which they can buy it on credit, as we have yet no sutler. Their
imploring, "Cunnel, we can't _lib_ widout it, Sah," goes to my heart;
and as they cannot read, I cannot even have the melancholy satisfaction
of supplying them with the excellent anti-tobacco tracts of Mr. Trask.


December 19.

Last night the water froze in the adjutant's tent, but not in mine.
To-day has been mild and beautiful. The blacks say they do not feel
the cold so much as the white officers do, and perhaps it is so,
though their health evidently suffers more from dampness. On the other
hand, while drilling on very warm days, they have seemed to suffer
more from the heat than their officers. But they dearly love fire, and
at night will always have it, if possible, even on the minutest
scale,--a mere handful of splinters, that seems hardly more
efficacious than a friction-match. Probably this is a natural habit
for the short-lived coolness of an out-door country; and then there is
something delightful in this rich pine, which burns like a tar-barrel.
It was, perhaps, encouraged by the masters, as the only cheap luxury
the slaves had at hand.

As one grows more acquainted with the men, their individualities emerge;
and I find, first their faces, then their characters, to be as distinct
as those of whites. It is very interesting the desire they show to do
their duty, and to improve as soldiers; they evidently think about it,
and see the importance of the thing; they say to me that we white men
cannot stay and be their leaders always and that they must learn to
depend on themselves, or else relapse into their former condition.