The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-08-25

troduced into the army, is now "all the
rage" On last Friday, each regiment in
the 18th Brigade, sent out party. As
this was the first instance of the kind, |
concluded to go along. So accompanied
the expedition from the 18th Indiana, COM
posed of about 100 men, under Capt D.,
of Petersburg.
One can scarcely believe that he is in tie
same world, when he calls to mind that the |
same Generals who are now ordering this |
step. and approving of con6scstion aud |
emancipation, few weeks ago, were send |
ing slaves to their masters by armed force.
The times change, and we change with |
them"
A mile or two beyond the pickets, we
halted in shady lawn in fToct of neat
residence. The men stacked arms and
helped themselves to fruit and water, W bile
the Captain approached the house. He was
met by the mother and two daughters, the
father being away, and the son having gone
from Fort Donelson to Indianapolis. They
had three negroes. One had run off yes
terday. The eldest daughter, who vas not
by any means troubled with beauty herself,
described him es an ''ugly niger" An
other had gone to mill The third, whose
name was Lewis, was at home. TLey beg
ged bard for him. They declared them
selves for the Union, which was all gam
mon. So Lewis was sent for his quilt and
tin cup. He soon came out with them,
his head crowned with girls hat all deck
ed with ribbons. His face was all lit up
with Joy, which he was unable to conceal.
His mistress said he did not want to go,
and all that kind Of stuff She tried to get
him to say ne was sorry, but the ugly ne
gro did not have manners enough even to
look solemn, though bis "sweet heart" as
be called her, was shedding some tears, ap-
propriate to the occasion. The eldest
daughter having more penetration than the
mother, urged, Oh, don't ask him, Ma;
you know how bad he feels !" He told me,
afterwards that he was very glad to go.
/ In fact, the fellow could scarcely con tain
himself for joy.
We next passed house where there was
but one negro, and be was too old for the
present war, as he served in the war of
| 1912. His master was silly enough to hide
him behind the cider press. Foolish man
we knew as much about his negro as he
did, for we carried the "contrabaud" in
formation along With Us.
At the next house where we made a
halt, we had quite an interesting time
Some men were seen in the woods, which
resulted in rich chase through fields and
thickets. All the men at the house we're
taken prisoners, and one in the woods
The negro women ran, for they had been
told the Yankees would kill them. Here,
we took one negro. He had a wife, and
| regretted to part with her, but, otherwise,
he was glad to go.
We next came to the negro quarters
of one Major Rutledge, of the rebel army.
He belongs to the Rutledge family of
South Carolina, and his wife is an Under
wood, from Kentucky. Bnt the high blood
of the owners did not seem to do the slaves
any good. They dwell in miserable cabins,
and had nothing to eat but corn bread. One
of them was an old woman, Who told me
she was the mother of three children at the
time of the Revolutionary war; She was
over a hundred years old When told her
hoped she would soon find rest in a better
world, she came ueaf shouting after the old
style. She certainly can relish Heaven aft
ter being for more than hundred years 10
BuI | need not refer to all the plantation
we visited. Amongst others was that of a
widow, whose husband had died al Corinth
Of the three negroes one was taken at Fort
l
our visit, and the last was taken by our
party. A poor consalescent child was sit
ting in the porch, and the mother was near
with countenanee sad and sorrowful. She
did not rave at US as did some of the other
women. The storm with her was past
Oh how many hearts have been broken
and households desolated by this rebellion.
From nearly every house we heard of sons
in northern prisons or in their graves
| asked at one house fat, solemn old
negro woman "if she did not think she
would soon be free 2" ayes, masss," said
she, when Ise dis way" at the same time
closing both eyes with her hands-present-
ing most comic picture of death
AT Parson Gwinn's we had great time
| am very thankful and shall be to the end
of life for heavy post and rail fence be-
tween myself and the women. l would al
most as leave be let down into Daniel
lions den as to have entered the house J.
| was only present as spectator but /
learned by sad experience that it was some
thing like Bull Run-a poor place for
lookers-on. Such a TRADE of abuse and
nonsense | never heard before in all my life.
The cutlery set all the negroes big and
little, to bowling. The old lady declared
that the design was to sell the negroes in
Cuba and pay the expenses of the war;
1t was midnight when we reached camp
with % contrabands Of war" This was
doing well, as we were in poor country,
and it was bad day for negroes anyhow.
Nothing hits these people so hard as to
take their slaves. They can give up their
corn, and reconcile themselves to the death
of husband, father, or son, but the idea of
giving up fifteen hundred dollar negroes,
and being compelled to work themselves, is
"the most unkudIy cut Of ALL" They
would beg for all, for half, for !" just one
Niger"
The negroes were nearly all glad to
come. Tney would dance along like chill
dren just from school. Several who bad
wives did not like to leave them, but even
these were as anxious as the others to leave
their masters. We saw nothing of that
"love for their masters " of which we have
heard 80 much. The slaves here are poorly
fed, clothed 10 rags, aud worked hard. We
may infer their intense love for their mas
tiers, from the fact that they are coming in of
their own accord every day in large num-
bers.
Nearly all the information we get of the
enemy is from the negroes Since we have