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pleasant country, with fine-looking houses and cultivated fields, that seemed to have suffered but little from the effects of war. The twilight had passed when we reached the
Southwest Branch, and the remainder of the journey we traveled in the light of an unclouded moon.
We spent Tuesday among the ruins at Hampton and vicinity, and in visiting the schools and hospitals, and making sketches.
Among these was
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Remains of the redoubt at Hampton Bridge.1 |
a drawing of the two-gun redoubt (erected, as we have observed, by order of
General Butler, at the eastern end of Hampton Bridge), including a view of the desolated town.
Near the bridge, on that side of the creek, were the summer residences of several wealthy men, then occupied for public uses.
That in which
Doctor McClellan resided belonged to
Mallory, the so-called “Confederate
Secretary of the Navy.”
A little below it was the house of
Ex-President Tyler; and near it the spacious and more ancient looking mansion of
Doctor Woods, who was then with the enemies of the
Government, in which several
Quaker women, from
Philadelphia, had established an Orphan's Home for colored children.
Tyler's residence was the home of several of the teachers of the children of freedmen, and others engaged in benevolent work.
On our return to Fortress Monroe in the evening, we received orders to go on board the Ben, Deford, a stanch ocean steamer which was to be General Butler's Headquarters in the expedition about to depart.
At. near noon the following day we left the wharf, passed out to sea with a large fleet of transports, and at sunset were far down the coast of North Carolina, and in full view of its shores.
Our military company consisted of Generals Butler, Weitzel, and Graham, and their respective staff officers, and Colonel (afterward General) Comstock, General Grant's representative.
We were the only civilians, excepting Mr. Clarke, editor of a newspaper at Norfolk.
A record of the events of that expedition will be found in another volume of this work.
