Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-10-18
"OLD SHADY" WITH A MORAL.
General William 7. Sherman Gives Some
Interesting "reminiscences.

THE NEGRO QUESTION BEFORE AND
SINCE THE wAR-THE CAPTURE OF
MCALIsTER, sc.
North American Review for October.
1 noticed recently that General Ben
Harrison, a candidate for President of
the United States, found himself called
on to deny charge of having said that
dollar day was all that an American
laborer should expect. remember when
/ myself worked for half dollar day
Sundays, holidays and rainy days ex-
cepted-and we all remember when
Congress enacted thirteen dollars
month with ration per day, full COM
pensation for an able bodied soldier who
had to work twenty-four hours a day,
Sundays and holidays included, with the
chance of getting killed or wounded
in gratis.
We should be above such demagogy
now, and l am sure the people of the
United States are not to be deceived by
such nonsense. Still this circumstance
calls to my memory little episode which
may explain the matter even to the sat
isfaction of the most prejudiced.
July 4, 1863, the Union army captur
ed the city of Vicksburg. In the siege
were three corps d'arme-The Thir-
teenth, MeClernand; the Fifteenth, Sher-
man; the Sixteenth, Mcpherson. After
the surreDdeythe Thirteenth Corps was
seat by General Grant down the Missis-
sippi to assist at Port Hudson and Low
er River towns; the Fifteenth, Sherman,
was dispatched inland to Jackson and
Raymond to drive the rebels well out of
Mississippi, and the Sixteenth, McPher-
son, remained in Vicksburg as perma-
nent garrison.
A great many negroes, slaves, had es-
capped within the Union lines. Some
were employed as servants by the Off
GERS, who paid them regular wages some
were employed by the Quartermaster;
and the larger number went North, free
in the Government chartered steamboats,.
Among the first class named was a
fine hearty "darky," known as "Old
Shady" who was employed by General
Mcpherson as steward and cook at his
headquarters in Mr.. Edwards house in
Vicksburg. Hundreds still living, among
whom 1 safely may name General w. E.
Strong, of Chicago; General Hicken-
looper, of Cincinnati; Mrs. Gen. Grant,
Fred Grant, Mrs. Sherman and myself,
well remember "Old Shady" After sup
per he used to assemble his chorus of
"darkies," and sing for our pleasure the
songs of the period, among them one
personal to himself, and, as then un-
derstood, composed by himself. 1t was
then entitled the "Day of Jubilee" but
is now recorded as simply "Old Shady"
and 1 do believe that since the Prophet
jeremiah bade the Jews "to sing with
gladness of Jacob, and shout among the
chief of the Nations" because of their
deliverance from the house of bondage,
that no truer or purer thought ever as
cended from the lips of man than did at
Vicksburg in the summer of 1868, when
"Old Shady" sung for us in voice of
pure melody his own song of deliverance
from the bonds of slavery. Here it is,
not in full, for other verses have been
added, but give it entire as 1t then was:
OLD SHADY.
Yah! Yah! YAH Come laugh wild me,
De white folks say Old Shady am free,
/ spect de year OF ju-be-lee
And coming, am coming.
Hall, mighty day!
CHoRUs-Den away, den away. can't stay here
Den away, den away, for 1 am going
REPEAT-Den away, den away, 1 can't stay here
Den away, den away, for 1 am going
home.
Old massa got scared, and so did his lady;
Dis chile break for old Uncle Ably,
Open the door, for here's Old Shady
A coming; a coming
Hall, mighty day!
CHoRCs-Den away, den away, can't stay here
no longer, &c.
Goodbye, Mass jeff; goodbye, Mass Stephens
,Scuse dis Niger for taking ms leaVlGs.
coming coming.
Hail, mighty day
CHoRUs-Den away, den away. can't stay here
Goodbye, hard work without any pay,
Use going up North where white folks say
Dat white wheat bread and dollar day
Am coming, am coming.
HAIL. AISnIy udy!
CHoRUs-Den away, den away, can't stay here
no longer, &c.
OH Use got wife and nice little baby,
Way up North in the lower Canady.
Won't they shout when they see old Shady
A coming, coming.
Hail, mighty day!
CHoRUs-Den away, den away, can't stay here
no longer, Sc
Nn1u n 10 ,,loin to mo tbaf HOld ShadvD
is responsible for the saying that white
wheat bread and dollar day were all
the old slave hoped for. have no doubt
that General Harrison has helped us sing
that song with an emphasis amounting
to an Endorsement, just as Generals
Grant, Sherman, Mcpherson, Logan,
Strong, Hickenlooper, &C., have often
done. After the war 1 met Old Shady
on steamboat on the Upper Mississippi,
when he sang for us on the hurricane
deck that good old song, which brought
tears to the eyes of the passengers; and
more recently heard of him far up in
Dakota, near the "Lower Canady," to-
ward which he seemed to lean as the
coigne of safety, where his wife and
"nice little baby" had sought and OBJ
tanned refuge. l believe him now to be
dead, but, living or dead, he has the re-
spect of the old Army of the Tennessee,
which gave him freedom. "Good-by,
Mass JEFF; good-by Mass Stephens" was
a-beautiful expression of the faithful
family servant, who yearned for freedom
and "dollar a day" And yet "Old
Shady was only one of the tens of thous-
ands of slaves who escaped from bond
age to freedom in the days of our ma
tional struggle. More than two millions
of slaves were. practically free before
Mr.. Lincoln's Proclamation of Freedom.
That proclamation was simply the no.
tice by the High Sheriff of the Nation of
a concluded fact. 1 saw the whole pro-
cess of emancipation from beginning to