June 15, 1863, Menphis Daily Appeal (Atlanta, Ga)
From the Savannah News.
We have announced before that Gen. Hunter, the Federal commander at Hilton Head, had ordered that all the citizens of St. Augustine who sympathized with the South, or who had relatives in the Confederate army, should be banished from that city. In pursuance of this barbarous order, on Tuesday, the 28th of May, the Federal steamer Boston was at the wharf at St. Augustine, prepared to receive the exiles. Some thirty or forty citizens, men, women, and children, were embarked on board the steamer, which proceeded on her voyage, the exiles being uniformed of their destination. Many supposed that they would be landed at Fernandina, but, upon their arrival there, they were informed that the order from General Hunter was peremptory for the steamer to proceed to Hilton Head. The steamers accordingly arrived at that port. The prisoners were not taken on shore, but were kept on board one week. They were then taken to Beaufort, and placed in a dwelling there, guarded by Federal troops. This, we learn, was done to protect them from the insults of the Federal troops, frequent complaints having been made by political prisoners of the ill treatment received by them at the hands of the Yankee officers and soldiers. From Beaufort they were conveyed in accommodation wagons to the Confederate lines, and by railroad a portion of them arrived in this city on Wednesday night by the Charleston train.
On their arrival within our lines, they separated in different directions, in search of relatives and friends, many of them being comparatively destitute, having been robbed of their property and driven from their homes with scant means.