, 1862-08-23
A Visit to Beaufort.

The following account of a visit to Beaufort
South Carolina, written by lady to friend in
this city, may be interesting to our readers as an
incident in the great history of the war:
." We left home and proceeded to New York
to procure our papers and necessary credentials
before the steamer started for Port Royal, and
then sailed in the Atlantic with large party Of
ladies and gentlemen and officers of the army, all
bound to the cotton plantations with various OBJ
jects in view. The passage to Hilton Head occu-
pied sixty hours, and it took sixty more to get
over the bar and fairly into the harbor On ar
irving at Beaufort we met Gen. Stevens and ac-
cepted his cordial invitation to visit his house
which is beautifully situated, surrounded by beau
tiful gardens, and grounds all blooming in sum-
mer luxuriance, stretching down towards the
charming bay, studded with islands clothed in the
richest foliage and flowers.
Beaufort is now bereft of tverythng but its nat
ural beauty. The houses are desolate and dis
mantled of furniture, and all the inhabitants are
fled to secessia and to misery, leaving behind them
all the luxuries of wealth and of bounteous nature
in which they had reveed, and all the refnements
ofcivilizaton which they had here collected around
them. In striking contrast to these abodes of
luxury were the houses of the slaves, which were
the most miserable cabins that human beings
could endure to live in We stayed but few
days in Beaufort, desiring to go over to the other
islands more remote from city and army infuen-
ces, to see the negroes on the plantations, which
were collected there to the number of five or six
thousand, and in a very destitute condition. Mr..
Prince, the leader of The commission to whom they
were entrusted, had his headquarters at St. Hele-
mas Island, at Popes plantation and we were in
vlted to 90 tI-rei wh-@ "a - useful in va
rious ways, anu nave an opposee,-- o. visiting a
large number of plantations. A ferry-boat took
us across the arm of the sea separating Beaufort
from Lady's Island and we soon found ourselves
in the midst of cotton plantations and negrodom.
All he white inhabitants had fled before our army,
leaving the negroes in possession of their quarters
with nothing to sustain them, and no garments
except the worn out clothing of last years stock
We were put in possession Of very good house,
nearly destitute of furniture, but which we, with
the aid of the gentleman in charge soon filled up
with all that was absolutely necessary and made
us quite a comfortable home We were supplied
with rationS by order of Government, and provi-
ded with horses end carriage to transport us
from place to place in the performance of our du-
ties, which were to get this large number of ne
groes in comfortable quarters, and provide for
their future support. The negroes were pleased
that so much interest had been taken in their be-
half by the white people of the North whom their
masters had taught TO fear and dread as their
worst enemies, leaving no other object in view in
coming there but to kill them or send them off to
Cuba They were greatly relieved when our SOL
diers arrived and extended the hand of protection
and kindness, and were ready to defend them if
need be from the crueties with which they were
threatened by their masters for not following them
and abandoning their own houses, wretched
though they were, for the uncertainty of life in
. h., 1c IL -.
old quarters with their families around them, sub
sistng upon the corn allowed them by our Gov
ernment, awaiting the directions of some white
man to put in operation the work of the planta-
tions. They had already done what they could /;
but lacking mules and agricultural tools, they
could not do much. They appeared ready and
willing to work, and we were agreeably surprised
to find people well endowed by nature with
mental and physical faculties, needing nothing
but encouragement, training and instruction to en-
able them to be as sefsustanng as any other
people if allowed to remain upon the soil so ad-
mirably fitted to afford ample support for popu-
latlon an hundred fold greater than has ever yet
been sustained upon it.
We found the climate charming, and though
winter still at the North, the landscape was grow
ing with summer verdure and flowers. Wherev-
er we went, however, the ever-Spreading, eternal
NO'VOHn0lue lHee OuI eyes, not yet VerudnC WIN
the living plant, but covered with the dead stalks
of last years growth, or in preparation for the
comir 6 crop. All was cotton-cotton-cotlon ;
king indeed, of all this region, the only one of all
this earth producing the sea island species The
eye soon grows tired of the monotony of such a
scene, and longs for hills and dales and rougher
landscape.
On returning home we found all preparations
made for what many believe will be the decisive
battle of the war, Uiz. Richmond Our Church,
(at Washington is fcored above the pews, and
every arrangement made for hospital service
Sixty beds now stand in rows across the length of
the church The vestry is filled with drugs, med
icines and surgical instruments, and many others
are occupied in the same way.