Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/9

Rh food to 2,149 persons in New Berne who are very poor, or aged, infirm, widows or orphans, or for other reasons dependent on the charity of government. This class of persons is therefore twenty-three per cent. of the whole number of colored people residing here. They are not supplied with the full "dependents' ration," but furnished with "necessary sustenance," in such quantities as they absolutely require. Previously to the year 1864, the colored refugees who could not find quarters among their friends in town, were placed in camps or settlements a little out of town. Of these there were three, two of them being located a mile or two outside of our interior line of fortifications. In these two camps lived about 1,800 people. When the rebel insurgents under Gen. Pickett attacked New Berne in February last, every man, woman, and child from these camps came rushing wildly into town, struck with fear, and feeling as keen a sense of danger as if they had been actually returned by force to their old masters. And why should they not? Our outposts were driven in, the garrison was weak, the gun-boat "Underwriter" was burnt by the foe right under the guns of our forts, and the negroes themselves were called to the breast-works to repel the common danger, with extemporized military organizations, and a hasty equipment. For a day or two things looked very blue hereabouts, but the exigency passed by with the loss of some hundreds of prisoners, one section of a light battery, and more brave officers and men than we could afford to spare. Major Gen. Peck being then absent on leave, the defense of the town was made by Brig. Gen. I. N. Palmer, who performed the task with signal ability. He highly complimented the negroes, who took to the trenches, to the number of 1,200, with the alacrity of old soldiers. This attack made it manifest that the colored people were not safe in their camps. A number of them were captured within two miles of the city, some were killed, and all driven from their homes. Consequently, Gen. Peck, on his return, ordered me to remove both these settlements, and consolidate the three upon the site of the one which lay within our interior fortifications, just over the Trent River bridge. It was immediately done. Streets were run out, and lots assigned, fifty feet by sixty, allowing a little garden spot to each house; and now