Emilio, Luis F., History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry , 1863-1865

[313] were repaired. Vegetables and fruits were becoming abundant in the markets. Beef, mutton, and veal were ruling at thirty cents per pound. Shipments were made North from the large stores of rice in the city. From the paroled armies of the defunct Confederacy came large numbers of soldiers in dilapidated garments and emaciated physical condition. They flocked to take the oath of allegiance and receive the bounty of government. Such was their destitution that they were glad to share the rations of our colored soldiers in some instances. President Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation, when received, was variously regarded, according to the status of the critic as a Secessionist Radical or Conservative.

Major P. E. Dye paid Companies A, B, and C of the Fifty-fourth on the 17th, and the remaining companies on the two succeeding days. This was only the second payment of the enlisted men while in service. In Charleston the Masonic Lodge organized on Morris Island, of which First Sergeant Gray of Company C was the Master, met in the third story of a house just across from the Citadel. Sergeants Vogelsang, Alexander Johnson, and Hemmingway were among the members, who numbered some twentyfive or thirty. It is thought that the charter of this lodge was surrendered ultimately to Prince Hall Lodge of Boston, whence it came.

Admiral Dahlgren departed for the North on the 17th, after taking leave of his squadron in orders. On the 18th an affray occurred on the Battery between a guard of the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh New York and some of the Thirty-fifth United States Colored Troops, when a few soldiers and civilians were wounded. A part of Jefferson Davis's and Beauregard's effects and correspondence