the satisfaction of the Colonel commanding, myself and
the officers who were trying to stop it. As mortified as I was at my
inability to execute the orders of Colonel Rutherford, still I never
laughed so much in my life at this ebullition of good feelings of the
men, after all their toils and trials, especially as I would hear some
one in the line call out as if in the last throes of exhaustion, 'Go
on old dog,' 'now you are on him,' 'talk to him, old Ranger.' What
the Yankees thought of this fox chase at night in the valley, or what
their intentions might have been is not known, but they would have
been mighty fools to have tackled a lot of old 'Confeds' out on a lark
at night."

The negro cooks of the army were a class unique in many ways. While
he was a slave, he had far more freedom than his master, in fact had
liberties that his master's master did not possess. It was the first
time in the South's history that a negro could roam at will, far
and wide, without a pass. He could ride his dead master's horse from
Virginia to Louisiana without molestation. On the march the country
was his, and so long as he was not in the way of moving bodies of
troops, the highways were open to him. He was never jostled or pushed
aside by stragglers, and received uniform kindness and consideration
from all. The negro was conscious of this consideration, and never
took advantage of his peculiar station to intrude upon any of the
rights or prerogatives exclusively the soldier's. He could go to the
rear when danger threatened, or to the front when it was over. No
negro ever deserted, and the fewest number ever captured. His master
might fall upon the field, or in the hands of the enemy, but the
servant was always safe. While the negro had no predilection for war
in its realities, and was conspicuous by his absence during the raging
of the battles, still he was among the first upon the field when it
was over, looking after the dead and wounded. At the field hospitals
and infirmaries, he was indispensable, obeying all, serving all,
without question or complaint. His first solicitude after battle
was of his master's fate--if dead, he sought him upon the field; if
wounded, he was soon at his side. No mother could nurse a child with
greater tenderness and devotion than the dark-skinned son of the South
did his master.

At the breaking out of the war almost every mess had a negro cook,
one of the mess furnishing the cook, the others paying a