 
 opportunities. I could try again, with the benefit of this 
 new knowledge, on a point where the statements of the 
 negroes had always been contradictory. 
 
 Resolving, however, to continue the observation a very 
 little longer, since the water felt much wanner than I had 
 expected, and there was no sense of chill or fatigue, I 
 grasped at some wisps of straw or rushes that floated 
 near, gathenrg them round my face a little, and then 
 drifting nearer the wharf in what seemed a sort of eddy 
 was able, without creating further alarm, to make some 
 additional observations on points which it is not best now 
 to particularize. Then, turning my back upon the mys- 
 terious shore which had thus far lured me, I sank softly 
 below the surface, and swam as far as I could under 
 water. 
 
 During this unseen retreat, I heard, of course, all man- 
 ner of gurglings and hollow reverberations, and could 
 
160 A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 fancy as many rifle-shots as I pleased. But on rising to 
 the surface all seemed quiet, and even I did not create as 
 much noise as I should have expected. I was now at a 
 safe distance, since the enemy were always chary of 
 showing their boats, and always tried to convince us they 
 had none. "What with absorbed attention first, and this 
 submersion afterwards, I had lost all my bearings but the 
 stars, having been long out of sight of my original point 
 of departure. However, the difficulties of the return 
 were nothing ; making a slight allowance for the flood- 
 tide, which could not yet have turned, I should soon re- 
 gain the place I had left. So I struck out freshly against 
 the smooth water, feeling just a little stiffened by the ex- 
 ertion, and with an occasional chill running up the back 
 of the neck, but with no nips from sharks, no nudges 
 from alligators, and not a symptom of fever-and-ague. 
 
 Time I could not, of course, measure, — one never can 
 in a novel position ; but, after a reasonable amount of 
 swimming, I began to look, with a natural interest, for 
 the pier which I had quitted. I noticed, with some solici- 
 tude, that the woods along the friendly shore made one 
 continuous shadow, and that the line of low bushes on the 
 long causeway could scarcely be relieved against them, 
 yet 1 knew where they ought to be, and the more doubt- 
 ful I felt about it, the more I put down my doubts, as if 
 they were unreasonable children. One can scarcely con- 
 ceive of the alteration made in familiar objects by bring- 
 ing the eye as low as the horizon, especially by night ; to 
 distinguish foreshortening is impossible, and every low 
 near object is equivalent to one higher and more remote. 
 Still I had the stars ; and soon my eye, more practised, 
 was enabled to select one precise line of bushes as that 
 which marked the causeway, and for which I must direct 
 my course. 
 
A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 161 
 
 As I swam steadily, but with some sense of fatigue, 
 towards this phantom-line, I found it diflScult to keep my 
 faith steady and my progress true ; everything appeared 
 to shift and waver, in the uncertain light. The distant 
 trees seemed not trees, but bushes, and the bushes seemed 
 not exactly bushes, bat might, after all, be distant trees. 
 Could I be so confident that, out of all that low stretch 
 of shore, I could select the one precise point where the 
 friendly causeway stretched its long arm to receive me 
 from the water ? How easily (some tempter whispered 
 at my ear) might one swerve a little, on either side, and 
 be compelled to flounder over half a mile of oozy marsh 
 on an ebbing tide, before reaching our own shore and 
 that hospitable volley of bullets with which it would 
 probably greet me ! Had I not already (thus the 
 tempter continued) been swimming rather unaccountably 
 far, supposing me on a straight track for that inviting 
 spot where my sentinels and my drapery were awaiting 
 my return ? 
 
 Suddenly I felt a sensation as of fine ribbons drawn 
 softly across my' person, and I found myself among some 
 rushes. But what business had rushes there, or I among 
 them ? I knew that there was not a solitary spot of 
 shoal in the deep channel where I supposed myself swim- 
 ming, and it was plain in an instant that I had somehow 
 missed my course, and must be getting among the 
 marshes. I felt confident, to be sure, that I could not 
 have widely erred, but was guiding my course for the 
 proper side of the river. But whether I had drifted 
 above or below the causeway I had not the slightest clew 
 to tell. 
 
 I pushed steadily forward, with some increasing sense 
 of lassitude, passing one marshy islet after another, all 
 
162 A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 seeming strangely out of place, and sometimes just 
 reaching with my foot a soft tremulous shoal which gave 
 scarce the shadow of a support, though even that shadow 
 rested my feet. At one of these moments of stillness it 
 suddenly occurred to my perception (what nothing but 
 this slight contact could have assured me, in the dark- 
 ness) that I was in a powerful current, and that this cur- 
 rent set the wrong way. Instantly a flood of new intelli- 
 gence came. Either I had unconsciously turned and 
 was rapidly nearing the Rebel shore, — a suspicion 
 which a glance at the stars corrected, — or else it was 
 the tide itself which had turned, and which was sweep- 
 ing me down the river with all its force, and was also 
 sucking away at every moment the narrowing water 
 from that treacherous expanse of mud out of whose hor- 
 rible miry embrace I had lately helped to rescue a ship- 
 wrecked crew. 
 
 Either alternative was rather formidable. I can dis- 
 tinctly remember that for about one half-minute the 
 whole vast universe appeared to swim in the same watery 
 uncertainty in which I floated. I began to doubt every- 
 thing, to distrust the stars, the line of low bushes for 
 which I was wearily striving, the very land on which 
 tliey grew, if such visionary things could be rooted any- 
 where. Doubts trembled in my mind like tbe weltering 
 water, and that awful sensation of having one's feet un- 
 supported, which benumbs the spent swimmer's heart, 
 seemed to clutch at mine, though not yet to enter it. I 
 was more absorbed in- that singular sensation of night- 
 mare, such as one may feel equally when lost by land or 
 by water, as if one's own position were all right, but the 
 place looked for had somehow been preternatu rally abol- 
 ished out of the universe. At best, might not a man in 
 
A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 163 
 
 tte water lose all his power of direction, and so move in 
 an endless circle until he sank exhausted ? It required 
 a deliberate and conscious effort to keep my brain quite 
 cool. I have not the reputation of being of an excita- 
 ble temperament, but the contrary ; yet I could at that 
 moment see my way to a condition in which one might 
 become insane in an instant. It was as if a fissure 
 opened somewhere, and I saw my way into a mad-house ; 
 then it closed, and everything went on as before. Once 
 in my life I had obtained a slight glimpse of the same 
 sensation, and then, too, strangely enough, while swim- 
 ming, — in the mightiest ocean-surge into which I had 
 ever dared plunge my mortal body. Keats hints at the 
 same sudden emotion, in a wild poem written among the 
 Scottish mountains. It was not the distinctive sensation 
 which drowning men are said to have, that spasmodic 
 passing in review tif one's whole personal history. I had 
 no well-defined anxiety, felt no fear, was moved to no 
 prayer, did not give a thought to home or friends ; only 
 it swept over me, as with a sudden tempest, that, if I 
 meant to get back to my own camp, I must keep my wits 
 about me. I must not dwell on any other alternative, 
 any more than a boy who climbs a precipice must look 
 down. Imagination had no business here. That way 
 madness lay. There was a shore somewhere before me, 
 and I must get to it, by the ordinary means, before the 
 ebb laid bare the flats, or swept me below the lower 
 bends of the stream. That was all. 
 
 Suddenly a light gleamed for an instant before me, as 
 if from a house in a grove of great trees upon a bank ; 
 and I knew that it came from the window of a ruined 
 plantation-building, where our most advanced outposts 
 had their head-quarters. The flash revealed to me 
 
164 ^ NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 every point of the situation. I saw at once where I 
 was, and how I got there : that the tide had turned 
 while I was swimming, and with a much briefer interval 
 of slack-water than I had been led to suppose, — that I 
 had been swept a good way down stream, and was far 
 beyond all possibility of regaining the point I had left. 
 Could I, however, retain my strength to swim one or two 
 hundred yards farther, of which I had no doubt, — and 
 if the water did not ebb too rapidly, of which I had more 
 fear, — then I was quite safe. Every stroke took me 
 more and more out of the power of the current, and 
 there might even be an eddy to aid me. I could not af- 
 ford to be carried down much farther, for there the chan- 
 nel made a sweep toward the wrong side of the river ; 
 but there was now no reason why I should not reach 
 land. I could dismiss all fear, indeed, except that of 
 being fired upon by our own sentinels, many of whom 
 were then new recruits, and with the usual disposition to 
 shoot first and investigate afterwards. 
 
 I found myself swimming in shallow and shallower 
 water, and the flats seemed almost bare when I neared 
 the shore, where the great gnarled branches of the live- 
 oaks hung far over the muddy bank. Floating on my 
 back for noiselessness, I paddled rapidly in with my 
 hands, expecting momentarily to hear the challenge of 
 the picket, and the ominous click so likely to follow. I 
 knew that some one should be pacing to and fro, along 
 that beat, but could not tell at what point he might be at 
 that precise moment. Besides, there was a faint possi- 
 bility that some chatty corporal might have carried the 
 news of my bath thus far along the line, and they might 
 be partially prepared for this unexpected visitor. Sud- 
 denly, like another flash, came the quick, quaint chal- 
 lenge, — 
 
A NIGHT JN THE WATER. 1G5 
 
 "Halt! Who'sgodar?" 
 
 " F-f-friend with the c-c-countersign," retorted I, with 
 chilly, but conciliatory energy, rising at full length out of 
 the shsdlow water, to show myself a man and a brother. 
 
 " Ac-vance, friend, and give de countersign," responded 
 the literal soldier, who at such a time would have accosted 
 a spirit of light or goblin damned with no other for- 
 mula. 
 
 I advanced and gave it, he recognizing my voice at 
 once. And then and there, as I stood, a dripping ghost, 
 beneath the trees before him, the unconscionable fellow, 
 wishing to exhaust upon me the utmost resources of mil- 
 itary hospitality, deliberately presented arms ! 
 
 Now a soldier on picket, or at night, usually presents 
 arms to nobody ; but a sentinel on camp-guard by day is 
 expected to perform that ceremony to anything in human 
 shape that has two rows of buttons. Here was a human 
 shape, but so utterly buttonless that it exhibited not even 
 a rag to which a button could by any earthly possibility 
 be appended, buttonless even potentially ; and my blame- 
 less Ethiopian presented arms to even this. Where, 
 then, are the theories of Carlyle, the axioms of " Sartor 
 Resarfus," the inability of humanity to conceive " a naked 
 Duke of Windlestraw addressing a naked House of 
 Lords " ? Cautioning my adherent, however, as to the 
 proprieties suitable for such occasions thenceforward, I 
 left him watching the river with renewed vigilance, and 
 awaiting the next merman who should report himself. 
 
 Finding my way to the building, I hunted up a ser- 
 geant and a blanket, got a fire kindled in the dismantled 
 chimney, and sat before it in my single garment, like a 
 moist but undismayed Choctaw, until horse and clothing 
 could be brought round from the causeway. It seemed 
 
166 A NIGHT IN THE WATER. 
 
 strange that the morning had not yet dawned, after the 
 uncounted periods that must have elapsed ; but when the 
 wardrobe arrived I looked at my watch and found that 
 my night in the water had lasted precisely one hour. 
 
 Galloping home, I turned in with alacrity, and without 
 a drop of whiskey, and waked a few hours after in excel- 
 lent condition. The rapid changes of which that Depart- 
 ment has seen so many — and, perhaps, to so little pur- 
 pose — soon transferred us to a different scene. I have 
 been on other scouts since then, and by various processes, 
 but never with a zest so novel as was afforded by that 
 night's experience. The thing soon got wind in the regi- 
 ment, and led to only one ill consequence, so far as I 
 know. It rather suppressed a way I had of lecturing the 
 officers on the importance of reducing their personal bag- 
 gage to a minimum. They got a trick of congratulating 
 me, very respectfully, on the thoroughness with which 
 I had once conformed my practice to my precepts. 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 167 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 TIP THE EDISTO. 
 
 N reading military history, one finds the main interest 
 to lie, undoubtedly, in the great campaigns, where 
 a man, a regiment, a brigade, is but a pawn in the game. 
 But there is a charm also in the more free and adventur- 
 ous life of partisan warfare, where, if the total sphere be 
 humbler, yet the individual has more relative importance, 
 and the sense of action is more personal and keen. This 
 is the reason given by the eccentric Revolutionary bi- 
 ographer, "Weems, for writing the Life of Washington 
 first, and then that of Marion. And there were, certainly, 
 in the early adventures of the colored troops in the De- 
 partment of the South, some of the same elements of pic- 
 turesqueness that belonged to Marion's band, on the same 
 soil, with the added feature that the blacks were fighting 
 for their personal liberties, of which Marion had helped 
 to deprive them. 
 
 It is stated by Major-General Gillmore, in his " Siege 
 of Charleston," as one of the three points in his prelimi- 
 nary strategy, that an expedition was sent up the Edisfo 
 River to destroy a bridge on the Charleston and Savan- 
 nah Railway. As one of the early raids of the colored 
 troops, this expedition may deserve narration, though it 
 was, in a strategic point of view, a disappointment. It 
 has already been told, briefly and on the whole with 
 truth, by Greeley and others, but I will venture on a 
 more complete account. 
 
 The project dated back earlier than General Gill- 
 
168 UP THE EDISTO. 
 
 more's siege, and had originally no connection with that 
 movement. It had been formed by Captain Trowbridge 
 and myself in camp, and was based on facts learned from 
 the men. General Saxton and Colonel W. W. H. Da- 
 vis, the successive post-commanders, had both favored 
 it. It had been also approved by General Hunter, be- 
 fore his sudden removal, though he regarded the bridge 
 as a secondary affair, because there was another railway 
 communication between the two cities. But as my main 
 object was to obtain permission to go, I tried to make the 
 most of all results which might follow, while it was very 
 clear that the raid would harass and confuse the enemy, 
 and be the means of bringing away many of the slaves. 
 General Hunter had, therefore, accepted the project 
 mainly as a stroke for freedom and black recruits ; and 
 General Gillmore, because anything that looked toward 
 action found favor in his eyes, and because it would 
 be convenient to him at that time to effect a diversion, if 
 nothing more. 
 
 It must be remembered that, after the first capture of 
 Port Royal, the outlying plantations along the whole 
 Southern coast were abandoned, and the slaves with- 
 drawn into the interior. It was necessary to ascend 
 some river for thirty miles in order to reach the black 
 population at all. This ascent could only be made by 
 night, as it was a slow process, and the smoke of a steam- 
 boat could be seen for a great distance. The streams 
 were usually shallow, winding, and muddy, and the diffi- 
 culties of navigation were such as to require a full moon 
 and a flood tide. It was really no easy matter to bring 
 everything to bear, especially as every projected raid 
 must be kept a secret so far as possible. However, we 
 were now somewhat familiar with such undertakings. 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 169 
 
 half milifary, half naval, and the thing to be done on the 
 Edisto was precisely what we had proved to he prac- 
 ticable on the St Mary's and the St. John's, — to di-op 
 anchor before the enemy's door some morning at day- 
 break, without his having dreamed of our approach. 
 
 Since a raid made by Colonel Montgomery up the 
 Combahee, two months before, the vigilance of the Rebels 
 had increased. But we had information that upon the 
 South Edisto, or Pon-Pon River, the rice plantations 
 were still being actively worked by a large number of 
 negroes, in reliance on obstructions placed at the mouth 
 of that narrow stream, where it joins the main river, 
 some twenty miles from the coast. This point was known 
 to be further protected by a battery of unknown strength, 
 at Wiltown Bluff, a commanding and defensible situation. 
 The obstructions consisted of a row of strong wooden 
 piles across the river ; but we convinced ourselves that 
 these must now be much decayed, and that Captain 
 Trowbridge, an excellent engineer officer, could remove 
 them by the proper apparatus. Our proposition was to 
 man the John Adams, an armed ferry-boat, which had 
 before done us much service, — and which has now re- 
 verted to the pursuits of peace, it is said, on the East 
 Boston line, — to ascend in this to "Wiltown Bluff, silence 
 the battery, and clear a passage through the obstructions. 
 Leaving the John Adams to protect this point, we could 
 then ascend the smaller stream with two light-draft boats, 
 and perhaps burn the bridge, wliich was ten miles higher, 
 before the enemy could bring sufficient force to make our 
 position at "Wiltown Bluff untenable. 
 
 The expedition was organized essentially upon this 
 plan. The smaller boats were the Enoch Dean, — a 
 river steamboat, which carried a ten-pound Parrott gun, 
 8 
 
170 UP THE EDI ST O. 
 
 and a small howitzer, — and a little mosquito of a tug, 
 tbe Governor Milton, upon which, with the greatest 
 difficulty, we found room for two twelve-pound Arm- 
 strong guns, with their gunners, forming a section of the 
 First Connecticut Battery, under Lieutenant Clinton, 
 aided by a squad from my own regiment, under Captain 
 James. The John Adams carried, if I remember 
 rightly, two Parrott guns (of twenty and ten pounds 
 calibre) and a howitzer or two. The whole force of 
 men did not exceed two hundred and fifty. 
 
 We left Beaufort, S. C, on the afternoon of July 9th, 
 1863. In former narrations I have sufficiently described 
 the charm of a moonlight ascent into a hostile country, 
 upon an unknown stream, the dark and silent banks, the 
 rippling water, the wail of the reed-birds, the anxious 
 watch, the breathless listening, the veiled lights, the 
 whispered orders. To this was now to be added the 
 vexation of an insufficient pilotage, for our negro guide 
 knew only the upper river, and, as it finally proved, not 
 even that, while, to take us over the bar which ob- 
 structed the main stream, we must borrow a pilot from 
 Captain Dutch, whose gunboat blockaded that point. 
 This active naval officer, however, whose boat expedi- 
 tions had penetrated all the lower branches of those 
 rivers, could supply our want, and we borrowed from 
 him not only a pilot, but a surgeon, to replace our own, 
 who had been prevented by an accident from coming 
 with us. Thus accompanied, we steamed over the bar 
 in safety, had a peaceful ascent, passed the island of 
 Jehossee, — the fine estate of Governor Aiken, then 
 left undisturbed by both sides, — and fired our first shell 
 into the camp at Wiltown Bluff at four o'clock in the 
 morning. 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 171 
 
 The battery — whether fixed or movable we knew not 
 — met us with a promptness that proved very short- 
 lived. After three shots it was silent, but we could not 
 tell why. The bluff was wooded, and we could see but 
 little. The only course was to land, under cover of the 
 guns. As the firing ceased and the smoke cleared away, 
 I looked across the rice-fields which lay beneath the 
 bluff. The first sunbeams glowed upon their emerald 
 levels, and on the blossoming hedges along the rectangu- 
 lar dikes. What were those black dots which every- 
 where appeared ? Those moist meadows had become 
 alive with human heads, and along each narrow path 
 came a straggling file of men and women, all on a run for 
 the river-side. I went ashore with a boat-load of troops 
 at once. The landing was difficult and marshy. The as- 
 tonished negroes tugged us up the bank, and gazed on us 
 as if we had been Cortez and Columbus. They kept ar- 
 riving by land much faster than we could come by water ; 
 every moment increased the crowd, the jostling, the mu- 
 tual clinging, on that miry foolhold. What a scene it 
 was ! With the wild faces, eager figures, strange gar- 
 ments, it seemed, as one of the poor things reverently 
 suggested, " like notin' but de judgment day." Presently 
 they began to come from the houses also, with their little 
 bundles on their heads ; then with larger bundles. Old 
 women, trotting on the narrow paths, would kneel to 
 pray a little prayer, still balancing the bundle ; and then 
 would suddenly spring up, urged by the accumulating 
 procession behind, and would move on till irresistibly 
 compelled by thankfulness to dip down for another invo- 
 cation. Reaching us, every human being must grasp 
 our hands, amid exclamations of " Bress you, mas'r," 
 and " Bress de Lord," at the rate of four of the latter 
 
172 UP THE EDI ST 0. 
 
 ascriptions to one of the former. Women brought chil- 
 dren on their shoulders ; small black boys carried on 
 their backs little brothers equally inky, and, gravely de- 
 positing them, shook hands. Never had I seen human 
 beings so clad, or rather so unclad, in such amazing 
 squalidness and destitution of garments. I recall one 
 small urchin without a rag of clothing save the basque 
 waist of a lady's dress, bristling with whalebones, and 
 worn wrong side before, beneath which his smooth ebony 
 legs emerged like those of an ostrich from its plumage. 
 How weak is imagination, how cold is memory, that I 
 ever cease, for a day of my life, to see before me the 
 picture of that astounding scene ! 
 
 Yet at the time we were perforce a little impatient of 
 all this piety, protestation, and hand-pressing ; for the 
 vital thing was to ascertain what force had been stationed 
 at the bluff, and whether it was yet withdrawn. The 
 slaves, on the other hand, were too much absorbed in 
 their prospective freedom to aid us in taking any further 
 steps to secure it. Captain Trowbridge, who had by 
 this time landed at a different point, got quite into 
 despair over the seeming deafness of the people to all 
 questions. " How many soldiers are there on the bluff? " 
 he asked of the first-comer. 
 
 " Mas'r," said the man, stuttering terribly, " I c-c-c — " 
 
 " Tell me how many soldiers there are ! " roared 
 Trowbridge, in his mighty voice, and all but shaking the 
 poor old thing, in his thirst for information. 
 
 " O mas'r," recommenced in terror the incapacitated 
 witness, " I c-c-carpenter ! " holding up eagerly a little 
 stump of a hatchet, his sole treasure, as if his profession 
 ought to excuse him from all military opinions. 
 
 I wish that it were possible to present all this scene 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 173 
 
 from the point of view of the slaves themselves. It can 
 be most nearly done, perhaps, by quoting the description 
 given of a similar scene on the Combahee River, by a 
 very aged man, who had been brought down on the pre- 
 vious raid, already mentioned. I wrote it down in tent, 
 long after, while the old man recited the tale, with much 
 gesticulation, at the door ; and it is by far the best 
 glimpse I have ever had, through a negro's eyes, at these 
 wonderful birthdays of freedom. 
 
 " De people was all a hoein', mas'r,'' said the old man. 
 " Dey was a hoein' in the rice-field, when de gunboats 
 come. Den ebry man drap dem hoe, and leff de rice. 
 De mas'r he stand and call, ' Run to de wood for hide ! 
 Yankee come, sell you to Cuba ! run for hide ! ' Ebry 
 man he run, and, my God ! run all toder way ! 
 
 "Mas'r stand in de wood, peep, peep, faid for truss 
 IJafraid to trust]. He say, ' Run to de wood ! ' and 
 ebry man run by him, straight to de boat. 
 
 " De brack sojer so presumptious, dey come right 
 ashore, hold up dere head. Fus' ting I know, dere was 
 a barn, ten tousand bushel rough rice, all in a blaze, den 
 mas'r's great house, all cracklin' up de roof Did n't I 
 keer for see 'em blaze ? Lor, mas'r, did n't care notin' 
 at all, Twos gwine to de hoat." 
 
 Dore's Don Quixote could not surpass the sublime ab- 
 sorption in which the gaunt old man, with arm uplifted, 
 described this stage of affairs, till he ended in a shrewd 
 chuckle, worthy of Sancho Panza. Then he resumed. 
 
 " De brack sojers so presumptious ! " This he repeated 
 three times, slowly shaking his head in an ecstasy of ad- 
 miration. It flashed upon me that the apparition of a 
 black soldier must amaze those still in bondage, much 
 as a butterfly just from the chrysalis might astound his 
 
174 UP THE EDISTO. 
 
 fellow-grubs. I inwardly vowed that my soldiers, at 
 least, should be as " presumptions " as I could make 
 them. Then he went on. 
 
 " Ole woman and I go down to de boat ; den dey say 
 behind us, ' Rebels comin' ! Rebels comin' ! ' Ole wo- 
 man say, ' Come ahead, come plenty ahead ! ' I hab 
 notin' on but my shirt and pantaloon ; ole woman one 
 single frock he hab on, and one handkerchief on he head ; 
 I leflF all-two my blanket and run for de Rebel come, 
 and den dey did n't come, did n't truss for come. 
 
 " Ise eighty-eight year old, mas'r. My ole Mas'r 
 Lowndes keep all de ages in a big book, and when we 
 come to age ob sense we mark em down ebry year, so I 
 know. Too ole for come ? Mas'r joking. Neber too ole 
 for leave de land o' bondage. I old, but great good for 
 chil'en, gib tousand tank ebry day. Young people can 
 go through, force [forcibly], mas'r, but de ole folk mus' 
 go slow." 
 
 Such emotions as these, no doubt, were inspired by our 
 arrival, but we could only hear their hasty utterance in 
 passing ; our duty being, with the small force already 
 landed, to take possession of the bluiF. Ascending, with 
 proper precautions, the wooded hill, we soon found our- 
 selves in the deserted camp of a light battery, amid scat- 
 tered equipments and suggestions of a very unattractive 
 breakfast. As soon as possible, skirmishers were thrown 
 out through the woods to tlie farther edge of the bluff, 
 while a party searched the houses, finding the usual large 
 supply of furniture and pictures, — brought up for safety 
 from below, — but no soldiers. Captain Trowbridge then 
 got the John Adams beside the row of piles, and went to 
 work for their removal. 
 
 Again I had the exciting sensation of being within the 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 175 
 
 hostile lines, — the eager explorations, the doubts, the 
 watchfulness, the listening for every sound of coming 
 hoofs. Presently a horse's tread was heard in earnest, 
 but it was a squad of our own men bringing in two cap- 
 tured cavalry soldiers. One of these, a sturdy fellow, 
 submitted quietly to his lot, only begging that, whenever 
 we should evacuate the blufi", a note should be left behind 
 stating that he was a prisoner. The other, a very young 
 man, and a member of the " Rebel Troop," a sort of 
 Cadet corps among the Charleston youths, came to me in 
 great wrath, complaining that the corporal of our squad 
 had kicked him after he had surrendered. His air of 
 offended pride was very rueful, and it did indeed seem a 
 pathetic reversal of fortunes for the two races. To be 
 sure, the youth was a scion of one of the foremost fam- 
 ilies of South Carolina, and when I considered the wrongs 
 which the black race had encountered from those of his 
 blood, first and last, it seemed as if the most scrupulous 
 Recording Angel might tolerate one final kick to square 
 the account. But I reproved the corporal, who respect- 
 fully disclaimed the charge, and said the kick was an in- 
 cident of the scuffle. It certainly was not their habit 
 to show such poor malice ; they thought too well of them- 
 selves. 
 
 His demeanor seemed less lofty, but rather piteous, 
 when he implored me not to put him on board any vessel 
 which was to ascend the upper stream, and hinted, by 
 awful implications, the danger of such ascent. This 
 meant torpedoes, a peril which we treated, in those days, 
 wiih rather mistaken contempt. But we found none on 
 the Edisto, and it may be that it was only a foolish at- 
 tempt to alarm us. 
 
 Meanwhile, Trowbridge was toiling away at the row 
 
176 UP THE EDISTO. 
 
 of piles, which proved easier to draw out than to saw 
 asunder, either work being hard enough. It took far 
 longer than we had hoped, and we saw noon approach 
 and the tide rapidly fall, taking with it, inch by inch, our 
 hopes of effecting a surprise at the bridge. During this 
 time, and indeed all day, the detachments on shore, under 
 Captains Whitney and Sampson, were having occasional 
 skirmishes with the enemy, while the colored people were 
 swarming to the shore, or running to and fro like ants, 
 with the poor treasures of their houses. Our busy 
 Quartermaster, Mr. Bingham — who died afterwards from 
 the overwork of that sultry day — was transporting the 
 refugees on board the steamer, or hunting up bales of 
 cotton, or directing the burning of rice-houses, in accord- 
 ance with our ordersi No dwelHng-houses were destroyed 
 or plundered by our men, — Sherman's " bummers " not 
 having yet arrived, — though I asked no questions as to 
 what the plantation negroes might bring in their great 
 bundles. One piece of property, I must admit, seemed 
 a lawful capture, — a United States dress-sword, of the 
 old pattern, which had belonged to the Eebel general 
 who afterwards gave the order to bury Colonel Shaw 
 " with his niggers." That I have retained, not without 
 some satisfaction, to this day. 
 
