.

Uncle Abe and Uncle Wiley are two other worthy and venerable men who
live in cabins on the place. Both were there when Sherman's army passed
upon its devastating way, and both were carried off, as were thousands
upon thousands of other negroes out of that wide belt across the State
of Georgia, which was overrun in the course of the March to the Sea.

"Ah was goin' to mill wid de ox-caht," Uncle Abe told me, "when de
soljas dey kim 'long an' got me. Dey tol' me, 'Heah, nigga! Git out dat
caht, an' walk behin'. When _it_ moves _you_ move; when _it_ stops _you_
stop!' An' like dat Ah walk all de way to Savannah [two hundred and
fifty miles]. Den, after dat, dey took us 'long up No'th--me an' ma
brotha Wiley, ovah deh."

I asked him what regiment he went with. He said it was the Twenty-second
Indiana, and that Dr. Joe Stilwell, of that regiment, who came from a
place near Madison, Indiana ("Ah reckon de town was name Brownstown"),
was good to him. An officer whom he knew, he said, was Captain John
Snodgrass, and another Major Tom Shay.

"All Ah was evvuh wo'ied about aftuh dey kim tuck me," he declared, "was
gittin' somep'n t' eat. Dat kinda put me on de wonduh, sometahmes, but
dey used us all right. Dr. Pegg--him dat did de practice on de
plantation befo' de Wah--he tol' de niggas dat de Yankees would put gags
in deh moufs an' lead 'em eroun' like dey wuz cattle. But deh wa' n't
like dat nohow. I b'longed to de Secon' Division, Thuhd B'gade,
Fou'teenth Co' [corps]. Cap'n Snodgrass, he got to be lieutenant-cuhnel.
He was de highes' man Ah evuh hel' any convuhsation wid, but I _saw_ all
de gennuls of dat ahmy."

Uncle Wiley is older than Uncle Abe. He was already a grown man with
three children when taken away by some of Sherman's men. He told me he
was with the Fifty-second Ohio, and mentioned Captain Shepard.

The two brothers got as far as Washington, D.C.

"We got los' togedduh in de U.S. buildin' in dat city," said Uncle
Wiley. "De President of de U.S. right at dat tahme he was daid. He was
kill', Ah don' s'pose it wuz a week befo' we got to Wash'n, D.C."

"How did you happen to come all the way back?" I asked.

"Well-l," ruminated the old man, "home was always a-restin' on mah min'.
Ah kep' thinkin' 'bout home. So aftuh de Wah ceasted Ah jus' kim 'long
back."

Many of the old plantation customs still survive. A little before noon
the bell is rung to summon the hands from the cotton fields. Over the
red p