Supplies were abundant, the negroes bringing to camp whatever the plantations produced, and although General Viele issued an order that everything should be taken to his headquarters, where a general market would be held every morning, no attention was paid to it, and as far as we ever heard, no general market was established.
About a week after the capture of Hilton Head, I was detailed to take command of the Grand Guard, whose headquarters were at Drayton's plantation. The negroes had generally remained here, as well as at the other places within the range of our command, and were encouraged to cultivate the plantations abandoned by their masters. This was important, as the famous Sea Islands formed a part of the territory captured by our forces, and considerable of the cotton remained unpicked, while nothing had been done towards the harvesting of corn, potatoes, and many other products of the soil. Some of the negroes here were owned by Captain Drayton, who had left them in the care of his brother, and no doubt some of the shot from his guns had fallen among his own people. The evidences of the cannonading were manifest all about, and the negroes, when questioned as to its effects upon them, declared that at first they didn't mind the firing, but "when them rotten shot began to spatter about them, they jes' ran for de woods."
The regiment soon became proficient in drill, in spite of the frequent details for fatigue duty, and was regarded as one of the best, if not the very best, in the Department.
November 24 we had a general inspection and review, by Generals Sherman and Viele, in which the brigade marched first in quick, and then in double-quick time, around a circle of some two miles in extent, according to the journal of Conklin, to which reference has before been made. We can all testify that it seemed much longer, with the sand sometimes almost ankle-deep. General Viele perhaps thought us amply paid for the exertion, when he declared that we marched as well as regulars, and were equal to any regiment in the service.
Day followed day with about the same round of duties. We had already become fairly accustomed to tent life, our food supply was ample and good, and the paymaster furnished the means of providing ourselves with comforts and luxuries according to our several positions, or, rather, the amount of pay received. Besides the regimental sutler, who was prepared to furnish anything, from Golden Seal to toothpicks, for a consideration, shops of all kinds sprang up with amazing rapidity, as soon as it became known that this would be a permanent basis of operations, and usually only a short time elapsed after the visit of the paymaster, before his next appearance was looked for with eagerness, even by the sutler, who cultivated a disposition for extravagance, by giving credit to such as seemed likely to regard the obligation. Occasionally, when, too grasping, he became exorbitant in his prices, or in the rate of interest charged for accommodation loans—for too often the offices of banker and sutler were combined—a sudden raid would equalize the account.
At this time, measles and smallpox prevailed to some extent, and from the former several deaths occurred, while the latter was limited to a few cases by the isolation of those attacked.
Thanksgiving and Christmas passed with no observance on the part of the non-commissioned officers and privates, except perhaps a more general application to pick and spade. On Thanksgiving Day, the officers, many of whom had been suitably remembered by friends at home, united their private stores with such good things as could be collected in the vicinity, and indulged themselves in unusual luxuries, forgetting for the time their surroundings, and giving themselves up to the full enjoyment of the day, so far as their duties permitted.