“Yas, suh--I ain't got no set prejudices ary way. In de spring of '61 I went out wid my own w'ite folks, as body-sarvant to my young marster, Cap'n Harry Matthews--and we suttinly did fight dem bluebellies up hill and down dale fer three endurin' years or more; but in de campaignin' round Nashville somewhars I got kind of disorganized and turn't round someway; and, when I sorter comes to myself, lo and behole, ef I ain't been captured by de Fed'rul army! So, rather'n have any fussin' 'bout it, I j'ined in wid dem; and frum den on till de surrender I served on de other side--cookin' fer one of their gin'els and doin' odd jobs round de camp; but when 'twas all over I come on back home and settled down ag'in 'mongst my own folks, where I properly belonged. Den, yere a few years back, some of 'em tum't in and done some testifyin' fer me so's I could git my pension. Doctor Lake, he says to me hisse'f, he says; 'Zach, bein' as de Yankee Gover'mint is a passin' out dis yere money so free you might jess as well have a little chunk of it too!' And he--him and Mistah Charley Reed and some others, they helped me wid my papers; and, of course, I been mighty grateful to all dem gen'l'men ever since.” So Uncle Zach drew his pension check quarterly, and regularly once a year went to the reunion as general factotum of the Camp, coming home laden with badges and heavy with small change. He and Judge Priest's Jeff, who was of the second generation of freedom, now furnished a touch of intense color relief, sitting together in one of the rearmost seats, guarding the piled-up personal baggage of the veterans. Shortly before train-time carriages came, bringing young Mrs. McLaurin, little Rita Covington and Miss Minnie Lyon--the matron of honor, the sponsor and the maid of honor respectively of the delegation. Other towns no larger would be sure to send a dozen or more sponsors and maids and matrons of honor; but the home Camp was proverbially moderate in this regard. As Captain Woodward had once said: “We are charmed and honored by the smiles of our womanhood, and we worship every lovely daughter of the South; but, at a reunion of veterans, somehow I do love to see a veteran interspersed here and there in among the fair sex.”