 A passage having been cleared at last, and the tide 
 having turned by noon, we lost no time in attempting the 
 ascent, leaving the bluff to be held by the John Adams, 
 and by the small force on shore. We were scarcely 
 above the obstructions, however, when the little tug went 
 aground, and the Enoch Dean, ascending a mile farther, 
 had an encounter with a battery on the right, — perhaps 
 our old enemy, — and drove it back. Soon after, she 
 also ran aground, a misfortune of which our opponent 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 177 
 
 strangely took no advantage; and, on getting off, I 
 thought it best to drop down to the bluff again, as the 
 tide was still hopelessly low. None can tell, save those 
 who have tried them, the vexations of those muddy 
 Southern streams, navigable only during a few hours of 
 flood-tide. 
 
 After waiting an hour, the two small vessels again 
 tried the ascent. The enemy on the right had disap- 
 peared ; but we could now see, far off on our left, an- 
 other light battery moving parallel with the river, 
 apparently to meet us at some upper bend. But for 
 the present we were safe, with the low rice-fields on each 
 side of us ; and the scene was so peaceful, it seemed as 
 if all danger were done. For the first time, we saw in 
 South Carolina blossoming river-banks and low emerald 
 meadows, that seemed like New England. Everywhere 
 there were the same rectangular fields, smooth canals, 
 and bushy dikes. A few negroes stole out to us in dug- 
 outs, and breathlessly told us how others had been hur- 
 ried away by the overseers. We glided safely on, mile 
 after mile. The day was unutterably hot, but all else 
 seemed propitious. The men had their combustibles all 
 ready to fire the bridge, and our hopes were unbounded. 
 
 But by degrees the channel grew more tortuous and 
 difficult, and while the little Milton glided smoothly over 
 everything, the Enoch Dean, my own boat, repeatedly 
 grounded. On every occasion of especial need, too, 
 something went wrong in her machinery, — her engine 
 being constructed on some wholly new patent, of which, 
 I should hope, this trial would prove entirely sufficient. 
 The black pilot, who was not a soldier, grew more and 
 more bewildered, and declared that it was the channel, 
 not his brain, which had gone wrong ; the captain, a little 
 8* !■ 
 
178 UP THE EDISTO. 
 
 elderly man, sat wringing his hands in the pilot-box; 
 and the engineer appeared to be mingling his groans 
 with those of the diseased engine. Meanwhile I, in 
 equal ignorance of machinery and channel, had to give 
 orders only justified by minute acquaintance with both. 
 So I navigated on general principles, until they grounded 
 us on a mud-bank, just below a wooded point, and some 
 two miles from the bridge of our destination. It was 
 with a pang that I waved to Major Strong, who was on 
 the other side of the channel in a tug, not to risk ap- 
 proaching us, but to steam on and finish the work, if he 
 could. 
 
 Short was his triumph. Gliding round the point, he 
 found himself instantly engaged with a light battery of 
 four or six guns, doubtless the same we had seen in the 
 distance. The Milton was within two hundred and fifty 
 yards. The Connecticut men fought their guns well, 
 aided by the blacks, and it was exasperating for us to 
 hear the shots, while we could see nothing and do noth- 
 ing. The scanty ammunition of our bow gun was ex- 
 hausted, and the gun in the stern was useless, from the 
 position in which we lay. In vain we moved the men 
 from side to side, rocking the vessel, to dislodge it. The 
 heat was terrific that August afternoon ; I remember I 
 found myself constantly changing places, on the scorched 
 deck, to keep my feet from being blistered. At last the 
 ofiicer in charge of the gun, a hardy lumberman from 
 Maine, got the stern of the vessel so far round that he 
 obtained the range of the battery through the cabin win- 
 dows, " but it would be necessary," he coolly added, on 
 reporting to me this fact, " to shoot away the corner of 
 the cabin." I knew that this apartment was newly painted 
 and gilded, and the idol of the poor captain's heart; but 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 179 
 
 it was plain that even the thought of his own upholstery 
 could not make the poor soul more wretched than he 
 was. So I bade Captain Dolly blaze away, and thus we 
 took our hand in the little game, though at a sacrifice. 
 
 It was of no use. Down drifted our little consort 
 round the point, her engine disabled and her engineer 
 killed, as we afterwards found, though then we could 
 only look and wonder. Still pluckily firing, she floated 
 by upon the tide, which had now just turned ; and when, 
 with a last desperate effort, we got off, our engine had 
 one of its impracticable fits, and we could only follow her. 
 The day was waning, and all its range of possibility had 
 lain within the limits of that one tide. 
 
 All our previous expeditions had been so successful it 
 now seemed hard to turn back ; the river-banks and rice- 
 fields, so beautiful before, seemed only a vexation now. 
 But the swift current bore us on, and after our Parthian 
 shots had died away, a new discharge of artillery opened 
 upon us, from our first antagonist of the morning, which 
 stiU kept the other side of the stream. It had taken up 
 a strong position on another bluff, almost out of range 
 of the John Adams, but within easy range of us. The 
 sharpest contest of the day was before us. Happily the 
 engine and engineer were now behaving well, and we 
 were steering in a channel already traversed, and of 
 which the dangerous points were known. But we had a 
 long, straight reach of river before us, heading directly 
 toward the battery, which, having once got our range, 
 had only to keep it, while we could do nothing in return. 
 The Rebels certainly served their guns well. For the 
 first time I discovered that there were certain compen- 
 sating advantages in a slightly built craft, as compared 
 with one more substantial ; the missiles never lodged in 
 
180 UP THE EDISTO. 
 
 the vessel, but crashed through some thin partition as if 
 it were paper, to explode beyond us, or fall . harmless in 
 the water. Splintering, the chief source of wounds and 
 death in wooden ships, was thus entirely avoided; the 
 danger was that our machinery might be disabled, or 
 that shots might strike- below the water-line and sink us. 
 
 This, however, did not happen. Fifteen projectiles, 
 as we afterwards computed, passed through the vessel 
 or cut the rigging. Yet few casualties occurred, and 
 those instantly fatal. As my orderly stood leaning on a 
 comrade's shoulder, the head of the latter was shot off. 
 At last I myself felt a sudden blow in the side, as if from 
 some prize-fighter, doubling me up for a moment, while I 
 sank upon a seat. It proved afterwards to have been 
 produced by the grazing of a ball, which, without tearing 
 a garment, had yet made a large part of my side black 
 and blue, leaving a sensation of paralysis which made it 
 difficult to stand. Supporting myself on Captain Rog- 
 ers, I tried to comprehend what had happened, and I 
 remember being impressed by an odd feeling that I had 
 now got my share, and should henceforth be a great deal 
 safer than any of the rest. I am told that this often fol- 
 lows one's first experience of a wound. 
 
 But this immediate contest, sharp as it was, proved 
 brief; a turn in the river enabled us to use our stern gun, 
 and we soon glided into the comparative shelter of Wil- 
 town Bluff. There, however, we were to encounter the 
 danger of shipwreck, superadded to that of fight. When 
 the passage through the piles was first cleared, it had 
 been marked by stakes, lest the rising tide should cover 
 the remaining piles, and make it difficult to run the pas- 
 sage. But when we again reached it, the stakes had 
 somehow been knocked away, the piles were just cov- 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 181 
 
 ered by the swift current, and the little tug-boat was 
 aground upon them. She came off easily, however, with 
 our aid, and, when we in turn essayed the passage, we 
 grounded also, but more firmly. We getting off at last, 
 and making the passage, the tug again became lodged, 
 when nearly past danger, and aU our efforts proved 
 powerless to pull her through. I therefore dropped 
 down below, and sent the John Adams to her aid, while 
 I superintended the final recall of the pickets, and the 
 embarkation of the remaining refugees. 
 
 While thus engaged, I felt little solicitude about the 
 boats above. It was certain that the John Adams could 
 safely go close to the piles on the lower side, that she 
 was very strong, and that the other was very light. Still, 
 it was natural to cast some anxious glances up the river, 
 and it was with surprise that I presently saw a canoe 
 descending, which contained Major Strong. Coming on 
 board, he told me with some excitement that the tug 
 could not possibly be got off, and he wished for orders. 
 
 It was no time to consider whether it was not his 
 place to have given orders, instead of going half a mile 
 to seek them. I was by this time so far exhausted that 
 everything seemed to pass by me as by one in a dream ; 
 but I got into a boat, pushed up stream, met presently 
 the John Adams returning, and was informed by the offi- 
 cer in charge of the Connecticut battery that he had 
 abandoned the tug, and — worse news yet — that his 
 guns had been thrown overboard. It seemed to me 
 then, and has always seemed, that this sacrifice was 
 utterly needless, because, although the captain of the 
 John Adams had refused to risk his vessel by going near 
 enough to receive the guns, he should have been com- 
 pelled to do so. Though the thing was done witliout my 
 
182 UP THE EDI ST 0. 
 
 knowledge, and beyond my reach, yet, as commander of 
 the expedition, I was technically responsible. It was 
 hard to blame a lieutenant when his senior had shrunk 
 from a decision, and left him alone ; nor was it easy to 
 blame Major Strong, whom I knew to be a man of per- 
 sonal courage, though without much decision of character. 
 He was subsequently tried by court-martial and acquitted, 
 after which he resigned, and was lost at sea on his way 
 home. 
 
 The tug, being thus abandoned, must of course be 
 burned to prevent her falling into the enemy's hands. 
 Major Strong went with prompt fearlessness to do this, 
 at my order; after which he remained on the Enoch 
 Dean, and I went on board the John Adams, being com- 
 pelled to succumb at last, and transfer all remaining 
 responsibility to Captain Trowbridge. Exhausted as I 
 was, I could still observe, in a vague way, the scene 
 around me. Every available corner of the boat seemed 
 like some vast auction-room of second-hand goods. Great 
 piles of bedding and bundles lay on every side, with 
 black heads emerging and black forms reclining in every 
 stage of squalidness. Some seemed ill, or wounded, or 
 asleep, others were chattering eagerly among themselves, 
 singing, praying, or soliloquizing on joys to come. " Bress 
 de Lord," I heard one woman say, " I spec' I get salt 
 victual now, — notin' but fresh victual dese six months, 
 but Ise get salt victual now,'' — thus reversing, under 
 pressure of the salt-embargo, the usual anticipations of 
 voyagers. 
 
 Trowbridge told me, long after, that, on seeking a fan 
 for my benefit, he could find but one on board. That 
 was in the hands of a fat old " aunty," who had just em- 
 barked, and sat on an enormous bundle of her goods, in 
 
UP THE EDISTO. 183 
 
 everybody's way, fanning herself vehemently, and ejacu- 
 lating, as her gasping breath would permit, " Oh ! Do, 
 Jesus ! Oh ! Do, Jesus ! " when the captain abruptly 
 disarmed her of the fan, and left her continuing her 
 pious exercises. 
 
 Thus we glided down the river in the waning light. 
 Once more we encountered a battery, making five in all ; 
 I could hear the guns of the assailants, and could not 
 distinguish the explosion of their shells from the answer- 
 ing throb of our own guns. The kind Quartermaster 
 kept bringing me news of what occurred, like Rebecca 
 in Front-de-Boeuf's castle, but discreetly withholding 
 any actual casualties. Then all faded into safety and 
 sleep ; and we reached Beaufort in the morning, after 
 thirty-six hours of absence. A kind friend, who acted 
 in South Carolina a nobler part amid tragedies than in 
 any of her early stage triumphs, met us with an ambu- 
 lance at the wharf, and the prisoners, the wounded, and 
 the dead were duly attended. 
 
 The reader will not care for any personal record of 
 convalescence ; though, among the general military lauda- 
 tions of whiskey, it is worth while to say that one life 
 was saved,, in the opinion of my surgeons, by an habitual 
 abstinence from it, leaving no food for peritoneal inflam- 
 mation to feed upon. The able-bodied men who had 
 joined us were sent to aid General Gillmore in the 
 trenches, while their families were established in huts 
 and tents on St. Helena Island. A year after, greatly to 
 the delight of the regiment, in taking possession of a 
 battery which they Lad helped to capture on James Isl- 
 and, they found in their hands the selfsame guns which 
 they had seen thrown overboard from the Governor 
 Milton. They then felt that their account with the 
 
184 UP THE EDISTO. 
 
 enemy was squared, and could proceed to further opera- 
 tions. 
 
 Before the war, how great a thing seemed the rescue 
 of even one man from slavery ; and since the war has 
 emancipated all, how little seems the liberation of two 
 hundred ! But no one then knew how the contest might 
 end ; and when I think of that morning sunlight, those 
 emerald fields, those thronging numbers, the old women 
 with their prayers, and the little boys with their living 
 burdens, I know that the day was worth all it cost, and 
 more. 
 
THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 185 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 
 
 WE were in our winter camp on Port Koyal Island. 
 It was a lovely November morning, soft and 
 spring-like ; the mocking-birds were singing, and the 
 cotton-fields still white with fleecy pods. Morning drill 
 was over, the men were cleaning their guns and singing 
 very happily ; the officers were in their tents, reading 
 still more happily their letters just arrived from home. 
 Suddenly I heard a knock at my tent-door, and the 
 latch clicked. It was the only latch in camp, and I was 
 very proud of it, and the ofElcers always clicked it as 
 loudly as possible, in order to gratify my feelings. The 
 door opened, and the Quartermaster thrust in the most 
 beaming face I ever saw. 
 
 " Colonel," said he, " there are great news for the 
 regiment. My wife and baby are coming by the next 
 steamer ! " 
 
 " Baby ! " said I, in amazement. " Q. M., you are 
 beside yourself." (We always called the Quartermaster 
 Q. M. for shortness.) " There was a pass sent to your 
 wife, but nothing was ever said about a baby. Baby 
 indeed ! " 
 
 " But the baby was included in the pass," replied the 
 triumphant father-of-a-family. " You don't suppose my 
 wife would come down here without her baby ! Besides, 
 the pass itself permits her to bring necessary baggage, 
 and is not a baby six months old necessary baggage ? " 
 
 " But, my dear fellow," said I, rather anxiously, " how 
 
186 THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 
 
 can you make the little thing comfortable in a tent, 
 amidst these rigors of a South Carolina winter, when it 
 is uncomfortably hot for drill at noon, and ice forms by 
 your bedside at night ? " 
 
 " Trust me for that," said the delighted papa, and 
 went off whistling. I could hear him telling the same 
 news to three others, at least, before he got to his own 
 tent. 
 
 That day the preparations began, and soon his abode 
 was a wonder of comfort. There were posts and rafters, 
 and a raised floor, and a great chimney, and a door with 
 hinges, — every luxury except a latch, and that he could 
 not have, for mine was the last that could be purchased. 
 One of the regimental carpenters was employed to make a 
 cradle, and another to make a bedstead high enough for 
 the cradle to go under. Then there must be a bit of red 
 carpet beside the bedstead, and thus the progress of 
 splendor went on. The wife of one of the colored ser- 
 geants was engaged to act as nursery-maid. She was a 
 very respectable young woman ; the only objection to 
 her being that she smoked a pipe. But we thought that 
 perhaps Baby might not dislike tobacco ; and if she did, 
 she would have excellent opportunities to break the pipe 
 in pieces. 
 
 In due time the steamer arrived, and Baby and her 
 mother were among the passengers. The little recruit 
 was soon settled in her new cradle, and slept in it as if 
 she had never known any other. The sergeant's wife 
 soon had her on exhibition through the neighborhood, and 
 from that time forward she was quite a queen among us. 
 She had sweet blue eyes and pretty brown hair, with 
 round, dimpled cheeks, and that perfect dignity which is 
 so beautiful in a baby. She liardly ever cried, and was 
 
THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 187 
 
 not at all timid. She would go to anybody, and yet did 
 not encourage any romping from any but the most in- 
 timate friends. She always wore a warm long-sleeved 
 scarlet cloak with a hood, and in this costume was car- 
 ried or " toted," as the soldiers said, all about the camp. 
 At "guard-mounting" in the morning, when the men who 
 axe to go on guard duty for the day are drawn up to be 
 inspected, Baby was always there, to help inspect them. 
 She did not say much, but she eyed them very closely, 
 and seemed fully to appreciate their bright buttons. 
 Then the Officer-of-the-Day, who appears at guard- 
 mounting with his sword and sash, and comes afterwards 
 to the Colonel's tent for orders, would come and speak to 
 Baby on his way, and receive her orders first. When 
 the time came for drill she was usually present to watch 
 the troops ; and when the drum beat for dinner she liked 
 to see the long row of men in each company march up 
 to the cook-house, in single file, each with tin cup and 
 plate. 
 
 During the day, in pleasant weather, she might be 
 seen in her nurse's arms, about the company streets, the 
 centre of an admiring circle, her scarlet costume looking 
 very pretty amidst the shining black cheeks and neat 
 blue uniforms of the soldiers. At " dress-parade," just 
 before sunset, she was always an attendant. As I stood 
 before the regiment, I could see the little spot of red out 
 of the corner of my eye, at one end of the long line of 
 men ; and I looked with so much interest for her small 
 person, that, instead of saying at the proper time, " At- 
 tention, Battalion ! Shoulder arms ! " — it is a wonder 
 that I did not say, " Shoulder babies ! " 
 
 Our little lady was very impartial, and distributed her 
 kind looks to everybody-. She had not the slightest 
 
188 THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 
 
 prejudice against color, and did not care in the least 
 whether her particular friends were black or white. Her 
 especial favorites, I think, were the drummer-hoys, who 
 were not my favorites by any means, for they were a 
 roguish set of scamps, and gave more trouble than all 
 the grown men in the regiment. I think Annie liked 
 them because they were small, and made a noise, and 
 had red caps like her hood, and red facings on their 
 jackets, and also because they occasionally stood on their 
 heads for her amusement. After dress-parade the whole 
 drum-corps would march to the great flag-staff, and wait 
 till just sunset-time, when they would beat " the retreat," 
 and then the flag would be hauled down, — a great 
 festival for Annie. Sometimes the Sergeant-Major 
 would wrap her in the great folds of the flag, after it 
 was taken down, and she would peep out very prettily 
 from amidst the stars and stripes, like a new-born God- 
 dess of Liberty. 
 
 About once a month, some inspecting officer was sent 
 to the camp by the general in command, to see to the 
 condition of everything in the regiment, from bayonets 
 to buttons. It was usually a long, and tiresome process, 
 and, when everything else was done, I used to tell the 
 ofBcer that I had one thing more for him to inspect, 
 which was peculiar to our regiment. Then I would 
 send for Baby to be exhibited, and I never saw an in- 
 specting ofBcer, old or young, who did not look pleased 
 at the sudden appearance of the little, fresh, smiling 
 creature, — a flower in the midst of war. And Annie 
 in her turn would look at them, with the true baby dig- 
 nity in her face, — that deep, earnest look which babies 
 often have, and which people think so wonderful when 
 Eaphael paints it, although they might often see just 
 
THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 189 
 
 the same expression in the faces of their own darlings at 
 home. 
 
 Meanwhile Annie seemed to like the camp style of 
 housekeeping very much. Her father's tent was double, 
 and he used the front apartment for his oflBce, and the 
 inner room for parlor and bedroom ; while the nurse had 
 a separate tent and wash-room behind all. I remember 
 that, the first time I went there in the evening, it was to 
 borrow some writing-paper; and while Baby's mother 
 was hunting for it in the front tent, I heard a great coo- 
 ing and murmuring in the inner room. I asked if Annie 
 was still awake, and her mother told me to go in and see. 
 Pushing aside the canvas door, I entered. No sign of 
 anybody was to be seen ; but a variety of soft little happy 
 noises seemed to come from some unseen corner. Mrs. 
 C came quietly in, puUed away the counterpane of her 
 own bed, and drew out the rough cradle where lay the 
 little damsel, perfectly happy, and wider awake than any- 
 thing but a baby possibly can be. She looked as if the 
 seclusion of a dozen family bedsteads would not be enough 
 to discourage her spirits, and I saw that camp life was 
 likely to suit her very well. 
 
 A tent can be kept very warm, for it is merely a house 
 with a thinner wall than usual ; and I do not think that 
 Baby felt the cold much more than if she had been at 
 home that winter. The great trouble is, that a tent- 
 chimney, not being built very high, is apt to smoke when 
 the wind is in a certain direction ; and when that hap- 
 pens it is hardly possible to stay inside. So we used to 
 build the chimneys of some tents on the east side, and 
 those of others on the west, and thus some of the tents 
 were always comfortable. I have seen Baby's mother 
 running in a hard rain, with little Eed-Eiding-Hood in 
 
190 THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 
 
 her arms, to take refuge with the Adjutant's wife, when 
 every other abode was full of smoke ; and I must admit 
 that there were one or two windy days that season when 
 nobody could really keep warm, and Annie had to remain 
 ignominiously in her cradle, with as many clothes on as 
 possible, for almost the whole time. 
 
 The Quartermaster's tent was very attractive to us in 
 the evening. I remember that once, on passing near it 
 after nightfall, I heard our Major's fine voice singing 
 Methodist hymns within, and Mrs. C.'s sweet tones chim- 
 ing in. So I peeped through the outer door. The fire 
 was burning very pleasantly in the inner tent, and the 
 scrap of new red carpet made the floor look quite magnif- 
 icent. The Major sat on a box, our surgeon on a stool ; 
 " Q. M." and his wife, and the Adjutant's wife, and one 
 of the captains, were all sitting on the bed, singing as 
 well as they knew how ; and the baby was under the 
 bed. Baby had retired for the night, was overshadowed, 
 suppressed, sat upon ; the singing went on, and she had 
 wandered away into her own land of dreams, nearer to 
 heaven, perhaps, than any pitch their voices could attain. 
 I went in, and joined the party. Presently the music 
 stopped, and another officer was sent for, to sing some 
 particular song. At this pause the invisible innocent 
 waked a little, and began to cluck and coo. 
 
 " It 's the kitten,'' exclaimed somebody. 
 
 " It 's my baby ! " exclaimed Mrs. C. triumphantly, in 
 that tone of unfailing personal pride which belongs to 
 young mothers. 
 
 The people all got up from the bed for a moment, 
 while Annie was pulled from beneath, wide awake and 
 placid as usual ; and she sat in one lap or another dur- 
 ing the rest of the concert, sometimes winking at the 
 
THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 191 
 
 candle, but usually listening to the songs, with a calm, 
 and critical expression, as if she could make as much 
 noise as any of them, whenever she saw fit to try. Not 
 a sound did she make, however, except one little soft 
 sneeze, which led to an immediate flood-tide of red shawl, 
 covering every part of her but the forehead. But I soon 
 hinted that the concert had better be ended, because I 
 knew from observation that the small damsel had care- 
 fully watched a regimental inspection and a brigade drill 
 on that day, and that an interval of repose was certainly 
 necessary. 
 
 Annie did not long remain the only baby in camp. 
 One day, on going out to the stables to look at a horse, 
 I heard a sound of baby-talk, addressed by some man to 
 a child near by, and, looking round the corner of a tent, 
 I saw that one of the hostlers had something black and 
 round, lying on the sloping side of a tent, with which he 
 was playing very eagerly. It proved to be his baby, a 
 plump, shiny thing, younger than Annie ; and I never 
 saw a merrier picture than the happy father frolicking 
 with his child, while the mother stood quietly by. This 
 was Baby Number Two, and she stayed in camp several 
 weeks, the two innocents meeting each other every day, 
 in the placid indifference that belonged to their years ; 
 both were happy little healthy things, and it never seemed 
 to cross their minds that there was any difference in their 
 complexions. As I said before, Annie was not troubled 
 by any prejudice in regard to color, nor do I suppose that 
 the other little maiden was. 
 
 Annie enjoyed the tent-life very much ; but when we 
 were sent out on picket soon after, she enjoyed it still 
 more. Our head-quarters were at a deserted plantation 
 house, with one large parlor, a dining-room, and a few 
 
192 THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 
 
 bedrooms. Baby's father and mother had a room up 
 stairs, with a stove whose pipe went straight out at the 
 window. ' This was quite comfortable, though half the 
 windows were broken, and there was no glass and no 
 glazier to mend them. The windows of the large parlor 
 were in much the same condition, though we had an im- 
 mense fireplace, where" we had a bright fire when- 
 ever it was cold, and always in the evening. The walls 
 of this room were very dirty, and it took our ladies sev- 
 eral days to cover all the unsightly places with wreaths 
 and hangings of evergreen. In this performance Baby 
 took an active part. Her duties consisted in sitting in a 
 great nest of evergreen, pulling and fingering the fragrant 
 leaves, and occasionally giving a little cry of glee when 
 she had accomplished some piece of decided mischief. 
 
 There was less entertainment to be found in the camp 
 itself at this time ; but the household at head-quarters 
 was larger than Baby had been accustomed to. We had 
 a great deal of company, moreover, and she had quite a 
 gay life of it. She usually made her appearance in the 
 large parlor soon after breakfast ; and to dance her for a 
 few moments in our arms was one of the first daily duties 
 of each one. Then the morning reports began to arrive 
 from the different outposts, — a mounted officer or cou- 
 rier coming in from each place, dismounting at the door, 
 and clattering in with jingling arms and spurs, each a 
 new excitement for Annie. She usually got some atten- 
 tion from any officer who came, receiving with her 
 wonted dignity any daring caress. When the messen- 
 gers had ceased to be interesting, there were always the 
 horses to look at, held or tethered under the trees beside 
 the sunny piazza. After the various couriers had been 
 received, other messengers would be despatched to the 
 
THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. I93 
 
 town, seven miles away, and Baby had all the excitement 
 of their mounting and departure. Her father was often 
 one of the riders, and would sometimes seize Annie for a 
 good-by kiss, place her on the saddle before him, gallop 
 her round the house once or twice, and then give her 
 back to her nurse's arms again. She was perfectly fear- 
 less, and such boisterous attentions never frightened her, 
 nor did they ever interfere with her sweet, infantine self- 
 possession. 
 
 After the riding-parties had gone, there was the piazza 
 still for entertainment, with a sentinel pacing up and 
 down before it ; but Annie did not enjoy the sentinel, 
 though his breastplate and buttons shone like gold, so 
 much as the hammock which always hung swinging be- 
 tween the pillars. It was a pretty hammock, with great 
 open meshes ; and she delighted to lie in it, and have the 
 netting closed above her, so that she could only be seen 
 through the apertures. I can see her now, the fresh 
 little rosy thing, in her blue and scarlet wrappings, with 
 one round and dimpled arm thrust forth through the net- 
 ting, and the other grasping an armful of blushing roses 
 and fragrant magnolias. She looked like those pretty 
 French bas-reliefs of Cupids imprisoned in baskets, and 
 peeping through. That hammock was a very useful 
 appendage ; it was a couch for us, a cradle for Baby, a 
 nest for the kittens ; and we had, moreover, a little hen, 
 which tried to roost there every night. 
 
 "When the mornings were colder, and the stove up 
 stairs smoked the wrong way, Baby was brought down 
 in a very incomplete state of toilet, and finished her 
 dressing by the great fire. We found her bare shoulders 
 very becoming, and she was very much interested in her 
 own little pink toes. After a very slow dressing, she 
 
194 THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 
 
 had a still slower breakfast out of a tin cup of wai-m 
 milk, of which she generally spilt a good deal, as she had 
 much to do in watching everybody who came into the 
 room, and seeing that there was no mischief done. Then 
 she would be placed on the floor, on our only piece of 
 carpet, and the kittens would be brought in for her to 
 play with. 
 
 We had, at different times, a variety of pets, of whom 
 Annie did not take much notice. Sometimes we had 
 young partridges, caught by the drummer-boys in trap- 
 cages. The children called them " Bob and Chloe," be- 
 cause the first notes of the male and female sound like 
 those names. One day I brought home an opossum, 
 with her blind bare little young clinging to the droll 
 pouch where their mothers keep them. Sometimes we 
 had pretty green lizards, their color darkening or deep- 
 ening, like that of chameleons, in light or shade. But 
 the only pets that took Baby's fancy were the kittens. 
 They perfectly delighted her, from the first moment she 
 saw them ; they were the only things younger than her- 
 self that she had ever beheld, and the only things softer 
 than themselves that her small hands had grasped. It 
 was astonishing to see how much the kittens would en- 
 dure from her. They could scarcely be touched by any 
 one else without mewing ; but when Annie seized one 
 by the head and the other by the tail, and rubbed them 
 violently together, they did not make a sound. I sup- 
 pose that a baby's grasp is really soft, even if it seems 
 ferocious, and so it gives less pain than one would think. 
 At any rate, the little animals had the best of it very 
 soon ; for they entirely outstripped Annie in learning to 
 walk, and they could soon scramble away beyond her 
 reach, while she sat in a sort of dumb despair, unable to 
 
THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. I95 
 
 comprehend why anything so much smaller than herself 
 should be so much nimbler. Meanwhile, the kittens 
 would sit up and look at her with the most provoking in- 
 difference, just out of arm's length, until some of us would 
 take pity on the young lady, and toss her furry play- 
 things back to her again. " Little baby," she learned to 
 call them ; and these were the very first words she 
 spoke. 
 
