Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-02-13

non-shot, hnt by leaden huliets-in the Spott-
sylvania fight lie looked like colossal scrub
broom - had stump twice as big as this.
cut off by bullets in the same way, only much
smoother but some Federal officers took il
from me and sent it to the War Department at
W ashington."
lie had many battie-scars about his house to
show one o. which | remember A shell
come IN through the wall thar, wrapped Itself
up IN a bed that stood hyer, and bus ed IN hve
peces.'
la one of the rooms found Union oficer
lying on a lounge, sick With the prevailing fever.
lie seemed glad TO Northern face, aod
urged me TO be seated.
'' 1t is fearfully lonesome here and just now
L have no companion but the ague."
Learning that he had been sOme time In COIN
mand OF the post. inquired the reason why
the citizens appe,red SO eager to save the gov
eminent expense In feeding their poor.
g Ii is very simple they wish TO get control
of the business in order to cut off the negroes.
They had rather have the assistance the gov
eminent tfords withdrawn altogether, than that
the freedmen should come in for a share. Is is
their policy 20 keep the blacks entirely depen-
dent upon their former masters and consequent
ly as much slaves as before
- \ ou of course hear many complaints that
the blacks wall not work !? 7"
Yes, and they are true in certain cases they
"
ers are willing to give, In other words they
will not work TOR less than nothing. But when
they have encouragement they work very we'll,
IN their fashion which is not the Yankee
fashion, certainly but the fashion which slavery
has bred them up to. They have not yet learned
to appreciate, however, the binding character
OF contract. 1t ls new thing To them.
Besides, the master too often sets them bad ex-
amples by failing to keep his own engagements.
de has Ueen In the habit OF breaking MS prom
ises To chem at his CONVENIENCE and now he
finds fault that they do not keep theirs any bet
ter. The masters have not yet learned how 90
treat their old servants under the
ditIon>. They mot learn tnat they no
longer slaves This is one great source of
trouble. Ga the other hand, where the freed
man receives rational, just, and kind treatment,
ne behaves well and works we'll, almost with
out exception. expect good deal OF fhcuIty
soon The negroes have IN many places made
contracts 70 work Tor a part OF the crop; now
VIII n tEs corn comes to be divided, their ideas
aud their master $ with regard 10 what part
OF the crop Is, will be fouud to differ CONSIDER
ably. L was not anti-slavery home,
he added : and give you SIMPLY the results
OF my observation since L have been in the
South
" hat do you think would be the effect if
our troops were withdrawn?
= hardly know but sheuid expect one oil
two things either that the freedmen would be
reduced 10 worse condition than they were
ever IL before, or that they would rise In usuT
lection."
The landlord wished me To 90 and look az his
corn Ii was certainly noble crop The tops
ot the m0nstrous ears lowered SIX OF eight ieet
from the ground the tops of the stalks at least
Twelve fourteen feet. He maiD tained that II
would erage fifty bushels (Of shaled corc) 10
the acre | thought th- estimate too higu.
- tI3CtI corn" SAID Ia measures finely
y corn porely. And consider not q spoonful
OF manure has been put on this ground TO fou'
years
= But the ground has been resting und that
Is as good manure
- Yes; but its mighty good soil tina. will do
as we'll a. this. Now tell your People, Ii they
want to buy good land cheap. hyr's their chance.
I've got Il thousand acres and Iii sell Oft seven
hundred acres, cialred or timber land, to suIt
purchaser. It's we'll woth twenty dollars an
acre ii sell II fer Il ant fur from mar
ke<; and tia rs moth n We can't raise on THIS
yer land
Ot ali his thousand acres he had only about
hity uuder cultivation. His coFnfeld was not
as large as it appeared for, running through
the centre OF II, like a titanic furrow, were
Lee tremendous lntreEchmeuts. These fes
acres Were ali the old man h "a been able to
close There WAS not another fence ON has
farm. - | had over ten thousand panels OF
ience burns up for me during the wa ; over
eighty thousand rails
- BY which army"
Borh fus. one, and then the ether Our
own troops were as bad the Yankees >
Afterwards. as We rode away from the tavern,
Richard ii. Hicks gave me the following sue
cinct account OF the landlord
8 He used to be heavy coon-dog lie had
fifty head o darkeys. He would n't hire 'em,
and dey lei'- Now he has nobody to wo'k de
tani has pOf 81 tfy0 + pkAt nd baf.
to sell.
Riding west from the Court-House, aud
striking across the fields on the right we passed
McCoois house, Ia leasant snady place, and
reached the scene where the eight days fighting
culminated. OF the woods, thinned and de-
epoied by ths storm OF iron and lead, only
ghostly grove OF dead trunks and dreary dry
limbs remained. Keeping around the western
edge ot these, W came TO strange medley of
which 1t would have required
an engineer to unravel and understand Here
Grant works had been pushed up against
Lees, swal owing them as one wave swallows
another. Nowhere else have | seen evidences of
such close and desperate fighting. For eight
days Grant had been thundering at the gates of
the Confederacy; slowly. with fearful loss, he
had been pressing back the enemy and breaking
through the distractions until here at last he
conce ltrated all his strength. Each army
fought Us if the gods had decreed that the issue
OF the war depended upon that struggle. And
50 indeed they had the way to Richmond by
this route, SO long attempted in vain, was here
opened. The grand result proclaimed that the
eight days battles were victories that the enc
mics, for the first time their own chosen
ground, bad met with ominous defeat. Incon-
ceivable Was the slaughter. Here two red riv-
ers met and spilled themselves into the ground
Swift currents from the great West, tribu taries
from the Atlantic States and from the Lake
States, priceless rills. precious drops from al
most every community ana family in the Union,
swelled the northern stream which burst its
living banks and pershed here. Every state
every community, every family mourned.
But behind this curtain of woe was the chs |
,lied awful form, the terrible front and sub |
ime eyes, of the statue of Fate, the nations |
viii. Contemplating that, we are |
ilenced, if not consoled. Every breast-,hat |
II the father going TO search for the body of his
lead son, that of the mother reading the brief |
dispatch that pierced her the bulle. pierced |
Ter dear boy, that of the pale wife Fastening
o the cot-side of her dying husband nay the
bleeding breasts OF the wounded and dying,
While yet they felt a throb of life-thrilled re-
Co., 80