_April 29._ Mr. Philbrick went off to the wharf before breakfast, and
as he was coming back met Phillis on her way to tell the men who were
at work on it that the soldiers had come. As we sat down to lunch we
could see the gleaming of the bayonets as they came through the first
gate, and Primus sent up to say that he was taken and wanted Mr.
Philbrick to come down. Mr. G. appeared from Pine Grove, where they
had taken only two men, who will probably be let off. Soon William
appeared, saying they had been at the Point, too, but had got no one.
Mr. Philbrick rowed down to the [Fripp Point] quarters and presently
returned with Captain Hoyt and Captain Thompson, who were very tired,
to lunch. They all received him very crustily and coldly at first, but
they were prejudiced against him and vexed at their want of success,
and I think it did something towards removing ill feelings to see him.
When they reached the nigger-house here, where the men [the soldiers],
about fifty, had been waiting, they found they had tracked two men
down through the marsh from Fripp Point and caught them just here,
after shooting one. The people were in a wild state of confusion. The
soldiers had been telling our people all sorts of stories--that they
had orders to shoot because Mr. Philbrick had said in Beaufort that he
had a battery here to defend his people, etc. They came flocking round
him, all women of course, and all talking at once to try and get at
the truth of things, and Mr. Philbrick had to quiet them before he
could make out a word. Then Amaritta naturally stood forward as
spokeswoman to get "satisfaction," and they were easily made to
understand that the soldiers had been telling lies, and their
confidence in Mr. Philbrick quieted them.

E. S. P. TO C. P. W.

_Beaufort, May 1._ We are led to admire more than ever the cool
discrimination of the General commanding the Department. The other day
some officer conceived the idea that the superintendents of St. Helena
in general, and W. C. G. in particular, were opposing the draft,
_employing_ able-bodied men, etc.; also that shots had been fired at
the black soldiers on his plantation. It was so represented to General
Hunter, and he ordered on the spot that he should be arrested and sent
out of the Department. Fortunately Captain Bryant, who was to have
executed the order, was a man of sense and consulted Captain Hooper,
who told him that General Saxton didn't want to spare Mr. G., an