d more work than any one on the plantation on cotton this
year. Her husband was coachman and was taken off by the overseer the
day after the "gun was fire at Hilton Head."

Minda gave me an amusing account of a conversation she heard between
Mr. Cockloft, the overseer, and his niece, Miss "Arnie," about the
prospect of the Yankees coming here, she telling him, when he was
expressing his gratification at the very large crop raised last year,
that he did not talk sense,--he was just raising it for the Yankees.
And when they had to run off, in the midst of all the crying and
dismay, she could not resist telling him she was glad of it, to prove
her right. Minda said that she knew more than her uncle because she
had been to school, and had "high edicate." They sent Henry to the
other end of the island to see if the forts were really taken, and he
came back and told them that they had better be off, for all the
Yankee ships were "going in procession up to Beaufort, solemn as a
funeral."

_Dec. 30._ My occupation was interrupted by the arrival of William
Hall,[88] bag and baggage. You can think of us as a household of
three[89] pursuing our several occupations, of which more hereafter.

1863

_Celebration of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation--The
land-sales of 1863, Mr. Philbrick's purchase of
plantations--"Shop"--Visit to Camp--Arrest of General
Stevenson--Difficulties with army officers--More drafting by
Hunter--Encouraging signs among the negroes--"The black
draft"--The siege of Charleston--Assault on Fort
Wagner--Care of the wounded--Depredations of the soldiers on
the plantations--Interest in the former owners of
plantations--The "Plantation Commission" an informal civil
court--Negro speech and negro ways--Attacks on Mr. Philbrick
as a "speculator"--Discouraging signs among the
negroes--Plans of the Government for selling land to the
negroes--The cotton crop of 1863--The black draft again._

The first letter of 1863 gives an account of the ceremonies
with which the Sea Islands celebrated the Emancipation
Proclamation. The place was the Smith Plantation, on Port
Royal Island, where the First South Carolina had its camp.

FROM H. W.

_Jan. 1, 1863._ We started [from R.'s] at ten o'clock with four
oarsmen, under a cloudless sky, which remained undimmed through the
day. The men sang and we sang, as we wound our way through the
marsh-bou