A Woman's Life-Work-Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland Part 26

The officer approached, saying, "That is right; if I had taken one step after you cried halt the third time, you should have shot me through, no matter who I am, if it was the President himself."

At the breakfast table Colonel Eaton remarked: "A number of our new colored soldiers were put on picket guard last night on trial, and not one sleepy head was found among them. Since we accept these men as soldiers I am confident it will do away the necessity of drafting men, as some think must soon be done."

I spent a few days in visiting hospitals, often reading portions of Scripture, and kneeling by the cot of the suffering and dying soldiers, imploring the Great Physician to heal the sin-sick soul. For some I wrote letters to their home friends, which I found was often very gratifying to poor homesick boys. One very sick with pneumonia wished me to write to his folks in Kent County, Michigan, that he was in the hospital from a little cold, but would soon be able to join his regiment again. I dared not write according to his directions, and told him I would finish his letter at head-quarters. When he asked my name, he wanted to know if I was a relative of Rev. D. S. Haviland, in Kent County, Michigan. When I told him he was my son, he held my hand in both of his and burst into a flood of tears, and said he had heard him preach many times, and thought he was such a good man. I saw his feelings were deeply affected, and I feared it would increase the fever, and I promised to come and see him again in a day or two. I sat by him with my hand upon his head and consoled him as best I could.

When he became calm I left, and called on his physician for his opinion concerning him. He said he was still in a critical condition, but thought the disease was turning in his favor, and advised me not to write to his friends until two days more had pa.s.sed, as he would then be able to judge better of his case. Two days later I called again and found him much better, but the doctor thought the excitement of my leaving him increased the fever during the afternoon. He was now a little stronger, and he said I had better not let him know that I designed leaving the city. I finished the letter with greater encouragement than I could have done conscientiously on my first visit.

As I was pa.s.sing out one of the convalescents said, "Frank, here is that woman you wanted to see;" and he came on a run.

"Are you from Michigan?" I asked.

"Not quite," he said; "but I've been in Michigan. I am from Ohio, and that is its next neighbor;" and he seemed as glad as if he was meeting his mother. "O, how much you remind me of my mother! Your advice to us boys is almost in the same words my mother gave me when I left her;"

and tears spoke louder than words of his appreciation of visits from his mother's representative.

I visited many camps of the freedmen, where there were two thousand, with daily additions. Forty came into Bethel Camp one afternoon. I went among them, and said to the man I met first:

"You concluded to use your freedom in coming into the Union camps?"

"Freedom!" looking up in surprise.

"Yes; you know President Lincoln has proclaimed all slaves free."

"Is dat so?"

"Certainly; you have heard about it, I suppose."

"No, missus, we never hear nothing like it. We's starvin', and we come to get somfin' to eat. Dat's what we come for. Our people home tell us Yankees want n.i.g.g.e.rs to kill; an' da boils 'em up in great caldrons to eat, 'case da's starvin'. But all de white men gone into de army, an'

lef' us all wid missus, an' da locks de bacon up for de sojers, an' gib us little han'ful o' meal a day, an' we's got weak an' trimbly. An' I tole my people we's gwine to die anyhow, an' we'd try de Yankees."

They were all so surprised at the idea of freedom that they could hardly credit the fact until their own people confirmed what I had told them. Rations were given to that hungry company at once. I told them this did not look like killing off colored people.

"No, missus, dis 'pears like makin' alive, instead of killin'. G.o.d bless sich people as dese, if dis be Yankees."

A couple of young men followed me from tent to tent, as I was reading portions of Scripture, and advising them how to live in their new relation as a free people. I advised them to live soberly and honestly in the sight of all men; that our Heavenly Father looks upon all his children alike, and that our Lord and Savior died upon the cross for all alike, because he is no respecter of persons. The young men, asked to be excused for following me; "for," they said, "we never heard, white folks talk like you talks in our life. Da never talks fur our own good, an' dis is so new we wants to ax you please excuse us."

Our head-quarters were most of the time at Camp Bethel; but I spent a portion of my time in Camp Shiloh, which was in sight. On the Sabbath I attended a very large meeting in a grove of pecans, oaks, and magnolias. The minister was a colored man of considerable intelligence, could read quite well; and perhaps there were nearly or quite one hundred of our soldiers in attendance. I spoke to one man near the stand while they were singing, informing him that I would like to make a few remarks if their minister was willing. The minister said, before dismissing the congregation, he would give liberty for a white lady present to speak. "I do not know who she is. She may be here inquiring for some of her people; but we can tell better as to her object when we hear her;" and he invited me forward.

I saw at once the minister took me to be one of those slave-holders who were coming into their camp almost daily to persuade their slaves back, though not one of them ever succeeded. I told them my object was to inquire after the health of this people, body, soul, and spirit--and my people were all who accept salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; that our Heavenly Father made all the nations of the whole earth of one blood, and never designed that one race should hold another in bondage. I had hardly finished my first sentence before the minister and those near him were urging me to step to the top of their platform, as I had only taken one or two steps forward. "Come up here; our people all want to see you." I had to obey. Ten minutes' talk did not satisfy. The minister and others in that large congregation bade me go on; and ten or fifteen minutes more were occupied.

