Incidents of the War: Humorous, Pathetic, and DescriptiveBurnett, Alfred
History
Incidents of the War: Humorous, Pathetic, and Descriptive
Burnett, Alfred
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Anecdotes
"I don't want my PAR nor my brothers to come home not till every one
of you _Yankees_ is driven from our sile!"
Some of the boys were busy hunting for a secreted negro, one whom this
young lady had stored away for safety. A soldier opened a smoke-house
door, at which the young Secesh fairly yelled--
"There aint no nigger there! You Yankees haint a bit o' sense! You
don't know a smoke-house from a hut, nohow!"
Supposing the negro, who we felt almost sure was there, might possibly
have escaped, we were about retiring with those already collected,
when I suggested, loud enough for any one to hear about the building,
that the whole squad should pour a volley through that rickety old
dormer-window that projected from the room, when, much to our
astonishment, and amid roars of laughter, appeared a woolly head,
white eye-balls distended, the darkey yelling loud and fast--
"DON'T SHOOT, MASSA! don't shoot! HERE I IS! I's a comin'! De missus
made me clime on dis roof. I wants to go wid you folks anyhow!"
Mr. Crossman's plantation was then visited; but, as the rebels had
driven him away because of his Unionism, and taken his horses, his
property was undisturbed by us.
From thence we visited Nolinsville--met a gang of twenty
"likely-looking boys," stout, healthy fellows, who had clubbed
together to come to the Union camp. They told us the rebs were only
four miles off, "scriptin' all the niggers dar was in de fields, and
a-runnin' 'em South." These were added to our stock in trade.
On our way back, a couple of old, sour-looking WOMEN were standing on
the steps that were built for them to _climb_ a _fence_, who, seeing
so many blacks, inquired what we were taking them for. "To work," was
the reply. "The rebels were about to run them South, and we wanted
them to work for us."
"Now who told you that?" they inquired.
"The negroes themselves, madam. Many of them came voluntarily, to
escape being sent South."
"O, yes! you Federals git your information from the _niggers
altogether_."
"Yes, madam!" facetiously replied Captain Dickerson, of the 2d
Minnesota Regiment, "that's a fact. All the _reliable_ information
does come from them."
On our homeward trip we called at what is known as "Kidd's Mills,"
between Concord Church and Nolinsville. There were there quite a
number employed upon the lumber and grist. A selection was made from
the lot. They _all_ wanted to come, but some were too young, and
others too _old_.
Old man Kidd said he had a "safeguard from the Gineral. The Gineral
had been up to see his darters, Delilah and Susan, and give him a
safeguard." Upon examination it was found to be a mere request.
Requests don't stand in military (not arbitrary enough). Then the old
man declared he had always been a Union man--"allers said this war
wern't no good--that the South had better stand by the old flag."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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