 Baby had evidently a natural turn for war, further cul- 
 tivated by an intimate knowledge of drills and parades. 
 The nearer she came to actual conflict the better she 
 seemed to like it, peaceful as her own little ways might 
 be. Twice, at least, while she was with us on picket, 
 we had alarms from the Rebel troops, who would bring 
 down cannon to the opposite side of the Ferry, about two 
 miles beyond us, and throw shot and shell over upon our 
 side. Then the officer at the Ferry would think that 
 there was to be an attack made, and couriers would be 
 sent, riding to and fro, and the men would all be called 
 to arms in a hurry, and the ladies at head-quarters would 
 all put on their best bonnets and come down stairs, and 
 the ambulance would be made ready to carry them to a 
 place of safety before the expected fight. On such occa- 
 sions Baby was in all her glory. She shouted with de- 
 light at being suddenly uncribbed and thrust into her 
 little scarlet cloak, and brought down stairs, at an utterly 
 unusual and improper hour, to a piazza with lights and 
 people and horses and general excitement. She crowed 
 and gurgled and made gestures with her little fists, and 
 screamed out what seemed to be her advice on the mili- 
 taiy situation, as freely as if she had been a newspaper 
 editor. Except that it was rather difficult to understand 
 her precise directions, I do not know but the whole Rebel 
 
196 THE BABY OF THE REGIMENT. 
 
 force might have been captured through her plans. And 
 at any rate, I should much rather obey her orders than 
 those of some generals whom I have known ; for she at 
 least meant no harm, and would lead one into no mis- 
 chief. 
 
 However, at last the danger, such as it was, would be 
 all over, and the ladies would be induced to go peace- 
 fully to bed again ; and Annie would retreat with them 
 to her ignoble cradle, very much disappointed, and look- 
 ing vainly back at the more martial scene below. The 
 next morning she would seem to have forgotten all about 
 it, and would spill her bread and milk by the fire as if 
 nothing had happened. 
 
 I suppose we hardly knew, at the time, how large a 
 part of the sunshine of our daily lives was contributed by 
 dear little Annie. Yet, when I now look back on that 
 pleasant Southern home, she seems as essential a part of 
 it as the mocking-birds or the magnolias, and I cannot 
 convince myself that in returning to it I should not find 
 her there. But Annie went back, with the spring, to her 
 Northern birthplace, and then passed away from this 
 earth before her little feet had fairly learned to tread its 
 paths ; and when I meet her next it must be in some 
 world where there is triumph without armies, and where 
 innocence is trained in scenes of peace. I know, how- 
 ever, that her little life, short as it seemed, was a blessing 
 to us all, giving a perpetual image of serenity and sweet- 
 ness, recalling the lovely atmosphere of far-off homes, 
 and holding us by unsuspected ties to whatsoever things 
 were pure. 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 197 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 . NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 r 1 1HE war brought to some of us, besides its direct 
 -'- experiences, many a strange f'ulfilmeut of dreamj. 
 of other daj'S. For instance, the present writer had been 
 a faithful student of the Scottish ballads, and had always 
 envied Sir Walter the delight of tracing them out amid 
 their own heather, and of writing them down piecemeal 
 from the lips of aged crones. It was a strange enjoy- 
 ment, therefore, to be suddenly brought into the midst 
 of a kindred world of unwritten songs, as simple and 
 indigenous as the Border Minstrelsy, more uniformly 
 plaintive, almost always more quaint, and often as essen- 
 tially poetic. 
 
 This interest was rather increased by the fact that I 
 had for many years heard of this class of songs under the 
 name of " Negro Spirituals," and had even heard some 
 of them sung by friends from South Carolina. I coulj 
 now gather on their own soil these strange plants, which 
 I had before seen as in museums alone. True, the indi- 
 vidual songs rarely coincided ; there was a line here, a 
 chorus there, — just enough to fix the class, but this was 
 unmistakable. It was not strange that they differed, 
 for the range seemed almost endless, and South Carolina, 
 Georgia, and Florida seemed to have nothing but the 
 generic character in common, until all were mingled in 
 the united stock of camp-melodies. 
 
 Often in the starlit evening I have returned from some 
 lonely ride by the swift river, or on the plover-haunted 
 
198 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 barrens, and, entering the camp, have silently approached 
 some glimmering fire, round which the dusky figures 
 moved in the rhythmical barbaric dance the negroes call 
 a "shout," chanting, often harshly, but always in the 
 most perfect time, some monotonous refrain. Writing 
 down in the darkness, as I best could, • — perhaps with 
 my hand in the safe covert of my pocket, — the words of 
 the song, I have afterwards carried it to my tent, like 
 some captured bird or insect, and then, after examination, 
 put it by. Or, summoning one of the men at some 
 period of leisure, — Corporal Robert Sutton, for instance, 
 whose iron memory held all the details of a song as if 
 it were a ford or a forest, — I have completed the new 
 specimen by supplying the absent parts. The music I . 
 could only retain by ear, and though the more common 
 strains were repeated often enough to fix their impres- 
 sion, there were others that occurred only once or twice. 
 
 The words will be here given, as nearly as possible, in 
 the original dialect ; and if the spelling seems sometimes 
 inconsistent, or the misspelling insufficient, it is because 
 I could get no nearer. I wished to avoid what seems to 
 me the only error of Lowell's " Biglow Papers " in re- 
 spect to dialect, — the occasional use of an extreme mis- 
 spelling, which merely confuses the eye, without taking 
 us any closer to the peculiarity of sound. 
 
 The favorite song in camp was the following, — sung 
 with no accompaniment but the measured clapping of 
 hands and the clatter of many feet. It was sung per- 
 haps twice as often as any other. This was partly due 
 to the fact that it properly consisted of a chorus alone, 
 with which the verses of other songs might be combined 
 at random. 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. I99 
 
 I. HOLD YOUR LIGHT. 
 
 " Hold yoTir light, Bnidder Eobert, — 
 Hold your light, 
 Hold yonr light on Canaan's shore. 
 
 " What make ole Satan for follow me so? 
 Satan ain't got uotiu' for do wid me. 
 
 Hold your light, 
 
 Hold your light, 
 Hold your light on Canaan's shore." 
 
 This would be sung for half an hour at a time, perhaps 
 each person present being named in turn. It seemed 
 the simplest primitive type of " spiritual." The next in 
 popularity was almost as elementary, and, like this, 
 named successively each one of the circle. It was, how- 
 ever, much more resounding and convivial in its music. 
 
 n. BOUND TO GO. 
 
 " Jordan River, I 'm bound to go. 
 Bound to go, bound to go, — 
 Jordan River, I 'm bound to go, 
 And bid 'em fare ye well. 
 
 " My Brudder Robert, I 'm bound to go, 
 Bound to go," &c. 
 
 " My Sister Lucy, I 'm bound to go. 
 Bound to go," &:c. 
 
 Sometimes it was " tink 'em " (think them) " fare ye 
 well." The ye was so detached that I thought at first 
 it was " very " or " vary well." 
 
 Another picturesque song, which seemed immensely 
 popular, was at first very bewildering to me. I could 
 not make out the first words of the chorus, and 
 called it the " Romandar," being reminded of some Eo- 
 
200 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 maic song which I had formerly heard. That association 
 quite fell in with the Orientalism of the new tent-life. 
 
 III. KOOM IN THEEE. 
 
 " 0, my mudder is gone ! my mudder is gone ! 
 My madder is gone into heaven, my Lord ! 
 
 I can't stay behind! 
 Dere 's room in dar, room in dar, 
 Eoom in dar, in de hearen, my Lord! 
 
 I can't stay behind ! 
 Can't stay behind, my dear, 
 
 I can't stay behind ! 
 
 " 0, my fader is gone ! " &c. 
 
 " 0, de angels are gone ! " &e. 
 
 " 0, 1 'se been on de road! I 'se been on de road! 
 I 'se been on de road into heaven, my Lord ! 
 
 I can't stay behind! 
 0, room in dar, room in dar, 
 Eoom in dar, in de heaven, my Lord ! 
 
 I can't stay behind! " 
 
 By this time every man within hearing, from oldest to 
 youngest, would be wriggling and shuffling, as if through 
 some magic piper's bewitchment ; for even those who at 
 first affected contemptuous indifference would be drawn 
 into the vortex erelong. 
 
 Next to these in popularity ranked a class of songs be- 
 longing emphatically to the Church Militant, and avail- 
 able for camp purposes with very little strain upon their 
 symbolism. This, for instance, had a true companion- 
 in-arms heartiness about it, not impaired by the feminine 
 invocation at the end. 
 
 IV. HAIL MAET. 
 
 " One more valiant soldier here. 
 One more valiant soldier here, 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 201 
 
 One more valiant soldier here, 
 
 To help me bear de cross. 
 hail, Mary, hail ! 
 
 Hail, Mai'y, hail! 
 Hail, Mary, hail ! 
 
 To help me bear de cross." 
 
 I fancied that the original reading might have heen 
 " soul," instead of " soldier," — with some other syllable 
 inserted to fill out the metre, — and that the " Hail, 
 Mary," might denote a Roman Catholic origin, as I had 
 several men from St. Augustine who held in a dim way 
 to that faith. It was a very ringing song, though not so 
 grandly jubilant as the next, which was really impres- 
 sive as the singers pealed it out, when marching or row- 
 ing or embarking. 
 
 V. MT AEMY CEOSS OVEK. 
 
 " My army cross over. 
 My army cross over, 
 0, Pharaoh's army drownded! 
 My army cross over. 
 
 " We '11 cross de mighty river. 
 
 My army cross over; 
 We '11 cross de river Jordan, 
 
 My army cross over; 
 We '11 cross de danger water. 
 
 My army cross over; 
 We '11 cross de mighty Myo, 
 
 My army cross over. ( Thrice.) 
 
 0, Pharaoh's army drownded ! 
 
 My army cross over." 
 
 I could get no explanation of the " mighty Myo," ex- 
 cept that one of the old men thought it meant the river 
 of death. Perhaps it is an African word. In the Cam- 
 eroon dialect, " Mawa " signifies " to die." 
 9* 
 
202 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 The next also has a military ring about it, and the 
 first line is well matched by the music. The rest is con- 
 glomerate, and one or two lines show a more Northern 
 origin. " Done " is a Virginia shibboleth, quite distinct 
 from the " been " which replaces it in South Carolina. 
 Yet one of their best choruses, without any fixed words, 
 was, " De bell done ringing," for which, in proper South 
 Carolina dialect, would have been substituted, " De bell 
 been a-ring." This refrain may have gone South with 
 our army. 
 
 ■ VI. EIDE IK, KIND SAYIOXJB. 
 
 " Kide in, kind SavioTir ! 
 
 No man can hinder me. 
 0, Jesus is a miglity man! 
 
 No man, &c. 
 We 're marching through Virgumy fields. 
 
 No man, &o. 
 0, Satan is a busy man, 
 
 No man, &c. 
 And he has his sword and shield. 
 
 No man, &c. 
 0, old Secesh done come and gone! 
 
 No man can hinder me." 
 
 Sometimes they substituted " hinder we," which was 
 more spicy to the ear, and more in keeping with the 
 usual head-over-heels arrangement of their pronouns. 
 
 Almost all their songs were thoroughly religious in 
 their tone, however quaint their expression, and were in 
 a minor key, both as to words and music. The attitude 
 is always the same, and, as a commentary on the life of 
 the race, is infinitely pathetic. Nothing but patience for 
 this life, — nothing but triumph in the next. Sometimes 
 the present predominates, sometimes the future ; but the 
 combination is always implied. In the following, for in- 
 stance, we hear simply the patience. 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 203 
 
 YII. THIS WORLD ALMOST DONE. 
 
 " Brudder, keep your lump trimmin' and a-bumin', 
 Keep your lamp trimmin' and a-tumin', 
 Keep your lamp trimmin' and a-burnin', 
 
 For dis -world most done. 
 So keep your lamp, &o. 
 
 Dis world most done." 
 
 But in the next, the final reward of patience is pro- 
 claimed as plaintively. 
 
 Tin. I WANT TO GO HOME. 
 
 " Dere 's no rain to wet you, 
 
 0, yes, I want to go home. 
 Dere 's no sun to bum you, 
 
 0, yes, I want to go home; 
 0, push along, believers, 
 
 0, yes, &c. 
 Dere 's no hard trials, 
 
 0, yes, &c. 
 Dere 's no whips a-craokin', 
 
 0, yes, &o. 
 My brudder on de wayside, 
 
 0, yes, &c. 
 0, push along, my brudder, 
 
 0, yes, &c. 
 Where dere 's no stormy weather, 
 
 0, yes, &c. 
 Dere 's no tribulation, 
 
 0, yes, &c. 
 
 This next was a boat-song, and timed well with the 
 tug of the oar. 
 
 IX. THE COMING DAT. 
 
 " I want to go to Canaan, 
 I want to go to Canaan, 
 I want to go to Canaan, 
 To meet 'em at de comin' day. 
 
204 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 0, remember, let me go to Canaan, ( Thrice.) 
 To meet 'em, &c. 
 
 brudder, let me go to Canaan, ( Thrice.) 
 To meet 'em, &c. 
 
 My bnidder, you — oh ! — remember, ( Tlirice.) 
 To meet 'em at de comin' day." 
 
 The following begins with a startling aiSrmation, yet 
 the last line quite outdoes the first. This, too, was a 
 capital boat-song. 
 
 X. ONE MOKE, RIVER. 
 
 " 0, Jordan bank was a great old bank, 
 
 Dere ain't but one more river to cross. 
 "We have some valiant soldier here, 
 
 Dere ain't, &c. 
 0, Jordan stream will never run dry, 
 
 Dere ain't, &c. 
 Dere 's a hill on my leff, and he catch on my right, 
 
 Dere ain't but one more river to cross." 
 
 I could get no explanation of this last riddle, except, 
 " Dat mean, if you go on de leff, go to 'struction, and if 
 you go on de riglit, go to God, for sure." 
 
 In others, more of spiritual conflict is implied, as in this 
 next. 
 
 XI. THE DYING LAMB ! 
 
 " I wants to go where Moses trod, - 
 
 de dying Lamb ! 
 For Moses gone to de promised land, 
 
 de dying Lamb ! 
 To drink from springs dat never run dry, 
 
 0, &c. 
 Cry my Lord ! 
 
 0,&c. 
 Before I '11 stay in hell one day, 
 
 0, &o. 
 
 1 'm in hopes to pray my sins away, 
 
 0, &o. 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 205 
 
 Cry my Lord ! 
 
 0, &c." 
 Brudder Moses promised for be dar too, 
 
 0, &c. 
 To drink from streams dat never rtin dry, 
 
 de dying Lamb ! " 
 
 In the next, the conflict is at its height, and the kirid 
 imagery of the Apocalypse is brought to bear. Tliis 
 book, with the books of Moses, constituted their Bible; 
 aU that lay between, even the narratives of the life of 
 Jesus, they hardly cared to read or to hear. 
 
 Xn. DOAVK IN THE YAIAMi. 
 
 " We 'U run and never tire, 
 We '11 run and never tire, 
 We '11 inin and never tire, 
 
 Jesus set poor sinners free. 
 Way down in de valley, 
 
 Who will rise and go with me ? 
 Tou 've heern talk of Jesus, 
 
 Who set poor simiers free. 
 
 " De lightniu' and de flashin' 
 De lightnin' and de flashin', 
 De lightnin' and de flashin', 
 Jesus set poor sinners free. 
 I can't stand the fire. ( Thrice.) 
 
 Jesus set poor sinners free, 
 De green trees a-flamin'. ( Thrice.) 
 Jesus set poor sinners free, 
 Way down in de valley, 
 
 Who will rise and go with me ? 
 You 've heern talk of Jesus 
 Who set poor sinners free." 
 
 " De valley " and " de lonesome valley " were familiar 
 words in their religious experience. To descend into 
 that region implied the same process with the " anxious- 
 seat" of the camp-meeting. When a young girl was 
 supposed to enter it, she bound a handkerchief by a pe- 
 
206 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 culiar knot over her head, and made it a point of honor 
 not to change a single garment till the day of her bap- 
 tism, so that she was sure of being in physical readiness 
 for the cleansing rite, whatever her spiritual mood might 
 be. More than once, in noticipg a damsel thus mysti- 
 cally kerchiefed, I have asked some dusky attendant its 
 meaning, and have received the unfailing answer, — 
 framed with their usual indifference to the genders of 
 pronouns, — " He in de lonesome valley, sa." 
 
 The next gives the same dramatic conflict, while its 
 detached and impersonal refrain gives it strikingly the 
 character of the Scotch and Scandinavian ballads. 
 
 Xin. CEY HOLT. 
 
 "Cry holy, holy! 
 
 Look at de people dat is bom of God. 
 And I run down de valley, and I run down to pray, 
 
 Says, look at de people dat is bom of God. 
 When I get dar, Cappen Satan was dar, 
 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 Says, young man, young man, dere 's no use for pray, 
 
 Says, look at, &o. 
 For Jesus is dead, and God gone away, 
 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 And I made him out a liar, and I "went my way, 
 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 Sing holy, holy ! 
 
 " 0, Mary was a woman, and he had a one Son, 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 And de Jews and de Eomans had him hung, 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 Cry holy, holy ! 
 
 " And I tell you, sinner, yon had better had pray, 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 For hell is a dark and dismal place, 
 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 And I tell you, sinner, and I would n't go dar ! 
 Says, look at, &c. 
 Cry holy, holy! " 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 207 
 
 Here is an infinitely quaint description of the length 
 of the heavenly road : — 
 
 xrv. o'er the crossing. 
 
 " Yonder 's my old mudder, 
 
 Been a-waggin' at de hill so long. 
 It 's about time she '11 cross over; 
 
 Get home bimehy. 
 Keep prayin', I do believe 
 
 We 're a loug time waggin' o'er de crossin'. 
 Keep prayin', I do believe 
 
 We '11 get home to heaven bimeby. 
 
 " Hear dat monrnfnl thunder 
 
 Roll from door to door, 
 Calling home God's children; 
 
 Get home bimeby. 
 Little chil'en, I do believe 
 
 We 're a long time, &c. 
 Little cliil'en, I do believe 
 
 We '11 get home, &o. 
 
 " See dat forked lightnin' 
 
 Flash from tree to tree, 
 CaJlin' home God's chil'en; 
 
 Get home bimeby. 
 True believer, I do believe 
 
 We 're a long time, &o. 
 brudders, I do believe, 
 
 We '11 get home to heaven bimeby." 
 
 One of the most singular pictures of future joys, and 
 with a fine flavor of hospitality about it, was this : — 
 
 XV. WALK 'em easy. 
 
 " 0, walk 'em easy roimd de heaven, 
 Walk 'em easy round de heaven, 
 Walk 'em easy round de heaven, 
 
 Dat all de people may join de band. 
 Walk 'em easy round de heaven. ( Thrice.) 
 0, shout glory tUl 'em join dat band! " 
 
208 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 The chorus was usually the greater part of the song, 
 and often came in paradoxically, thus : — 
 
 XTI. YES, LORD. 
 
 " 0, must I be like cle foolisli mans ? 
 
 yes, Lord ! 
 Will build de house on de sandy hill. 
 
 yes, Lord ! 
 I 'U build my house on Zion hiD, 
 
 yes, Lord! 
 No wind nor rain can blow me down, 
 
 Oyes, Lord!" 
 
 The next is very graceful and lyrical, and with more 
 variety of rhythm than usual : — 
 
 XVIL BOW LOW, MARY. 
 
 " Bow low, Mary, bow low, Martha, 
 
 For Jesus come and look de door. 
 
 And cai'ry de keys away. * 
 
 Sail, sail, orer yonder, 
 And view de promised land. 
 
 For Jesus come, &c. 
 Weep, Mary, bow low, Martha, 
 
 For Jesus come, &c. 
 Sail, sail, my true believer; 
 Sail, sail, over yonder; 
 Mary, bow low, Martha, bow low. 
 
 For Jesus come and lock de door 
 
 And carry de keys away." 
 
 But of all the " spirituals " that which surprised rae 
 the most, I think, — perhaps because it was that in which 
 external nature furnished the images most directly, — 
 was this. With all my experience of their ideal ways 
 of speech, I was startled when first I came on such a 
 flower of poetry in that dark soil. 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 209 
 
 XVIII. I KNOW MOON-EISE. 
 
 " I know moon-rise, I know star-rise, 
 
 Lay dis body down. 
 I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight, 
 
 To lay dis body down. 
 I 'U walk in de graveyard, I '11 walk throngh de graTeyard, 
 
 To lay dis body down. 
 I 'n lie in de grave and stretch oat my arms ; 
 
 Lay dis body down. 
 I go to de jndgment in de evenin' of de day. 
 
 When I lay dis body down ; 
 And my sonl and your soul will meet in de day 
 
 When I lay dis body down." 
 
 " I '11 lie in de gi-ave and stretch out my arms." Never, 
 it seems to me, since man first lived and suffered, was 
 his infinite longing for peace uttered more plaintively 
 than in that line. 
 
 The next is one of the wildest and most striking of 
 the whole series : there is a mystical effect and a passion- 
 ate striving throughout the whole. The Scriptural strug- 
 gle between Jacob and the angel, which is only dimly 
 expressed in the words, seems all uttered in the music. 
 I think it impressed my imagination more powerfully 
 than any other of these songs. 
 
 XIX. WRESTLING JACOB. 
 
 " wrestlin' Jacob, Jacob, day 's a-breakin'; 
 I wiD not let thee go ! 
 
 wrestlin' Jacob, Jacob, day 's a-hreakin' ; 
 
 He will not let me go ! 
 0, 1 hold my bmdder wid a tremblin' hand; 
 I would not let him go ! 
 
 1 hold my sister wid a tremblin' hand; 
 
 I would not let her go ! 
 
 " 0, Jacob do hang from a tremblin' limb. 
 He would not let him go ! 
 
210 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 0, Jacob do hang from a tremblin' limb ; 
 
 De Lord will bless my soul. 
 wrestlin' Jacob, Jacob," &c. 
 
 Of " occasional hymns," properly so called, I noticed 
 but one, a funeral hymn for an infant, which is sung 
 plaintively over and over, without variety of words. 
 
 XX. THE BABY GONE HOME. 
 
 " De little baby gone home, 
 De little baby gone home, 
 De little baby gone along, 
 
 For to climb up Jacob's ladder. 
 And I wish I 'd been dar, 
 I wish I 'd been dar, 
 I wish I 'd been dar, my Lord, 
 
 For to climb up Jacob's ladder." 
 
 Still simpler is this, which is yet quite sweet and 
 
 touching. 
 
 XXI. JESUS WITH US. 
 
 " He have been wid us, Jesus, 
 He still wid us, Jesus, 
 He will be wid us, Jesus, 
 Be wid us to the end." 
 
 The next seemed to be a favorite about Christmas 
 time, when meditations on " de roUin' year" were fre- 
 quent among them. 
 
 XXII. LORD, EEMEMBER ME. 
 
 " do, Lord, remember me ! 
 do, Lord, remember me ! 
 0, do remember me, until de year roU round! 
 Do, Lord, remember me ! 
 
 " If you want to die like Jesus died, 
 Lay in de grave, 
 Tou would fold your arms and close your eyes 
 And die wid a free good will. 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 211 
 
 " For Death, is a simple ting, 
 And lie go from door to door, 
 And he knock down some, and he cripple up some, 
 And he leave some here to pray. 
 
 " do. Lord, remember me I 
 do. Lord, remember me ! 
 My old fader 's gone till de year roll round; 
 Do, Lord, remember me ! " 
 
 The next was sung in such an operatic and rollicking 
 ■way that it was quite hard to fancy it a religious per- 
 formance, which, however, it was. I heard it but once. 
 
 XXin. EARLY IN THE MOENING. 
 
 *' I meet little Eosa early in de momin*, 
 O Jerusalem ! early in de mornin' ; 
 And I as her, How you do, my darter? 
 Jerusalem ! eai*]y in de momin'. 
 
 " I meet my mudder early in de momin',' 
 Jerusalem ! &c. 
 And I ax her. How you do, my mudder? 
 Jerusalem ! &c. 
 
 " I meet Brudder Robert early in de momin', 
 Jerusalem ! &c. 
 And I ax him, How you do, my sonny? 
 Jerusalem ! &c. 
 
 " I meet Tittawisa early in de momin", 
 Jerusalem ! &o. 
 And I ax her. How you do, my darter? 
 Jerusalem! " &o. 
 
 " Tittawisa " means " Sister Louisa." In songs of this 
 class the name of every person present successively 
 appears. 
 
 Their best marching song, and one which was invalu- 
 able to lift their feet along, as they expressed it, was the 
 following. There was a kind of spring and lilt to it, 
 quite indescribable by words. 
 
212 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 XXIV. GO IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 " Jesus call you. Go in de wilderness, 
 
 Go in de wilderness, go iu de wUdemess, 
 
 Jesus call you. Go in de wilderness 
 To wait upon de Lord. 
 
 Go wait upon de Lord, 
 
 Go wait upon de Lord, 
 
 Go wait upon de Lord, my God, 
 He take away de sins of de world. 
 
 " Jesus a-waitin'. Go in de wilderness, 
 Go, &c. 
 All dem chiren go in de wilderness 
 To wait upon de Lord." 
 
 The next was one of those which I had heard in boy- 
 ish days, brought North from Charleston. But the chorus 
 alone was identical ; the words were mainly different, and 
 those here given are quaint enough. 
 
 XXV. BLOW TOUR TRUMPET, GABRIEL. 
 
 " 0, blow your trumpet, Gabriel, 
 Blow your trumpet louder; 
 And I want dat trumpet to blow me home 
 To my new Jerusalem. 
 
 " De prettiest ting dat ever I done 
 Was to serve de Lord when I was young. 
 So blow your tmmpet, Gabriel, &ic. 
 
 " 0, Satan is a liar, and he conjure too. 
 And if you don't mind, he '11 conjure yon. 
 So blow your trumpet, Gabriel, &c. 
 
 " 0, 1 was lost in de wilderness, 
 King Jesus hand me de candle down. 
 So blow your trumpet, Gabriel," &o. 
 
 The following contains one of those odd transforma- 
 tions of proper names with which their Scriptural cita- 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 213 
 
 tions were often enriched. It rivals their text, " Paul 
 may plant, and may polish wid water," which I have 
 elsewhere quoted, and in which the sainted ApoUos would 
 hardly have recognized himself. 
 
 XXVI. IS THE MOENESrO. 
 
 " In de mornin', 
 In de mornin', 
 Chfl'en ? Yes, my Lord ! 
 
 Don't you hear de trumpet sound? 
 If I had a-died when I was young, 
 I never would had de race for run. 
 Don't you hear de trumpet sound? 
 
 " Sam and Peter was fishin' in de sea, 
 And dey drop de net and follow my Lord. 
 Don't you hear de trumpet sound? 
 
 " Dere 's a silver spade for to dig my grave 
 And a golden chain for to let me down. 
 
 Don't you hear de trumpet sound ? 
 In de moiTiin', 
 In de mornin', 
 Chil'en ? Yes, my Lord ! 
 
 Don't you hear de trumpet sound 1 " 
 
 These golden and silver fancies remind one of the 
 King of Spain's daugliter in " Mother Goose," and the 
 golden apple, and the silver pear, which are doubtless 
 themselves but the vestiges of some simple early compo- 
 sition like this. The next has a humbler and more 
 domestic style of fancy. 
 
 XXVIL FARE YE "WELL. 
 
 " My true believers, fare ye well. 
 Fare ye well, fare ye well, 
 Fare j'e well, by de gi-ace of God, 
 For I 'm going home. 
 
,214 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 Massa Jesus give me a little broom 
 For to sweep my heart clean, 
 And I will try, by de grace of God, 
 To win my way home." 
 
 Among the songs not available for marching, but re- 
 quiring the concentrated enthusiasm of the camp, was 
 " The Ship of Zion," of which they had three wholly 
 distinct versions, all quite exuberant and tumultuous. 
 
