ectly the exciting scene on board the Flora. There was an
eager, wondering crowd of the freed people in their holiday-attire, with
the gayest of head-handkerchiefs, the whitest of aprons, and the
happiest of faces. The band was playing, the flags streaming, everybody
talking merrily and feeling strangely happy. The sun shone brightly, the
very waves seemed to partake of the universal gayety, and danced and
sparkled more joyously than ever before. Long before we reached Camp
Saxton we could see the beautiful grove, and the ruins of the old
Huguenot fort near it. Some companies of the First Regiment were drawn
up in line under the trees, near the landing, to receive us. A fine,
soldierly-looking set of men; their brilliant dress against the trees
(they were then wearing red pantaloons) invested them with a
semi-barbaric splendor. It was my good fortune to find among the
officers an old friend,--and what it was to meet a friend from the
North, in our isolated Southern life, no one can imagine who has not
experienced the pleasure. Letters were an unspeakable luxury,--we
hungered for them, we could never get enough; but to meet old
friends,--that was "too much, too much," as the people here say, when
they are very much in earnest. Our friend took us over the camp, and
showed us all the arrangements. Everything looked clean and comfortable,
much neater, we were told, than in most of the white camps. An officer
told us that he had never seen a regiment in which the men were so
honest. "In many other camps," said he, "the colonel and the rest of us
would find it necessary to place a guard before our tents. We never do
it here. They are left entirely unguarded. Yet nothing has ever been
touched." We were glad to know that. It is a remarkable fact, when we
consider that these men have all their lives been _slaves_; and we know
what the teachings of Slavery are.

The celebration took place in the beautiful grove of live-oaks adjoining
the camp. It was the largest grove we had seen. I wish it were possible
to describe fitly the scene which met our eyes as we sat upon the stand,
and looked down on the crowd before us. There were the black soldiers in
their blue coats and scarlet pantaloons, the officers of this and other
regiments in their handsome uniforms, and crowds of lookers-on,--men,
women, and children, of every complexion, grouped in various attitudes
under the moss-hung trees. The faces of all wore a happy, interested
look.