July 17. Do people look with any interest toward this Department, either for military achievement or civil improvement? The former require better men—generals—than we are blessed with; the latter may come,—after the war.
Do people expect much of the negro of Port Royal? Let them expect. It is amusing to hear M. W.[171] She understands all the peculiarities of affairs down here with wonderful quickness and penetration; I have learned to respect her judgment and opinion. To hear her rail at these people, and slip out sly hints about the conduct of the "friends of the freedman" is a treat.
Rose was sitting disconsolately on the wood-box the other evening; I began chaffing her about her melancholy looks. She did not say much, but presently she asked if I had heard from Miss Harriet again; I told her no, and she heaved a big sigh, and asked when she would come back. "Mass' Charlie, no one know how I miss Miss Hayyut. If my own mudder go Nort', I no miss her mo'." I asked her if she missed Miss Harriet more than I missed my "farmly," whom I hadn't seen for so many months. She couldn't tell. "Ebry man hab e own feelin'."
Aug. 17. The unexpected opportunity to send off my letter was the visit of one Lewis Keller, from the provost marshal's office at Hilton Head; he came down to make inquiries concerning deserters, able-bodied men, etc., etc. He also obtained a map of the island, with plantations marked thereon. The provost marshal, I am sorry to say, is conceited, opinionated, and wanting in common sense and discretion. He has ideas which, if founded on anything, rest on reports only, and very vague reports too. He thinks, or rather (as the notion, once in his head, must stick there) he is certain, that there is communication between the negroes who buy at our stores and the rebels; that there is a camp of deserters (black and white) on Hunting Island, and that these deserters are employed in carrying supplies to the main; that the proximity of our stores to the rebel country is a dangerous state of things, not only inciting the rebels to come over, but likely to supply them with all they want if they do come. Also he thinks that the negroes have no business to have guns. Also he does not see what they can want with all the stuff sent on the Kelley. Now the Kelley arrived just before the regulations which allowed plantation supplies to enter insurrectionary districts. The treasury agent at once offered to permit the Kelley's cargo to come on shore. The provost marshal, who by this time appeared to be very willing to "help us all he could," took the invoice to General Foster, and came back with permission to land all of some things, one half the dry goods, one third only of the grocery supplies, flour, bacon, etc. We shall probably have to sell the rest at Hilton Head. Very provoking. Some of the supplies were small enough as they were; what is left will be about a mouthful apiece all around; e. g., one hundred and eighty barrels of flour came; my share would be about thirty-five. I could have sold twenty-five whole barrels, and peddled out the rest in six weeks. My share of sixty barrels will be about twelve! The provost marshal could not see what the people wanted of so much provision. Yet he has at his office the census of all these plantations, besides a written statement prepared by Mr. Soule of the amount bought at these stores within the last six months and the lists of purchases over five dollars at a time (we have to keep these lists, as one condition of keeping store).
Besides restricting the quantity of goods, all the stores are to be closed except those at R.'s and Folsom's. I may sell what I have on hand, but not take in anything more. Ignorance, stupidity, and conceit.
E. S. P. TO C. P. W.
Boston, Aug. 24. The recent assumption of authority by the military officials seems to have extinguished the Treasury Department in Port Royal. It is a difficult case to reach, for this officious intermeddling bears the semblance of earnest and zealous watchfulness of the public interests. Any representations at Washington will avail nothing, so long as Colonel H. cherishes the idea, or pretends to, that it is not for the public welfare to have us sell bacon and 'lasses at Coffin's Point. Any permission from the Treasury Department which would appear to him as too lenient would only give him another chance to exercise his authority, which tickles his vanity and makes him appear a big man. A difference of opinion between him and myself would hardly be listened to at Washington, so long as it is upon a subject on which his superiors think him qualified to judge better than myself. Suppose the Secretary of the Treasury were to allow goods to be taken from Hilton Head without restriction, General Foster and Colonel H. would still think the rebels would get them, and, having the power in their own hands, would not be likely to allow us to avail ourselves of any such privileges. I should like to have the question asked him, "How the Coffin's Point people are to get supplies?" If we are forbidden to keep a store there, it certainly cannot be forbidden us to send a wagon-load of goods there for the supply of that plantation whenever needed, which will answer our purposes well enough. In order to avoid any trap-springing by parties who might think it a smart thing to tell Colonel H. we had not discontinued the store, it would be best to have a plain talk with him on the subject. We don't want to keep store, but supply the plantations, and need not keep any considerable stock on hand at these "exposed" points.
The next group of letters returns to the subject of negro recruitment. By this time various Northern States, in despair of finding enough men at home to make out the number of recruits required of them by the general Government, were getting hold of Southern negroes for the purpose, and their agents had appeared in the Department of the South, competing for freedmen with offers of large bounties. At the same time General Foster made up his mind that all able-bodied negroes who refused to volunteer, even under these conditions, should be forced into the service. If the conscription methods of the Government up to this time had not been brutal, certainly no one can deny that adjective to the present operations. Yet it will be seen that experience has tempered the indignation of the superintendents, though not their distress.
FROM C. P. W.
Aug. 9. Lieutenant-Colonel Rice, agent for Massachusetts, has come. After looking about a little, he does not think the prospect of getting recruits very brilliant, but his agents are at work in Beaufort streets, and may pick up a few men. He intends to send native scouts on to the main to beat up recruits; $35 a man is offered for all they will bring in. Colonel Rice intended to come down here to-day, but had to go and see General Foster and Colonel Littlefield,[172] Superintendent of Recruiting. (He—Colonel L.—calls it recruiting to conscript all he can lay hands on.) There is to be, not a draft, but a wholesale conscription,[173] enforced here. Lieutenant-Colonel Strong of the First South (Thirty-Third United States Colored Troops)[174] enrolled all colored men last month. It is possible, if the men can be made to understand this, that a few can be induced to volunteer, but I hardly think that many will be secured, either by enlistment or draft. Colonel Rice comes down here this week. Mr. Soule (just returned from Beaufort) describes him as a pleasant man, simple in manner, with great good sense, shrewd enough, and of an inquiring turn. He has gone right to work, not bidding for men, but offering the whole bounty, etc., at once, and at the same time he is trying to find out all he can about things and people here. I long to "shum" and keep him over night.