26
	The Battery at Charleston
letter.    And Mat writes shortest of all, plain
and kindly.           I needn�t say these letters
pleased me enough.     I got them one morning,
as near as I can make out on the third, and
recollect taking an afternoon walk in the en-
virons of the city and on the Battery, in a
half morbid, lonely state, rendering me pre-
ternaturally sensitive to epistolary kindness.
It was a mildly-raw, unpleasant afternoon and
the sun set with disagreeable colors, green and
murky yellow predominating.    There were chil-
dren playing and some girls walking on the
esplanade, and I saw a boat come from
the schooner which lies anchored in the Ashley
River, the assumed nursery of a future South
[photograph of Battery]
Carolina navy.
This Battery
�is the extreme
point of the city
peninsula, its
right facing on
the Ashley, its
left on the 
Cooper, its out-
look command-
(Looking towards James Island.)   ing the entire