President did not appreciate the necessity of employing the Negroes to fight the battles of the
country and take the positions which the white men of the nation, the voters, and sons of patriotic sires, should be proud to occupy; there were employments in which the Negroes of rebel masters might well be engaged, but he was not willing
to place them upon an equality with our volunteers who had left home and family and lucrative
occupations to defend the Union and the Constitution while there were volunteers or militia
enough in the loyal States to maintain the Government without resort to this expedient. If the loyal
people were not satisfied with the policy he had
adopted, he was willing to leave the administration to other hands. One of the Senators was
impudent enough to tell the President he wished
to God he would resign.”
In the spring of 1862 General Hunter was sent into South Carolina with less than 11,000 men and charged with the duty of holding the whole seacoast of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. He asked for re-enforcement but was told frankly from Washington, “Not a man from the North can be spared.” The only way to guard the position was to keep long lines of entrenchment thrown up against the enemy. General Hunter calmly announced his intention of forming a
