National Republican., 1885-10-31

There has beer nothing more wonderful
in history than the attitude OF the southern
slaves, considering the circumstances, to-
ward their masters In the civil war. These
people, after tho John Brown episode az
Hnrper's Ferry, were supposed to have i'm
planted In them the seeds OF revolution. IL
wns supposed that they would seize any
opportunity TO escape from their thraldom.
II was supposed, too, that they hated their
masters, and that when the opportunity
was afforded them by the advance of the
federal troops they would wreak their ven
geance ON the families of those who were in
the field and who had held them In COM
pulsory bondage. They did no such
Thing. A debt Of gratitude is due
for, while the whole body Of the able-bodled
men Of the south were at the 'front.' the
bulk of the slave population were In the
rear, protecting tho women and children
and raising the crops upon which the con-
federate armies subsisted. OF course this
was not the case in the border countries;
for there, when the first tocsln of war was
sounded, the slaves almost unanimously
left for tho north and freedom, without any
definite idea as to how they were to MAIN
tain themselves. happened to be citizen
OF one Of the border counties Fairfax, Vn),
and ON the advance of the federal forces to
the first Bull Run battle, | rccollect that all
Of my fathers slaves stampeded; although
they were treated as kindly us If they had
been members Of our family.
PERSONAL "REMINISCENCES.
In after days-whcn the war had ended
one Of the men who had often borne me on
bis back when was u boy of II years on n
'possum hunt said to me Mister Tom, 1
enliste q In the United States navy and /
served during the war off Charleston. |
would never have left you, but wanted to
he my own man. Your people were kind
to me, but wanted to work for myself and
get my own pay. The fact that l was a
slaye.always grated upon my feelings"
Now we can't always understand what
other people may feel In our dealings with
them, and fear that we people OF fair
skins do not realize what those OF darker
skins may feel when we arrogantly attempt
to assert our race supremacy. | never,
since / began to think for myself, and ad-
vocated slavery, although down south L
didn't see how we were to get rid of 1t OK
cept by an appalling social revolution.
THE SLAVES SENT TO TIE INTERIOR.
speak of the condition of affairs in Vir-
ginia, for / know nothing, except from
hearsay, of the attitude of the negroes In
the states south Of her. When the war
actually began nearly every owner of slaves
in the border counties on the Potomac river
sent back their slaves to the interior--the
men for the most part being hired out to the
qunrtermnster's department as teamsters or
labOrers on the Notifications, and the
women and children placed in the towns
and cities and plantations as domestics.
This was mere matter of safety, forw wages
or hire at that time amounted to nothing.
Money was drug, The most convincing
evidence of the feeling of the people of the
probable result of the contest was indi-
Gated by the fact that healthy, able-bodied
negro who in 1861 would have brought
$4,000 under the hammer of the auctioneer
would not have sold for 1900 cents in 1862,
and at that period the confederacy was ap-
parently sin the swim"
NONE ABUSE THEIR TRUST.
To recur to the point whence started
can truthfully say that, so far as l can re-
member, while we men were at the front
leaving our women and children in the care
of the slaves who remained faithful, and
many Of them did SO. Inever heard of q single
instance of the abuse of their position. 1t
may have been that they feared our armies,
who enyeloped them, but do not think
so. l have, on the contrary, good reason
to believe that there was real good
feeling existing between the families
of the masters and the slaves that precluded
anything like race war. At any rate, IL is
matter Of history that while the white men
were fighting in front, the colored men were
quietly in the rear raising food to support
themselves, and, l may say II, sometimes
risking their lives to protect the families Of
their masters from marauding parties of the
two armies.
AN INCIDENT.
/ have said that colored men were en-
ployed as teamsters, but l recollect an incl
dent that nnuaa1 Con / n n N Ora rid nf than
assoon as he could. When, inlS62, Just be-
fore the second Bull Run battle, our army
had been pushed forward to the Rappahan-
mock, all Of our batteries opened fire on
Gen. Pope's line, stationed Just beyond the
river. While the batteries were blazing
away at each other Longstreets corps
moved In q sort OF left oblique lat that time
Stonewall Jackson was making his cele-
brated movement on Pope's right ilank) J;
the various divisions, having but one road
to go upon, parallel with the river, got
mixed up with large wagon train that au
asinine quartermaster had put in our way.
Longstreet was furious, and he rode up and
down the line, calculating words that are
not put down in the orthodox catechsm.
We were brought to halt In gorge Of the
hills by the hating of the wagon train.
Suddenly storm OF shell and round shot
lin good range at that came bowling
through the gorge. One OF Pope's artil-
lerists had 'got the bulge on us. We all
ducked to the storm, but the colored team
steIs stampeded like a herd OF fright
enod deer, and left their teams to wander
Us they might. When it is considered
that these wagons contained our extra
ammunition, the detection Of the driv-
ers was very important consid-
Grafton. | don't blame these men. 1t
was not their fight But thereafter Gen.
Lee ordered that all the tcamsters must be
taI frn, N anil nd hay
all the accouterments Of a soldier in his
wagon-box. The wisdom Of this regulation
was shown after the repulse at Gettysburg,
when the teamsters formed under the
wagon.masters and successfully beat back
Kilpatrick's cavalry at the crossing of the
Potomac, until Gen. Stuart came to the
rescue.
CHUNG TO HIS DEAD MASTER.
can't remember a single instance In the
campaigns in Virginia and North Carolina
where the colOred population, or even in
dividuals of the colored race, showed them
selves inimical to us, Frequently the body
servants Of the officers would go into bat
tie and be In the thick of the fight, and
recall as one of the most pathetic incidents
Of my memory that after the Frazier's farm
fight (the day before Malvern Hill L was de-
tailed as sergeant of burial corps, and as
wewere going among the dead and wounded
with lighted lanterns, we stumbled upon a
man with his arms around dead man. He
was moaning and giving out those peculiar
tones that a southern negro does when he
seeks vent for his sorrow, We lifted him up
from the body, whercupon he told us that
the dead man was his "young master'' and
his playmate, and we gave the bodya burial
with the spot marked-in distinction from
the common trench which we had dug for
the indiscriminato burial OF the majority of
the slain.
THE NEGRO IN BATTLE.
AS far as the negro troops In the war
were concerned, know very little of them.
The bulk of these troops were engaged In
the west. Only once did negro troops