The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-01
called to give an account q his stew

called to give an account Of his stew 1 tardship.
 My fathers main farm was severa miles away from the Federais' camp l ing ground. and my father and all oi
 us hoped that they would not pay ui visit. But sad to say, lafge number of them did come.
 l I. and my three children, John. vii. liam and James, had made our homo | at my fathers from the time of m, husbands death few years before that. and we were at the farm wher a great number, I suppose a whole reg. I iment. at least, of blue coats, were seer rapidly approaching.
 We were at the dinner table when they were discovered. and in a minute they scattered everywhere on the premises. They did not wait for cere- monies. some of them rushed into the dining room and without even saying by your leave, they helped themselves to everything that was on the table from which we had just risen. Others | ran Into the kitchen and ate every thing that mothers old colored cook | (Aunt Grace) had left in there for her own, and her family's dinner. They even drank the pot liquor out of the pots. and drank several gallons of buttermilk and sweet milk, when they found 1t.
 They ate in the greatest haste, like | starved beasts. My father had just had several barrels of sorghum made and placed in the dairy. They did not they burst the heads out of the bar rels and dipped in and filled every bucket. pot. jug and pitcher, that they could find What they could not eat | they carried of with them. My father was always very kind to his slaves and allowed them to have patches of ground to cultivate for themselves. in sorghum. ground peas, or whatever they pleased to plant These things they were permitted to sell. or make use of As they liked This year. Aunt Grace Gas we younger ones all called her) mothers old cook. had made a barrel of sorghum, and had also put her barrel in the dairy. And as she was watching round to see what all they were going to take. she saw one of them beating the head out of her barrel, she stepped up to the door. and said. Please sir, don't take dat syrup. 1t is mine, dis nigger worked mighty hard to make dat syrup. an you done take all ob Mrs. Lawson's. now you gwine to take mine, too7 Please, sir,
 
 Well. we will leave a part of 1t for you. We need 1t worse than you do. but we cannot find vessels to carry all of 1t off, so we will leave you what we cannot carry. We will not pour the rest of 1t out, if you will hush up." But they did find vessels to carry all but three or four gallons. About this time her attention was called to the lot, not far off. where she had nice fat hog of her own. Fathers were in far off pasture that day. so they were safe She ran down there just in time to see them finish taking the skin off of her hog And she said to them, You can- not have dat hog. dat is my own hog. an you can't hab dat hog. Mas. Lawson done gim me dat hog cause I tend to his'en so good, and gib 'em so much slop, an butter milk. an all de scraps dat de dogs don't done eat up.''
 They did not hesitate for a moment in their work. but one of them said, You can have the head and the skin: we do not want them," and threw them to her. Then she said. Somebody done tole me dat de Yankees was mighty good to beln' good to nobody, an I don't bleba dey is, eder, for some ob 'em up at de dairy done take ebry scrimpsion of my surup, most all."
 When she told us of the colIoquy she said they did not say much to her, only they looked at one another and just laughed.
 She and my three little boys were the only ones that went out among them
 When they first came my dear old fath- CT went and reconstructed with them. but found that 1t did no good at all. He said he might just as well have talked to the wind.
 My mother, my sister. Mrs. Jennie De- Armond, who was the young wife of Captain Jerome DeArmond of the vir- ginia army, and myself. all stayed in mothers room. or on the veranda
 They were a rough looking set, and father told us that they had come to rob us before our faces, and we could do no good by speaking to them and we had better not say anything to them, lest they should say something that we would not like to hear, or burn us out of housa and home, so we had to submit and see hundreds of dollars worth taken from un without any redress: We were too far away from headquarters to secure a guard and had no defense whatever. But God protected us from personal insult.
 Gro be continued)