"The rebel soldiers were often at my place. A bad night the jayhawkers
would come and steal stock and the slaves too, if they got a chance.
They cleaned the old man's stock out one night. The Yankees captured
them and brought them back to the house. They gave him his stallion, a
great big fine horse. They offered him five thousand dollars for him
but he wouldn't take it. They kept all the other horses and mules for
their own use, but they gave the stallion back to the old man. If they
hadn't give him back the stallion, the old man would have died. That
stallion was his heart. The Yankees didn't do nobody no harm.
"When the soldier wagons came down to get the feed, they would take
one crib and leave one. They never bothered the smokehouse. They took
all the dry cattle to feed the people that were contrabands. But they
left the milk cows. The quartermaster for the contrabands was Captain
Mallory. The contrabands were mostly slaves that they kept in camps
just below Pine Bluff for their own protection.