63
The Dayton Plantation.
negro-brigade in the absence of its chief -
set off to visit the colored regiment. I found
it immensely exhilarating to be in the saddle
again with a good horse under me, and we
went ahead at a slapping pace. As I had oc-
casion to describe the locality and the place I
visited in a
future letter
the the Trib-
une (inserted
at page 85-7-9)
I need say
nothing of it
here. We
gained the
Drayton
plantation
just in time
to escape a
violent storm
which we
[photograph]
Major-General David Hunter.
[Gunn s diary continued]
had forseen
all along
Having wit-
nessed an ex-
tempore re-
view or dress
parade of the
negro troops
afterwards,
we stopped
about the vi-
cinity, among
the trees by
the pond, and
out, by a
shell-path through the marshes to the restless
sea, the shore of which was paved with innumer-
able gigantic oysters, growing upwards perpendi-
cularly; adhering below, as it were, by their hin-
ges. (I had never thought how oysters did
grow and the discovery was a revelation to me.)| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty: page seventy-three |
| Description: | Regarding the Drayton plantation, an African American unit on parade, and how oysters grow. |
| Date: | 1862-06-19 |
| Subject: | Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Horses; Hunter, David; Magnolia Plantation (Charleston County, S.C.); Military; South Carolina Infantry Regiment, 1st (Union) |
| Scan Date: | 2010-09-10 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of his experiences as a war correspondent for ""The New York Tribune"" at Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, especially Hilton Head, Port Royal, St. Augustine, Key West, and the end of his experiences with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign when he had to leave camp due to illness. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Diseases; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marches (U.S. Army); Medical care (U.S. Army); Military; Military camp life; Peninsular Campaign (Va.); Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Port Royal, South Carolina; Hilton Head, South Carolina; Key West, Florida; St. Augustine, Florida; Virginia |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
