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Yankees really meant to sell them to Cuba, and the like.
The mildest threats were that they would be made to work without pay (which turned out to be the case), and that they would be put in the front rank in every battle.
Nobody could assure them that they and their families would be freed by the Government, if they fought for it, since no such policy had been adopted.
Nevertheless, they gradually enlisted, the most efficient recruiting officer being Sergeant William Bronson, of Company A, in my regiment, who always prided himself on this service, and used to sign himself by the very original title, “No. 1, African Foundations” in commemoration of his deeds.
By patience and tact these obstacles would in time have been overcome.
But before long, unfortunately, some of General Hunter's staff became impatient, and induced him to take the position that the blacks must enlist.
Accordingly, squads of soldiers were sent to seize all the able-bodied men on certain plantations, and bring them to the camp.
The immediate consequence was a renewal of the old suspicion, ending in a wide-spread belief that they were to be sent to Cuba, as their masters had predicted.
The ultimate result was a habit of distrust, discontent, and desertion, that it was almost impossible to surmount.
All the men who knew anything about General Hunter believed in him; but they all knew that there were bad influences around him, and that the Government had repudiated his promises.
They had been kept four months in service, and then had been dismissed without pay. That having been the case, why should not the Government equally repudiate General Saxton's promises or mine?
As a matter of fact, the Government did repudiate these pledges for years, though we had its own written authority to give them.
But that matter needs an appendix by itself.
The “Hunter regiment” remained in camp on Hilton Head Island until the beginning of August, 1862, kept constantly under drill, but much demoralized by desertion.
It
Boston: Fields, Osgood and Co. University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. 1870.
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