The National tribune., 1902-01-09
FROM BONDAGE TO LIBERTY.
Scenes Incident to the Transition in North
Carolina.

Scenes Incident to the Transition in Nortl
Carolina.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: 1t wa'
the Fall of 80, the hard marching an(
fighting between Lee and Mcclellan wa:
over, and the Army of the Potomac had
fallen back to Fortress Monroe, wher
Gen. J. G. Foster, then in command OF
the Department of North Carolina, in ad
ditioa to what troops he then had, asked
for brigade to assist him in the de
struction of the railroad bridge at Colds
| bOrO.
The remains of our brigade Second
Brigade, Second Division of the old
Fourth Corps was sent, and after they
came back from this raid it became evi-
| dent that we would remain with him at
least temporarily, and as the sequel
proved, permanently.
Gen. Foster then set about garrisoning
the various important points in his de
partment. Headquarters were at New
berne, while MOrehead City, Cape Hat
teras, Roanoke Island, and Plymouth, on
the Roanoke River, each received its quota
of troops in proportion to its Importance.
The ''tithe law" which was rigidly en-
forced, required producers to pay one
tenth of their product to the COnfederacy;
this tenth was collected and stored in
W
service, L presume, as tobacco and cotton
warehouses.
This tenth was held subject to order of
the proper officers of the Confederate Gov
ernment. As these officers could not al
ways be there to see to this matter, we
occasionally looked after it ourselves. This
old brigade of ours consisted of the S5th
and 96th n. Y, 10lst and 103d Pa, and
about this time the 10th Conn. was added
to it. These were the men sent to Ply
mouth.
We were reinforced very soon by two
companies of the 18th n. Y. Cav, two
companies of the I'd Mass. H. A, and
Capt. Cady's 24th Independent Battery,
n. Y. l.. ~, six Napoleons. making about
1000 men. all under command of Brig
Gen. Henry ". Vessels cold Pap'D. OF
this number about 800 We're usually absent
on sick leave, in hospitals, etc, so that We
had about l 100 men for duty. With this, |
then, we began life among the Tar
Heels and OF Jan. 1. 1863, Lncoln's !
went into effect, and then |
we had the kind of n time the parrot |
spoke to his mistress about i'll relation to
a misunderstanding with a monkey. Quite
Il number of the slaves could read a lit
tie; those who could not read thought
a little. and many of them werc-to use
a North Carolina term-'right smart
peart." so that altogether. they knew as
HucH aDouI tHe prOc!anldtlOll, ana as soon
is anybody.
Perhaps some account of the way we
i'll the matter of taking the
slaves away from the plantations may be
On Judge Donald's Tor perhaps his
lame was Donnelly) plantation. which lies
IN the north side of Albemarle Sound,
here We're. in the early part of '63, about
loO slaves, ranging in age from, we'll say,
! few days to 100 years, and I am salts,
led that one of them had reached the
after age.
Their compilations varied about as much
IS their ages, ranging in color all the way (
rom New Orleans molasses to IL new sad
lie. The owner had seen de smoke way
p de ribber, whar de Lincum gunboats
ay," and had taken his departure for I
nore congenial ATTITUDES, leaving the r
laves in charge of the oyerseer One of =
heir number turned up ,al Plymouth one
ay and requested "Old Pap" to send to
he plantation for them. 4 pretty strong
etail was ordered, in charge of Lieut. i.
'ol. Maxwell. of the 103d Pa for the pur- :.
ose; but as the Colonel was going to d
,ok after some provisions. gathered under r
he tithe law. he entrusted me to look n
fter the slaves. Having everything h
aady, we took Joe" our guide. and c
tarted. In due time we landed and pro n
aeded up to the Judges plantation. Our e
,ad lay along O ditch or canal that joe o