Hilton Head has taken a start, however, and quite a village of frame houses line the shore—wide, roomy cottages, occupied by army officers, and mostly built for them by the Government, under a liberal construction of the regulations about providing the officers with quarters, making up the street fronting on the water. Back of these are warehouses and other Government buildings; and a row of two-story houses, ambitiously entitled “Broadway” or some other high-sounding name, by the occupants, has received, from the unfortunates who are compelled to frequent it, the more expressive designation of “Robbers’ Row.” It is the street of the sutlers! General Gillmore had arrived from Charleston in advance, and he had carriages in waiting for us when we landed. Captain James, of his staff, had provided horses for those who preferred to ride, and the delights of a gallop along the superb beach were not to be overrated. The sun was intensely hot, and the horses were in a lather, almost in a moment; but the Captain said they were used to it, and that they really seemed to stand as much fatigue and rough usage here as at the North. Half an hour’s ride brought us to an extraordinary collection of cabins, arranged in long streets, and teeming with little woolly-headed, big-stomached picaninnies, in all stages of primitive costume. This was the village of Mitchelville, so named in honor of General Ormsby M. Mitchel, who died here shortly after he had begun his work, but not until he had impressed the grateful negroes with a firm belief in his friendship. The population is made up entirely of freedmen, and is regularly organized, with a Mayor and Common Council, Marshal, Recorder and Treasurer—all black, and all, except the Mayor and Treasurer, elected by the negroes themselves.[17] The Common Council requires every child, between the ages of six and fifteen, to attend school regularly, except in cases where their services are absolutely necessary for the support of their parents, of which the teacher is made the judge! General Mitchel was one of Cincinnati’s contributions to the war. But is Cincinnati behind Mitchelsville? * * * * * As we passed up Broad river, in the afternoon, a straggling collection of old two-story frame houses, with faded paint and decayed boards, but with the inevitable wide halls and spacious verandahs, rose among the islands on the left. Of old, it was the very center of the aristocratic country residences of the wealthier South Carolinians; to-day, it is the capital, if I may so call it, of a new community of South Carolinians, liberated by the war, and settled on the famous sea-island plantations.