St. Helenaville, S.C., Saturday, January 21, 1865.
I have not had time to write even a word to you for ever so long. Don’t imagine that I have time to play wolf, as I used to, either. It is one “demnition grind” lately. It seems as if Rina, Brister, and Clarissa are all possessed, and we have all sorts of household difficulties arising daily. Besides our usual work we have now a little care of the poor refugees from Georgia, who are frightfully destitute, sickly, and miserable. Most of them are homesick too. They expected to stay and enjoy their freedom in Savannah, or their back-country homes in Georgia, and they pine in this uncomfortable and strange place, where they die so fast. They are separated too. Parents are looking for lost children and there are waifs of children without a friend, who have drifted here somehow, and who are so forlorn and dejected and emaciated that it is hard to see them. We have taken one of them home here, but shall not keep her after she is well, for she has a cousin willing to have her, as she is old enough to “mind child.” The child had typhoid pneumonia when we took her from the hospital where her mother and brother and one aunt died, and another is just dying; so she is almost friendless, and too small to be very useful to any one. The refugees are going to Edisto soon. Thereby hangs great news.
Stanton[1] came down here to inquire into various matters, among others the abuses of the recruiting. A letter that Harriet Murray wrote to a friend was published in the Springfield Republican and copied from that into other papers. It excited great indignation, as it told just what we heard and saw the first night we arrived — when two men in Frogmore had been shot down, one killed, the other mortally wounded, by recruiting officers, because they, having exemption papers in their pockets, refused to come from their boat when they were fishing, when the recruiting officers called them. This letter of Harriet’s was sent to General Foster[2] with a demand for an explanation. Stanton made inquiries and found, what we knew, that such things were not uncommon, but that men were seized, their bounty appropriated, and themselves sent to Morris Island, without being allowed to return to tell their families where they were going. Stanton also inquired into other matters, and the result was that he or Sherman made General Saxton a Brevet Major-General. So, direct your letters accordingly, to the care of Major-General Saxton. He has full power over Freedmen’s affairs from Edisto to Key West, thirty miles inland, and is going to take home at once all the Edisto people. Mr. Tomlinson is to be head man under Saxton, Mr. Williams to be General Superintendent of St. Helena, and Mr. John Alden, we hope, of Edisto. This will make great changes. We shall lose many of our brightest scholars.
How we do enjoy our new school-house. It is so delightful to have quiet, and the desks are wonderfully convenient. General Howard[3] and General Saxton came to see us and praised us much.
A steamer is just in and brings us news that Wilmington is ours, but with great loss. I have heard no particulars.
You sent me Mr. Furness’ sermon, and I enjoyed with trembling the eulogy of teachers, though I believe the praise was confined to those at Washington. By the way, there will be an opening for Miss Bridport almost certainly at Edisto, if not here, but I think I have secured a charming place for her — if she does not mind “messing” with a colored lady teacher from the North, as of course she will not. She will also have only a primary department to begin with, but will be next door to us, in the healthiest location on the island, and have immediate and full employment. I wish she were here now. Be sure to tell her to bring with her bedroom and kitchen conveniences and comforts of all kinds — bedding, sheets, blankets, pillow-cases, towels, and a ticking for a straw bed, or, what is much better, a thin, narrow mattress like mine, and a pillow. This bedding is indispensable. She will find a good house and some furniture here, and need not bring a bedstead. If she should not come, some other nice teacher from Philadelphia might take her place.
[1] Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
[2] Major-General John G. Foster.
[3] Major-General Oliver O. Howard succeeded General Foster.