At the close a few hundred of those whose families had been broken up by cruel separations came to me, and many tears were coursing down the sable cheeks of many gathered around me to shake my hands, which were actually lame and swollen for three days after.

Said the disappointed minister, "It 'pears like an angel dropped down 'mongst us, in place of the slave-missus come for her people."

Said one woman: "My ole missus come las' week to get all fifty-five of us back again, and she tried mighty hard to get us to go back wid her.

Den she went to General Grant, an' he say, 'If your people want to go back they may.' Den she try us again; but not one would go, 'case we knows her too well--she's mighty hard on us. Den she went back to the general, an' begged an' cried, and held out her han's, and say, 'General, dese han's never was in dough--I never made a cake o' bread in my life; please let me have my cook.' An' she tuck on so I jus'

trimble; I's feared he'd tell me to go wid her. But all her cryin'

didn't help her. General say, 'I can't help you, madam; if your cook wants to go wid you she can; but she is free, an' can do as she likes about it.' An' she went off cryin'; an' we could jus' kiss de groun'

General Grant walks on ever since."

Among the most affecting scenes were meetings of members of families long separated. In pa.s.sing out of this mult.i.tude my attention was attracted to a group who were singing, shaking hands, shouting, and reciting their afflictions and sore trials since they were parted. One woman found her sister, who was sold from her fifteen years before.

They had not heard from each other till just here they met. "O sis'

Susie, you know my two nice boys was sole from me two year afore I was sole off dat plantation down de river, an' it 'peared like my heart was broke; an' missus had me hit fifty lashes 'case I cried so much. An' de Lo'd has been my sun an shiel' all dis time. An' here I foun' my two boys; da's heap bigger, but da's my own dear boys. I's prayed long for freedom, an' G.o.d did come down and make us free. _Glory_, GLORY be to his name!" And they embraced each other in wild excitement during some minutes. Then they went to another part of the camp to meet some of their friends Susie told her of.

I hastened back 'to Camp Bethel, to witness the marriage of twenty couples that Colonel Eaton, who was a chaplain among them, was to marry with one ceremony. Many of the men were of the newly-enlisted soldiers, and the officers thought they had better be legally married, although many of them had been married a number of years, but only according to slave law, which recognized no legal marriage among slaves. At the appointed hour the twenty couples stood in a row, each couple with right hands clasped; and among them one young couple, that being their first marriage. All gave affirmative answers at the same time; first the men, then the women. After the ceremony Chaplain Eaton offered an earnest prayer; all kneeling. Then he shook hands with them to signify his congratulations, and I followed him in like manner. It was a novel scene, and yet solemn.

On the morning I was to leave Memphis I saw an old woman wringing the bottom of her cotton dress a few rods from the door. I inquired how her dress came so wet half a yard deep. "I come up in a leaky skiff las'

night wid six boys dat do oberseer whip de Yankee out, he say; an' da say da go to Yankees now any how, an' I begged 'em to let me come, for da knows I has sich hard times. But da say, 'Aunt Peggy, de skiff leak so bad.' But I tole 'em I's comin' wid a basin, an' I reckon I dip fas'

enough to keep us 'bove water. An' da let me come, an' it tuck all night to come seven miles up de river. Dar was forty of us on dis plantation. Ma.s.sa is a big man in Secesh army, an' sent more'n a hundred of our people 'way off to de big plantation: an', missus, da all wants to come mighty bad, an' begged us to go see de big man right soon, an' tell him da wants to do any thing he wants 'em to do, if he will only let 'em come. For missus is mighty rich, an' don't need us, 'case she's got barrels of meal, an' flour, an' plenty bacon in de smoke-house, da keeps locked up, da say for de Secesh sojers. An'

missus had us put a tin trunk of gole an' silver money, an' a big ches'

of all her silver plate way up in de lof' few days ago. Missus, do please go tell de big man how da all begged us so hard to ax him, soon as we got here, if he 'll let 'em come."

I told her I would see the colonel, and inquired for the boys who came with her. She pointed to the six young men standing outside our door. I approached the young men, who were between twenty and thirty years of age, and shook hands with them, saying, "It seems your overseer didn't succeed in whipping the Yankee out of you night before last."

"No, indeed," said one; "he drove in the Yankee deeper every lick;" and another said, "I reckon he'll find out this mornin' how much Yankee he whipped out."

I informed Colonel Eaton of his new comers; and of the earnest appeal of the old woman in behalf of the remaining thirty-three, and how she backed her pleading, with enumerating the abundance of every thing her mistress possessed. He said he would see General Veach, and he might conclude to send a gun-boat for them.

