been driving most of the likely negroes
South. They were using them against the Government; and it was
thought, by some, that they might as well work for as _against_ the
UNION. They were raising their crops, running their mills,
manufacturing their army-wagons, etc., besides supporting the families
of the rebels, thus placing every able-bodied white man of the South
in the hands of the government. The Federal service needed teamsters
and hospital nurses and cooks.

Mrs. Kidd seemed quite a reasonable woman--said she thought she
understood the policy of the North, and that the South knew that
_slavery_ was their strength. I made the remark, that, probably, if
her husband knew she would be left without help, perhaps he would be
induced to return and respect the old flag that had at all times,
while he was loyal to it, defended him.

This little speech on my part elicited a rejoinder from a young miss,
a daughter of Mrs. Kidd, sixteen or seventeen years of age, who
flirted around, and with a nose that reached the altitude of at least
"eighty-seven" degrees, exclaimed--

"I don't want my PAR nor my brothers to come home not till every one
of you _Yankees_ is driven from our sile!"

Some of the boys were busy hunting for a secreted negro, one whom this
young lady had stored away for safety. A soldier opened a smoke-house
door, at which the young Secesh fairly yelled--

"There aint no nigger there! You Yankees haint a bit o' sense! You
don't know a smoke-house from a hut, nohow!"

Supposing the negro, who we felt almost sure was there, might possibly
have escaped, we were about retiring with those already collected,
when I suggested, loud enough for any one to hear about the building,
that the whole squad should pour a volley through that rickety old
dormer-window that projected from the room, when, much to our
astonishment, and amid roars of laughter, appeared a woolly head,
white eye-balls distended, the darkey yelling loud and fast--

"DON'T SHOOT, MASSA! don't shoot! HERE I IS! I's a comin'! De missus
made me clime on dis roof. I wants to go wid you folks anyhow!"

Mr. Crossman's plantation was then visited; but, as the rebels had
driven him away because of his Unionism, and taken his horses, his
property was undisturbed by us.

From thence we visited Nolinsville--met a gang of twenty
"likely-looking boys," stout, healthy fellows, who had clubbed
together to come to the Union camp. They told us the rebs were o