t, which had been kept a few weeks by two freedmen, one
bearing the name of John Milton, under the auspices of the Rev. Dr.
Peck. This is not the place to detail the obstacles we met with, one
after another overcome,--the calumnies and even personal violence to
which we were subjected. These things occurred at an early period of our
struggle, when the nation was groping its way to light, and are not
likely to occur again. Let unworthy men sleep in the oblivion they
deserve, and let others of better natures, who were then blind, but now
see, not be taunted with their inconsiderate acts. The nickname of
Gibeonites, applied to the colonists, may, however, be fitly remembered.
It may now justly claim rank with the honored titles of Puritan and
Methodist. The higher officers of the army were uniformly respectful and
disposed to cooeperation. One of these may properly be mentioned. Our
most important operations were in the district under the command of
Brigadier-General Isaac I. Stevens, an officer whose convictions were
not supposed to be favorable to the enterprise, and who, during the
political contest of 1860, had been the chairman of the National
Breckinridge Committee. But such was his honor as a gentleman, and his
sense of the duty of subordination to the wishes of the Government,
that his personal courtesies and official aid were never wanting. He
received his mortal wound at Chantilly, Virginia, on the first of
September following, and a braver and abler officer has not fallen in
the service.

Notwithstanding our work was commenced six weeks too late, and other
hindrances occurred, detailed in the second report of the agent, some
eight thousand acres of esculents,--a fair supply of food,--and some
four thousand five hundred acres of cotton (after a deduction for
over-estimates) were planted. This was done upon one hundred and
eighty-nine plantations, on which were nine thousand and fifty people,
of whom four thousand four hundred and twenty-nine were field-hands,
made up of men, women, and children, and equivalent, in the usual
classification and estimate of the productive capacity of laborers, to
three thousand eight hundred and five and one-half full hands. The
cotton-crop produced will not exceed sixty-five thousand pounds of
ginned cotton. Work enough was done to have produced five hundred
thousand pounds in ordinary times; but the immaturity of the pod,
resulting from the lateness of the planting, exposed it to