“I am taking things very quietly in this most quiet of all places. There is no danger from dissipation or over-excitement, and I need not, therefore, be apprehensive of anything like inflammation in my wounded part. My wound is doing exceedingly well. I can now move a little about the house with a cane.”
That very day he received orders to proceed to Savannah, Ga., with the view of taking charge of the fortifications on the Savannah River. After his arrival there he writes Oliver, March 27:—
“I am here on temporary duty for a few days, and shall return home next week. This is to be my permanent station in the fall. The summer I shall spend in amusing myself. A portion of it will be passed in Andover.
“Savannah is an old-looking, handsomely laid out, and pretty well-built place, the most important town in the State, and the only one having much trade.
“Colonel Mansfield will relieve me in Bucksport during the latter part of April, at which time I shall bid adieu to my friends in Maine.
“I am tolerably well pleased with my new station. It is healthy throughout the year, and I have no doubt the change will prove highly advantageous so far as health is concerned.
“The duties are trifling. The large work, Fort Pulaski, is finished, and nothing remains to be done but to prepare a bridge-head of timber, and secure the island from overflow by the construction of dikes. The small work, Fort Jackson, will require an expenditure of something less than one hundred thousand dollars in the way of enlargement and repair.
“My duties will therefore be comparatively light. Nothing will be doing from June to October; so I shall be able to go North occasionally to pass the summer.
“The people are very hospitable, and I shall make many acquaintances before I leave. I have an old classmate just rising at the bar here, and many officers’ families reside here.”
His next letter to Oliver, from Newport, April 6, is interesting as presenting his view of Cromwell:—