The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-06-17
A Very Strange Story.

III 1853 General Pemberton command
ed at this point. Colonel Hemingway
owned faithful slave-Peyton by name
a noted negro fiddler, known for miles
around, and highly respected by both
black and white. When his young mas
ter, w. Lynn Hemingway, at present
State Treasurer of Mississippi, Joined the
old "Carroll Rifles" be took Peyton along
as a trusted servant. He went with hin
into Virginia and returned home in 1868
In February or March of that year q
faithful spy was needed to visit the Fed
eral gunboats then coming down the riy.
er on Fort Pemberton. Peyton at once
undertook the mission, and representing
himself as fugitive slave to the COM
manders of the boats was we'll received
Being bright far beyond ordinary, he
managed to secrete their official papers,
maps, &C., and escaped with these docu.
ments to Fort Pemberton.
After the fall of Vicksburg, in July
following, Peyton went with his young
master again to Virginia, where he re"
mained until the surrender of General
Lee. The former being compelled to re.
main number of days thereafter, in or.
der to comply with the formalities of the
surrender, sent Peyton ahead of him to
his home, near Carrollton, Miss. On
his way, however. he was betrayed to the
enemy by some Confederate as the spy
who had deceived them above Fort Penn
berton, was captured and carried in irons
to New York, thence to Cuba, and sold
as slave, together with many others.
The vessel on which he was taken was a
Federal gunboat. In Cuba he worked as
q slave in factories for nearly fifteen
years, being entirely cut off from all COM
munication with home and friends. He
made seven attempts to escape from bon
dage, all but the last, of course, being
unsuccessful. Finally he found an Amer
ican vessel, commanded by Southerner,
to whom be related the history of his cap.
ture, enslavement and forced exile, and
begged to be returned to his home and
family. The Captain secreted him in
the hold of his vessel, carried him to
Costa Rica, thence to New York. Pey-
ton then worked his way to Virginia,
where a number of ladies raised the
means to return him to his home after
an absence of seventeen years. He reach.
ed Winona Miss, on the 18th of April,
1880. Peyton says that numbers of mu.
latto women are being constantly sold
in Cuba as slaves. Nothern men marry
them, take them to Cuba con O bridal
tour'' and there sell them as cooks
and fancy house servants. He saw one
sold last Fall by the man who married
her for $500; and further, that as he
came through Cincinnati on his way
home he saw the man, and recognized
him, who sold her in Cuba. The facts
above given are from one of the most re.
liable and responsible gentlemen in Mis-
sissippi, written to distinguished mem.
ber of Congress from that State. Closing
his letter he says of Peyton:
"He was delighted to again meet his
wife, who had married in his long abb
sence, though her second husband was
drowned several months ago. Hence, he
found her widow. With both husband
and wife it was Ikea return to life from
death. Peyton is an exceedingly intel
ligent negro, and says he can hardly re-
alize the changes that have taken place.
He left his children babes, and finds
them married and with children of their
own"
If any one doubts the truth of this sto.
ry he or she can write to Captain B. F.
Jones, Winona, Miss, or to c. 7. F.
Merriwether, Oakland, Yalobusha Coun-
ty, same State.- Washington Mss Ga
zette.