The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-12-24

49, 80
N- *
THEY wHGLED AWAY THE TINE IN SINGING
AND DANCING.
because l thought the negroes should fight
for their own freedom and the elevation Of
their own race, and because, in other
words, as was said at the time, a negro
would stop bullet as effectively as a white
man. believed, too, that properly officer
ed and led the negroes would fight we'll, a
belief that was confirmed by experience
l saw four Christmases while in the
army, for i was not mustered out until
1S66-two with my old regiment, the
Twentieth Connecticut, and one, that of
1865, while on. detached service as the Judge
| advocate of general court martial The
Christmas which especially impressed it.
| self upon me, however, was that of 1864
| which 1 spent with my new regiment, the
Forty-fourth, U. S. G. Il. This regiment
was recruited from among the planta-
tion negroes recently slaves Of northern
| Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, with q
| small sprinkling from Mississippi Dec
%, 1864, was my first Christmas as a field
| officer, and with the colored troops-and
with all of them-it was their first Christ
mas as soldiers and with many Of them
their first holiday rs free men.
When Hood made his backward swing
from Atlanta toward Nashville, while
Sherman swung Off on his famous march
to the sea, the Forty fourth was among the
| regiments left behind under Thomas to
prevent the imperious Hood from reach
| ing the Ohio. We were not with Schofeld
at Franklin, one of the flercest engage
| ments of the war. We did succeed in get
| ting into Nashville in time to take part in
| the utter rout and dispersion of Hood s
army on Dec. 15 and 16, though in getting
| there our train ran into a cul-de-sac lined
with Confederate batteries, and we were
only saved from annihilation by the celer-
ity with which we got off the train and
got behind cover. That night, guided by
some of our Tennessee negroes who knew
the bypaths, we eluded the Confederate
pickets and got into the Union lines.
After the fight we were sent to Chatta.
nooga and went into winter quarters Our
men lived in huts, rude, but comfortable
In fact, most of them were better housed,
better clothed and better fed than they had
ever been, and, while subject to the restraint
of military discipline, enjoyed more real
freedom than they had ever before known.
AS Christmas drew nigh the colored troops
showed anxiety to celebrate it appropriate
ly. On all well conducted plantations in
the south before the war the holiday season
was always time for enjoyment and feast
Ing with the blacks as well as the whites.
The bonds of slavery were temporarily re-
laxed, and all went in for a good time.
The white troops were receiving from their
fTnnnl n hnn1n M hat thaN,
not forgotten in the shape of packages by
mail and boxes by train laden with food,
drink and clothing of kind not provided
by Uncle Sans commissary or quarter
master. But our colored soldiers had no
friends at home to send them these tokens
of love and remembrance. Their friends
when not still in bondage, were poor, and
homes were vet thing of the future. But
the men had their pay, and suffers were as
numerous as their prices were high. The
officers of the regiment, both field and line,
helped out the festivities of the black men
In blue both by ntributions and by teach
ing them how and what to buy. The re-
suit was that 80 far as creature comforts
were concerned the men of the Forty
fourth, colored, Jared remarkably well on
theirfirst Christmas of freedom and as sol.
diers.
The negro, like the Chinese and Japa-
nese, is initiative; but, unlike them, he is
musical As a race the negro possesses a
positive genius for music both vocal and
instrumental. The men of the Forty
fourth Colored were not at all behind in
this regard. We had number of string
bands among the men. In fact, every
company had one or more. They had
some very good performers among them,
some of those on the fiddle and banjo be.
Ing remarkably good. They played, Of
course, by ear, knowing nothing Of writ
ten music There was one negro who
played the accordion with marvellous skill.
He was from Mississippi and had acquired
this accomplishment at New Orleans,
where his'old master spent his winters,
this man having accompanied the planter
as his body servant The man had brought
with him the instrument his master had
bought him. Under his manipulation the
peculiar whining tone of the accordion
as ordinarily played was lost.
Then, there were any number of good
singers. One big fellow the blackest man,
think, ever saw, had tenor voice that
would have made4the fame and fortune OF
O white man. Itwas clear and powerful
and as sweet as a chime of silver bells
In ordinary conversation he spoke In dia-
lect, yet In singing his pronunciation was
correct, while his enunoiation was perfect
ly distinct. He sang all the old fayorite
ballads of antebellum days and the war
songs of the time. His favorite song,
though, was one of his own composition.
1t was all about moeking birds and night |
ingaies, orange groves and cotton fields, |
running brooks and waveless bayous,
trackless forests and hunted animals. The |
language was crude, yet endowed with the |
spirit OF poetry, and when he sang 1t In |
that r'eh voice to strange air full of |
pathos and sentiment IL always seemed to |
me somehow that the black singer was |
Inspired by a dim recollection of his an
cestral home in some vast African forest
and ON the bank of some great stream.
This man was the leader of a band Of
choral singers formed by one of our lieu
who had a musical turn, to sing
christmas and war songs. And how they
did sing theml Christmas eve was passed
In this way. Sweet and touching were the
Christmas carols they sang, but they were
1t their best when they gave musical voice
10 the fact that John Browns soul goes
marching on" This they sang as though
sIdred, and when u thousand voices Joined
~ the chorus. filing the frosty air with .