Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/26

			$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Headquarters Army and District of North Carolina,
General Orders	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$			New Berne, N. C., Sept. 10, 1863.
No. 12

In accordance with the views of the Major General commanding the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Chaplain Horace James, Superintendent of Blacks for the District of North Carolina, will assume charge of the colonization of Roanoke Island with negroes.

The powers conferred upon Brig. Gen. Wild, by General Orders No. 103, Headquarters Department of North Carolina, 18th Army Corps, are hereby transferred to Chaplain James. He will take possession of all unoccupied lands upon the island, and lay them out, and assign them, according to his own discretion, to the families of colored soldiers, to invalids, and other Blacks in the employ of the Government, giving them full possession of the same, until annulled by the Government or by due process of United States law. The authority of Chaplain James will be respected in all matters relating to the wellfare of the colony.

By command of Major General Peck,

Benj. B. Foster, Assist. Adj't General.

The work was now prosecuted with vigor, though with little outside aid for some time. With compass, chart, and chain, and a gang of choppers, the old groves of pine, gum, holly, and cypress, were penetrated, crossed and re-crossed, and the upper, or northern, end of the island was laid out in acre lots, and at once assigned to families. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm of these simple people, when they found themselves in possession of a spot they could call their own.

To be absolute owners of the soil, to be allowed to build upon their own lands cabins, however humble, in which they should enjoy the sacred priveleges of a home, was more than they had ever dared to pray for. It was affecting to hear the old men and women declare how fervently they blessed the Lord, that their eyes were permitted to see this unexpected sight. The woods now began to ring with blows from the woodman's axe, and to gleam at night with the fires which consumed the refuse vegetation, swept off in clearing the forests.

It was never intended to give these people farms at Roanoke,