War diary and letters of Stephen Minot Weld.

Sunday, November 3. — We started at four o’clock this morning, and headed due west. We came in sight of land at about nine o’clock. I think it must have been Tybee Island at the entrance of Savannah River. The pilot will not say where we are. There is an island on the extreme right with what looks like a lighthouse on it. We had a very good sermon from the chaplain this morning, and afterwards the colonel addressed the soldiers in regard to their sending home their pay. The chaplain in his sermon hit the drum-major very well. He told the men to avoid snivellers and cowards, etc. Our ship was the first one to get here, followed by the Daniel Webster, and now five are in sight. It is a clear, cool day. I think from what the pilot says that the land we saw this morning must have been off Port Royal Sound, which leads to Beaufort. We saw 19 vessels in all this afternoon, none of them war vessels, however. We are now drifting along at the rate of half a mile an hour, and are within 20 miles of land. They say that the ship was on fire last Friday night, and I am inclined to think it was so.