Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/44

 38 Southern Historical Society Papers.

of a whole battalion. Detaching some of these men from their com- mands would have been unpardonable cruelty if it had not been known that they were entitled to and would receive a surgeon's certificate of disability and discharge from service as soon as they applied. Knowing this, these sick men were, I think, not generally averse to being detailed and thus saving their friends from great hard- ship. The men fit for duty of the famous corps of sharpshooters were, after Pemberton found that his pet scheme had failed, attached to the Charleston Battalion. That battalion thereafter became the Twenty-seventh South Carolina Volunteers. I must do General Pemberton the justice to say that he selected some excellent officers. Major R. Blythe Allston, who was a captain in the sharpshooters, was one the very best officers of Cofonel Gaillard's regiment and Hagood's brigade.

Notwithstanding every subterfuge which the captains could with honor devise, some good men were lost. Though a good shot could not be selected by draft, which was resorted to in some of the companies, it was sometimes impossible to prevent the lot fall ing on a good man. It may seem to some that the evasion of the officers whose duty it was to make these details was unsoldierly. There was at the time no difference of opinion among the officers of the army, so far as I could learn from conversing with them. The whole scheme was looked upon as disgraceful tyranny by every offi- cer whose regiment or company was affected. And any plan by which the greatest number of effective men could be saved, and the letter of the law only obeyed, was looked upon as justifiable and right. Disobedience would have been as fruitless of good results as entreaties had proved. There was no open disobedience in this Mili- tary District. We heard that there had been almost a mutiny among the troops in the neighborhood of Savannah, and that some officers lost their commissions in consequence.

August isi. — Fever on the increase and cases assuming a more virulent form.

A7ig7ist 8th. — The right wing of the regiment moved to a new camp on Stono river, at its junction with Elliot's Cut. We hope that the health of the men will be better in some new location, and here we will have the advantage of salt baths. The hope had been enter- tained that we might be permitted to leave the island during the sickly season, as the enemy had entirely withdrawn. Their gun- boats were not even always in the river. However, it is deemed a military necessity that we remain. It would certainly be hazardous