The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1950-01-05
"Nigger in the
WOOdpile"

- &
WOOdpile"
Have you ever used the expression
when things appeared all right but
you suspected that they were not
There's a niger in the woodpile
somewhere ?" Who hasn't! Such
trite sayings have their origin in
something, somewhere and often an
interesting yarn turks back of them.
Billy Clay, who spent most of his
life there and died a feeble old man
at Redwood, Union County, after
the turn of the century, was the
Niger in the Woodpile. A lot of
old Printers ink and good rag paper
was used up about him in the days
following the Civil War.
September /, 1862, when the 96th
Ohio Volunteer Infantry was en-
camped at Nicholasville, Kentucky,
Billy Clay, then Ia, slipped into
camp and told Capt. Horatio Cox
Hamilton, from Redwood, that his
owner was a rebel, had thrown an
axe at him, and that he craved
protection. Hamilton took him In
and he remained with the army for
a time, "the captains servant"
Despite the fugitive slave law, a
sentiment was growing in the
Yankee army that "slave property
was being wrongfully protected by
the army and that it was no part of
a soldiers duty to catch and return
slaves to their masters" Hamilton
had his own ideas about slavery and
did not always obey the General
Order to return negroes to their
rightful owners.
A few days after arrival of Billy
Clay, when the regiment was NOV
ing to Louisville, it camped at Ver-
sailles. There a uniformed officer
from Maj. Gen. A. j. Smiths staff
arrived and ordered Captain Hamil-
ton to deliver the negro boy, Billy,
to the jailer as an escaped slave.
Hamilton refused to comply without
written order from Brig. Gen. S. C.
Burbridge and Col. l. w. Vance, of
the 96th owl. General Smith out
ranked both-he was commander Of
the 18th Army Corps, to which the
Goth regiment was attached.
The staff officer told Hamilton that
he would be back in Is minutes with
a detachment of soldiers and would
take the negro boy by force. Cap
tain Hamilton called out his company
and told them that if it was to be-
come a matter of force, they may as
we'll load their guns.
Hamilton's company obeyed and
the idea spread to other companies
of the 96th--up the road as far as
could be seen, ramrods glistened in
the sunlight as the file of company
after company rammed powder and
ball down gunbarrels. The staff Of
fcer then declared that the affair
would be deferred until evening,
, when a detachment would come up
and take the negro boy with suf-
ficient "and necessary force"
That kept the companies all stirred
up and when the army was bivouaced
for the night meetings were held,
speeches made and decision arrived
at to slight it out with the rest of
the army if necessary" Several
thousand men then waited with load
ed guns for their major generals
detail to recover the excaped slave.
Billy Clay was hidden in a woodpile
beside the roadway. Safe but nearly
fattened by the weight of the layers
of four-foot firewood piled over him,
the "nigger still was in the woodpile
when morning come"
There was no fight among the
units of the Union army at Versail-
les that night. Though greatly out
numbered, the major generals de-
tachment searched the camp without
interference and finding no negro,
left without arresting Captain Ham
ilton.
No More Slaves Returned
That uprising of the soldiers at
Versailles had the effect of ending
all efforts in the Army of Kentucky
to arrest or return slaves to their
masters. The 96th moved on to
Louisville, from where it was order
ed to Memphis and Vicksburg.
The negro boy could not be taken
out of the state by the army and the
only alternatives were to turn him