Early April 1862 saw past events working themselves out and
portents of things to come along the road to emancipation. A
portent came on April 3, when the Gen. David Hunter wrote
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from his headquarters in
Hilton Head, S.C. Hunter, recently installed as commander of the
Department of the South, had been given the unenviable task of
solidifying and expanding the Union toe holds in coastal South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida with minimal personnel and
supplies. Although his activities were essential to the northern
naval blockade of the South, Hunter got the short stick in
competing for resources with high-profile Union commanders, such
George McClellan, who was that spring voraciously diverted
soldiers and supplies for his Peninsula campaign against the
Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Hunter, who had
served under John C. Frémont in Missouri, when Frémont had
attempted on his own authority to free slaves of the disloyal
owners there, saw the solution to his manpower p