White was a crew member aboard the E.B. Hale, which played a crucial role in the Union campaign in Northeast Florida to secure the St. John's River. He describes the features of the river and the desertion of Jacksonville, a major location in the lumber trade. Vividly, White details his reactions to Southern racism and racial violence, mentioning both a brutal lynching and the use of slaves as concubines (although he appears to only reference the latter to point out the hypocrisy of Southern planters rather than condemn the practice). Also, White discusses the Union practice of not returning runaway slaves while bragging about taking on fifty runaways that supposedly had belonged to Florida Governor William Dunn Mosely.
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