 XXVIII. THE SHIP OF ZION. 
 
 " Come along, come along. 
 
 And let us go home, 
 0, glory, hallelujah? 
 Dis de ole ship o' Zion, 
 
 Halleloo! Halleloo! 
 Dis de ole ship o' Zion, 
 
 Hallelujah! 
 
 " She has landed many a tousand. 
 She can land as many more. 
 0, glory, hallelujah 1 &o. 
 
 " Do you tink she will be able 
 For to take us all home ? 
 0, glory, hallelujah! &o. 
 
 " You can tell 'em I 'm a comin', 
 
 Halleloo! Halleloo! 
 You can tell 'em I 'm a comin', 
 
 Hallelujah! 
 Come along, come along," &o. 
 
 XXIX. THE SHIP OF ZION. (Second version.) 
 
 " Dis de good ole ship o' Zion, 
 Dis de good olo ship o' Zion, 
 Dis de good ole ship o' Zion. 
 
 And she 's makin' for do Promise Land. 
 She hab angels for de sailors, ( Thrice.) 
 
 And she 's, &c. 
 And how you know dey's angels ? ( Thrice.) 
 And she 's, i&c. 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 215 
 
 Good Lord, shall I be one ? ( Thrice.) 
 And slie 's, &c. 
 
 " Dat ship is out a-sailin', sailin', sailin', 
 
 And she 's, &o. 
 She 's a-sailin' mighty steady, steady, steady, 
 
 And she 's, &o. 
 She 'II neither reel nor totter, totter, totter, 
 
 And she 's, &o. 
 She 's a-sailin' away cold Jordan, Jordaji, Jordan, 
 
 And she 's, &o. 
 King Jesus is de captain, captain, captain. 
 
 And she 's makin' for de Promise Land." 
 
 XXX. THE SHIP OF zioN. (Third version.) 
 
 '* De Gospel ship is sailin', 
 
 Hosann — sann. 
 0, Jesus is de captain, 
 
 Hosann — sann. 
 De angels are de sailors, 
 
 Hosann — sann. 
 0, is your bundle ready ? 
 
 Hosann — sann. 
 0, have j'ou got your ticket? 
 
 Hosann — sann." 
 
 This abbreviated chorus is given with unspeakable 
 unction. 
 
 The three just given are modifications of an old camp- 
 meeting melody ; and the same may be true of the three 
 following, although I cannot find them in the Methodist 
 lijmn-books. Each, however, has its characteristic modi- 
 fications, which make it well worth giving. I;i the sec- 
 ond verse of this next, for instance, " Saviour " evidently 
 has become " soldier." 
 
 XXXI. SWEET MUSIC. 
 
 " Sweet music in heaven, 
 Just beginning for to roll. 
 Don't you love God? 
 Glory, hallelujah ! 
 
216 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 " Yes, late I heard my soldier say, 
 Come, henvy soul, I am de way. 
 Don't you loTe God 1 
 Glory, hallelujah ! 
 
 " I '11 go and tell to sinners round 
 What a kind Saviour I have found. 
 Don't you love God ? 
 Glory, hallelujah! 
 
 " My grief my hurden long has been, 
 Because I was not cease from sin. 
 Don't you love God ? 
 Glory, hallelujah!" 
 
 XXXII. GOOD NEWS. 
 
 " 0, good news ! 0, good news ! 
 De angels brought de tidings down, 
 Just comin' from de trone. 
 
 " As grief from out my soul shall fly. 
 
 Just comin' from de trone ; 
 
 I '11 shout salvation when I die, 
 
 Good news, 0, good news! 
 
 Just comin' from de trone. 
 
 " Lord, I want to go to heaven when I die, 
 Good news, 0, good news! &c. 
 
 " De white folks call us a noisy crew. 
 Good news, 0, good news! 
 But dis I know, we are happy too. 
 Just comin' from de trone." 
 
 XXXIII. THE HEAVENLY EOAD. 
 
 " You may talk of my name as much as you please, 
 And cany my name abroad, 
 But I really do believe I 'm a child of God 
 
 As I walk in de heavenly road. 
 
 0, won't you go wid me? ( Thrice.) 
 
 For to keep our garments clean. 
 
 " Satan is a mighty busy ole man, 
 And roll rocks in my way; 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 217 
 
 Bnt Jesns is my bosom friend, 
 
 And roll 'em out of de way. 
 0, won't 3'oit go wid me ? f Thrice.) ' 
 
 For to keep our garments clean. 
 
 " Come, my brudder, if you never did pray, 
 I hope you may pray to-night; 
 For I really believe I 'm a child of God 
 
 As I walk in de heavenly road. 
 0, won't you," &c. 
 
 Some of the songs had played an historic part during 
 the war. For singing the next, for instance, the negroes 
 had been put in jail in Georgetown, S. C, at the outbreak 
 of the Rebellion. " We '11 soon be free " was too dan- 
 gerous an assertion ; and though the chant was an old 
 one, it was no doubt sung with redoubled emphasis dur- 
 ing the new events. " De Lord will call us home," was 
 evidently thought to be a symbolical verse ; for, as a little 
 drummer-boy explained to me, showing all his white 
 teeth as he sat in the moonlight by the door of my tent, 
 " Dey tink de Lord mean for say de Yankees." 
 
 XXXIV. WE 'll soon be free. 
 
 " We '11 soon be free, 
 We '11 soon be free. 
 We 'II soon be free. 
 
 When de Lord will call us home. 
 My brudder, how long, 
 My brudder, how long. 
 My brudder, how long, 
 
 'Fore we done suiferin' here ? 
 It won't be long ( Thrice.) 
 
 •Fore de Lord will call us home. 
 We '11 walk de miry road ( Thrice.) 
 
 Where pleasure never dies. 
 We '11 wallc de golden street ( Thrice.) 
 
 Where pleasure never dies. 
 My brudder, how long ( Thrice.) 
 
 'Fore we done sufferin' here ? 
 10 
 
218 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 We '11 soon be free ( Thrice. ) 
 
 When Jesns sets me free. 
 We 'U fight for liberty ( Thrice.) 
 
 When de Lord will call us home." 
 
 The suspicion in this case was unfounded, but they had 
 another song to which the Rebellion had actually given 
 rise. This was composed by nobody knew whom, — 
 though it was the most recent, doubtless, of all these 
 " spirituals," — and had been sung in secret to avoid 
 detection. It is certainly plaintive enough. The peck 
 of corn and pint of salt were slavery's rations. 
 
 XXXV. MANY THOUSAND GO. 
 
 " No more peck o' corn for me, 
 No more, no more, — 
 No more peck o' corn for me, 
 Many tousand go. 
 
 " No more driver's lash for me, ( Twice.) 
 No more, &c. 
 
 " No more pint o' salt for me, ( Twice.) 
 No more, &c. 
 
 " No more hundred lash for me, ( Twice.) 
 No more, &c. 
 
 " No more mistress' call for me, 
 No more, no more, — 
 No more mistress' call for me. 
 Many tousand go." 
 
 Even of this last composition, however, we have only 
 the approximate date and know nothing of the mode of 
 composition. Allan Ramsay says of the Scotch songs, 
 that, no matter who made them, they were soon attributed 
 to the minister of the parish whence they sprang. And 
 I always wondered, about these, whether they had always 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 219 
 
 a conscious and definite origin in some leading mind, or 
 ■whether they grew by gradual accretion, in an almost 
 unconscious way. On this point I could get no informa- 
 tion, though I asked many questions, until at last, one 
 day when I was being rowed* across from Beaufort to 
 Ladies' Island, I found myself, with delight, on the actual 
 trail of a song. One of the oarsmen, a brisk young fel- 
 low, not a soldier, on being asked for his theory of the 
 matter, dropped out a coy confession. " Some good 
 sperituals," he said, " are start jess out o' curiosity. I 
 been a-raise a sing, myself, once." 
 
 My di-eam was fulfilled, and I had traced out, not the 
 poem alone, but the poet. I implored him to proceed. 
 
 " Once we boys,'' he said, " went for tote some rice 
 and de nigger-driver he keep a-callin' on us ; and I say, 
 ' O, de ole nigger-driver ! ' Den anudder said, ' Fust 
 ting my mammy tole me was, notin' so bad as nigger- 
 driver.' Den I made a sing, just puttin' a word, and den 
 anudder word." 
 
 Then he began singing, and the men, after listening a 
 moment, joined in the chorus, as if it were an old acquaint- 
 ance, though they evidently had never heard it before. 
 I saw how easily a new " sing '' took root among them. 
 
 XXXVI. THE DEIVEE. 
 
 " 0, de ole nigger-driver ! 
 
 0, gwine away ! 
 Fust ting my mammy tell me, 
 
 0, gwine away ! 
 Tell me 'bout de nigger-driver, 
 
 0, gwine away ! 
 Nigger-driver second devil, 
 
 0, gwine away 1 
 Best ting for do he driver, 
 
 0, gwine away ! 
 Knock he down and spoil he labor, 
 
 0, gwine away I " 
 
220 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 It will be observed that, although this song is quite 
 secular in its character, yet its author called it a " spir- 
 itual." I heard but two songs among them, at any time, 
 to which they would not, perhaps, have given this gen- 
 eric name. One of these consisted simply in the endless 
 repetition — after the manner of certain college songs — 
 of the mysterious line, — 
 
 " Rain fall and wet Becky Lawtou." 
 
 But who Becky Lawton was, and why she should or 
 should not be wet, and whether the dryness was a 
 reward or a penalty, none could say. I got the im- 
 pression that, in either case, the event was posthumous, 
 and that there was some tradition of grass not growing 
 over the grave of a sinner ; but even this was vague, 
 and all else vaguer. 
 
 The other song I heard but once, on a morning when 
 a squad of men came in from picket duty, and chanted 
 it in the most rousing way. It had been a stormy and 
 comfortless night, and the picket station was very ex- 
 posed. It still rained in the morning when I strolled 
 to the edge of the camp, looking out for the men, and 
 wondering how they had stood it. Presently they came 
 striding along the road, at a great pace, with their shining 
 rubber blankets worn as cloaks around them, the rain 
 streaming from these and from their equally shining 
 faces, which were almost all upon the broad grin, as they 
 pealed out this remarkable ditty : — 
 
 HAITGMAN JOHNNY. 
 
 " 0, day call me Hangman Johnny ! 
 0, ho! 0, ho! 
 But I never hang nobody, 
 0, hang, boys, hang! 
 
NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 221 
 
 O, dey call me Hangman Johnny ! 
 
 0, ho! 0, ho! 
 But we '11 all hang togedder, 
 
 0, hang, boys, hang! " 
 
 My presence apparently checked tfie performance of 
 another verse, beginning, " De buckra 'list for money," ap- 
 parently in reference to the controversy about the pay- 
 question, then just beginning, and to the more mercenary 
 aims they attributed to the white soldiers. But " Hang- 
 man Johnny " remained always a myth as inscrutable as 
 « Becky Lawton." 
 
 As they learned all their songs by ear, they often 
 strayed into wholly new versions, which sometimes be- 
 came popular, and entirely banished the others. This 
 was amusingly the case, for instance, with one phrase in 
 the popular camp-song of " Marching Along," which was 
 entirely new to them until our quartermaster taught it to 
 them, at my request. The words, " Gird on the armor," 
 were to them a stumbling-block, and no wonder, until 
 some ingenious ear substituted, " Guide on de army," 
 which was at once accepted, and became universal. 
 
 " We '11 guide on de army, and be marching along " 
 
 is now the established version on the Sea Islands. 
 
 These quaint religious songs were to the men more 
 than a source of relaxation ; they were a stimulus to 
 courage and a tie to heaven. I never overheard in camp 
 a profane or vulgar song. With the trifling exceptions 
 given, all had a religious motive, while the most secular 
 melody could not have been more exciting. A few 
 youths from Savannah, who were comparatively men of 
 the world, had learned some of the " Ethiopian Min- 
 strel " ditties, imported from the North. These took no 
 
222 NEGRO SPIRITUALS. 
 
 hold upon the mass ; and, on the other hand, they sang 
 reluctantly, even on Sunday, the long and short metres 
 of the hymn-books, always gladly yielding to the more 
 potent excitement of their own " spirituals." By these 
 they could sing themselves, as had their fathers before 
 them, out of the contemplation of their own low estate, 
 into the sublime scenery of the Apocalypse. I remem- 
 ber that this minor-keyed pathos used to seem to me 
 almost too sad to dwell upon, while slavery seemed 
 destined to last for generations ; but now that their pa- 
 tience has had its perfect work, history cannot afford to 
 lose this portion of its record. There is no parallel in- 
 stance of an oppressed race thus sustained by the relig- 
 ious sentiment alone. These songs are but the vocal 
 expression of the simplicity of their faith and the sub- 
 limity of their long resignation. 
 
LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 223 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 
 
 THE Edisto expedition cost me the health and strength 
 of several years. I could say, long after, in the 
 words of one of the men, " I 'se been a sickly person, 
 eber since de expeditious." Justice to a strong con- 
 stitution and good habits compels me, however, to say 
 that, up to the time of my injury, I was almost the only 
 officer in the regiment who had not once been off duty 
 from illness. But at last I had to yield, and went North 
 for a month. 
 
 We heard much said, during the war, of wounded 
 officers who stayed unreasonably long at home. I think 
 there were more instances of those who went back too 
 soon. Such at least was my case. On returning to the 
 regiment I found a great accumulation of unfinished 
 business ; every member of the field and stafif was pros- 
 trated by illness or absent on detailed service ; two com- 
 panies had been sent to Hilton Head on fatigue duty, 
 and kept there unexpectedly long : and there was a 
 visible demoralization among the rest, especially from 
 the fact that their pay had just been cut down, in viola- 
 tion of the express pledges of the government. A few 
 weeks of steady sway made all right again ; and during 
 those weeks I felt a perfect exhilaration of health, fol- 
 lowed by a month or two of complete prostration, when 
 the work was done. This passing, I returned to duty, 
 buoyed up by the fallacious hope that the winter months 
 would set me right again. 
 
224 LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 
 
 "We had a new camp on Port Royal Island, very 
 pleasantly situated, just out of Beaufort. It stretched 
 nearly to the edge of a shelving bluff, fringed with 
 pines and overlooking the river ; below the bluff was 
 a hard, narrow beach, where one might gallop a mile 
 and bathe at the farther end. "We could look up 
 and down the curving stream, and watch the few ves- 
 sels that came and went. Our first encampment had 
 been lower down that same river, and we felt at 
 home. 
 
 The new camp was named Camp Shaw, in honor of 
 the noble young officer who had lately fallen at Fort 
 "Wagner, under circumstances which had endeared him 
 to all the men. As it happened, they had never seen 
 him, nor was my regiment ever placed within immediate 
 reach of the' Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts. This I always 
 regretted, feeling very desirous to compare the military 
 qualities of the Northern and Southern blacks. As it 
 was, the Southern regiments with which the Massachu- 
 setts troops were brigaded were hardly a fair specimen 
 of their kind, having been raised chiefly by drafting, and, 
 for this and other causes, being afflicted with perpetual 
 discontent and desertion. 
 
 "We had, of course, looked forward with gi-eat interest 
 to the arrival of these new colored regiments, and I had 
 ridden in from the picket-station to see the Fifty-Fourth. 
 Apart from the peculiarity of its material, it was fresh 
 from my own State, and I had relatives and acquaint- 
 ances among its officers. Governor Andrew, who had 
 formed it, was an old friend, and had begged me, on de- 
 parture from Massachusetts, to keep him informed as to 
 our experiment. I had good reason to believe that my 
 reports had helped to prepare the way for this new bat- 
 
LIFE AT CAMP SHAW 225 
 
 talion, and I had sent him, at his request, some hints as 
 to its formation.* 
 
 In the streets of Beaufort I had met Colonel Shaw, 
 riding with his lieutenant-colonel and successor, Edward 
 Hallowell, and had gone back with them to share their 
 first meal in camp. I should have known Shaw any- 
 where by his resemblance to his kindred, nor did it fake 
 long to perceive that he shared their habitual truthful- 
 ness and courage. Moreover, he and Hallowell had 
 already got beyond the commonplaces of inexperience, 
 in regard to colored troops, and, for a wonder, asked only 
 sensible questions. For instance, he admitted the mere 
 matter of courage to be settled, as regarded the colored 
 
 * Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
 Executive Department, 
 
 Boston, February 5, 1S63. 
 To Col. T. W. Higginson, Commanding 1st Regt. S. C. Vols., 
 Port Royal Id., S. C. 
 CoLONiEL, — I am under obligations to you for your Tery interest- 
 ing letter of January 19tli, which I considered to be too important in 
 its testimony to the efficiency of colored troops to be allowed to re- 
 main hidden on my files. I therefore placed some portions of it in 
 the hands of Hon. Stephen M. Weld, of Jamaica Plain, for publica- 
 tion, and j^ou will find enclosed tlie newspaper slip from the " Jour- 
 nal " of February 3d, in which it appeared. During a recent visit at 
 Washington I have obtained permission from the Department of War 
 to enlist colored troops as part of the Massachusetts quota, and I am 
 about to begin to organize a colored infantry regiment, to be numbered 
 the " 54th Massachusetts Volunteers." 
 
 I shall be greatly obliged by any suggestions which your experience 
 may afford concerning it, and I am deteimined that it shall serve as a 
 model, in the high character of its ofiicers and the thorough discipline 
 of its men, for all subsequent corps of the like material. 
 
 Please present to General Saxtou the assur.ances of my respectful 
 regard. 
 
 I have the honor to be, respectfully and obediently yours, 
 
 JOHN A. ANDREW, 
 Governor of JUassachusetts. 
 10* O 
 
226 I'JFE AT CAMP SHAW. 
 
 troops, and his whole solicitude bore on this point, — 
 Would they do as • well in line-of-battle as they had 
 already done in more irregular service, and on picket 
 and guard duty ? Of this I had, of course, no doubt, 
 nor, I think, had he ; though I remember his saying some- 
 thing about the possibility of putting them between two 
 fires in case of need, and so cutting off their retreat. I 
 should never have thought of such a project, but I could 
 not have expected him to trust them as I did, until he 
 had been actually under fire with them. That, doubtless, 
 removed all his anxieties, if he really had any. 
 
 This interview had occurred on the 4th of June. 
 Shaw and his regiment had very soon been ordered to 
 Georgia, then to Morris Island ; Fort Wagner had been 
 assaulted, and he had been killed. Most of the men 
 knew about the circumstances of his death, and many of 
 them had subscribed towards a monument for him, — a 
 project which originated with General Saxton, and which 
 was finally embodied in the " Shaw School-house " at 
 Charleston. So it gave us all pleasure to name this 
 camp for him, as its predecessor had been named for 
 General Saxton. 
 
 The new camp was soon brought into good order. 
 The men had great ingenuity in building screens and 
 shelters of light poles, filled in with the gray moss from 
 the live-oaks. The officers had vestibules built in this 
 way, before all their tents ; the cooking-places were 
 walled round in the same fashion ; and some of the wide 
 company-streets had sheltered sidewalks down the whole 
 line of tents. Tlie sergeant on duty at the entrance of 
 the camp had a similar bower, and the architecture cul- 
 minated in a " Praise-House " for school and prayer- 
 meetings, some thirty feet in diameter. As for chimneys 
 
LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 227 
 
 and flooring, they were provided with that magic and 
 invisible facility which marks the second year of a regi- 
 ment's life. 
 
 That officer is happy who, besides a constitutional love 
 of adventure, lias also a love for the details of camp life, 
 and likes to bring them to perfection. Nothing but a 
 hen with her chickens about her can symbolize the content 
 I felt on getting my scattered companies together, after 
 some temporary separation on picket or fatigue duty. 
 Then we went to work upon the nest. The only way to 
 keep a camp in order is to set about everything as if you 
 expected to stay there forever ; if yOu stay, you get the 
 comfort of it ; if ordered away in twenty-four hours, 
 you forget all wasted labor in the excitement of depar- 
 ture. Thus viewed, a camp is a sort of model farm or 
 bit of landscape gardening ; there is always some small 
 improvement to be made, a trench, a well, more shade 
 against the sun, an increased vigilance in sweeping. 
 Then it is pleasant to take care of the men, to see them 
 happy, to hear them purr. 
 
 Then the duties of inspection and drill, suspended 
 during active service, resume their importance with a 
 month or two of quiet. It really costs unceasing labor 
 to keep a regiment in perfect condition and ready for 
 service. The work is made up of minute and endless 
 details, like a bird's pruning her feathers or a cat's lick- 
 ing her kittens into their proper toilet. Here are 
 eight hundred men, every one of whom, every Sunday 
 morning at farthest, must be perfectly soigne in all per- 
 sonal proprieties ; he must exhibit himself provided with 
 every article of clothing, buttons, shoe-strings, hooks and 
 eyes, company letter, regimental number, rifle, bayonet, 
 bayonet-scabbard, cap-pouch, cartridge-box, cartridge- 
 
228 LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 
 
 box belt, cartridge-box belt-plate, gun-sling, canteen, 
 haversack, knapsack, packed according to rule, forty cart- 
 ridges, forty percussion caps ; and every one of these arti- 
 cles polished to the highest brightness or blackness as 
 the case may be, and moreover hung or slung or tied or 
 carried in precisely the correct manner, 
 
 "What a vast and formidable housekeeping is here, my 
 patriotic sisters ! Consider, too, that every corner of 
 the camp is to be kept absolutely clean and ready for ex- 
 hibition at the shortest notice ; hospital, stables, guard- 
 house, cook-houses, company tents, must all be brought 
 to perfection, and every square inch of this " farm of 
 four acres " must look as smooth as an English lawn, 
 twice a day. All this, beside the discipline and the drill 
 and the regimental and company books, which must keep 
 rigid account of all these details ; consider all this, and 
 then wonder no more that officers and men rejoice in be- 
 ing ordered on active service, where a few strokes of the 
 pen will dispose of all this multiplicity of trappings as 
 " expended in action " or " lost in service.'' 
 
 For one, the longer I remained in service, the better I 
 appreciated the good sense of most of the regular army 
 niceties. True, these things must all vanish when the 
 time of action comes, but it is these things that have pre- 
 pared you for action. Of course, if you dwell on them 
 only, military life becomes millinery life alone. King- 
 lake says that the Russian Grand-Duke Constantine, con- 
 templating his beautiful toy-regiments, said that he 
 dreaded war, for he knew that it would spoil the troops. 
 The simple fact is, that a soldier is like the weapon he 
 carries ; service implies soiling, but you must have it 
 clean in advance, that when soiled it may be of some 
 use. 
 
LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 229 
 
 The men had that year a Christmas present which 
 they enjoyed to the utmost, — furnishing the detail, 
 every other day, for provost-guard duty in Beaufort. It 
 was the only military service which they had ever shared 
 within the town, and it moreover gave a sense of self- 
 respect to be keeping the peace of their own streets. I 
 enjoyed seeing them put on duty those mornings ; there 
 was such a twinkle of delight in their eyes, though their 
 features were immovable. As the " reliefs " went round, 
 posting the guard, under charge of a corporal, one could 
 watch the black sentinels successively dropped and the 
 whites picked up, — gradually changing the complexion, 
 like Lord Somebody's black stockings which became 
 white stockings, — till at last there was only a squad of 
 white soldiers obeying the " Support Arms ! Forward, 
 March ! " of a black corporal. 
 
 Then, when once posted, they glorified their office, 
 you may be sure. Discipline had grown rather free- 
 and-easy in the town about that time, and it is said 
 that the guard-house never was so full within human 
 memory as after their first tour of duty. I remem- 
 ber hearing that one young reprobate, son of a lead- 
 ing Northern philanthropist in those parts, was much ag- 
 grieved at being taken to the lock-up merely because he 
 was found drunk in the streets. " Why," said he, " the 
 white corporals always showed me the way home." 
 And I can testify that, after an evening party, some 
 weeks later, I heard with pleasure the officers asking 
 eagerly for the countersign. " Who has the counter- 
 sign ? " said they. " The darkeys are on guard to-night, 
 and we must look out for our lives." Even after a Christ- 
 mas party at General Saxton's, the guard at the door 
 very properly refused to let the ambulance be brought 
 
230 LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 
 
 round from the stable for the ladies because the driver 
 had not the countersign. 
 
 One of the sergeants of the guard, on one of these 
 occasions, made to one who questioned his authority an 
 answer that could hardly have been improved. The 
 questioner had just been arrested for some offence. 
 
 " Know what dat mean ? " said the indignant ser- 
 geant, pointing to the chevrons on his own sleeve. 
 " Dat mean Guv'ment." Volumes could not have said 
 more, and the victim collapsed. The thing soon settled 
 itself, and nobody remembered to notice whether the face 
 beside the musket of a sentinel were white or black. It 
 meant Government, all the same. 
 
 The men were also indulged with several raids on the 
 main-land, under the direction of Captain J. E. Bryant, 
 of the Eighth Maine, the most experienced scout in that 
 region, who was endeavoring to raise by enlistment a 
 regiment of colored troops. On one occasion Captains 
 Whitney and Heasley, with their companies, penetrated 
 nearly to Pocafaligo, capturing some pickets and bring- 
 ing away all the slaves of a plantation, — the latter 
 operation being entirely under the charge of Sergeant 
 Harry "Williams (Co. K), without the presence of any 
 white man. The whole command was attacked on the 
 return by a rebel force, which turned out to be what was 
 called in those regions a " dog-company," consisting of 
 mounted riflemen with half a dozen trained bloodhounds. 
 The men met these dogs with their bayonets, killed four 
 or five of their old tormentors with great relish, and 
 brought away the carcass of one. I had the creature 
 skinned, and sent the skin to New York to be stuffed 
 and mounted, meaning to exhibit it at the Sanitary Com- 
 mission Fair in Boston; but it spoiled on the passage. 
 
LIFE. AT CAMP SHAW. 231 
 
 These quadruped allies were not originally intended as 
 " dogs of war," but simply to detect fugitive slaves, and 
 the men were delighted at this confirmation of their tales 
 of dog-companies, which some of the officers had always 
 disbelieved. 
 
 Captain Bryant, during his scouting adventures, had 
 learned to outwit these bloodhounds, and used his skill 
 in eluding escape, during another expedition of the same 
 kind. He was sent with Captain Metcalf's company far 
 up the Combahee River to cut the telegraphic wires and 
 intercept despatches. Our adventurous chaplain and a 
 telegraphic operator went with the party. They ascend- 
 ed the river, cut the wires, and read the despatches for 
 an hour or two. Unfortunately, the attached wire was 
 too conspicuously hung, and was seen by a passenger on 
 the railway train in passing. The train was stopped and 
 a swift stampede followed ; a squad of cavalry was sent 
 in pursuit, and our chaplain, with Lieutenant Osborn, of 
 Bryant's projected regiment, were captured ; also one 
 private, — the first of our men who had ever been taken 
 prisoners. In spite of an agreement at Washington to 
 the contrary, our chaplain was held as prisoner of war, 
 the only spiritual adviser in uniform, so far as I know, 
 who had that honor. I do not know but his reverence 
 would have agreed with Scott's pirate-lieutenant, that it 
 was better to live as plain Jack Bunce than die as Fred- 
 erick Altamont; but I am very sure that he would 
 rather have been kept prisoner to the close of the war, 
 as a combatant, than have been released on parole as a 
 non-resistant. 
 
 After his return, I remember, he gave the most ani- 
 mated accounts of the whole adventure, of which he had 
 enjoyed every instant, from the first entrance on the 
 
232 LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 
 
 enemy's soil to the final capture. I suppose we should 
 all like to tap the telegraphic wires anywhere and read 
 our neighbor's messages, if we could only throw round 
 this process the dignity of a Sacred Cause. This was 
 what our good chaplain had done, with the same consci- 
 entious zest with which he had conducted his Sunday 
 foraging in Florida. But he told me that nothing so im- 
 pressed him on the whole trip as the sudden transforma- 
 tion in the black soldier who was taken prisoner with 
 him. The chaplain at once adopted the policy, natural 
 to him, of talking boldly and even defiantly to his cap- 
 tors, and commanding instead of beseeching. He pur- 
 sued the same policy always and gained by it, he thought. 
 But the negro adopted the diametrically opposite policy, 
 also congenial to his crushed race, — all the force seemed 
 to go out of him, and he surrendered himself like a tor- 
 toise to be kicked and trodden upon at their will. This 
 manly, well-trained soldier at once became a slave again, 
 asked no questions, and, if any were asked, made meek 
 and conciliatory answers. He did not know, nor did 
 any of us know, whether he would be treated as a pris- 
 oner of war, or shot, or sent to a rice-plantation. He 
 simply acted according to the traditions of his race, as 
 did the chaplain on his side. In the end the soldier's 
 cunning was vindicated by the result ; he escaped, and 
 rejoined us in six months, while the chaplain was impris- 
 oned for a year. 
 
