So we marched our seven miles out upon the smooth and shaded road,--beneath jasmine clusters, and great pine-cones dropping, and great bunches of misletoe still in bloom among the branches.

Arrived at the station, the scene soon became busy and more confused; wagons were being unloaded, tents pitched, water brought, wood cut, fires made, while the "field and staff" could take possession of the abandoned quarters of their predecessors, and we could look round in the lovely summer morning to "survey our empire and behold our home." The only thoroughfare by land between Beaufort and Charleston is the "Shell Road," a beautiful avenue, which, about nine miles from Beaufort, strikes a ferry across the Coosaw River.

War abolished the ferry, and made the river the permanent barrier between the opposing picket lines.
For ten miles, right and left, these lines extended, marked by well-worn footpaths, following the endless windings of the stream; and they never varied until nearly the end of the war.

Upon their maintenance depended our whole foothold on the Sea Islands; and upon that again finally depended the whole campaign of Sherman.

But for the services of the colored troops, which finally formed the main garrison of the Department of the South, the Great March would never have been performed.
There was thus a region ten or twelve miles square of which I had exclusive military command.