The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-07-02

L. s. SUR DAIE, ST. HuENA SOUND.
S. G., June 18Th, 1862. J
SIR. This morning at 4 o'clock it was
reported to me that there was a large fire
on Hutchinson Island Shortly after a
preooncerted signal that the enemy were
in the vicinity had been made from the !
house of our pilot, Immediately started !
in the gig accompanied by the tender |
Wild Cat, bOatswain Downs, senior ac-
ting midshipman Terry; first cutter, act
ing master Billings; second cutter, acting
master Hawkins, and cutter coxwain
Shatloif, up Horn or Big River Creek, in
the direction Of the fire.
Soon after leaving the ship n canoe
containing three negroes was met, who
stated that the rebels, 800 strong, were
at Mrs. Mardis's plantation, killing all
! the negroes. AS we advanced up the
| creek we were constantly met by canoes
with two or three negroes in them, panic
stricken, and making their way to the
ship, while white flags were TO be seen
| flying from every inhabited point around
which were clustered groups of frighten-
ed fugitves.
When about two and a half miles from
Mrs. Mardis's, | was obliged to anchor
the Wild Cat, from the want of sufficient
water in the channel, with orders to cover
our retreat if necessary. On arriving at
Mrs. Mardis's, the sceno was most pain
ful. Her dwelling and a chapel in ruins,
and the air heavy with smoke, while at
the landing were assembled 100 souls,
mostly women and children, in the ut
most distress.
Throwing out a picket guard, and
| taking every proper measure against a
surprise, satisfied myself that the enemy
were not in our immediate ncighbOrhOOd,
the negroes assuring me that they had
left the Island, and returned TO Fort
Chapman. | then gathered the following
particulars: The rebels, during the night,
landed on the Island from Fort Chapman,
with a force of unknown numbers, and
guided by a negro, who for a long time
had been on the Island in the employ of
the army, surrounded the house and
chapel in which large proportion of the
negroes were housed, posting a strong
guard to oppose our landing.
At early dawn they fired a volley
through the house, and as the alarmed
people sprang nearly naked from their
beds and rushed forth frantic with fear
they were shot, arrested, or knocked
down. The first inquiry of the rebels
was for the ID Yankees, and at what
time they were in the habit of visiting
the islands, mingled with ordinations
of BE quick, boys, the people from the
ship will be up" "Lets burn the
houses" "Not yet they will see the
fire from the ship and come up"
! HAVING gpllapfnn most al Ia pbial-ap n
and despoiled many of the poor people Of
their wrctched clothing, and told them
that, as they belonged to the State, or
others nearly adjoining, they would not
molcst them, they fired the building and
fled.
As the people were clamorous to be re-
moved, | filled the boats with them and
pulled down to the tender, on board of
which they were placed.
On our return for the remainder, they
were observed, as we approached the
landing, to be in the utmost confusion,
dashing wildly into the marshes, and
screaming "the secesh are coming back"
On investigation, however, it proved
that the enemy in full sight, about two
miles off, crossing an open space OF
ground, were in hasty retreat, instead of
advancing. On our first visit they must
have been concealed in a patch Of woods
not more than half a mile from our
pickets.
Having succeeded in removing or in
providing with boats all who wished to
remain to collect their little property, |
returned TO the ship, bringing with me
about seventy, among them one man lit
orally riddled with balls and buckshot
(since dead; another shot through the
lungs and struck over the forehead with
a dubbed musket, which laid the bone
literally bare; one woman shot in the
leg, shoulder and thigh; one far gone in
, pregnancy, suffering from a dislocation
of the hip joint and injury 20 the womb,
caused by leaping from a seCund-story
window and another suffering from the
/ displacement Of the cap of the knee and
injury TO the leg from the same cause.
IL appears that the negro who had
, guided the party had returned to them
, after The evacuation Of the place. told
them all the troops had been Withdrawn
and that the islands were entirely unpro-
tected, except by this ship. I am there
p fore at loss to account for their ex-
treme barbarity TO negroes, most of
whom were living on the plantation
whore they had been born, peacefully
tilling the ground for their support
which their masters, by descrting, had
denied them, and who were not even re-
motely connected with the hated govern
ment army.
i trust you will approve my sending
The contrabands to Hilton Head. Had I
not been unable 10 provide for such a
large number, and so much embarrassed
by the frequent demands made upon me
for provisions by new arrivals / should
have waited FOR your advice in the mat
ter.
Last Tuesday we had an arrival of
thirty from the main land, and scarcely
a day passed without one or more OF
them, always in a hall-siaryed condition,
whose appeals for food have not yet
been able 70 resist though they trcspass
rather largely on The ships stores
All those newly arrived give the same
account Of the want and scarcity of
provisions among The white population,
and Of their own dangers and suleungs
! In ehccung their escape. Though eXer-
cisiug NO control over the negroes ON The
, neighhoring islands, have ever since
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