Brevet Major General R. Saxton.
Stuart M. Taylor, Brevet Major and Asst. Adjt. Gen.
Major M. R. Delany, 104th. U. S. C. T.
Major Delany met the general on Tuesday morning at Hilton Head, while en route for New York. The 104th—the major’s regiment—was then at Camp Duane, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Wilson. Colonel Douglass Frazer being in command at Hilton Head, in expectation of seeing him, but adhering strictly to his instructions received from the department at Washington, the basis of his own cherished principles, did not join his regiment, awaiting further orders from the department.
While awaiting instructions, he was necessarily unemployed, and there being many duties connected with the welfare of the freedmen, he was compelled daily to witness their imperfect performance. Just across the river from him rumors would reach him of the dissatisfied state of the people; and as he was anxious to aid in restoring the industry and labor of the South, he went to St. Helena Island to use his influence with them, and instruct them as to their duty on the subject.
The next day, to his surprise, he was informed that his mission to St. Helena’s was for the purpose of urging the freedmen to insurrection, and it was thus reported at the general’s and post headquarters; but the malice of his enemies, blinded by prejudice, was of no avail with his official superiors, with the exception of its being somewhat annoying to him, as a rumor augmenting as it extended: it passed off without an official notice.
While this incendiary character was falsely assigned to him, the following order from Washington was received, and the current of speculation as to the black major’s rôle was turned in another direction:—
War Department, Adjutant General’s Office,
Washington, D. C., July 15, 1865.
Special Orders. No. 372.
Extract.