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lots had been sold to the occupants for ten dollars each, and they had created for themselves a regular municipal government.
Their mayor was an intelligent negro, very black, who had once been a slave at
Savannah.
His name was
Murchison, and he occupied a larger dwelling than did any of his P six fellow-citizens.
They had a neat chapel, and a flourishing school, in charge of feminine teachers from the
North, was an interesting feature of the village society.
The men
were employed largely in cultivating the soil of
Hilton Head Island, and were making the desolated plantation of
Drayton (whose mansion-house, deserted and ruined, stood near) quite as productive as when its owner was master of scores of slaves upon it.
1
When Mitchel had settled the policy of affairs near Headquarters, he prepared to use his military force with vigor.
He planned an advance, not directly upon Charleston, but having that city as the final objective.
He projected an expedition to the Coosawhatchie River, to destroy the Charleston and Savannah railway at Pocotaligo and vicinity.
But before his arrangements were completed he was smitten by disease similar to yellow fever, when he was conveyed to the more healthful locality of Beaufort.
There, in one of the fine mansions of that deserted town, he died on the 30th of October.
General Brannan, meanwhile, had perfected the a arrangements and attempted to carry out
Mitchel's plans.
With an effective force of about four thousand five hundred men, he embarked on gun-boats and transports at
Hilton Head,
went up the
Broad River to the
Coosawhatchie, landed, and pushed on four or five miles in the direction of
Pocotaligo without hinderance.
There he encountered and easily drove Confederate pickets, who burned the bridges behind them, and retarded
Brannan's march.
He pressed forward, skirmishing a little, and in front of
Pocotaligo was met by a heavy fire of artillery from a swamp across a creek, supported by an infantry force under
General W. S. Walker.
Brannan's ammunition wagons were behind, and his powder soon ran low. His foe was in a position to be re-enforced quickly from
Charleston and
Savannah, so, taking counsel of prudence, he fell back to Mackay's Landing and re-embarked for
Hilton Head.
It was a fortunate movement, for
Walker had telegraphed to both
Charleston and
Savannah for help, and it was nigh.
Colonel Barton, of Brannan's command, had, meanwhile, gone up the Coosawhatchie in gun-boats, with about four hundred men, toward a village of the same name.
The boats grounded.
Barton landed his men, and was pushing on, when he encountered a train of cars filled with troops from Savannah, hastening to the relief of Walker.
He fired upon it while in