On May 17, 1863, I called at Dr. Warrener's office on my way to General Veach's office for transportation to Cairo, but designed calling at Island No. 10 and Columbus, Kentucky. The doctor kindly offered to take my papers and get transportation and pa.s.s from the provost marshal for me, and allow me to rest the while. I was glad to accept the favor; but he soon returned, rather discouraged, and said, "I think the general rather cross today, and I don't know whether you'll get transportation or not. After reading your papers he asked where you were, and I told him you looked tired and were resting in my office, and I offered to do this errand for her, as it would save her a mile of walk. 'I'd like to see the lady,' he said, as he handed back your papers; and you'll have to go and see him." Here was another narrow place. I took my papers to General Veach in haste, as there was a boat which I was anxious to take going up the river that afternoon. I entered his office and handed him my papers, telling him I hoped to receive the favor of an order for transportation to Cairo, with the privilege of stopping at Island No.

10 and Columbus. He neither asked me a question nor opened my papers, but threw them to his clerk, with directions to give the order. Then he sent it to the quartermaster to fill. On my return I called on the provost-marshal and secured my pa.s.s. Said the doctor, "What did the general say?"

"Nothing," I answered; "he only looked at me when I gave him my papers, and pa.s.sed them over to his clerk to make the order."

"I think he might just as well have sent them by me; but the general hadn't seen a Union woman for so long, he just wanted to take a look at one."

I was soon on the steamer that took me from this city of many exciting scenes. Here I learned the sequel of my Tennessee correspondents, formerly mentioned, and was shown the house where they had both lain dead men.

I found on the island many waiting for the remainder of my supplies.

The number in camp had now reached about 3,000. I also spent a little time at Fort Pillow, where a company of ex-slaves, thirty-seven in number, had just made their escape from their old home. They had traveled all night to get to our lines. They took two mules and two carts to bring their bundles and little folks. Men, women, and larger children walked twenty-five miles, to get to Fort Pillow. "What time did you start?" I asked one of the tired women. "Early moonrise," was the reply. That was about 11 o'clock P. M., and they had made all possible speed to get to our lines, and seemed very much pleased to get clear of pursuers, as some in their neighborhood had been shot and killed in their attempt to come. The officers took charge of the mules and carts, and sent the people to Island No. 10. Here I took a steamer for Columbus.

After landing I saw a funeral procession of colored people, and a number of officers and soldiers. I joined the procession, and learned it was the only son of a slave mother who, two days previously, had left their plantation. He had heard that colored men were accepted as soldiers, and was exceedingly anxious to enlist. When they were nearly half across the river their young master reached the bank and bade them return or he'd shoot them; but the son pulled for the opposite sh.o.r.e, when a ball pa.s.sed through his right arm, breaking the bone above the elbow. The mother took the oars and pulled with all her might, when a second ball entered the lungs of the son. They were met by a few of our soldiers, who took him from the skiff to the hospital, where he received the best surgical attendance, but without avail. Much sympathy was manifested in behalf of the bereaved mother, who was left with two little girls. Bereavement was no new trial for her. Her husband had been sold from her a few years before. I asked her if these three children were all her family. "O, no, honey; I had two big boys sold jus' afore the war. Don't know whar they went. An' now my poor boy is shot dead by that young ma.s.sa I nussed with my own boy. They was both babies together. Missus made me nuss her baby, an' set her little girl to watch me, fur fear I'd give my baby too much, no matter how hard he cried. Many times I wasn't allowed to take him up, an' now that same boy has killed mine," and she buried her face in her faded calico ap.r.o.n until it was wet with tears. A soldier told me a large company of them were only waiting permission from their commander to go to that plantation and strip it. He said she seemed to be such a nice woman; that they all felt so indignant they hardly knew how to wait for orders.

From this sad scene, walking to the Soldier's Home, my attention was arrested on seeing a white man with a ball and chain attached to his ankle, with brick and his ball in the wheelbarrow, wheeling toward the soldier's camp, guarded by a black soldier. As I stood looking at the black soldier walking leisurely beside the white man in irons, an officer accosted me with, "Madam, that prisoner you see wheeling brick to our camp is a strong secessionist, and was a hard master over a large plantation with more than one hundred slaves, and he was taken prisoner, and all his slaves came into our camp. The younger men enlisted as soldiers, and that man made an attempt to escape and we put him in irons and set a black soldier, who had been his own slave, to guard him."

"What a turning of tables!" I said.

"Yes, you will find the same turning of tables within our lines all over the South."

At the door of a tent I saw a large, square block of iron, weighing sixty or eighty pounds, to which was attached a ring. I inquired of a colored man what it was for.

"That belonged to our plantation, and when master had a mind to punish us he ordered us locked to that block, and from one to a dozen of us sometimes were locked to it with a long chain; and when we hoed corn we'd hoe the chain's length, then the one next the block had it to tote the length of the chain, and so on till we did our day's work. Since we've been here we've seen nine of our masters chained to that same block and made to shovel sand on that fortification yonder. There were forty of us that belonged to our plantation standing in this yard looking on."

"How did you feel to witness such a scene?"

"O, I can't tell you, madam; but I cried like a baby."

"Why did you cry?"

"O, to think what great things G.o.d is doing. Man could never, never do it."

"Did the others feel as you did?"