nts, and consequently
of Slavery. Fortunately for my own serenity, I had great faith in the
intrinsic power of military discipline, and also knew that a common
service would soon produce mutual respect among good soldiers; and so
it proved. But the first twelve hours of this mixed command were to me a
more anxious period than any outward alarms had created.

Let us resort to the note-book again.

"JACKSONVILLE, March 22, 1863.

"It is Sunday; the bell is ringing for church, and Rev. Mr. F.,
from Beaufort, is to preach. This afternoon our good quartermaster
establishes a Sunday-school for our little colony of 'contrabands,' now
numbering seventy.

"Sunday Afternoon.

"The bewildering report is confirmed; and in addition to the Sixth
Connecticut, which came yesterday, appears part of the Eighth Maine. The
remainder, with its colonel, will be here to-morrow, and, report says,
Major-General Hunter. Now my hope is that we may go to some point higher
up the river, which we can hold for ourselves. There are two other
points [Magnolia and Pilatka], which, in themselves, are as favorable as
this, and, for getting recruits, better. So I shall hope to be allowed
to go. To take posts, and then let white troops garrison them,--that is
my programme.

"What makes the thing more puzzling is, that the Eighth Maine has only
brought ten days' rations, so that they evidently are not to stay here;
and yet where they go, or why they come, is a puzzle. Meanwhile we can
sleep sound o' nights; and if the black and white babies do not quarrel
and pull hair, we shall do very well."

Colonel Rust, on arriving, said frankly that he knew nothing of
the plans prevailing in the Department, but that General Hunter was
certainly coming soon to act for himself; that it had been reported at
the North, and even at Port Royal, that we had all been captured and
shot (and, indeed, I had afterwards the pleasure of reading my own
obituary in a Northern Democratic journal), and that we certainly needed
reinforcements; that he himself had been sent with orders to carry
out, so far as possible, the original plans of the expedition; that
he regarded himself as only a visitor, and should remain chiefly on
shipboard,--which he did. He would relieve the black provost-guard by
a white one, if I approved,--which I certainly did. But he said that
he felt bound to give the chief opportunities of action to the colored
troops,--which I also approved, and which he c