ning work. You never saw a more wretched set of
people than sat down to our breakfast-table. I _could not_ eat, for
about the first time in my life. Nothing had been said to any one. Joe
saw the soldiers on the floor when he opened the house door in the
morning, and wore a sober face when we came down, but no one asked any
questions, and we moved about, seeing to the breakfast, trying to
look as usual (and failing), getting out tobacco and crackers to give
the men on all these plantations when they went off. It had been
arranged that Mr. G. should see to these two plantations after Mr.
Philbrick had taken part of the soldiers to Coffin's Point. When he
had gone, Mr. G. began on Joe before he went to the field for the
other hands--telling him that General Hunter had work at Hilton Head
for a great many black men, that he did not know what for, but had
received orders in the night, and they must be obeyed and he must
march; he had to go at once to his house for his cap, say good-bye to
his wife and come to us to leave his will, for he said he never
expected to come back. We made as light of the whole thing as we
could, but did not dare to say anything (as we knew nothing) which
might make them feel afterwards as if we had deceived them, for the
thing they dread is being made to fight, and we knew that there had
been men about trying to recruit for Hunter's pet idea, a regiment of
blacks. _One_ man had been obtained on this island! We told Joe that
Mr. Philbrick knew nothing about it and was going with them himself,
and gave him a letter Mr. Philbrick had written asking for him to be
returned as a personal favor, as he was a house-servant. He did the
same thing with each of the drivers, for the good of the plantation
crops. The men were easily collected, ten here, and went off after all
with much less emotion than we expected; the soldiers behaved
admirably, delighted with the treatment they had received, and
cheering the negroes with tales of money and clothes, treating them
most kindly. Mr. Philbrick called all the hands together at Coffin's
and told them the simple fact, all that he himself knew, and named
the men who were to go, and the whole thing was accomplished with much
less _apparent_ suffering than we had supposed possible. Many of the
men were not averse to trying their hands at life in the world, for
many of their number have been and still are at work for officers,
etc., at Hilton Head and Bay Point, etc., wit