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Chapter 4: up the St. John's.
There was not much stirring in the Department of the South early in 1863, and the
St. Mary's expedition had afforded a new sensation.
Of course the few officers of colored troops, and a larger number who wished to become such, were urgent for further experiments in the same line; and the
Florida tax-commissioners were urgent likewise.
I well remember the morning when, after some preliminary correspondence, I steamed down from
Beaufort, S. C., to
Hilton Head, with
General Saxton,
Judge S., and one or two others, to have an interview on the matter with
Major-General Hunter, then commanding the Department.
Hilton Head, in those days, seemed always like some foreign military station in the tropics.
The long, low, white buildings, with piazzas and verandas on the waterside; the general impression of heat and lassitude, existence appearing to pulsate only with the sea-breeze; the sandy, almost impassable streets; and the firm, level beach, on which everybody walked who could get there: all these suggested
Jamaica or the
East Indies.
Then the Headquarters at the end of the beach, the
Zouave sentinels, the successive anterooms, the lounging aids, the good-natured and easy General,--easy by habit and energetic by impulse,--all had a certain air of Southern languor, rather picturesque, but perhaps not altogether bracing.
General Hunter received us, that day, with his usual kindliness; there was a good deal of pleasant chat;
