The Project Gutenberg eBook, Letters from Port Royal, by Various, Edited
by Elizabeth Ware Pearson

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Title: Letters from Port Royal
Written at the Time of the Civil War (1862-1868)

Author: Various

Editor: Elizabeth Ware Pearson

Release Date: March 1, 2008 [eBook #24722]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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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 obviou