 The men came back very much exhausted from this 
 expedition, and those who were in the chaplain's squad 
 narrowly escaped with their lives. One brave fellow 
 had actually not a morsel to eat for four days, and then 
 could keep nothing on his stomach for two days more, so 
 that his life was despaired of; and yet he brought all his 
 
LIFE AT CAMP SHAW. 233 
 
 equipments safe into camp. Some of tliese men had 
 led such wandering lives, in woods and swamps, that to 
 hunt them was lil^e hunting an otter ; shyness and con- 
 cealment had grown to be their second nature. 
 
 After these little episodes came two months of peace. 
 We were clean, comfortable, quiet, and consequently dis- 
 contented. It was therefore with eagerness that we 
 listened to a rumor of a new Florida expedition, in which 
 we might possibly take a hand. 
 
234 FLORIDA AGAIN f 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 FLOBIDA AGAIN? 
 
 LET me revert once more to my diary, for a speci- 
 men of the sharp changes and sudden disappoint- 
 ments that may come to troops in service. But for a 
 case or two of varioloid in the regiment, we should have 
 taken part in the battle of Olustee, and should have had 
 (as was reported) the right of the line. At any rate 
 we should have shared the hard knocks and the glory, 
 which were distributed pretty freely to the colored troops 
 then and there. The diary will give, better than can 
 any continuous narrative, our ups and downs of expecta- 
 tion in those days. 
 
 " Camp Shatv. Beaufokt, S. C, 
 Febraary 7, 1864. 
 
 " Great are the uncertainties of military orders ! Since 
 our recall from Jacksonville we have had no such sur- 
 prises as came to us on Wednesday night. It was our 
 third day of a new tour of duty at the picket station. 
 We had just got nicely settled, — men well tented, with 
 good floors, and in high spirits, officers at out-stations 
 
 all happy, Mrs. coming to stay with her husband, 
 
 we at head-quarters just in order, house cleaned, moss- 
 garlands up, camellias and jessamines in the tin wash- 
 basins, baby in bliss ; — our usual run of visitors had 
 just set in, two Beaufort captains and a surgeon had just 
 risen from a late dinner after a flag of truce. General 
 Saxton and his wife had driven away but an hour or two 
 before, we were all sitting about busy, with a great fire 
 blazing, Mrs. D. had just remarked triumphantly, ' Last 
 
FLORIDA AGAIN? 235 
 
 time I had but a mouthful here, and now I shall be here 
 three weeks ' — when — 
 
 " In dropped, like a bombshell, a despatch announcing 
 that we were to be relieved by the Eighth Maine, the 
 next morning, as General Gillmore had sent an order 
 that we should be ready for departure from Beaufort at 
 any moment. 
 
 " Conjectures, orders, packing, sending couriers to out- 
 stations, were the employments of the evening ; the men 
 received the news with cheers, and we all came in next 
 morning." 
 
 " February 11, lS6i. 
 
 " For three days we have watched the river, and 
 every little steamboat that comes up for coal brings out 
 spy-glasses and conjectures, and ' Dar 's de Fourf New 
 Hampshire,' — for when that comes, it is said, we go. 
 Meanwhile we hear stirring news from Florida, and the 
 men are very impatient to be oif. It is remarkable how 
 much more thoroughly they look at things as soldiers 
 than last year, and how much less as home-bound men, — 
 the South-Carolinians, I mean, for of course the Florid- 
 ians would naturally wish to go to Florida. 
 
 " But in every way I see the gradual change in them, 
 sometimes with a sigh, as parents watch their children 
 growing up and miss the droll speeches and the confiding 
 ignorance of childhood. Sometimes it comes over me 
 with a pang that they are growing more like white men, — 
 less naive and less grotesque. Still, I think there is 
 enough of it to last, and that their joyous buoyancy, at 
 least, will hold out while life does. 
 
 " As for our destination, our greatest fear is of finding 
 ourselves posted at Hilton Head and going no farther. 
 As a dashing Irish officer remarked the other day, ' If 
 
236 FLORIDA AGAIN f 
 
 we are ordered away anywhere, I hope it will be either 
 to go to Florida or else stay here ! ' " 
 
 " February 18, 1864. 
 
 " Sublime uncertainties again ! 
 
 " After being ordered in from picket, under marching 
 orders ; after the subsequent ten days of uncertainty ; 
 after watching every steamboat that came up the river, 
 to see if the Fourth New Hampshire was on board, — at 
 last the regiment came. 
 
 " Then followed another break ; there was no transpor- 
 tation to take us. At last a boat was notified. 
 
 " Then General Saxton, as anxious to keep us as was 
 the regiment to go, played his last card in small-pox, 
 telegraphing to department head-quarters that we had it 
 dangerously in the regiment. (N. B. All varioloid, light 
 at that, and besides, we always have it.) 
 
 " Then the order came to leave behind the sick and 
 those who had been peculiarly exposed, and embark the 
 rest next day. 
 
 " Great was the jubilee ! The men were up, I verily 
 bel'eve, by three in the morning, and by eight the whole 
 camp was demolished or put in wagons, and we were on 
 our way. The soldiers of the Fourth New Hampshire 
 swarmed in ; every board was swept away by them ; 
 there had been a time when colored boards (if I may 
 delicately so express myself) were repudiated by white 
 soldiers, but that epoch had long since passed. I gave 
 my new tent-frame, even the latch, to Colonel Bell ; 
 ditto Lieutenant-Colonel to Lieutenant-Colonel. 
 
 " Down we marched, the men singing ' John Brown ' 
 and ' Marching Along ' and ' Gwine in de Wilder- 
 ness ' ; women in tears and smiles lined the way. We 
 halted opposite the dear General's ; we cheered, he 
 
FLORIDA AGAIN f 237 
 
 speeched, I speeched, we all embraced symbolically, and 
 cheered some more. Then we went to work at the 
 ■wharf; vast wagon-loads of tents, rations, ordnance, and 
 what-not disappeared in the capacious maw of the 
 Delaware. In the midst of it all came riding down 
 General Saxton with a despatch from Hilton Head : — 
 
 " ' If you think the amount of small-pox in the First 
 South Carolina Volunteers sufficient, the order will be 
 countermanded.' 
 
 " ' What shall I say ? ' quoth the guilty General, per- 
 ceiving how preposterously too late the negotiation was 
 reopened. 
 
 " ' Say, sir ? ' quoth I. ' Say that we are on board 
 already and the small-pox left behind. Say we had only 
 thirteen cases, chiefly variolpid, and ten almost well.' 
 
 " Our blood was up with a tremendous morning's work 
 done, and, rather than turn back, we felt ready to hold 
 down Major-General Gillmore, commanding department, 
 and all his staff upon the wharf, and vaccinate them by 
 main force. 
 
 " So General Saxton rode away, and we worked away. 
 Just as the last wagon-load but one was being trans- 
 ferred to the omnivorous depths of the Delaware, — 
 which I should think would have been filled ten times 
 over with what we had put into it, — down rode the 
 General with a fiendish joy in his bright eyes and held 
 out a paper, — one of the familiar rescripts from head- 
 quarters. 
 
 " ' The marching orders of the First South Carolina 
 Volunteers are hereby countermanded.' 
 
 " ' Major Trowbridge,' said I, ' will you give my com- 
 pliments to Lieutenant Hooper, somewhere in the hold 
 of that steamer, and direct him to set his men at work to 
 
238 FLORIDA AGAIN? 
 
 bring out every individual article which they have car- 
 ried in.' And I sat down on a pile of boards. 
 
 " ' You will return to your old camping-ground, Colo- 
 nel,' said the General, placidly. ' Now,' he added, with 
 serene satisfaction, ' we will have some brigade drills ! ' 
 
 " Brigade drills ! Since Mr. Pickwick, with his heart- 
 less tomato-sauce and warming-pans, there had been 
 nothing so aggravating as to try to solace us, who were 
 as good as on board ship and under way, — nay, in 
 imagination as far up the St. John's as Pilatka at 
 least, — with brigade drills ! It was very kind and flat- 
 tering in him to wish to keep us. But unhappily we 
 had made up our minds to go. 
 
 " Never did officer ride at the head of a battalion of 
 more wobegone, spiritless wretches than I led back from 
 Beaufort that day. ' When I march down to de land- 
 in',' said one of the men afterwards, ' my knapsack full 
 of feathers. Comin' back, he lead ! ' And the lead, 
 instead of the feathers, rested on the heart of every 
 one. 
 
 " As if the disappointment itself were not sufficient, 
 we had to return to our pretty camp, accustomed to 
 its drawing-room order, and find it a desert. Every 
 board gone from the floors, the screens torn down from 
 the poles, all the little conveniences scattered, and, to 
 crown all, a cold breeze such as we had not known since 
 New- Year's Day blowing across the camp and flooding 
 everything with dust. I sincerely hope the regiment 
 would never behave after a defeat as they behaved then. 
 Every man seemed crushed, officers and soldiers alike ; 
 when they broke ranks, they went and lay down like 
 sheep where their tents used to be, or wandered discon- 
 solately about, looking for their stray belongings. The 
 
FLORIDA AGAIN f 239 
 
 scene was so infinitely dolorous that it gradually put me 
 in the highest spirits ; the ludicrousness of the whole 
 affair was so complete, there was nothing to do but 
 laugh. The horrible dust blew till every officer had some 
 black spot on his nose which paralyzed pathos. Of 
 course the only way was to set them all at work as soon 
 as possible ; and work them we did, — I at the camp and 
 the Major at the wharf, — loading and unloading wagons 
 and just reversing all which the morning had done. 
 
 " The New Hampshire men were very considerate, and 
 gave back most of what they had taken, though many of 
 our men were really too delicate or proud to ask or even 
 take what they had once given to soldiers or to the 
 colored people. I had no such delicacy about my tent- 
 frame, and by night things had resumed something of their 
 old aspect, and cheerfulness was in part restored. Yet 
 long after this I found one first sergeant absolutely in 
 tears, — a Florida man, most of whose kindred were up 
 the St. John's. It was very natural that the men from 
 that region should feel thus bitterly, but it shows how 
 much of the habit of soldiers they have all acquired, 
 that the South Carolina men, who were leaving the 
 neighborhood of their families for an indefinite time, 
 were just as eager to go, and not one deserted, though 
 they knew it for a week beforehand. No doubt my 
 precarious health makes it now easier for me personally 
 to remain here — easier on reflection at least — than 
 for the others. At the same time Florida is fascinating, 
 and offers not only adventure, but the command of a 
 britJ-ade. Certainly at the last moment there was not a 
 sacrifice I would not have made rather than wrench my- 
 self and others away from the expedition. We are, of 
 course, thrown back into the old uncertainty, and if the 
 
240 FLORIDA AGAIN f 
 
 small-pox subsides (and it is really diminishing decided- 
 ly) we may yet come in at the wrong end of the Florida 
 afiair." 
 
 "February 19- 
 " Not a bit of it ! This morning the General has rid- 
 den up radiant, has seen General Gillmore, who has de- 
 cided not to order us to Florida at all, nor withdraw any 
 of this garrison. Moreover, he says that all which is 
 intended in Florida is done, — that there will be no ad- 
 vance to Tallahassee, and General Seymour will establish 
 a camp of instruction in Jacksonville. Well, if that is 
 all, it is a lucky escape." 
 
 "We little dreamed that on that very day the march 
 toward Olustee was beginning. The battle took place 
 next day, and I add one more extract to show how the 
 news reached Beaufort. 
 
 " February 23, 1864. 
 
 " There was the sound of revelry by night at a ball in 
 Beaufort last night, in a new large building beautifully 
 decorated. All the collected flags of the garrison hung 
 round and over us, as if the stars and stripes were de- 
 vised for an ornament alone. The array of uniforms 
 was such that a civilian became a distinguished object, 
 much more a lady. All would have gone according to 
 the proverbial marriage-bell, I suppose, had there not 
 been a slight palpable shadow over all of us from hear- 
 ing vague stories of a lost battle in Florida, and from 
 the thought that perhaps the very ambulances in which 
 we rode to the ball were ours only until the wounded 
 or tlie dead might tenant them. 
 
 " General Gillmore only came, I supposed, to put a 
 
FLORIDA AGAIN? 241 
 
 good face upon the matter. He went away soon, and 
 General Saxton went ; then came a rumor that the 
 Cosmopolitan had actually arrived with wounded, but 
 still the dance went on. There was nothing unfeeling 
 about it, — one gets used to things, — when suddenly, in 
 the midst of the ' Lancers,' there came a perfect hush, 
 the music ceasing, a few surgeons went hastily to and 
 fro, as if conscience-stricken (I should think they might 
 have been), — then there ' waved a mighty shadow 
 in,' as in Uhland's ' Black Knight,' and as we all 
 stood wondering we were 'ware of General Saxton, who 
 strode hastily down the hall, his pale face very resolute, 
 and looking almost-sick with anxietj'. He had just been 
 on board the steamer ; there were two hundred and fifty 
 wounded men just arrived, and the ball must end. Not 
 that there was anything for us to do ; but the revel was 
 mistimed, and must be ended ; it was wicked to be dan- 
 cing, with such a scene of suffering near by. 
 
 " Of course the ball was instantly broken up, though 
 ■with some murmurings and some longings of appetite, on 
 the part of some, toward the wasted supper. 
 
 " Later, I went on board the boat. Among the long 
 lines of wounded, black and white intermingled, there 
 was the wonderful quiet which usually prevails on such 
 occasions. Not a sob nor a groan, except from those 
 undergoing removal. It is not self-control, but chiefly 
 the shock to the system produced by severe wounds, 
 especially gunshot wounds, and which usually keeps the 
 patient stiller at first than at any later time. 
 
 "A company from my regiment waited on the wharf, in 
 
 their accustomed dusky silence, and I longed to ask them 
 
 what they thought of our Florida disappointment now ? 
 
 In view of what they saw, did they still wish we had 
 
 11 p 
 
242 FLORIDA AGAIN f 
 
 been there ? I confess that in presence of all that hu- 
 man suffering, I could not wish it. But I would not 
 have suggested any such thought to them. 
 
 "I found our kind-hearted ladies, Mrs. Chamberlin 
 and Mrs. Dew hurst, on board the steamer, but there was 
 nothing for them to do, and we walked back to camp in 
 the radiant moonlight ; Mrs. Chamberlin more than ever 
 strengthened in her blushing woman's philosophy, 'I 
 don't care who wins the laurels, provided we don't ! ' " 
 
 " February 29. 
 " But for a few trivial cases of varioloid, we should 
 certainly have been in that disastrous fight. We were 
 confidently expected for several days at Jacksonville, 
 and the commanding general told Colonel Hallowell that 
 we, being the oldest colored regiment, would have the 
 right of the line. This was certainly to miss danger 
 and glory very closely." 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 THERE was in our regiment a very young recruit, 
 named Sam Roberts, of whom Trowbridge used to 
 tell this story. Early in the war Trowbridge had been 
 once sent to Amelia Island with a squad of men, under 
 direction of Commodore Goldsborough, to remove the 
 negroes from the island. As the ofScers stood on the 
 beach, talking to some of the older freedmen, they saw 
 this urchin peeping at them from front and rear in a 
 scrutinizing way, for which his father at last called him 
 to account, as thus : — 
 
 " Hi ! Sammy, what you 's doin', chile ? " 
 " Daddy," said the inquisitive youth, " don't you know 
 mas'r tell us Yankee hab tail ? I don't see no tail, 
 daddy ! " 
 
 There were many who went to Port Royal during the 
 war, in civil or military positions, whose previous im- 
 pressions of the colored race were about as intelligent 
 as Sam's view of themselves. But, for one, I had always 
 had so much to do with fugitive slaves, and had studied 
 the whole subject with such interest, that I found not 
 much to learn or unlearn as to this one point. Their 
 courage I had before seen tested ; their docile and lov- 
 able qualities I had known ; and the only real surprise 
 that experience brought me was in finding them so little 
 demoralized. I had not allowed for the extreme re- 
 moteness and seclusion of their lives, especially among the 
 Sea Islands. Many of them had literally spent their 
 
244 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 whole existence on some lonely island or remote plan- 
 tation, where the master never came, and the overseer 
 only once or twice a week. With these exceptions, such 
 persons had never seen a white face, and of the excite- 
 ments or sins of larger communities they had not a con- 
 ception. My friend Colonel Hallowell, of the Fifty- 
 Fourth Massachusetts, told me that he had among his 
 men some of the worst reprobates of Northern cities. 
 While I had some men who were unprincipled and 
 troublesome, there was not one whom I could call a 
 hardened villain. I was constantly expecting to find 
 male Topsies, with no notions of good and plenty of evil. 
 But I never found one. Among the most ignorant 
 there was very often a childlike absence of vices, which 
 was rather to be classed as inexperience than as inno- 
 cence, but which had some of the advantages of both. 
 
 Apart from this, they were very much like other men. 
 General Saxton, examining with some impatience a long 
 list of questions from some philanthropic Commission at 
 the North, respecting the traits and habits of the freed- 
 men, bade some staff-officer answer them all in two 
 words, — " Intensely human." We all admitted that it 
 was a striking and comprehensive description. 
 
 For instance, as to courage. So far as I have seen, 
 the mass of men are naturally courageous up to a cer- 
 tain point. A man seldom runs away from danger which 
 \J he ought to face, unless others run ; each is apt to keep 
 with the mass, and colored soldiers have more than usual 
 of this gregariousness. In almost every regiment, black 
 or white, there are a score or two of men who are natu- 
 rally daring, who really hunger after dangerous adven- 
 tures, and are happiest when allowed to seek them. 
 Every commander gradually finds out who these men are, 
 
THE^ NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 245 
 
 and habitually uses them ; certainly I had such, and I 
 remember with delight their bearing, their coolness, and 
 their dash. Some of them were negroes, some mulattoes. 
 One of them would have passed for white, with brown 
 hair and blue ej'es, while others were so black you could 
 hardly see their features. These picked men varied in 
 other respects too ; some were neat and well-drilled sol- 
 diers, while others were slovenly, heedless fellows, — the 
 despair of their officers at inspection, their pride on a 
 raid. They were the natural scouts and rangers of the 
 regiment ; they had the two-o'clock -in-the-morning cour- 
 age, which Napoleon thought so rare. The mass of the 
 regiment rose to the same level under excitement, and 
 were more excitable, I think, than whites, but neither 
 more nor less courageous. "2. 
 
 Perhaps the best proof of a good average of courage 
 among them was in the readiness they always showed for 
 any special enterprise. I do not remember ever to have 
 had the slightest difficulty in obtaining volunteers, but 
 rather in keeping down the number. ' The previous pages 
 include many illustrations of this, a^ well as of their en- 
 durance of pain and discomfort. For instance, one of my 
 lieutenants, a very daring Irishman, who had served for 
 eight years as a sergeant of regular artillery in Texas, 
 Utah, and South Carolina, said he had never been en- 
 gaged in anything so risky as our raid up the St. Mary's. 
 But in truth it seems to me a mere absurdity to deliber- 
 ately argue the question of courage, as applied to men 
 among whom I waked and slept, day and night, for so 
 many months together. As well might he who has been 
 wandering for years upon the desert, with a Bedouin 
 escort, discuss the courage of the men whose tents have 
 been his shelter and whose spears his guard. We, their 
 
24G THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 officers, did not go there to teach lessons, but to receive 
 them. There were more than a hundred men in the 
 ranks who had voluntarily met more dangers in their 
 escape from slavery than any of my young captains had 
 incurred in all their lives. 
 
 There was a family named Wilson, I remember, of 
 •which we had several representatives. Three or four 
 brothers had planned an escape from the interior to our 
 lines ; they finally decided that the youngest should stay 
 and take care of the old mother; the rest, with their 
 sister and her children, came in a " dug-out " down one 
 of the rivers. They were fired upon, again and again, by 
 the pickets along the banks, until finally every man on 
 board was wounded ; and still they got safely through. 
 When the bullets began to fly about them, the woman 
 shed tears, and her little girl of nine said to her, " Doti't 
 cry, mother, Jesus will help you," and then the child 
 began praying as the wounded men still urged the boat 
 along. This the mother told me, but I had previ- 
 ously heard it from an officer who was on the gunboat 
 that picked them up, — a big, rough man, whose voice 
 fairly broke as he described their appearance. He said 
 that the mother and child had been hid for nine months 
 in the woods before attempting their escape, and the child 
 would speak to no one, — indeed, she hardly would when 
 she came to our camp. She was almost white, and this 
 officer wished to adopt her, but the mother said, " I would 
 do anything but that for oonah," — this being a sort of 
 Indian formation of the second-person-plural, such as they 
 sometimes use. This same officer afterwards saw a re- 
 ward offered for this family in a Savannah paper. 
 
 I used to think that I should not care to read " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin " in our camp ; it would have seemed tame. 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 247 
 
 Any group of men in a tent ■would liave had more ex- 
 citing tales to tell. I needed no fit;tion when I had 
 Fanny Wright, for instance, daily passing to and fro 
 before my tent, with her shy little girl clinging to her 
 skirts. Fanny was a modest little mulatto woman, a sol- 
 dier's wife, and a company laundress. She had escaped 
 from the main-land in a boat, with that child and another. 
 Her baby was shot dead in her arras, and she reached 
 our lines with one child safe on earth and the oiher in 
 heaven. I never found it needful to give any elementary 
 instructions in courage to Fanny's husband, you may be 
 sure. 
 
 There was another family of brothers in the regiment 
 named Miller. Their grandmother, a fine-looking old 
 woman, nearly seventy, I should think, but erect as a 
 pine-tree, used sometimes to come and visit them. She 
 and her husband had once tried to escape from a planta- 
 tion near Savannah. They had failed, and had been 
 brought back ; the husband had received five hundred 
 lashes, and while the white men on the plantation were 
 viewing the punishment, she was collecting her children 
 and grandchildren, to the number of twenty-two, in a 
 neighboring marsh, preparatory to another attempt that 
 night They found a flat-boat which had been rejected 
 as nnseaworthy, got on board, — still under the old 
 woman's orders, — and drifted forty miles down the river 
 to our lines. Trowbridge happened to be on board the 
 gunboat which picked them up, and he said that when 
 the " flat " touched the side of the vessel, the grandmother 
 rose to her full height, with her youngest grandchild in 
 her arms, and said only, "My God ! are we free ? " By 
 one of those coincidences of which life is full, her hus- 
 band escaped also, after his punishment, and was taken 
 up by the same gunboat. 
 
248 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 I hardly need point out tliat my young lieutenants 
 did not have to teach the principles of courage to this 
 ■woman's grandchildren. 
 
 I often aslied myself why it was that, with this capa- 
 city of daring and endurancn, they had not kept the land 
 in a perpetual flame of insurrection ; why, especially 
 since the opening of the war, they had kept so still. 
 The answer was to he found in the peculiar tempera- 
 ment of the races, in their religious faith, and in the 
 habit of patience that centuries had fortified. The 
 shrewder men ,all said substantially the same thing. 
 What was the use of insurrection, where everything was 
 against them ? They had no knowledge, no money, no 
 arms, no drill, no organization, — above all, no mutual con- 
 fidence. It was the tradition among them that all insur- 
 rections were always betrayed by somebody. They had 
 no mountain passes to defend like the Maroons of Jamaica, 
 — no impenetrable swamps, like the Maroons of Suri- 
 nam. Where they had these, even on a small scale, 
 they had used them, — as in certain swamps round Sa- 
 vannah and in the everglades of Florida, where they 
 united with the Indians, and would stand fire — so 
 I was told by General Saxton, who had fought them 
 there — - when the Indians would retreat. 
 
 It always seemed to me that, had I been a slave, my 
 life would have been one long scheme of insurrection. 
 But I learned to respect the patient self-control of those 
 who had waited till the course of events should open a 
 better way. When it came they accepted it. Insurrec- 
 tion on their part would at once have divided the North- 
 ern sentiment ; and a large part of our army would have 
 joined with the Southern army to hunt them down. By 
 their waiting till we needed them, their freedom was 
 secured. 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 249 
 
 Two things chiefly surprised me in their feeling toward 
 their former masters, — the absence of affection and the 
 absence of revenge. I expected to find a good deal of the 
 patriarchal feeling. It always seemed to me a very ill- 
 applied emotion, as connected with the facts and laws of 
 American slavery, — still I expected to find it. I sup- 
 pose that my men and their families and visitors may 
 have had as much of it as the mass of freed slnves ; but 
 certainly they had not a particle. I never could cajole one 
 of them, in his most discontented moment, into regretting 
 " ole mas'r time " for a single instant. I never heard one 
 speak of the masters except as natural enemies. Yet they 
 vrere perfectly discriminating as to individuals ; many of 
 them claimed to have had kind owners, and some ex- 
 pressed great gratitude to them for particular favors re- 
 ceived. It was not the individuals, but the ownership, of 
 which they complained. That they saw to be a wrong 
 ■which no special kindnesses could right. On this, as on 
 all points connected with slavery, they understood the 
 matter as clearly as Garrison or Phillips ; the wisest 
 philosophy could teach them nothing as to that, nor 
 could any false philosophy befog them. After all, per- 
 sonal experience is the best logician. 
 
 Certainly this indifference did not proceed from any 
 want of personal affection, for they were the inost_.a&c- 
 t ionate people among whom I had ever lived. They 
 attached themselves to every officer who deserved love, 
 and to some who did not ; and if they failed to show it 
 to their masters, it proved the wrongfulness of the mas- 
 tery. On the other hand, they rarely showed one gleam 
 of revenge, and I shall never forget the s elf-control with 
 which one of our best sergeants pointed out to me, at 
 Jacksonville, the very place where one of his brothers 
 11* 
 
250 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 had been hanged by the whites for leading a party of 
 fugitive slaves. He spoke of it as a historic matter, 
 without any bearing on the present issue. ., 
 
 But side by side with this faculty of patience, there 
 was a certain tropical element in the men, a sort of fiery 
 ecstasy when aroused, wliich seemed to link them by 
 blood with the Fi-ench Turcos, and made them really re- 
 semble their natural enemies, the Celts, far more than the 
 Anglo-Saxon temperament. To balance this there were 
 great individual resources when alone, — a sort of Indian 
 wiliness and subtlety of resource. Their gregariousness 
 and love of drill made them more easy to keep in hand 
 than white American troops, who rather like to straggle or 
 go in little squads, looking out for themselves, without be- 
 ing bothered with officers. The blacks preferorganization. 
 
 The point of inferiority that I always fearedjTEbugh 
 I never had occasion to prove it, was that they might 
 show less fibre, less tough and dogged resistance, than 
 whites, during a prolonged trial, — a long, disastrous 
 march, for instance, or the hopeless defence of a be- 
 sieged town. I should not be afraid of their mutinying 
 or running awa3', but of their drooping and dying. It 
 might not turn out so ; but I mention it for the sake of 
 fairness, and to avoid overstating the merits of these 
 troops. (_As to the simple general fact of courage and re- 
 liability I think no oSicer in our camp ever thought of 
 there being any difference between black and white. 
 And certainly the opinions of these officers, who for 
 years risked their lives every moment on the fidelity of 
 their men, were worth more than those of all the world 
 beside. \ 
 
 No doubt there were reasons why this particular war 
 was an especisilly favorable test of the colored soldiers. 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 251 
 
 They had more to fight for than the whites. Besides 
 the flag and the Union, they had home and wife and 
 child. Tliey fought with ropes round their neclcs, and 
 when orders were issued that the officers of colored 
 troops should be put to death on capture, they took a 
 grim satisfaction. It helped their esprit de corps im- 
 mensely. With us, at least, there was to be no play- 
 soldier. Though they had begun with a slight feel- 
 ing of inferiority to the white troops, this compliment 
 substituted a peculiar sense of self-respect. And even 
 when the new colored regiments began to arrive from 
 the North my men still pointed out this difference, — that 
 in case of ultimate defeat, the Northern troops, black or 
 white, would go home, while the First South Carolina 
 must fight it out or be re-enslaved. This was one thing 
 that made the St. John's River so attractive to them and 
 even to me ; — it was so much nearer the everglades. 
 I used seriously to ponder, during the darker periods 
 of the war, whether I might not end my days as an out- 
 law, — a leader of Maroons. 
 
