f the
Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should say, _wine-black_; his
complexion, like that of others of my darkest men, having a sort of
rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness, and to my eye very
handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and full of command, and
his figure superior to that of any of our white officers,--being six
feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of apparently inexhaustible
strength and activity. His gait is like a panther's; I never saw such a
tread. No anti-slavery novel has described a man of such marked ability.
He makes Toussaint perfectly intelligible; and if there should ever be a
black monarchy in South Carolina, he will be its king.

_January 15._--This morning is like May. Yesterday I saw bluebirds and a
butterfly; so this winter of a fortnight is over. I fancy a trifle less
coughing in the camp. We hear of other stations in the Department where
the mortality, chiefly from yellow fever, has been frightful. Dr. ----
is rubbing his hands professionally over the fearful tales of the
surgeon of a New York regiment, just from Key West, who has had two
hundred cases of the fever. "I suppose he is a skilful, highly educated
man," said I; "Yes," he responded with enthusiasm. "Why, he had seventy
deaths!"--as if that proved his superiority past question.

_January 19._

"And first, sitting proud as a king on his throne,
At the head of them all rode Sir Richard Tyrone."

But I fancy that Sir Richard felt not much better satisfied with his
following than I to-day. J. R. L. said once that nothing was quite so
good as turtle-soup, except mock-turtle; and I have heard officers
declare that nothing was so stirring as real war, except some exciting
parade. To-day, for the first time, I marched the whole regiment through
Beaufort and back,--the first appearance of such a novelty on any stage.
They did march splendidly: this all admit. M----'s prediction was
fulfilled:

"Will not ---- be in bliss? A thousand men, every one black as a coal!"
I confess it. To look back on twenty broad double-ranks of men, (for
they marched by platoons,)--every polished musket having a black face
beside it, and every face set steadily to the front,--a regiment of
freed slaves marching on into the future,--it was something to remember;
and when they returned through the same streets, marching by the flank,
with guns at a "support," and each man covering his fil