E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Diane Monico, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 24722-h.htm or 24722-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24722/24722-h/24722-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24722/24722-h.zip) Transcriber's note: [=e] in waterm[=e]lions represents a macron over the e. LETTERS FROM PORT ROYAL Written at the Time of the Civil War [1862-1868] Edited by ELIZABETH WARE PEARSON 1906 Copyright 1906 by Elizabeth Ware Pearson CONTENTS INTRODUCTION xi 1862 1 1863 128 1864 243 1865 291 1866, 1867, 1868 325 CONCLUSION 333 FOOTNOTES 335 INDEX 337 INTRODUCTION With Commodore Dupont's capture, on November 7, 1861, of two earth forts which the rebels had recently thrown up at Hilton Head and Bay Point, South Carolina, the Sea Island region became Union territory. The planters and their families having fled precipitately, the United States Government found itself in possession of almost everything that had been theirs, the two chief items being the largest cotton crop ever yet raised there, nearly ready for exporting, and several hundred demoralized, destitute slaves, the number of whom was daily being increased by refugees and returned fugitives. The negroes were plainly a burdensome problem, the cotton a valuable piece of property. The first thing to do was obvious, and fortunately the same "cotton-agents" who were despatched by the authorities at Washington to collect and ship the property were able, by employing negroes for the purpose, to make a beginning towards solving the problem.