1  Bucks County Intelligencer,  LETTERS FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS.  March 10, 1863  Page 2  Col. 4

 

LETTERS FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS.

From the 104th Regiment, P. V.

ST. HELENA ISLAND, South Carolina, Feb. 19, 1863.

Messrs. Editors : —After being on board the transport for

twenty-one days, we finally disembarked on the forenoon of Feb-

ruary 10th, and established our camp on the western shore of

St. Helena Island.  Why we should encamp here was a mystery

to every one, as we anticipated to share the glory of capturing

Charleston, the birth place of treason ; but our buoyant hopes

have been disappointed, and drilling, policing, reviews, with

court martials, are the order of the day.  We have a very hand-

some and pleasant camping ground.  Good water in abundance

is procured by digging a few feet into the sand, and it is freely

used.  Apparently, the men have forgotten already the hard

ordeal they passed through while on the transport, and are as

content as when at Gloucester Point.  Owing to the disgraceful

and outrageous conduct of some of the soldiers of this detach-

ment, by robbing and burning the houses of inoffensive colored

people, and ravishing the women, we have been put under most

rigid orders.  No soldier is allowed to pass the regimental guard

without a pass signed by his commanding officer, and counter-

signed by his brigade, commander.  Such orders we have not

been under since in the service before, and this was brought on

by the bad conduct of a few.  The weather, since here, has been

very balmy—much like June in Bucks county ; and while our

friends at home are made uncomfortable by chilly wind and cold

weather, we are enjoying the pleasantness of a most delightful

climate at this season.  The negroes have planted onions, and,

made garden two weeks ago, and are now preparing the land for

cotton, corn and potatoes.  This island might be made a second

paradise, with its rich soil and many advantages ; but, up to this

time, it has been the abode of shameful ignorance.  Little did I

think that, in enlightened America; there could be found a spot

where the hoe is the only agricultural implement used ; strange

to say, such is the case here.  It requires but little capital to

procure the farming implements used on a South Carolina plan-

tation, as all the work is done with the hoe.  The slaves grind

their corn by hand power ; the mill that is used for this impor-

tant purpose consists of two stones arranged the same way as

they are in our water-power mills, but the upper stone is worked

by the strong arm of some muscular slave, while exposed to the

burning rays of a southern sun; thus greatly contrasting with

our improved mills for manufacturing corn meal.  Here the

people practice the same rude methods as practiced by the An-

cients two thousand years ago.  Thus, slavery in South Carolina

is two thousand years behind the advanced state of freedom in

Pennsylvania.  The noisy, agitating, peace-disturbing abolition-

ists have said much of slavery, but, by observation, I find that

the half, that merits being said of this degrading institution,

has not been told.  I hold that the manner in which the “ nigger-

drivers” have been doing things here is a disgrace to our honored

reputation, and that no man, who is a friend of progress and uni-

versal improvement, can in the slightest manner sympathize

with their “ favorite institution “  The religious portion of our

people have contributed largely for the support of missionaries

in distant lands ; but certainly a great mistake has been made,

as the South was and is badly in want of some one to sow the

seed of enlightenment, and banish ignorance from this continent.

Preparing the land for cotton, or any other crop, requires

much time and labor, as the work is all done with the hoe, and

is hoed twice previous to planting the seed.  The sod is hoed off

during the month of February, and the cotton ridges, that bear

similarity to our corn ridges, are hoed up in March ; these ridges

are about 3 ½ feet apart, and on them the seed is planted early

in April.  The soil here is very easy to work, and one man with

a horse and light plow could do more work per day than twenty

slaves with their hoes, and do it better.  This was tried a few

years ago, but it did not work well, as the “ lazy niggers” had

not enough to do.                                    L. M. M.