 Meanwhile, I used to try to make some capital for the 
 Northern troops, in their estimate, by pointing out that it 
 was a disinterested thing in these men from the free 
 States, to come down there and fight, that the slaves might 
 be free. But they were apt keenly to reply, that many of 
 the white soldiers disavowed this object, and said that 
 that was not the object of the war, nor even likely to 
 be its end. Some of them even repeated Mr. Seward's 
 unfortunate words to Mr. Adams, which some general 
 had been heard to quote. So, on the whole, I took noth- 
 ing by the motion, as was apt to be the case with those 
 who spoke a good word for our Government, in those 
 vacillating and half pi-oslavery days. 
 
252 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 At any rate, this, ungenerous discouragement had this 
 good eflPect, that it touched their pride ; they would de- 
 serve justice, even if they did not obtain it. This pride 
 was afterwards severely tested during the disgraceful 
 period when the party of repudiation in Congress tem- 
 porarily deprived them of their promised pay. In my 
 regiment the men never mutinied, nor even threatened 
 mutiny ; they seemed to make it^a matter of honor to do 
 their part, even if the Government proved a defaulter ; 
 but one third of them, including the best men in the 
 regiment, quietly refused to take a dollar's pay, at the 
 reduced price. " We 'se gib our sogerin' to de Guv'- 
 meut. Gunnel," they said, " but we won't 'spise ourselves 
 so much for take de seben dollar." They even made a 
 contemptuous ballad, of which I once caught a snatch. 
 
 " Ten dollar a month ! 
 
 Tree ob dat for clothin' ! 
 Go to Washington 
 Fight for Linkum's darter! " 
 
 This " Lincoln's daughter " stood for the Goddess of 
 Liberty, it would seem. They would be true to her, but 
 they would not take the half-pay. This was contrary to 
 my advice, and to that of their other officers ; but I now 
 think it was wise. Nothing less than this would have 
 called the attention of the American people to this out- 
 rageous fraud.* 
 
 The same slow forecast had often marked their action 
 in other ways. One of our ablest sergeants, Henry 
 Mclntyre, who had earned two dollars and a half per 
 day as a master-carpenter in Florida, and paid one dollar 
 and a half to his master, told me that he had deliberately 
 refrained from learning to read, because that knowledge 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 253 
 
 exposed the slaves to so much more watching and sus- 
 picion. This man and a few others had built on con- 
 tract the greater part of the town of Micanopy in Flori- 
 da, and was a thriving man when his accustomed dis- 
 cretion failed for once, and he lost all. He named his 
 child William Lincoln, and it brought upon him such 
 suspicion that he had to make his escape. 
 
 I cannot conceive what people at the North mean by- 
 speaking of the negroes as a bestial or brutal race. Ex- 
 cept in some insensibility to animal pain, I never knew 
 of an act in my regiment which I should call brutal. In 
 reading Kay's " Condition of the English Peasantry " 
 I was constantly struck with the unlikeness of my men 
 to those therein described. This could not proceed from 
 my prejudices as an abolitionist, for they would have led 
 me the other way, and indeed I had once written a little 
 essay to show the brutalizing influences of slavery. I 
 learned to think that we abolitionists had underrated the 
 suffering produced by slavery among the negroes, but 
 had overrated the demoralization. Or rather, we did 
 not know how the religious temperament of the negroes 
 had checked the demoralization. Tet again, it must be 
 admitted that this temperament, born of sorrow and 
 oppression, is far more marked in the slave than in the 
 native African. 
 
 Theorize as we may, there was certainly in our camp 
 an average tone of propriety which all visitors noticed, 
 and which was not created, but only preserved by disci- 
 pline. I was always struck, not merely by the cour- 
 tesy of the men, but also by a certain sober decency 
 of language. If a man had to report to me any disa- 
 greeable fact, for instance, he was sure to do it with 
 gravity and decorum, and not blurt it out in an offensive 
 
254 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 way. And it certainly was a significant fact that the 
 ladies of our camp, when we were so fortunate as to 
 have such guests, — the young wives, especially, of the 
 adjutant and quartermaster, — used to go among the 
 tents when the men were oflf" duty, in order to hear their 
 big pupils read and spell, without the slightest fear of 
 annoyance. I do not mean direct annoyance or insult, 
 for no man who valued his life would have ventured that 
 in presence of the others, but I mean the annoyance of 
 accidentally seeing or hearing improprieties not intended 
 for them. They both declared that they would not have 
 moved about with anything like the same freedom in any 
 white camp they had ever entered, and it always roused 
 their indignation to hear the negro race called brutal or 
 depraved. 
 
 This came partly from natural good manners, partly 
 from the habit of deference, partly from ignorance of 
 the refined and ingenious evil which is learned in large 
 towns; but a large part came from their strongly re- 
 ligious temperament. Their comparative freedom from 
 swearing, for instance, — an abstinence which I fear 
 military life did not strengthen, — was partly a matter 
 of principle. Once I heard one of them say to anoiher, 
 in a transport of indignation, " Ha-a-a, boy, s'pose I no 
 be a Christian, I cuss you so!" — which was certainly 
 drawing pretty hard upon the bridle. " Cuss," however, 
 was a generic tenn for all manner of evil speaking ; they 
 would say, « He cuss me fool," or " He cuss me coward," 
 as if the essence of propriety were in harsh and angry 
 speech, — which I take to be good ethics. But cer- 
 tainly, if Uncle Toby could have recruited his army in 
 Flanders from our ranks, their swearing would have 
 ceased to be historic. 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 255 
 
 It used to seem to me that never, since Cromwell's 
 time, bad there been soldiers in whom the religious ele- 
 ment held such a place. " A religious army," " a gospel 
 army," were their frequent phrases. In their prayer- 
 meetings there was always a mingling, often quaint 
 enough, of the warlike and the pious. " If each one of 
 us was a praying man," said Corporal Thomas Long in a 
 sermon, " it appears to me that we could fight as well willi 
 prayers as with bullets, — for the Lord has said that if 
 you have faith even as a grain of mustard-seed cut into 
 four parts, you can say to the sycamore-tree. Arise, and 
 it will come up." And though Corporal Long may have 
 got a little perplexed in his botany, his faith proved 
 itself by works, for he volunteered and went many miles 
 on a solitary scouting expedition into the enemy's country 
 in Florida, and got back safe, after I had given him up 
 for lost. 
 
 The extremes of religious enthusiasm I did not ven- 
 ture to encourage, for I could not do it honestly ; neither 
 did I discourage them, but simply treated them with 
 respect, and let them have their way, so long as they did 
 not interfere with discipline. In general they promoted 
 it. The mischievous little drummer-boys, whose scrapes 
 and quarrels were ihe torment of my existence, might be 
 seen kneeling together in their tents to say their prayers 
 at night, and I could hope that their slumbers were blessed 
 by some spirit of peace, such as certainly did not rule over 
 their waking. The most reckless and daring fellows in 
 the regiment were perfect fatalists in their confidence 
 that God would watch over them, and that if they died, 
 it would be because their time had come. This almost 
 excessive faith, and the love of freedom and of their 
 families, all co-operated with their pride as soldiers to 
 
256 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 make them do their duty. I could not have spared any 
 of these incentives. Those of our officers who were 
 personally the least influenced by such considerations, 
 still saw the need of encouraging them among the men. 
 
 I am bound to say that this strongly devotional turn 
 was not always accompanied by the practical virtues ; 
 but neither was it strikingly divorced from them. A few 
 men, I remember, who belonged to the ancient order of 
 hypocrites, but not many. Old Jim Cushman was our 
 favorite representative scamp. He used to vex his right- 
 eous soul over the admission of the unregenerate to 
 prayer-meetings, and went off once shaking his head and 
 muttering, " Too much goat shout wid de sheep." But 
 he who objected to this profane admixture used to get 
 our mess-funds far more hopelessly mixed with his own, 
 when he went out to buy us chickens. And I remember 
 that, on being asked by our Major, in that semi-Ethiop- 
 ian dialect into which we sometimes slid, " How much 
 wife you got, Jim ? " the veteran replied, with a sort of 
 penitence for lost opportunities, " On'y but four, Sah ! " 
 
 ■Another man of somewhat similar quality w^ent among 
 us by the name of Henry Ward Beecher, from a remark- 
 able resemblance in face and figure to that sturdy divine. 
 I always felt a sort of admiration for this worthy, because 
 of the thoroughness with which he outwitted me, and 
 the sublime impudence in which he culminated. He got 
 a series of passes from me, every week or two, to go 
 and see his wife on a neighboring plantation, and finally, 
 when this resource seemed exhausted, he came boldly for 
 one more pass, that he might go and be married. 
 
 We used to quote him a good deal, also, as a sample 
 of a certain Shakespearian boldness of personification 
 in which the men sometimes indulged. Once, I remem- 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 257 
 
 ber, his captain had given him a fowling-piece to clean. 
 Henry Ward had left it in the captain's tent, and the 
 latter, finding it, had transferred the job to some one else. 
 
 Then came a confession, in this precise form, with 
 many dignified gesticulations : — 
 
 " Cappen ! I took dat gun, and I put him in Cappen 
 tent. Den I look, and de gun not dar ! Den Conscience 
 say, Cappen mus' hab gib dat gun to somebody else for 
 clean. Den I say. Conscience, you reason correck ! " 
 
 Compare Lancelot Gobbo's soliloquy in the " Two 
 Gentlemen of Verona ! " 
 
 !^ Still, I maintain that, as a whole, the men were re- 
 markably free from inconvenient vices. There was no 
 more lying and stealing than in average white regiments. 
 The surgeon was not much troubled by shamming sick- 
 ness, and there were not a great many complaints of 
 theft. There was less quarrelling than among "wliite 
 soldiers, and scarcely ever an instance of drunkenness. 
 Perhaps the influence of their officers had something to 
 do with this ; for not a ration of whiskey was ever issued 
 to the men, nor did I ever touch it, wliile in the army, 
 nor approve a requisition for any of the officers, without 
 which it could not easily be obtained. In this respect 
 our surgeons fortunately agreed with me, and we never 
 had reason to regret it. I believe the use of ardent 
 spirits to be as useless and injurious in the army as on 
 board ship, and among the colored troops, especially, who 
 had never been accustomed to it, I think that it did only 
 harm. 
 
 The point of greatest laxity in their moral habits — 
 the want of a high standard of chastity — was not one 
 which affected their camp life to any great extent, and it 
 therefore came less under my observation. But I found 
 
 Q 
 
258 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 to my relief that, whatever their deficiency in this re- 
 spect, it was modified by the general quality of their 
 temperament, and indicated rather a softening and relax- 
 ation than a hardening and brutalizing of their moral 
 natures. Any insult or violence in this direction was a 
 thing unknown. I never heard of an instance. It was 
 not uncommon for men to have two or three wives in dif- 
 ferent plantations, — the second, or remoter, partner being 
 called a "'broad wife," — i.e. wife abroad. But the 
 whole tendency was toward marriage, and this state of 
 things was only regarded as a bequest from " mas'r 
 time." 
 
 I knew a great deal about their marriages, for they 
 often consulted me, and took my counsel as lovers are 
 wont to do, — that is, when it pleased their fancy. 
 Sometimes they would consult their captains first, and 
 then come to me in despairing appeal. " Cap'n Scroby 
 £Trowbridge] he acvise me not for marry dis lady, 'cause 
 she hab seben chil'en. What for use ? Cap'n Scroby 
 can't lub for me. I mus' lub for myself, and I lub he." 
 I remember that on this occasion " he " stood by, a most 
 unattractive woman, jet black, with an old pink muslin 
 dress, torn white cotton gloves, and a very flowery bon- 
 net, that must have descended through generations of 
 tawdry mistresses. 
 
 I felt myself compelled to reaffirm the decision of t)ie 
 inferior court. The result was as usual. They were 
 married the next day, and I believe that she proved an 
 excellent wife, though she had seven children, whose 
 father was also in the regiment. If she did not, I know 
 many others who did, and certainly I have never seen 
 more faithful or more happy marriages than among that 
 people. 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 259 
 
 The question was often asked, whether the Southern 
 slaves or the Northern free blacks made the best sol- 
 diers. It was a compliment to both classes that each offi- 
 cer usually preferred those whom he had personally com- 
 manded. I preferred those who had been slaves, for 
 their greater docility and affectionateness, for the power- 
 ful stimulus which their new freedom gave, and for the 
 fact that they were fighting, in a manner, for their own 
 homes and firesides. Every one of these considerations 
 afforded a special aid to discipline, and cemented a pecu- 
 liar tie of sjTnpathy between them and their officers. 
 They seemed like clansmen, and had a more confiding 
 and filial relation to us than seemed to me to exist in the 
 Northern colored regiments. 
 
 So far as the mere habits of slavery went, they were a 
 poor preparation for military duty. Inexperienced offi- 
 cers often assumed that, because these men had been 
 slaves before enlistment, they would bear to be treated as 
 such afterwards. Experience proved the contrary. The 
 more strongly we marked the difference between the 
 slave and the soldier, the better for the regiment. One 
 half of military duty lies in obedience, the other half in 
 self-respect. A soldier without self-respect is worthless. 
 Consequently there were no regiments in which it was so 
 important to observe the courtesies . and proprieties of 
 military life as in these. I had to caution the officers to 
 be more than usually particular in returning the saluta- 
 tions of the men ; to be very careful in their dealings 
 with those on picket or guard-duly ; and on no account to 
 omit the titles of the non-commissioned officers. So, in 
 dealing out punishments, we had carefully to avoid all 
 that was brutal and arbitrary, all that savored of the over- 
 seer. Any such dealing found them as obstinate and 
 
260 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 contemptuous as was Topsj when Miss Ophelia under- 
 took to chastise her. A system of light punishments, 
 rigidly administered according to the prescribed military 
 forms, had more weight with them than any amount of 
 angry severity. To make them feel as remote as pos- 
 sible from the plantation, this was essential. By adher- 
 ing to this, and constantly appealing to their pride as sol- 
 diers and their sense of duty, we were able to maintain a 
 high standard of discipline, — so, at least, the inspecting 
 officers said, — and to get rid, almost entirely, of the more 
 degrading class of punishments, — standing on barrels, 
 tying up by the thumbs, and the ball and chain. 
 
 In all ways we had to educate their self-respect. For 
 instance, at first they disliked to obey their own non-com- 
 missioned officers. " I don't want him to play de white 
 man ober me," was a sincere objection. They had been 
 so impressed with a sense of inferiority that the distinc- 
 tion extended to the very principles of honor. " I ain't got 
 colored-man principles," said Corporal London Simmons, 
 indignantly defending himself from some charge before 
 me. "I'se got white-gemman principles. I'se do my 
 best. If Cap'n tell me to take a man, s'pose de man be 
 as big as a house, I '11 clam hold on him till I die, incep- 
 tion [excepting] I 'm sick." 
 
 But it was plain that this feeling was a bequest of 
 slavery, which military life would wear off. We im- 
 pressed it upon them that they did not obey their officers 
 because they were white, but because they were their 
 officers, just as the Captain must obey me, and I tlie 
 General ; that we were all subject to military law, and 
 protected by it in turn. Then we taught them to take 
 pride in having good material for non-commissioned 
 officers among themselves, and in obeying them. On 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 261 
 
 my arrival there was one white first sergeant, and it was 
 a question whether to appoint others. Tliis I prevented, 
 but left that one, hoping the men themselves would at 
 last petition for his removal, which at length they did. 
 He was at once detailed on other duty. The pictu- 
 resqueness of the regiment suffered, for he was very tall 
 and fair, and I liked to see him step forward in the cen- 
 tre when the line of first sergeants came together at 
 dress-parade. But it was a help to discipline to elimi- 
 nate the Saxon, for it recognized a principle. 
 
 Afterwards I had excellent battalion-drills without a 
 single white officer, by way of experiment ; putting each 
 company under a sergeant, and going through the most 
 difficult movements, such as division-columns and oblique- 
 squares. And as to actual discipline, it is doing no injus- 
 tice to the line-officers of the regiment to say that none 
 of them received from tiie men more implicit obedience 
 than Color-Sergeant Rivers. I should have tried to 
 obtain commissions for him and several others before I 
 left the regiment, had their literary education been suffi- 
 cient ; and such an attempt was finally made by Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Trowbridge, my successor in immediate 
 command, but it proved unsuccessful. It always seemed 
 to me an insult to those brave men to have novices put 
 over their heads, on the ground of color alone ; and the 
 men felt it the more keenly as they remained longer in 
 service. There were more than seven hundred enlisted 
 men in the regiment, when mustered out after more than 
 three years' service. The ranks had been kept full by 
 enlistment, but there were only fourteen line-officers in- 
 stead of the full thirty. The men who should have filled 
 those vacancies were doing duty as sergeants in the 
 ranks. 
 
262 THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 In what respect were the colored troops a source of 
 7 disappointment ? To me in one respect only, — that of 
 health. Their health improved, indeed, as they grew 
 more familiar with military life ; but I think that neither 
 their physical nor moral temperament gave them that 
 toughness, that obstinate purpose of living, which sus- 
 tains the more materialistic Anglo-Saxon. They had 
 not, to be sure, the same predominant diseases, suffering 
 in the pulmonary, not in the digestive organs ; but they 
 suffered a good deal. They felt malaria less, but they 
 were more easily choked by dust and made ill by damp- 
 ness.. On the other hand, they submitted more readily 
 to sanitary measures than whites, and, with efficient offi- 
 cers, were more easily kept clean. They were injured 
 throughout the army by an undue share of fatigue duty, 
 which is not only exhausting but demoralizing to a soldier; 
 by the unsuitableness of the rations, which gave them 
 salt meat instead of rice and hominy ; and by the lack of 
 good medical attendance. Their childlike constitutions 
 peculiarly needed prompt and efficient surgical care ; but 
 almost all the colored troops were enlisted late in the 
 war, when it was hard to get good surgeons for any regi- 
 ments, and especially for these. In this respect I had 
 nothing to complain of, since there were no surgeons in 
 the army for whom I would have exchanged my own.. 
 
 And this late arrival on the scene affected not only the 
 medical supervision of the colored troops, but their oppor- 
 tunity for a career. It is not my province to write their 
 history, nor to vindicate them, nor to follow them upon 
 those larger fields compared with which the adventures 
 of my regiment appear but a partisan warfare. Yet 
 this, at least, may be said. The operations on the South 
 Atlantic coast, which long seemed a merely subordinate 
 
THE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER. 263 
 
 and incidental part of the great contest, proved to be one 
 of the final pivots on which it turned. All now admit that 
 the fate of the Confederacy was decided by Sherman's 
 march to the sea. Port Royal was the objective point 
 to which he marched, and he found the Department of 
 the South, when he reached it, held almost exclusively by 
 colored troops. Next to the merit of those who made 
 the march was that of those who held open the door. 
 That service will always remain among the laurels of 
 the black regiments. 
 
264 CONCLUSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 MY personal forebodings proved to be correct, and 
 so were the threats of the surgeons. lu May, 
 1864, I went home invalided, was compelled to resign in 
 October from the same cause, and never saw the First 
 South Carolina again. Nor did any one else see it 
 under that appellation, for about that time its name was 
 changed to the Thirty-Third United States Colored 
 Troops, " a most vague and heartless baptism," as the 
 man in the story says. It was one of those instances 
 of injudicious sacrifice of esprit de corps which were so 
 frequent in our army. All the pride of my men was 
 centred in " de Fus' Souf " ; the very words were a 
 recognition of the loyal South as against the disloyal. 
 To make the matter worse, it had been originally de- 
 signed to apply the new numbering only to the new regi- 
 ments, and so the early numbers were all taken up before 
 the older regiments came in. The governors of States, 
 by especial effort, saved their colored troops from this 
 chagrin ; but we found here, as more than once before, 
 the disadvantage of having no governor to stand by us. 
 " It 's a far cry to Loch Awe,'' said the Highland [irov- 
 erb. We knew to our cost that it was a far cry to 
 Washington in those da3's, unless an officer left his duty 
 and stayed there all the time. 
 
 In June, 18G4, the regiment was ordered to Folly 
 Island, and remained there and on Cole's Island till the 
 siege of Charleston was done. It took part in the battle 
 
CONCLUSION. 265 
 
 of Honey Hill, and in the capture of a fort on James 
 Island, of which Corporal Robert Vendross wrote trium- 
 phantly in a letter, " When we took the pieces we found 
 that we recapt our own pieces ba-ck that we lost on 
 Willtown Revear (River) and thank the Lord did not 
 lose but seven men out of our regiment." 
 
 In February, 1865, the regiment was ordered to 
 Charleston to do provost and guard duty, in March 
 to Savannah, in June to Hamburg and Aiken, in Septem- 
 ber to Charleston and its neighborhood, and was finally 
 mustered out of service — after being detained beyond 
 its three years, so great was the scarcity of troops — on 
 the 9th of February, 1866. With dramatic fitnSss 
 this muster-out took place at Fort Wagner, above the 
 graves of Shaw and his men. I give in the Appendix 
 the farewell address of Lieutenant-Colonel Trowbridge, 
 who commanded the regiment from the time I left it. 
 Brevet Brigadier-General W. T. Bennett, of the One 
 Hundred and Second United States Colored Troops, who 
 was assigned to the command, never actually held it, 
 being always in charge of a brigade. 
 
 The officers and men are scattered far and wide. 
 One of our captains was a member of the South Caro- 
 lina Constitutional Convention, and is now State Treas- 
 urer ; three of our sergeants were in that Convention, 
 including Sergeant Prince Rivers ; and he and Sergeant 
 Henry Hayne are still members of the State Legisla- 
 ture. Both in that State and in Florida the former 
 members of the regiment are generally prospering, so 
 far as I can hear. The increased sglf-respect of army 
 life fitted them to do the duties of civil life. It is not in 
 nature that the jealousy of race should die out in this 
 generation, but I trust they will not see the fulfilment of 
 12 
 
266 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Corporal Simon Crum's prediction. Simon was one of 
 the shrewdest old fellows in the. regiment, and he said 
 to me once, as he was jogging out of Beaufort behind me, 
 on the Shell Road, « I 'se goin' to leave de Souf, Gun- 
 nel, when de war is over. I 'se made up my mind dat 
 dese yer Secesh will neber be cibilized in my time." 
 
 The only member of the regiment whom I have seen 
 since leaving it is a young man, Cyrus Wiggins, who was 
 brought off from the main-land in a dug-out, in broad 
 day, before the very eyes of the rebel pickets, by Cap- 
 tain James S. Rogers, of my regiment. It was one of 
 the most daring acts I ever saw, and as it happened 
 under my own observation I was glad when the 
 Captain took home with him this " captive of his bow 
 and spear " to be educated under his eye in Massachu- 
 setts. Cyrus has done credit to his friends, and will be 
 satisfied with nothing short of a college-training at 
 Howard University. I have letters from the men, very 
 quaint in handwriting and spelling ; but he is the only one 
 whom I have seen. Some time I hope to revisit those 
 scenes, and shall feel, no doubt, like a bewildered Rip 
 Van Winkle who once wore uniform. 
 
 We who served with the black troops have this pecu- 
 liar satisfaction, that, whatever dignity or sacredness the 
 memories of the war may have to others, they have 
 more to us. In that contest all the ordinary ties of 
 patriotism were the same, of course, to us as to the rest ; 
 they had no motives which we had not, as they have 
 now no memories which are not also ours. But the 
 peculiar, privilege of associating with an outcast race, of 
 training it to defend its rights, and to perform its duties, 
 this was our especial meed. The vacillating policy of the 
 Government sometimes filled other ofiicers with doubt and 
 
CONCLUSION. 267 
 
 shame ; until the negro had justice, they were but de- 
 fending liberty with one hand and crushing it with the 
 other. From this inconsistency we were free. Whatever 
 the Government did, we at least were working in the right 
 direction. If this was not recognized on our side of tlie 
 lines, we knew that it was admitted on the other. Fight- 
 ing with ropes round our necks, denied the ordinary cour- 
 tesies of war till we ourselves compelled their concession, 
 we could at least turn this outlawry into a compliment. 
 "We had touched the pivot of the war. "Whether this vast 
 and dusky mass should prove the weakness of the nation 
 or its strength, must depend in great measure, we knew, 
 upon our efforts. Till the blacks were armed, there was 
 no guaranty of their freedom. It was their demeanor 
 under arms that shamed the nation into recognizing them 
 as men. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Appendix A. 
 
 EOSTER OF OFFICERS. 
 
 FrEST SonTH Cakolina Volunteees, 
 
 Afterwards Thirty-Third United States Colored Troops. 
 
 Colonek. 
 T. W. HiGGiNSON, 51st Mass. Vols., Nov. 10, 1862 ; Resigned, Oct. 27, 
 
 1864. 
 Wm. T. Behkett, 102d U. S. C. T., Dee. 18, 1864; Mustered out with 
 regiment. 
 
 lAeutenanf' Colonels. 
 
 Liberty Billings, Civil Life, Nov. 1, 1862; Dismissed hy Examining 
 
 Board, July 28, 1863. 
 John D. Strong, Promotion, July 28, 1863 ; Resigned, Aug. 15, 1864. 
 Chas. T. Teoweeidge, Promotion, Dec. 9, 1864 ; Mustered out, &o. 
 
 Majors, 
 John D. Steong, Civil Life, Oct. 21, 1862; Lt.-Col., July 28, 1863. 
 CiiAs. T. Trowbridge, Promotion, Aug. 11, 1863; Lt.-Col., Dec. 9, 
 
 1864. 
 H. A. Whitney, Promotion, Dec. 9, 1864 ; Mustered out, &o. 
 
 Surffeons. 
 Seth Rogers, Civil Life, Dec. 2, 1862; Resigned, Dec. 21, 1863. 
 Wm. B. Ceandall, 29th Ct., June 8, 1864; Mustered out, &c. 
 
 Assistant Surgeons. 
 3. M. Hawks, Civil Life, Oct 20, 1862; Surgeon 3d G. C. Vols., Got. 
 
 29, 1863. 
 Thos. T. Mlnoe, 7th Ct., Jan. 8, 1863; Resigned, Nov. 21, 1864. 
 E. S. Stuard, Civil Life, Sept. 4, 1865 ; Mustered out, &c. 
 
270 APPENDIX. 
 
 Oiaplain. 
 3 AS. H. FowLEE, Civil Life, Oct. 24, 1862; Mustered out, &0. 
 
 Captains. 
 Chas. T. Teowbeidge, N. Y. Vol. Eng., Oct. 13, 1862; Major, Aug. 
 
 11, 1863. 
 Wm. James, 100th Pa., Oct. 13, 1862; Mustered out, &o. 
 W. J. Randolph, lOOth Pa., Oct. 13, 1862; Resigned, Jan. 29, 1864. 
 H. A. WniTNET, 8tli Me., Oct. 13, 1862; Major, Dec. 9, 1664. 
 Alex. Heaslet, 100th Pa., Oct. 13, 1662; Killed at Augusta, Ga., 
 
 Sept. 6, 1865. 
 George Dolly, 8th Me., Nov. 1, 1862; Resigned, Oct. 30, 1863. 
 L. W. Metcalf, 8th Me., Nov. 11, 1862 ; Mustered out, &o. 
 Jas. H. Tonklng, N. Y. Vol. Eng., Nov. 17, 1862 ; Resigned, July 28, 
 
 1863. 
 Jas. S. Rogers, 51st Mass., Deo. 6, 1862; Resigned, Oct. 20, 1863. 
 J. H. Thibadeau, Promotion, Jan. 10, 1863; Mustered out, &c. 
 George D. Walker, Promotion, July 28, 1663 ; Resigned, Sept. 1, 
 
 1664. 
 Wm. H. Danilson, Promotion, July 28, 1863; Major 128th U; S. C. T., 
 
 May, 1865 [now 1st Lt. 40th U. S. Infantry]. 
 Wm. W. Sampson, Promotion, Nov. 5, 1863; Mustered out, &o. 
 John M. Thompson, Promotion, Nov. 7, 1663; Mustered out, &c. 
 
