Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/45

Rh by these sixty-eight teachers, even in this brief period. Light has been flashed for the first time into hundreds of benighted minds, with an effect as electric, as inspiring, as beautiful, as when the Divine Spirit moved upon the formless void, and said, Let there be light,' and there was light." The teachers who have deceased during the year are the following: Carrie M. Getchell, and Elizabeth M. Tuttle, at Beaufort; and Robert Morrow, (colored), at Roanoke Island. Miss Getchell died March, 14, 1864, after a brief but painful illness. Her disease was acute inflammation of the glottis, contracted by exposure and too close application to her duties. She loved her work, and labored for her Divine Master with all her heart and soul and strength. She was a person of robust health, and was stationed in one of the healthiest localities in the State. Yet here have occurred the only instances of mortality among our northern teachers. Miss Tuttle died of yellow fever in its most decided and fatal form. She was tenderly nursed night and day by a fellow teacher, Miss Graves, who passed the sickly season with health unimpaired, though she was fearlessly and almost continually among the sick and dying. Robert Morrow, at the time of his decease, was a sergeant in the 1st North Carolina Heavy Artillery, (colored troops.) He came into our lines at the time of an attack upon New Berne, and had been for many years a body servant of the rebel General Pettigrew, whom he then deserted for liberty and Union. He had a decent education, having been with Pettigrew at West Point, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was an enthusiastic and excellent teacher. He was of pure African blood, had an intellectual cerebral development, and a patriotic heart. He died suddenly, and in his bed, having retired at night as well as usual. He was then engaged in recruiting colored troops at Roanoke Island. It matters little to him that he left the world without warning, for he daily walked with God. He still belongs to the great army which marches under the banner of truth, but he wears a conqueror's wreath and sings the song of victory. His was a short war, and a speedy promotion.

Not only the decease of these warm-hearted workers, but the steady progress of the war towards its termination admonishes