A Port Royal correspondent of the Times writes:
One of the most remarkable features of the new life in South Carolina is afforded by the negroes. Black servants have been hired by many of the officers as waiters, and washermen and women. Black gangs have worked on the shore, or been used as oarsmen ; blacks have served as scouts and guides in the reconneissances. Crowds of the women and children may be seen in various parts of the camps, but especially near head-quarters, where they inhabit their own huts still. There they receive their rations, there they build fires to cook their food or to do their washing, and cluster into odd-looking groups, picturesque for all their squalor. The men and boys join them at night, and always, after supper, in a dilapidated out-house, is held a, prayer-meeting. I listened outside, last night, and heard ardent ejaculations or thanksgiving for the favorable chance God had given to “my colored bruddren.” The jargon was absurd, but It was earnest; the singing was out of tune and time, but it was fervent. In some quarters the blacks are less religious, and held a ball to celebrate the coming of the Yankees. I have talked with nearly half of those I have seen; have asked them which they preferred, the new or the old order of things, and though some here and there spoke kindly of their masters, there was no mistaking the genuineness of their gratitude for the change.
At Beaufort, where not a few seemed sad at the pillaging that had occurred, yet even these declared that they had long prayed for our coming. They laughed at the idea of our injuring them, which all declared their masters had endeavored to instill. The determination of all who can escape, to leave their masters, is, however, continually asserted. So far as the slaves are concerned, an advance into the country from this place would undoubtedly be followed by an immediate rush of the whole population toward our camps.
It is reported that the War Department has sent instructions to General Sherman to take possession of all the crops on the island—cotton, corn, rice, &c.—on account, and to ship the cotton, and such other crops as were not wanted for the army, to New York, to be sold there for account or the government. General Sherman, it is said, is also directed to use the slaves to gather and secure the crops of corn, and to erect his defenses at Port Royal and other places on the island.
Cincinnati Daily Press, Cincinnati, OH