 [Now 1st Lt. and Bvt. Capt. 38th U. S. luf y.] 
 Abe. W. Jackson, Promotion, April 30, 1864; Resigned, Aug. 15, 1865. 
 NiLES G. Parker, Promotion, Feb., 1865; Mustered out, &c. 
 Chas. W. Hooper, Promotion, Sept., 1865; Mustered out, &c. 
 E. C. Merriam, Promotion, Sept., 1665 ; Resigned, Dec. 4, 1665- 
 E. W. RoBBiNS, Promotion, Nov. 1, 1865; Mustered out, &o. 
 N. S. White, Promotion, Nov. 18, 1665; Mustered out, &o. 
 
 First Lieutenants. 
 
 G. W. Dewhuest (Adjutant), Civil Life, Oct. 20, 1862; Resigned, 
 
 Ang. 31, 1865. 
 J. M. Bingham (Quartermaster), Civil Life, Oct. 20, 1862; Died from 
 
 effect of exhaustion on a military expedition, July 20, 1663. 
 G. M. Chamberlin (Quartermaster), 11th Mass. Battery, Aug. 29, 
 
 1863; Mustered out, &c. 
 Geo. D. Walker, N. Y. Vol. Eng., Oct. 13, 1862; Captain, Aug. 11, 
 
 1863. 
 W. H. Danilson, 48th N. Y., Oct. 13, 1862 ; Captain, July 26, 1863. 
 J. H. Thibadeau, 8th Me., Oct. 13, 1662; Captain, Jan. 10, 1863. 
 
APPENDIX. 271 
 
 Ephraim p. White, 8th Me., Nov. 14, 1862; Resigned, March 9, 
 
 1864. 
 Jas. Pomeroy, 100th Pa., Oct. 13, 1862; Resigned, Feb. 9, 1863. 
 Jas. F. Johnston, 100th Pa., Oct. 13, 1662 ; Resigned, Mai-ch 26, 1863. 
 Jesse Fishek, 48th N. Y., Oct. 13, 1862; Resigned, Jan. 26, 1863. 
 Chas. I. Davis, 8th Me., Oct. 13,. 1862; Resigned, Feb. 28, 1863. 
 Wm. Stockdale, 8th Me., Oct. 13, 1862 ; Resigned, May 2, 1863. 
 Jas. B. O'Neil, Promotion, Jan. 10, 1863; Resigned, May 2, 1863. 
 W. W. Sampson, Promotion, Jan. 10, 1863 ; Captain, Oct. 30, 1863. 
 J. M. Thojipson, Promotion, Jan. 27, 1863; Captain, Oct. 30, 1863. 
 E. M. Gaston, Promotion, April IB, 1863 ; Killed at Coosaw Fen-y, S. 
 
 C, May 27, 1663. 
 Jas. B. West, Promotion, Feb. 28, 1863 ; Resigned, June 14, 1865. 
 N. G. Pakkee, Promotion, May B, 1863; Captain, Feb., 1865.. 
 W. H. Hyde, Promotion, May B, 1863 ; Resigned, April 3, 1865. 
 Henry A. Stone, 8th Me., June 26, 1863; Resigned, Dec. 16, 1864. 
 J. A. Teowbbidge, Promotion, Aug. 11, 1863; Resigned, Nov. 29, 
 
 1864. 
 A. W. Jackson, Promotion, Aug. 26, 1863; Captain, April 30, 1864. 
 Chas. E. Pap.ker, Promotion, Aug. 26, 1863 ; Resigned, Nov. 29, 1864. 
 Chas. W. Hooper, Promotion, Nov. 8, 1863; Captain, Sept., 1865. 
 E. C. Meeriam, Promotion, Nov. 19, 1863; Captain, Sept., 1865. 
 Heney a. Beach, Promotion, April 30, 1864; Resigned, Sept. 23, 1864. 
 
 E. W. EoBBiNS, Promotion, April 30, 1864: Captain, Nov. 1, 1865. 
 Asa Child, Promotion, Sept., 1865 ; Mustered oijt, &c. 
 
 N. S. White, Promotion, Sept., 1865; Captain, Nov. 18, 1865. 
 
 F. S. GooDEiCH, Promotion, Oct., 1865; Mustered out, &o. 
 E. W. Hyde, Promotion, Oct. 27, 1865; Mustered out, &c. 
 Henry Wood, Promotion, Nov., 1865; Mustered out, &c. 
 
 Second Lieutenants. 
 
 3. A. Teowbidge, N. Y. Vol. Eng., Oct. 13, 1862; First Lt., Aug. 11, 
 
 1863. 
 Jas. B. O'Neii,, 1st U. S. Art'y, Oct. 13, 1862; First Lt., Jan. 10, 
 
 1863. 
 W. W. Sampson, 8th Me., Oct. 13, 1862; First U., Jan. 10, 1863. 
 J. M. Thompson, 7th N. H., Oct. 13, 1862; First Lt., Jan. 27, 1863. 
 R. M. Gaston, 100th Pa., Oct. 13, 1862; First Lt., April 15, 1863. 
 W. H. Hyde, 6th Ct., Oct. 13, 1662; First Lt., May B, 1863. 
 Jas. B. West, 100th Pa., Oct. 13, 1862; First Lt, Feb. 28, 1863. 
 Haeey C. West, 100th Pa., Oct. 13, 1862; Resigned, Nov. 4, 1864. 
 E. C. Meuriam, 8th Me., Nov. 17, 1862; First Lt., Nov. 19, 1863. 
 Chas. E. Parkek, 8th Me., Nov. 17, 1862; First Lt., Aug. 28, 1863. 
 
272 APPENDIX. 
 
 C. W. Hooper, N. Y. Vol. Eng., Feb. 17, 1863; First Lt., April 16, 
 
 18G3. 
 N. G. Parker, 1st Mass. Cavalry, March, 1863 ; First Lt., May 5, 1863. 
 A. H. TiRKELL, 1st Mass. Cav., March 6, 1863 ; Resigned, July 22,1863. 
 A. W. Jacksos, 8th Me., March 6, 1863 r First Lt., Aug. 26, 1863. 
 Henry A. Beach, 48th N. Y., April 5, 1863 ; First Lt., April 30, 1864. 
 
 E. W. EoBBiss, 8th Me., April 5, 1863; First Lt, April 30, 1864. 
 
 A. B. Browm, Civil Life, April 17, 1863 ; Eesigned, Nov. 27, 1863. 
 
 F. M. Gould, 3d R. I. Battery, June 1, 1863; Resigned, June 8, 1864. 
 Asa Chu,d, 8th Me., Aug. 7, 1863; First Lt., Sept., 1865. 
 
 Jerome T. Furman, 52d Pa., Aug; 30, 1863; Killed at Walhalla, S. 
 
 C, Aug. 26, 1865. 
 John W. Selvage, 48th N. Y., Sept. 10, 1863; First Lt. 36th U. S. C. 
 
 T., March, 1S65. 
 MiRAND W. Saxton, Civil Life, Nov. 19, 1863; Captain 128th U. S. 
 
 C. T., June 25, 1864 [now Second Lt. 38th U. S. Infantry]. 
 Nelson S. White, Dec. 22, 1863 ; First Lt., Sept., 1865. 
 Edw. W. Hyde, Civil Life, May 4, 1864; First Lt., Oct. 27, 1866. 
 F. S. Goodrich, 115th N. Y., May, 1864; First Lt., Oct., 1865. 
 
 B. H. JLiNNiNG, Aug. 11, 1864; Capt. 128th U. S. C. T., March 17, 
 1865. 
 
 E. M. Davis, 4th Mass. Cavalry, Nov. 19, 1864; Capt. 104th U. S. 0. 
 
 T., May 11, 1865. 
 Henry Wood, N. Y. Vol. Eng., Aug., 1865; First Lt, Nov., 1865. 
 John M, Searles, 1st N. Y. Mounted Rifles, June 15, 1865; Mustered 
 
 out, &c. 
 
 Appendix B. 
 
 THE FIRST BLACK SOLDIERS. 
 
 It is well known that the first systematic attempt to organ- 
 ize colored troops during the war of the rebellion was the 
 so-called " Hunter Regiment" The officer originally detailed 
 to recruit for this purpose was Sergeant C. T. Trowbridge, 
 of the New York Volunteer Engineers (Col. Serrell). His 
 detail was dated May 7, 1862, S. O. 84 Dept. South. 
 
 Enlistments came in very slowly, and no wonder. The 
 white officers and soldiers were generally opposed to the 
 experiment, and filled the ears of the negroes with the same 
 tales which had been told them by their masters, — that the 
 
APPENDIX. 273 
 
 Yankees really meant to sell them to Cuba, and the like. 
 The mildest threats were that they would be made to work 
 without pay (which turned out to be the case), and that they 
 would be put in the front rank in every battle. Nobody 
 could assure them that they and their families would be freed 
 by the Government, if they fought for it, since no such policy 
 had been adopted. Nevertheless, they gradually enlisted, 
 the most efficient recruiting officer being Sergeant William 
 Bronson, of Company A, in my regiment, who always prided 
 himself on this service, and used to sign himself by the very 
 original title, " No. 1, African Foundations " in commemora- 
 tion of his deeds.. 
 
 By patience and tact these obstacles would in time have 
 been overcome. But before long, unfortunately, some of 
 General Hunter's staff became impatient, and induced him 
 to take the position that the blacks must enlist. Accordingly, 
 squads of soldiers were sent to seize all the able-bodied men 
 on certain plantations, and bring them to the camp. The 
 immediate consequence was a renewal of the old suspicion, 
 ending in a wide-spread belief that they were to be sent to 
 Cuba, as their masters had predicted. The ultimate result 
 was a habit of distrust, discontent, and desertion, that it 
 was almost Impossible to surmount. All the men who knew 
 anything about (Jeneral Hunter believed in him ; but they 
 all knew that there were bad influences around him, and 
 that the Government had repudiated his promises. They 
 had been kept four months in service, and then had been dis- 
 missed without pay. That having been the case, why should 
 not the Government equally repudiate General Saxton's prom- 
 ises or mine ? As a matter of fact, the Government did repu- 
 diate these pledges for years, though we had its own written 
 authority to give them. But that matter needs an appendix 
 by itself. 
 
 The "Hunter Regiment" remained in camp on Hilton 
 Head Island until the beginning of August, 1862, kept con- 
 stantly under drill, but much demoralized by desertion. It 
 . .. 12* -^ 
 
274 APPENDIX 
 
 was then disbanded, except one company That company, 
 under command of Sergeant Trowbridge, then acting as Cap- 
 tain, but not commissioned, was kept in service, and was sent 
 (August 5, 1862) to garrison St. Simon's Island, on the coast 
 of Georgia. On this island (made famous by Mrs. Kemble's 
 description) there were then five hundred colored people, 
 and not a single white man. 
 
 The black soldiers were sent down on the Ben De Ford, 
 Captain Hallett. On arriving, Trowbridge was at once in- 
 formed by Commodore Goldsborough, naval commander at 
 that station, that there was a party of rebel guerillas on the 
 island, and was .asked whether he would trust his soldiers in 
 pursuit of them. Trowbridge gladly assented ; and the Com- 
 modore added, " If you should capture them, it will be a 
 great thing for you.'' 
 
 They accordingly went on shore, and found that the colored 
 men of the island had already undertaken the enterprise. 
 Twenty-five of them had armed themselves, under the com- 
 mand of one of their own number, whose name was John 
 Brown. The second in command was Edward Gould, who 
 was afterwards a corporal in my own regiment. The rebel 
 party retreated before these men, and drew them into a 
 swamp. There was but one path, and the negroes entered 
 single file. The rebels lay behind a great log, and fired upon 
 them. John Brown, the leader, fell dead within six feet of 
 the log, — probably the first black man who fell under arms in 
 the war, — several others were wounded, and the band of raw 
 recruits retreated ; as did also the rebels, in the opposite di- 
 rection. This was the first armed encounter, so far as I know, 
 between the rebels and their former slaves ; and it is worth 
 noticing that the attempt was a spontaneous thing, and not 
 accompanied by any white man. The men were not soldiers, 
 nor in uniform, though some of them afterwards enlisted in 
 Trowbridge's company. 
 
 The father of this John Brown was afterwards a soldier in 
 my regiment ; and, after his discharge for old age, was, for a 
 
APPENDIX. 275 
 
 time, my servant. " Uncle York," as we called him, was as 
 good a specimen of a saint as I have ever met, and was quite 
 the equal of Mrs. Stowe's " Uncle Tom.'' He was a fine- 
 looking old man, with dignified and courtly manners, and 
 his gray head was a perfect benediction, as he sat with us on 
 the platform at our Sunday meetings. He fully believed, to 
 his dying day, that the " John Brown Song " related to his 
 son, and to him only. 
 
 Trowbridge, after landing on the island, hunted the rebels 
 all day with his colored soldiers, and a posse of sailors. In 
 one place, he found by a creek a canoe, with a tar-kettle, and 
 S, fire burning ; and it was afterwards discovered that, at that 
 very moment, the guerillas were hid in a dense palmetto 
 thicket, near by, and so eluded pursuit. The rebel leader 
 was one Miles Hazard, who had a plantation on the island, 
 and the party escaped at last through the aid of his old slave, 
 Henry, who found them a boat. One of my sergeants, Clar- 
 ence Kennon, who had not then escaped from slavery, was 
 present when they reached the main-land ; and he described 
 them as being tattered and dirty from head to foot, after their 
 efibrts to escape their pursuers. 
 
 When the troops under my command occupied Jackson- 
 ville, Fla., in March of the following year, we found at the 
 railroad station, packed for departure, a box of papers, some 
 of them valuable. . Among them was a letter from this very 
 Hazard to some friend, describing the perils of that adven- 
 ture, and saying, " If you wish to know hell before your time, 
 go to St. Simon's and be hunted ten days by niggers." 
 
 I have heard Trowbridge say that not one of his men 
 flinched ; and they seemed to take delight in the pursuit, 
 though the weather was very hot, and it was fearfully ex- 
 hausting. 
 
 This was early in August ; and the company remained two 
 months at St. Simon's, doing picket duty within hearing of 
 the rebel drums, though not another scout ever ventured on 
 the island, to their knowledge. Every Saturday Trowbridge 
 
276 APPENDIX. 
 
 summoned the island people to drill with hLs soldiers ; and 
 they came in hordes, men, women, and children, in every 
 imaginable garb, to the number of one hundred and fifty or 
 two hundred. 
 
 His own men were poorly clothed and hardly shod at all ; 
 and, as no new supply of uniform was provided, they grew 
 more and more ragged. They got poor rations, and no pay ; 
 but they kept up their spirits. Every week or so some of 
 them would go on scouting excursions to the main-land ; one 
 scout used to go regularly to his old mother's hut, and keep 
 himself hid under her bed, while she collected for him all the 
 latest news of rebel movements. This man never came back 
 without bringing recruits with him. 
 
 At last the news came that Major-General Mitchell had 
 come to relieve General Hunter, and that Brigadier- General 
 Saxton had gone North ; and Trowbridge went to Hilton 
 Head in some anxiety to see if he and his men were utterly 
 forgotten. He prepared a report, showing the services and 
 claims of his men, and took it with him. This was early in 
 October, 1862. The first person he met was Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral Saxton, who informed him that he had authority to or- 
 ganize five thousand colored troops, and that he (Trowbridge) 
 should be senior captain of the first regiment. 
 
 This was accordingly done ; and Company A of the First 
 South Carolina could honestly claim to date its enlistment 
 back to May, 1862, although they never got pay for that 
 period of their service, and their date of muster was Novem- 
 ber 15, 1862. 
 
 The above facts were written down from the narration of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Trowbridge, who may justly claim to 
 have been the first white oificer to recruit and command 
 colored troops in this war. He was constantly in command 
 of them from May 9, 1862, to February 9, 1866. 
 
 Except the Louisiana soldiers mentioned in the Introduc- 
 tion, — of whom no detailed reports have, I think, been pub- 
 lished, — my regiment was unquestionably the first mustered 
 
APPENDIX. 277 
 
 into the service of tte United States ; the first company mus- 
 ter bearing date, November 7, 1862, and the others following 
 in quick succession. 
 
 The second regiment in order of muster was the " First 
 Kansas Colored," dating from January 13, 1863. The first 
 enlistment in the Kansas regiment goes back to August 
 6, 1862 ; while the earliest technical date of enlistment in 
 my regiment was October 19, 1862, although, as was stated 
 above, one company really dated its organization back to 
 May, 1862. My muster as colonel dates back to Novem- 
 ber 10, 1862, several months earlier than any other of which 
 I am aware, among colored regiments, except that of Colonel 
 Stafibrd (First Louisiana Native Guards), September 27, 
 1862. Colonel Williams, of the " First Kansas Colored," 
 was mustered as lieutenant-colonel on January 13, 1863; as 
 colonel, March 8, 1863. These dates I have (with the other 
 facts relating to the regiment) from Colonel E. J. Hinton, 
 the first officer detailed to recruit it. 
 
 To sum up the above facts : my late regiment had unques- 
 tioned priority in muster over all but the Louisiana regi- 
 ments. It had priority over those in the actual organization 
 and term of service of one company. On the other hand, the 
 Kansas regiment had the priority in average date of enlist- 
 ment, according to the muster-rolls. 
 
 The first detachment of the Second South Carolina Volun- 
 teers (Colonel Montgomery) went into camp at Port Royal 
 Island, February 23, 1863, numbering one hundred and 
 twenty men. I do not know the date of his muster ; it was 
 somewhat delayed, but was probably dated back to about 
 that time. 
 
 Recruiting for the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts (colored) 
 began on February 9, 1863, and the first squad went into 
 camp at Readville, Massachusetts, on February 21, 1863, 
 numbering twenty-five men. Colonel Shaw's commission (and 
 probably his muster) was dated April 17, 1863. (Report 
 of Adjutant-General of Massachusetts for 1863, pp. 896 - 809.) 
 
 These were the earliest colored regiments, so far as I know. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 278 
 
 Appendix C. 
 
 GENERAL SAXTON'S INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 [The following axe the instructions under which mj regi- 
 ment was raised. It wUl be seen how unequivocal were the 
 provisions in respect to pay, upon which so long and weary a 
 contest was waged by our friends in Congress, before the ful- 
 filment of the contract could be secured.] 
 
 War Depaktment, 'Washington City, D. C, 
 August 25, 1862. 
 
 General, — Your despatch of the 16th has this moment 
 been received. It is considered by the Department that the 
 instructions given at the time of your appointment were suf- 
 ficient to enable you to do what you have now requested 
 authority for doing. But in order to place your authority 
 beyond all doubt, you are hereby authorized and instructed, 
 
 1st, To organize in any convenient organization, by squads, 
 companies, battalions, regiments, and brigades, or otherwise, 
 colored persons of African descent for volunteer laborers, to a 
 number not exceeding fifty thousand, and muster them into 
 the service of the United States for the term of the war, at a 
 rate of compensation not exceeding five dollars per month 
 for common laborers, and eight dollars per month for me- 
 chanical or skilled laborers, and assign them to the Quarter- 
 master's Department, to do and perform such laborer's duty 
 as may be required during the present war, and to be subject 
 to the rules and articles of war. 
 
 2d. The laboring forces herein authorized shall, under 
 the order of the General-in-Chief, or of this Department, be 
 detailed by the Quartermaster-General for laboring service 
 with the armies of the United States ; and they shall be 
 
APPENDIX. 279 
 
 clothed and subsisted, after enrolment, in the same manner as 
 other persons in the Quartermaster's service. 
 
 3d. In view of the small force under your command, and 
 the inability of the Government at the present time to in- 
 crease it, in order to guard the plantations and settlements 
 occupied by the United States from invasion, and protect 
 the inhabitants thereof from captivity and murder by the 
 enemy, you are also authorized to arm, uniform, equip, and 
 receive into the service of the United States, such number of 
 volunteers of African descent as you may deem expedient, 
 not exceeding five thousand, and may detail officers to in- 
 struct them in military drill, discipline, and duty, and to 
 command them. The persons so received into service, and 
 their officers, to be entitled to, and receive, the same pay and 
 rations as are allowed, by law, to volunteers in the service. 
 
 4th. You will occupy, if possible, all the islands and plan- 
 tations heretofore occupied by the Government, and secure 
 and harvest the crops, and cultivate and improve the planta- 
 tions. 
 
 5tL The population of African descent that cultivate the 
 lands and perform the labor of the rebels constitute a large 
 share of their military strength, and enable the white masters 
 to fill the rebel armies, and wage a cruel and murderous war 
 against the people of the Northern States. By reducing the 
 laboring strength of the rebels, their military power will be 
 reduced. You are therefore authorized by every means in 
 your power, to withdraw from the enemy their laboring force 
 and population, and to spare no effort, consistent with civilized 
 warfare, to weaken, harass, and annoy them, and to establish 
 the authority of the Government of the United States within 
 your Department. 
 
 6th. You may turn over to the navy any number of col- 
 ored volunteers that may be required for the naval service. 
 
 7th. By recent act of Congress, all men and boys received 
 into the service of the United States, who may have been the 
 slaves of rebel masters, are, with their wives, mothers, and 
 
280 APPENDIX. 
 
 children, declared to be forever free. You and all in your 
 command will so. treat and regard them. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 BKIGADIEK-GEirERAL SaXTON. 
 
 Appendix D. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOE PAY. ^ 
 
 The story of the attempt to cut down the pay of the col- 
 ored troops is too long, too complicated, and too humiliating, 
 to be here narrated. In the case of my regiment there 
 stood on record the direct pledge of the War Department to 
 General Saxton that their pay should be the same as that of 
 whites. So clear was this that our kind paymaster. Major 
 W. J. Wood, of New Jersey, took upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of paying the price agreed upon, for five months, till he 
 was compelled by express orders to reduce it from thirteen 
 dollars per month to ten dollars, and from that to seven dollars, 
 — the pay of quartermaster's men and day-laborers. At the 
 same time the " stoppages " from the pay-rolls for the loss of all 
 equipments and articles of clothing remained the same as for 
 all other soldiers, so that it placed the men in the most painful 
 and humiliating condition. Many of them had families to pro- 
 vide for, and between the actual distress, the sense of wrong, 
 the taunts of those who had refused to enlist from the fear of 
 being cheated, and the doubt how much farther the cheat 
 might be carried, the poor fellows were goaded to the utmost. 
 In the Third South Carolina regiment. Sergeant William 
 Walker was shot, by order of court-martial, for leading his com- 
 pany to stack arms before their captain's tent, on the avowed 
 ground that they were released from duty by the refusal 
 of the Government to fulfil its share of the contract. The 
 fear of such tragedies spread a cloud of solicitude over every 
 
APPENDIX. 281 
 
 camp of colored soldiers for more than a year, and the follow- 
 ing series of letters will show through what wearisome labors 
 the final triumph of justice was secured. In these labors the 
 chief credit must be given to my admirable Adjutant, Lieu- 
 tenant G. W. Dewhurst. In the matter of bounty justice is 
 not yet obtained ; there is a discrimination against those col- 
 ored soldiers who were slaves on April 19, 1S61. Every offi- 
 cer, who through indolence or benevolent design claimed on 
 his muster-rolls that all his men had been free on that day, 
 secured for them the bounty ; while every officer who, like my- 
 self, obeyed orders and told the truth in each case, saw his 
 men and their families suffer for it, as I have done. A bill to 
 abolish this distinction was introduced by Mr. Wilson at the 
 last session, but failed to pass the House. It is hoped that 
 next winter may remove this last vestige of the weary con- 
 test. 
 
 To show how persistently and for how long a period these 
 claims had to be urged on Congress, I reprint such of my 
 own printed letters on the subject as are now in my possession. 
 There are one or two of which I have no copies. It was 
 especially in the Senate that it was so difficult to get justice 
 done ; and our thanks will always be especially due to Hon. 
 Charles Sumner and Hon. Henry Wilson for their advocacy 
 of our simple rights. The records of those sessions will show 
 who advocated the fraud. 
 
 To the Editor of the New York Tribune : 
 
 SiK, — No one can overstate the intense anxiety with 
 which the officers of colored regiments in this Department 
 are awaiting action from Congress in regard to arrears of pay 
 of their men. 
 
 It is not a matter of dollars and cents only ; it is a ques- 
 tion of common honesty, — whether the United States Gov- 
 ernment has sufficient integrity for the fulffiment of an ex- 
 plicit business contract. 
 
 The public seems to suppose that all required justice will 
 
282 APPENDIX. 
 
 be done by the passage of a bill equalizing the pay of all sol- 
 diers for the future. But, so far as my own regiment is con- 
 cerned, this is but half the question. My men have been 
 nearly sixteen months in the service, and for them the imme- 
 diate issue is the question of arrears. 
 
 They understand the matter thoroughly, if the public do 
 not. Every one of them knows that he volunteered under an 
 explicit written assurance from the War Department that he 
 should have the pay of a white soldier. He knows that for 
 five months the regiment received that pay, after which it 
 was cut down from the promised thirteen dollars per month 
 to ten dollars, for some reason to him inscrutable. 
 
 He does not know — for I have not yet dared to tell the 
 men — that the Paymaster has been already reproved by the 
 Pay Department for fulfilling even in part the pledges of the 
 War Department ; that at the next payment the ten dollars 
 are to be further reduced to seven ; and that, to crown the 
 whole, all the previous overpay is to be again deducted or 
 " stopped " from the future wages, thus leaving them a. little 
 more than a dollar a month for six months to come, unless 
 Congress interfere ! 
 
 Yet so clear were the terms of the contract that Mr. So- 
 licitor Whiting, having examined the original instructions 
 from the War Department issued to Brigadier-General Sax- 
 ton, Military Governor, admits to me (under date of Decem- 
 ber 4, 1863,) that " the faith of the Government was thereby 
 pledged to every officer and soldier enlisted under that call." 
 
 He goes on to express the generous confidence that " the 
 pledge will be honorably fulfilled." I observe that every one 
 at the North seems to feel the same confidence, but that, 
 meanwhile, the pledge is unfulfilled. Nothing is said in Con- 
 gress about fulfilling it. I have not seen even a proposition in 
 Congress to pay the colored soldiers, from date of enlistment, 
 the same pay with white soldiers ; and yet anything short of 
 that is an unequivocal breach of contract, so far as this regi- 
 ment is concerned. 
 
APPENDIX. 283 
 
 Meanwhile, the land sales are beginning, and there is dan- 
 ger of every foot of land being sold from beneath my sol- 
 diers' feet, because they have not the petty sum which Gov- 
 ernment first promised, and then refused to pay. 
 
 The officers' pay comes promptly and fully enough, and 
 this makes the position more embarrassing. For how are we 
 to explain to the men the mystery that Government can af- 
 ford us a hundred or two dollars a month, and yet must keep 
 back six of the poor thirteen which it promised them ? Does 
 it not naturally suggest the most cruel suspicions in regard to 
 us ? And yet nothing but their childlike faith in their offi- 
 cers, and in that incarnate soul of honor, General Saxton, 
 has sustained their faith, or kept them patient, thus far. 
 
 There is nothing mean or mercenary about these men in 
 general. Convince them that the Government actually 
 needs their money, and they would serve it barefooted and 
 on half-rations, and without a dollar — for a time. But, un- 
 fortunately, they see white soldiers beside them, whom they 
 know to be in no way their superiors for any military service, 
 receiving hundreds of dollars for re-enlisting from this im- 
 poverished Government, which can only pay seven dollars 
 out of thirteen to its black regiments. And they see, on the 
 other hand, those colored men who refused to volunteer as 
 soldiers, and who have found more honest paymasters than 
 the United States Government, now exulting in well-filled 
 pockets, and able to buy the little homesteads the soldiers 
 need, and to turn the soldiers' families into the streets. Is 
 this a school for self-sacrificing patriotism ? 
 
 I should not speak thus urgently were it not becoming 
 manifest that there is to be no promptness of action in Con- 
 gress, even as regards the future pay of colored soldiers, — 
 and that there is especial danger of the whole matter of ar- 
 rears going by default. Should it be so, it will be a repudia- 
 tion more ungenerous than any which Jefferson Davis advo- 
 cated or Sydney Smith denounced. It will sully with dis- 
 honor all the nobleness of this opening page of history, and 
 
284 APPENDIX. 
 
 fix upon the North a brand of meanness worse than either 
 Southerner or Englishman has yet dared to impute. The 
 mere delay in the fulfilment of this contract has already in- 
 flicted untold sufiering, has impaired discipline, has relaxed 
 loyalty, and has begun to implant a feeling of sullen distrust 
 in the very regiments whose early career solved the problem 
 of the nation, created a new army, and made peaceful eman- 
 cipation possible. 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON, 
 Golonel commanding 1st S. C. Vols. 
 Beaxtfoet, S. C, January 22, 1864. 
 
