e rebels or our Government
for fatigue duty and quartermaster service, so those who come here are
all women, children, or cripples, such as we had before. They will
doubtless be so glad of a home, however, that they will do a good deal
of work. Of course it is not an economical class of labor, for it
takes too much land to feed the non-workers to allow a great deal to
be planted in cotton. In the morning I walked out with Mr. Wells and
sold him both the plantations of which he has had charge for me, viz.,
the Jenkins place, where he lives, for $1600 or $10 per acre, and
Morgan Island for $1200, or about $5 per acre, which is more than any
one would have given a few weeks ago, when we couldn't get a negro to
stay there for fear of the rebels. I daresay he may do very well with
it now, but it is a vexatious thing to get rations to them in such an
out-of-the-way place, and, after all, young Mr. Fripp may make them
another visit some night and carry off some more negroes.

FROM C. P. W.

_Jan. 8._ Howard's[181] corps came to Beaufort early last week, and
carpenters and engineers have been busy putting the Shell Road[182] to
the Ferry in order and building a bridge across the Ferry. It looks as
if a move were to be made towards Charleston or the interior soon.
Beaufort presents a lively spectacle; the Western soldiers are rough,
unkempt customers, whose hair, falling over their shoulders, suggests
vows of abstinence from the shears till they shall have accomplished a
great work. The first few days of their stay in Beaufort were marked
by acts more amusing to the soldiers than to the owners of property
"lying round loose." The first night was chilly, and three thousand
feet of lumber furnished bonfires at which the soldiers of the
"movable army" warmed themselves. Shopkeepers do a tremendous
business, and their shops look "fair dry;" but they do not always get
pay for their goods, but are requested to look on the battlefield for
their money. The troops were paid off just before leaving Atlanta, and
are "flush." Bread is very scarce. The troops fared very well on the
march,--one continued Thanksgiving through the richest part of
Georgia.

The schooner _Horace_ for New York, with the rest of our cotton and
the first of the negroes', is loaded. The negroes' crops did not turn
out very well, as a general rule; want of manure and careless working
being the principal causes; the caterpillar did a great deal of
damage. They se