ng by the broken bottles
lying about. The officers saved a good many pianos and other furniture
and stored it in the jail, for safe-keeping. But we kindle our fires
with chips of polished mahogany, and I am writing on my knees with a
piece of a flower-stand across them for a table, sitting on my camp
bedstead.

I am anxious to get to work, as I hope to in a few days. Mr.
Eustis[12] has gone to his plantation, a few miles distant on Ladies
Island, and Mr. Hooper is spending a few days with him. The latter is
to be Mr. Pierce's private secretary at present.

_Beaufort, March 10._ I can't tell until I get settled at my post what
to say about your coming on here. If my post should be exposed to any
of the rebels' scouting-parties you had better stay at home. I must
say it seems rather _near_ to live within rifle-shot of their
outposts, as some of the plantations are.

_March 11._ We had a visit from the Provost Marshal last evening. He
has had a good deal to do with the contrabands and came to give us
some advice about them. He thinks that rebel spies may come among us,
but don't apprehend any trouble, says we can govern the negroes easily
enough by firm and judicious treatment, and says the officers in
charge are very glad to have them taken off their hands.

_Hilton Head_,[13] _March 13._ This is a most desolate-looking place,
flat and sandy, and covered with camps and storehouses for a mile
along the river. A line of intrenchments encloses the whole, some
seven miles long, resting on the river at each end. There is a long
wharf just built out to deep water, at the end of which the _Atlantic_
is discharging. This is the general depot for stores for the whole
army on the Atlantic coast and the blockading fleet.

_March 14._ A fortnight has passed since I left Brookline, without my
being able to get at my work. This loafing about and waiting upon the
movements of Government officials is the hardest work I ever tried to
do.

If you can't come early in April you had better not come at all, for
it will be too hot for even me to live on the plantations later than
June 1. They say the planters never lived on the plantations in summer
months, though they were acclimated, for fear of fevers. Beaufort is
the healthiest place on these islands and their resort when leaving
their plantations. Yet, if H---- W---- will come with you, _and not
without_, and you think it will pay, come as soon as you can. I shall
probably be on Co