 Headquarters First South Caeolina Volunteers^ 
 Beaufort, S. C, Sunday, February 14, 1864. 
 
 To the Editor of the New York Times : 
 
 May I venture to call your attention to the great and 
 cruel injustice which is impending over the brave men of this 
 regiment ? 
 
 They have been in military service for over a year, having 
 volunteered, every man, without a cent of bounty, on the 
 written pledge of the War Department that they should re- 
 ceive the same pay and rations with white soldiers. 
 
 This pledge is contained in the written instructions of 
 Brigadier-General Saxton, Military Governor, dated August 
 25, 1862. Mr. Solicitor Whiting, having examined those in- 
 structions, admits to me that " the faith of the Government 
 was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier under that 
 call." 
 
 Surely, if this fact were understood, every man in the na- 
 tion would see that the Government is degraded by using for 
 a year the services of the brave soldiers, and then repudi- 
 ating the contract under which they were enlisted. This is 
 what will be done, should Mr. Wilson's bill, legalizing the 
 back pay of the army, be defeated. 
 
 We presume too much on the supposed ignorance of these 
 men. I have never yet found a man in my regiment so 
 stupid as not to know when he was cheated. If iraud pro- 
 
APPENDIX. 285 \/ 
 
 ceeds from Government itself, so much the worse, for this 
 strikes at the foundation of all rectitude, all honor, all obliga- 
 tion. 1 
 
 Mr. Senator Fessenden said, in the debate on Mr. Wilson's \/'^i^^ 
 bill, January 4, that the Government was not bound by the I'J'^ 
 unauthorized promises of irresponsible recruiting officers. 
 But is the Government itself an irresponsible recruiting offi- 
 cer ? and if men have volunteered in good faith on the writ- 
 ten assurances of the Secretary of War, is not Congress 
 bound, in all decency, either to fiilfil those pledges or to dis- 
 band the regiments ? 
 
 Mr. Senator DooUttle argued in the same debate that white 
 soldiers should receive higher pay than black ones, because 
 the famiUes of the latter were often supported by Government. 
 What an astounding statement of fact is this I In the white 
 regiment in which I was formerly an officer (the Massachu- 
 setts Fifty-First) nine tenths of the soldiers' families, in addi- 
 tion to the pay and bounties, drew regularly their " State 
 aid." Among my black soldiers, with half-pay and no boun- 
 ty, not a family receives any aid. Is there to be no limit, no 
 end to the injustice we heap upon this unfortunate people ? 
 Cannot even the fact of their being in arms for the nation, 
 liable to die any day in its defence, secure them ordinary jus- 
 tice? Is the nation so poor, and so utterly demoralized by 
 its pauperism, that after it has had the lives of these men, it 
 must turn round to filch six dollars of the monthly pay which 
 the Secretary of War promised to their widows ? It is even 
 so, if the excuses of Mr. Fessenden and Mr. DooUttle are to 
 be accepted by Congress and by the people. 
 
 "Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON, 
 Cohnel commanding Isl 8. C. Volunteers. 
 
286 APPENDIX. 
 
 NEW VICTOEIES AND OLD WRONGS. 
 
 To the Editors of the Evening Post : 
 
 On the 2d of July, at James Island, S. C, a battery was 
 taken by three regiments, under the following circumstances : 
 
 The regiments were the One Hundred and Third New 
 York (white), the Thirty-Third United States (formerly 
 First South Carolina Volunteers), and the Fifty-Fifth Massa- 
 chusetts, the two last being colored. They marched at one 
 A. M., by the flank, in the above order, hoping to surprise the 
 battery. As usual the rebels were prepared for them, and 
 opened upon them as they were d^ep in one of those almost 
 impassable Southern marshes. The One Hundred and Third 
 New York, which had previously been in twenty battles, was 
 thrown into confusion ; the Thirty-Third United States did 
 better, being behind ; the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts being in 
 the rear, did better still. All three formed in line, when 
 Colonel Hartwell, commanding the brigade, gave the order to 
 retreat. The officer commanding the Fifty-Fifth Massachu- 
 setts, either misunderstanding the order, or hearing it counter- 
 manded, ordered his regiment to charge. This order was at 
 once repeated by Major Trowbridge, commanding the Thirty- 
 Third United States, and by the commander of the One 
 Hundred and Third New York, so that the three regiments 
 reached the fort in reversed order. The color-bearers of the 
 Thirty-Third United States and of the Fifty-Fifth Massachu- 
 setts had a race to be first in, the latter winning. The One 
 Hundred and Third New York entered the battery immedi- 
 ately after. 
 
 These colored regiments are two of the five which were en- 
 listed in South Carolina and Massachusetts, under the written 
 pledge of the War Department that they should have the 
 same pay and allowances as white soldiers. That pledge has 
 been deliberately broken by the War Department, or by Con- 
 gress, or by both, except as to the short period, since last New- 
 
APPENDIX. 287 
 
 Year's Day. Every one of those killed m this action from 
 these two colored regiments — under a fire before which the 
 veterans of twenty battles recoiled — died defrauded by the 
 Government of nearly one half his petty pay. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden, who defeated in the Senate the bill for the 
 fulfilment of the contract with these soldiers, is now Secretary 
 of the Treasury. Was the economy of saving six dollars 
 per man worth to the Treasury the ignominy of the repudia- •■ 
 tion? 
 
 Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, on his triumphal return to 
 his constituents, used to them this language : " He had no- 
 doubt whatever as to the final result of the present contest 
 between hberty and slavery. The only doubt he had was 
 whether the nation had yet been satisfactorily chastised for 
 their cruel oppression of a harmless and long-sufiering race." 
 Inasmuch as it was Mr. Stevens himself who induced the 
 House of Representatives, most unexpectedly to all, to defeat 
 the Senate bill for the fulfilment of the national contract with 
 these soldiers, I should think he had excellent reasons for the 
 doubt. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON, 
 CbUmel 1st S. C. Vols, (now ZZd V. S.) 
 
 July 10, 1864. 
 
 To the Editor of the New York Tribune : 
 
 No one can possibly be so weary of reading of the wrongs 
 done by Government toward the colored^soldiers as am I of 
 writing about them. This is my only excuse for intruding 
 on your columns again. . 
 
 By an order of the War Department, dated August 1, 
 1864, it is at length ruled that colored soldiers shall be paid 
 the full pay of soldiers from date of enlistment, provided they 
 were free on April 19, 1861, — not otherwise ; and this distinc- 
 tion is to be noted on the pay-rolls. In other words, if one half 
 of a company escaped from slavery on April 18, 1861, they 
 are to be paid thirteen dollars per month and allowed three 
 
/288 APPENDIX. 
 
 dollars and a half per month for clothing. If the other half 
 were delayed two days, they receive seven dollars per month 
 and are allowed three dollars per month for precisely the 
 same articles of clothing. If one of the former clcisa is made 
 first sergeant, his pay is put up to twenty-one dollars per 
 month ; but if he escaped two days later, his pay is still esti- 
 mated at seven dollars. 
 
 It had not occurred to me that anything could make the 
 pay-rolls of these regiments more complicated than at pres- 
 ent, or the men more rationally discontented. I had not the 
 ingenuity to imagine such an order. Yet it is no doubt in 
 accordance with the spirit, if not with the letter, of the final 
 \^ biU which was adopted by Congress under the lead of Mr. 
 Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
 The ground taken by Mr. Stevens apparently was that the 
 country might honorably save a few dollars by docking the 
 promised pay of those colored soldiers whom the war had 
 made free. But the Government should have thought of this be- 
 fore it made the contract with these men and received their ser- 
 vices. When the War Department instructed Brigadier- 
 General Saxton, August 25, 1862, to raise five regiments of 
 negroes in South Carolina, it was known very well that the 
 men so enlisted had only recently gained their freedom. But 
 the instructions said : " The persons so received into service, 
 and their officers, to be entitled to and receive the same pay 
 and rations as are allowed bylaw to volunteers, in the ser- 
 vice." Of this passage Mr. Solicitor Whiting wrote to me : 
 " I have no hesitatioii in saying that the faith of the Govern- 
 ment was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier en- 
 listed under that call." Where is' that faith of the Govern- 
 ment now ? 
 
 The men who enlisted under the pledge were volunteers, 
 every one ; they did not get their freedom by enlisting ; they 
 had it already. They enlisted to serve the Government, 
 trusting in its honor. Now the nation turns upon them and 
 says : Your part of the contract is fulfilled ; we have had 
 
APPENDIX. 289 
 
 your services. If you can show that you had previously been 
 free for a certain length of time, we will fulfil the other side 
 of the contract. If not, we repudiate it. Help yourselves, 
 if you can. 
 
 In other words, a fi^edman (since April 19, 1861) has no 
 rights which a white man is bound to respect. He is incapa- 
 ble of making a contract. No man is bound by a contract 
 made with him. Any employer, following the example of the 
 United States Government, may make with him a written 
 agreement, receive his services, and then withhold the wages. 
 He has no motive to honest industry, or to honesty of any 
 kind. He is virtually a slave, and nothing else, to the end of 
 time. 
 
 Under this order, the greater part of the Massachusetts 
 colored regiments will get their pay at last, and be able to 
 take their wives and children out of the almshouses, to which, 
 as Governor Andrew informs us, the gracious charity of the 
 nation has consigned so many. For so much I am grateful. 
 But toward my regiment, which had been in service and 
 under fire, months before a Northern colored soldier was re- 
 cruited, the policy of repudiation hsis at last been officially 
 adopted. There is no alternative for the officers of South 
 Carolina regiments but to wait for another session of Con- 
 gress, and meanwhile, if necessary, act as executioners for 
 those soldiers who, like Sergeant Walker, refuse to fulfil 
 their share of a contract where the Government has openly 
 repudiated the other share. If a year's discussion, however, ' 
 has at length secured the arrears of pay for the Northern / i/ 
 colored regiments, possibly two years may secure it for the-^ 
 Southern. 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON, 
 CdUmd Ist 8. C. Vols, (now 33d U. S.J 
 
 August 12, 1864. 
 
 13* 
 
290 APPENDIX. 
 
 JUSTICE NOT DONE YET. 
 
 To the Editor of the New York Tribune : 
 
 Sir, — An impression seems to prevail in the newspapers 
 that the lately published " opinion " of Attorney-General 
 Bates (dated in July last) at length secures justice to the 
 colored soldiers in respect to arrears of pay. This impres- 
 sion is a mistake. 
 
 That " opinion " does indeed show that there never was 
 any excuse for refusing them justice ; but it does not, of 
 itself, secure justice to them. 
 
 It logically covers the whole ground, and was doubtless in- 
 tended to do so ; but technically it can only apply to those 
 soldiers who were free at the commencement of the war. 
 For it was only about these that the Attorney-General was 
 officially consulted. 
 
 Under this decision the Northern colored regiments have 
 already got their arrears of pay, — and those few members 
 of the Southern regiments who were free on April 19, 1861. 
 But in the South Carolina regiments this only increases the 
 dissatisfaction among the remainder, who volunteered under 
 the same pledge of full pay from the War Department, and who 
 do not see how the question of their status at some antecedent 
 period can affect an express contract. If, in 1862, they were 
 free enough to make a bargain with, they were certainly free 
 enough to claim its fulfilment. 
 
 The unfortunate decision of Mr. Solicitor Whiting, under 
 which all our troubles arose, is indeed superseded by the rea- 
 soning of the Attorney-General. But unhappily that does 
 not remedy the evil, which is already embodied in an Act of 
 Congress, making the distinction between those who were 
 and those who were not free on April 19, 1861. 
 
 The question is, whether those who were not free at the 
 breaking out of the war are still to be defrauded, after the 
 Attorney-General has shown that there is no excuse for de- 
 frauding them ? 
 
APPENDIX. 291 
 
 I call it defrauding, because it is not a question of abstract 
 justice, but of the fulfilment of an express contract. 
 
 I have never met with a man, whatever might be his opin- 
 ions as to the enlistment of colored soldiers, who did not ad- 
 mit that if they had volunteered under the direct pledge of 
 full pay from the War Department, they were entitled to 
 every cent of it That these South Carolina regiments had 
 such direct pledge is undoubted, for it still exists in writing, 
 signed by the Secretary of War, and has never been dis- 
 puted. 
 
 It is therefore the plain duty of Congress to repeal the law 
 which discriminates between different classes of colored sol- 
 diers, or at least so to modify it as to secure the fulfilment of 
 actual contracts. Until this is done the nation is still dis- 
 graced. The few thousand dollars in question are nothing 
 compared with the absolute wrong done and the discredit it 
 has brought, both here and in Europe, upon the national 
 
 name. 
 
 T. W. HIGGINSON, 
 Lale Col. Isl S. C. Vok. (now 3d U. S. C. T.J 
 
 Newpokt, E. I., December 8, 1864. 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 « To the Honorahle Senate and House of Representalives of (lie 
 United Slates in Congress assembled : — 
 
 " The undersigned respectfully petitions for the repeal of 
 so much of Section IV. of the Act of Congress making ap- 
 propriations for the army and approved July 4, 1864, as 
 makes a distinction, in respect of pay due, between those 
 colored soldiers who were free on or before April 19, 1861, 
 and those who were not free until a later date ; 
 
 " Or at least that there may be such legislation as to secure 
 the fulfilment of pledges of full pay from date of enlistment, 
 made by direct authority of the Wsr Department to the 
 
292 APPENDIX. 
 
 colored soldiers of South Carolina, on the faith of which 
 pledges they enlisted. 
 
 " THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, 
 Late Colonel 1st S. C Vols, (now 33d V. S. C. Voh.) 
 " Nbwpokt, E. I., December 9, 1864." 
 
 Appendix E. 
 
 FAREWELL ADDRESS OF LT.-COL. TROWBRIDGE. 
 
 Headquaktbbs 33d Uhited States Colored Troops, late 1st 
 South Carolina Volunteers, 
 
 Morris Island, S. C, 
 
 February 9, 1866. 
 General Orders, No. 1. 
 
 Comrades, — The hour is at hand when we must separate 
 forever, and nothing can ever take from us the pride we feel, 
 when we look back upon the history of the First South Caro- 
 lina Volunteers, — the first black regiment that ever bore 
 arms in defence of freedom on the continent of America. 
 
 On the ninth day of May, 1862, at which time there 
 were nearly four millions of your race in a bondage sanc- 
 tioned by the laws of the land, and protected by our flag, — 
 on that day, in the face of floods of prejudice, that wellnigh 
 deluged every avenue to manhood and true liberty, you came 
 forth to do battle for your country and your kindred. For 
 long and weary months without pay, or even the privilege of 
 being recognized as soldiers, you labored on, only to be dis- 
 banded and sent to your homes, without even a hope of 
 reward. And when our country, necessitated by the deadly 
 struggle with armed traitors, finally granted you the opportu- 
 nity again to come forth in defence of the nation's life, the 
 alacrity with which you responded to the call gave abundant 
 evidence of your readiness to strike a manly blow for the 
 liberty of your race. And from that little band of hopeful, 
 
APPENDIX. 293 
 
 trusting, and brave men, who gathered at Camp Saxton, on 
 Port Royal Island, in the fall of 1862, amidst the terrible 
 prejudices that then surrounded us, has grown an army of a 
 hundred and forty thousand black.,soldiers, whose valor and 
 heroism has won for your race a name which will live as long 
 as the undying pages of history shall endure ; and by whose 
 efforts, united with those of the white man, armed rebellion 
 has been conquered, the millions of bondmen have been 
 emancipated, and the fundamental law of the land has been 
 so altered as to remove forever the possibility of human 
 slavery being re-established within the borders of redeemed 
 America. The flag of our fathers, restored to its rightful 
 significance, now floats over every foot of our territory, from 
 Maine to California, and beholds only freemen I The preju- 
 dices which formerly existed against you are wellnigh rooted 
 out. 
 
 Soldiers, you have done your duty, and acquitted your- 
 selves like men, who, actuated by such ennobling motives, 
 could not fail ; and as the result of your fidelity and obedi- 
 ence, you have won your freedom. And O, how great the 
 reward ! 
 
 It seems fitting to rae that the last hours of our existence 
 as a regiment should be passed amidst the unmarked graves 
 of your comrades, — at Fort Wagner. Near you rest the 
 bones of Colonel Shaw, buried by an enemy's hand, in the 
 same grave with his black soldiers, who fell at his side ; where, 
 in future, your children's children will come on pilgrimages to 
 do homage to the ashes of those that fell in this glorious 
 struggle. 
 
 The flag which was presented to us by the Rev. George B. 
 Cheever and his congregation, of New York City, on the first 
 of January, 1863, — the day when Lincoln's immortal procla- 
 mation of freedom was given to the world, — and which you 
 have borne so nobly through the war, is now to be rolled up 
 forever, and deposited in our nation's capital. And while 
 there it shall rest, with the battles in which you have par- 
 
294 APPENDIX. 
 
 ticipated inscribed tipon its folds, it will be a source of pride 
 to us all to remember that it has never been disgraced by a 
 cowardly faltering in the hour of danger or polluted by 
 a traitor's touch. 
 
 Now that you are to lay aside your arms, and return to the 
 peaceful avocations of life, I adjure you, by the associations 
 and history of the past, and the love you bear for your liber- 
 ties, to harbor no feelings of hatred toward your former 
 masters, but to seek in the paths of honesty, virtue, sobriety, 
 and industry, and by s, willing obedience to the laws of the 
 land, to grow up to the full stature of American citizens. 
 The church, the school-house, and the right forever to be free 
 are now secured to you, and every prospect before you is full 
 of hope and encouragement. The nation guarantee s to yon 
 full protection and-justlee,^nd will require from you-in-return 
 v' that respect for the laws and orderly deportment which will 
 prove to every onej^iy right to all the privileges of freemen. 
 
 To the officers of the regiment I would say, your toils are 
 ended, your mission is fulfilled, and we separate forever. The 
 fidelity, patience, and patriotism with which you have dis- 
 charged your duties, to your men and to your country, entitle 
 you to a far higher tribute than any words of thankfulness 
 which I can give you from the bottom of my heart. You 
 will find your reward in the proud conviction that the cause 
 for which you have battled so nobly has been crowned with 
 abundant success. 
 
 Officers and soldiers of the Thirty-Third United States 
 Colored Troops, once the First South Carolina Volunteers, 
 I bid you all farewell ! 
 
 By order of Lt.-Col. C. T. Trowbridge, commanding 
 
 Regiment. 
 
 E. W. HYDE, 
 Lieutenant and Acting Adjutant. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adams, C. P., Hon., 25. 
 Aiken, William, Gov., 170. 
 Allston, Adam, Corp., 93. 
 Andrew, J. A., Got , 3, 71, 224, 225, 
 
 Bates, Edward, Hon., 290. 
 Beach, H. A., Lt., 271, 272. 
 Beauregard, W. X., Gen., 22, 57. 
 Bcecher, H. W., Rot., 256. 
 Bell, Louis, Col., 236. 
 Bennett, W. T., Gen., 265, 269. 
 Bezzard, James, 83. 
 Bigelow, L. F., Lt., 2. 
 Billings, L., Lt.-Col., 269. 
 Bingham, J. M., Lt., 176, 270. 
 Brannan, J. M., Gen., 98. 
 Brisbane, W. H., 40. 
 Bronson, William, Sergt., 273. 
 Brown, A. B.,Lt.,272. 
 Brown, John, 4, 22, 41, 60. 
 Brown, John (colored), 274- 
 Brown, York, 275. 
 Bryant, J. E., Capt., 230, 231. 
 Bndd, Lt., 68. 
 
 Burnside, A. E., Gen., 33,34. 
 Butler, B.r., Gen., 1. 
 
 Calhoun, J. C, Capt., 151, 
 Chamberlin, G. B., Lt., 185, 270. 
 Chamberlin, Mrs., 242. 
 CheeTer, G. B., KeT., 293. 
 Child, A., Lt.. 271, 272. 
 Clark, Capt., 70, 76, 92. 
 Clifton, Capt., 90, 91. 
 Clinton, J. B., Lt , 170. 
 Corwin, B. R., Maj., 115. 122. 
 CrandaU, W. B., Surg., 269. 
 Cruni, Simon, Corp^ 266. 
 Cushman, James, 256. 
 
 Danilson, W. H., Maj., 80, 270. 
 DaTis, C. I . Lt.,271. 
 DaTis, E. M., Lt., 272. 
 DavM, W. W. H., Gen., 168. 
 Dewhurst, G. W., Adj't., 270. 
 Dewhurst, Mrs 242. 
 Dolly, George, Capt., 179, 270. 
 Boolittle, J. R., Hon. 285. 
 Duncan, Lt. Comr., 100, 103. 
 Dupont, S. P., Admiral, 67, 78, 89, 100, 
 135. .11., 
 
 Dutch, Capt., 170. 
 
 Fessenden, W. P., Hon., 285, 287. 
 
 Finnegan, Gen., 108. 
 
 Fisher, J., Lt.,271. 
 
 Fowler, J. H., Chap., 40, 113, 231, 270. 
 
 Fremont, J. C, Gen., 23, 42. 
 
 French, J., Rev., 40, 118. 
 
 Furman, J. T., Lt., 272. 
 
 Gage, F. D., Mrs., 41. 
 
 Garrison, W. L.,249. 
 
 Gaston, William, Lt., 271. 
 
 Gillmore, Q. A., Gen., 167, 168, 183, 
 
 235, 237, 240. 
 Goldsborough, Commodore, 243, 274. 
 Goodell, J. B.,Lt.,2. 
 Goodrich, F. S., Lt., 271, 272. 
 Gould, B., Corp., 274. 
 Gould, F.M.,Lt., 272. 
 Greene, Sergt., 121. 
 
 Hallett, Capt.,65, 66, 274. 
 
 Hallowell, E. N., Gen., 225, 242, 244. 
 
 Hartwell, A. S.. Gen., 286. 
 
 Hawks, J. M., Surg., 269. 
 
 Hawley, J. R., Gen., 81, 93, 107. 
 
 Hayne, H. E., Sergt., 265. 
 
 Hazard, Miles, 275. 
 
 Heasley, A., Capt., 230, 270. 
 
 Heron, Charles, 122. 
 
 Hinton, R. J., Col., 277. 
 
 Holden, Lt., 122. 
 
 Hooper, C. W., Capt., 155, 237, 270, 
 271,27a 
 
 Hughes, Lt. Comr., 78, 81, 82. 
 
 Hunter, David, Gen., 2, 10, 15, 43, 57, 
 60, 61, 64, 97, 98, 119, 126, 129, 135, 
 136, 151, 168, 272, 273, 276. 
 
 Hyde, E. W., Lt., 271, 272, 294. 
 
 Hyde, W. H.,Lt., 76, 271. 
 
 Jackson, A. W., Capt. , 73, 76, 270, 271, 
 
 272. 
 James, William, Capt., 84, 170, 270. 
 Johnston, J. P., Lt., 271. 
 Jones, Lt., 76, 8L 
 
 Kemble,Mrs.,67, 274. 
 Kennon, Clarence, Corp., 275. 
 King,!. B.,67. 
 
 Lambkin, Prince, Corp , 109. 
 Lincoln, Abraham, Pros., 23, 34, 252. 
 Long, Thomas, Corp., 256. 
 
296 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Manning, B. H., Lt., 272. 
 Mclntyre, H., Sergt., 71, 72, 252. 
 Meeker, L., Maj., 117, 122. 
 Merriam, E. 0., Uapt , 270, 271. 
 Metcalf, L. W., Capt., 71, 73, 84, 231, 
 
 270. 
 Miller family, 247. 
 Minor, T. T., Surg., 73, 269. 
 MitcheU, 0. M., Gen., 276. 
 Montgomery, James, Col., 104, 107, 114, 
 
 116, 126, 127, 169, 277. 
 Moses, Acting Master, 68. 
 
 O'Neil, J. B.,Lt.,271. 
 Osborne, Lt., 231. 
 
 Parker, C.E.,Lt., 271. 
 
 Parker, N. G., Capt., 270, 271, 272. 
 
 Parsons, William, 75. 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, 112, 249. 
 
 Pomeroy, J.,Lt , 271. 
 
 Randolpli, W. J., Capt., 114, 270. 
 Rivers, Prince, Sergt., 41, 57, 59, 62, 
 
 89, 261, 265. 
 Bobbins, E. W., Capt., 270, 271, 272. 
 Roberts, Samuel, 243. 
 Rogers, J. S., Capt., 94, 180, 266, 270. 
 Rogers, Seth, Surg., 76, 94, 269. 
 Rust, J. D , Col., 119, 120, 122, 128. 
 
 Sammis, Col., 27. 
 
 Sampson, W. W., Capt., 176, 270, 271. 
 
 Saxton, M. W., Lt., 272. 
 
 Saxton, Rufus, Gen., 2, 3, 7, 8, 16, 34, 
 35, 37, 39, 41, 42, 48, 52, 60, 61, 64, 
 75, 93, 97, 100, 143, 168, 226, 226. 
 229, 234, 236, 237, 241, 244, 248, 273, 
 276, 278, 280, 282, 284, 288. 
 
 Searles, J. M., Lt., 272. 
 
 Sears, Capt., 82. 
 
 SelTage, J. W., Lt., 272. 
 
 Serrell,E. W., Col., 272. 
 
 Seward, W. IL, 251. 
 
 Seymour, T. Gen., 129, 240. 
 
 Shaw, R. G., Col., 176, 224, 225, 277, 
 293. 
 
 Sherman, W. T., Gen., 176, 263. 
 
 Showalter, Lt.-Col., 124. 
 
 Simmons, London, Corpl., 260. 
 
 Small, Robert Capt., 7, 05. 
 
 Smith, Mr., 92. 
 
 Sprague, A. B. R., Col., 2. 
 
 Stafford, Col., 277. 
 
 Stanton, E. M., Hon., 280. 
 
 Steedman, Capt., 127. 
 
 Steyens, Capt., 68. 
 
 Stevens, Thaddeus, Hon., 287, 288. 
 
 Stickney, Judge, 41, 97, 107. 
 
 Stockdale, W.,Lt..271. 
 
 Stone, H. A., Lt., 271, 272. 
 
 Strong, J. D. , Lt.-Col., 65, 90, 122, 178, 
 
 181, 182, 269. 
 Stuard, E. S., Surg., 269. 
 Sumner, Charles, Hon., 281. 
 Sunderland, Col., 106. 
 Sutton, Robert, Sergt., 41, 62, 70, 71, 
 
 75, 77, 82, 83, 86, 94, 198. 
 
 Thibadeau, J. H., Capt., 270. 
 
 Thompson, J. M., Capt., 270, 271. 
 
 Tirrell, A. H.,Lt.,272. 
 
 Tonking, J. H., Capt., 270. 
 
 Trowbridge, C. T., Lt.-Col. , 65, 94, 115, 
 168, 169, 172, 174, 175, 182, 237, 243, 
 247, 258, 261, 265, 269, 270, 272, 274, 
 276, 286, 292, 294, 
 
 Trowbridge, J. A,, Lt., 271. 
 
 Tubman, Harriet, 11. 
 
 Twichell, J. P., Lt.-CoL 117, 122. 
 
 Vendross, Robert, Corp., 265. 
 
 Walker, G. D., Capt., 270. 
 
 Walker, William, Sergt., 280, 289. 
 
 Washington, William, 21. 
 
 Watson, Lt., 100. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, Hon., 1- 
 
 Weld, S. M., 225. 
 
 West, H.C.Lt., 271. 
 
 West, J. B.,Lt.,271. 
 
 White, E. P., Lt., 271. 
 
 White, N. S., Capt., 270, 271, 272. 
 
 Whiting, WUHam, Hon., 282, 284,288, 
 
 290. 
 Whitney, H. A., Maj., 176, 230, 269, 
 
 270. 
 Wiggins, Cyrus, 266. 
 Williams, Harry, Sergt., 230. 
 Wmiams, Col., 277. 
 Wilson, Henry, Hon., 281, 284, 285. 
 Wilson family, 246. 
 Wood, H.,Lt., 271,272. 
 Wood, W. J.", Maj., 280. 
 Wright, Gen., 98, 104. 
 Wright, Fanny, 247. 
 
 Zachos, Dr., 18. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Cambridge : Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.