reached that place, they were daily expecting an attack from the
gunboats, of which we had heard so much, but had not yet seen or
feared. Here the commanders wanted to exact the same amount of toil
as at Fort Wright; but the men drew up petitions, requesting that
the planters, who were at home doing nothing, should send their
slaves to work on the fortifications. General Pillow approved of
this plan, and published a call for laborers. In less than a month,
7000 able-bodied negro men were at work, and there would have been
twice as many, if needed. The planters were, and are yet, in bloody
earnest in this rebellion; and my impression, since coming North,
is, that the mass of Union-loving people here are asleep, because
they do not fully understand the resources and earnestness of the
South. There is no such universal and intense earnestness here, as
prevails all over the Rebel States. Refined and Christian women,
feeling that the Northern armies are invading their homes, cutting
off their husbands and brothers, and sweeping away their property,
are compelled to take a deeper interest in the struggle than the
masses of the North are able to do, removed as they are from the
horrors of the battle-scenes, and scarcely yet feeling the first
hardship from the war. Indeed, I do not doubt that regiments of
women could be raised, if there was any thing they could do in the
cause of the South. That they are all wrong, and deeply blinded in
warring against rightful authority, makes them none the less,
perhaps the more, violent.

The employment of slaves to do the hard work was of great advantage
in several respects. It allowed the men to drill and take care of
their health, as the planters sent overseers who superintended the
negroes. It kept the men in better spirits, and made them more
cheerful to endure whatever legitimately belongs to a soldier's