ROANOKE ISLAND, NC, JULY 4, 1865

"About sunrise there were 36 cannons fired, which sounded very much like war times, and appeared to rouse the very fish in the waters. The band played several airs, and everybody seemed to be alive. About 9 o'clock our regiment turned out, the soldiers marching to the music of the drum corps, and then halting in front of head quarters, where the old flag was flung to the breeze amid the cheers of the assembled multitude. "By this time about 3500 persons had collected. The regiment then stacked arms, and our most worthy and illustrious chaplain , Henry M. Turner, came along with his little wife by his side , who, by the way, appears to be a noble woman. Taking his position under a shade tree, he delivered one of the finest orations , I can safely say, that was ever heard on this island. Mr. Turner has always been the idol of our men, he goes with us everywhere in cold or heat, battle or sickness , he is always there, and every time, he has something new to say. I could not realize that I had ever heard him before. "In his address to the Fourth, he reviewed the history of the country from the discovery by Columbus, and spoke on slavery from its inaugurating until it was destroyed by the proclamation of our lamented President . He concluded by paying the nation's flag a glorious tribute ; he said the extremities of color , white and black in the country , had made it the world's theater , and that every despotic nation under heaven should yet dance to American music, and that Daniel's stone made it the regulation in 1776, and would make its last when the whole world would be one great republic, and that as soon as God would knock down the wall of prejudice between the whites and the blacks, sectional divisions would crumble into dust throughout the entire Globe. He handled his subject in a masterly manner, and the secessionists that heard him looked wild at its conclusion . Everybody then returned to their homes, and the rest of the day went off quietly." P.174-175, "Occupation Duty," A GRAND ARMY OF BLACK MEN edited by Edwin S. Redkey (1993) [This letter was written by Pvt. William Brown, 1st USCI, from Roanoke Island, North Carolina, on July 6, 1865, and was published in the AME's "Christian Recorder" newspaper on July 22, 1865]