From E. S. P.
Dec. 28. I rode off for Coosaw Fort on Ladies Island, where the pickets are. I found Captain Bryant at camp. He was very pleasant and told me that the descent upon Coffin’s Point Saturday night was not made by his orders, but by one of Colonel Higginson’s captains. The men were brought to him, however, and he discharged all who didn’t want to enlist. So I came off content.
The holidays and the hunt for deserters have so broken up the labor that nothing of any consequence can be done now till after New Year’s, when I hope the work will move on smoothly again.
[Jan. 1, 1864.] My errand to Beaufort on Tuesday was not very successful. I could find neither Colonel Higginson nor General Saxton. So I had to content myself with writing to the latter an account of how the soldiers had been behaving here. On getting back, I found the people more quiet than I had expected. The return of the men from camp had reassured them, and most of them have gone to work again.
The year closes with W. C. G.’s reflections on the progress of the “Port Royal Experiment.”