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himself generally useful. He proved himself a capable youth and
soon rose to the position of overseer, having had at one time several dif-
ferent plantations under his management. His last employment was
at Silk Hope where he remained 18 years, and during those many years,
with no one to interfere with his management, which was the secret of
his staying so long, he proved himself a thoroughly trustworthy and re-
liable overseer. My father in writing to me of the prospects of the place at
the time, considered that it was certain for an income of $3000, which
in some years might reach $4000. The first figure was a correct esti-
mate for during my two first years of rice planting the yield exceeded
it in money but they were the last of Mr Caward's management, and as soon
as his successor was in charge the profits fell to a very low figure. It
was the old man's skillful watering of the growing rice which produced
the large yield, and his nephew who followed him never learnt to do
it like him.

My life on the plantation then, which was only during the winter and spring,
was a rather purposeless one. I rode about occasionally with Mr Caward
and tried to learn from him as much as possible while he was directing
the work in the fields. From being suspicious of me at first and fearing
that I intended to ignore him in the control of things, when he saw that I
did not propose to interfere in anyway with his management, he became
very cordial and wrote to my father that he had been agreably disappointed
in me. My days, when the weather was good, were partly spent in long
walks that I took in the fields, always stopping to see the work that the
hands were busy at; and after dinner I generally took a ride on horseback.
In the evening after tea I usually had some good book to read, one of the
best of which was Macauley's history of England. I may say that the
reading that I accomplished at Silk Hope was an important fact in my
favor, and which has served me well since. The fondness for solitude which,
from being so much alone, I thus acquired, was no disadvantage to me.
It gave more seriousness to my thoughts and enabled me to see the greater
advantage of devoting my evenings to some serious book over spending
them idly at card playing or conviviality. My most intimate friend in the
neighborhood was that excellent old gentleman, Mr Alfred Huger, who
for many years had been the postmaster of Charleston, and who owned
a small plantation, called Longwood, near Silk Hope, to which he was
able to make frequent visits, and where his family generally spent the
entire winter. I was always a welcome guest at dinner with him on
Sundays, and from the intimacy that had existed between him and the
families of both my father and mother during his early manhood, he
really seemed to treat me with the affection of a near relative. My beha-
vior to him was always that of deference for age, and our intimacy continued
until his death, which occurred at his brother's residence in Calhoun St
in 1872. My plantation experience at this time consisted of frequent
visits, lasting from two to three and sometimes four weeks, with returns to
the city in order to enjoy the festivities of race week and the balls both
public and private which were given at that time.

This lasted from the beginning of 1857 to the beginning of 1861 when
South Carolina had seceded, and it had become evident that war
between the North and South was inevitable. It was necessary for me
then to join some company and be drilled as a soldier, as every young man
was doing so, and I therefore became a member of a new cavalry company
which was rapidly filling up, to which the name of Rutledge Mounted
Riflemen had been given. The Captain was Mr Cleland K. Huger, and
the 1st and 2nd Lieutenants respectively W. L. Trenholon and Legare Walker.
The three were business men on the Bay, and the privates and non commission-
ed officers principally clerks from the various mercantile houses in the
same quarter of the city. My younger brother Alfred also joined at the same
time and we were together during the next three years.