"I saw the soldiers when they come through our place. The first start of
us noticin' them was this. I was always up to the white folks' house.
Thad was goin' back to the Rebel army. Ole master tole my dad to go git
'im a hat. He'd got 'im one and was ridin' back with Thad's hat on on
top of his'n. Before he could git back, here come a man jus' a ridin'.
"Thad was eatin'. He look out, and then he throwed his head back and
said, 'Them's the Federals.'
"Thad finished his breakfast and then he ran on out and got with the
Federals. He didn't join 'em. He jus' fooled 'em. The bridge was half a
mile from our house and the Yankee army hadn't near finished crossing it
when the head of it reached us.
"While they were at the house, pa came ridin' up with the two hats on
his head. They took the hats and throwed pa's on the ground and tried
Thad's on. They took the mare but they give it back.
"Them folks stood 'round there all day. Killed hogs and cooked them.
Killed cows and cooked them. Took all kinds of sugar and preserves and
things like that. Tore all the feathers out of the mattress looking for
money. Then they put ole miss (Nealie Haney) and her daughter (Louisa
Haney) in the kitchen to cookin'.
"Ma got scairt and went to bed. Dreckly the lieutenant come on down
there and said, 'Auntie, get up from there. We ain't a goin' to do you
no hurt. We're after helpin' you. We are freein' you. Aunt Dinah, you
can do as you please now. You're free.'
"She was free!
"They stayed 'round there all night cooking and eatin' and carryin' on.
They sent some of the meat in there to us colored folks.
"Next mornin' they all dropped off goin' down to take Dardanelles. You
could hear the cannons roarin' next day. They was all night gettin'
away. They went on and took Dardanelles. Had all them white folks
runnin' and hidin'.
"The Secesh wouldn't go far. They would just hide. One night there'd be
a gang of Secesh, and the next one, there'd come along a gang of
Yankees. Pa was 'fraid of both of 'em. Secesh said they'd kill 'im if he
left his white folks. Yankees said they'd kill 'im if he didn't leave
'em. He would hide out in the cotton patch and keep we children out
there with him. Ole mis' made him carry us.
"We was freed and went to a place that was full of people. We had to
stay in a church with about twenty other people and two of the babies
died there on account of the exposure. Two of my aunts died, too, on
account of exposure then.
"The soldiers didn't take anything that night but food. They left all
the horses. What they took was what they could eat. But they couldn't
catch the turkeys. The lieutenant stayed around all the time to make the
soldiers behave themselves. The meals he made my ole mis' and her
daughter cook was for the officers.
"Yes Lawd! I have been here so long I ain't forgot nothin'. I can
remember things way back. I can remember things happening when I was
four years old. Things that happen now I can't remember so well. But I
can remember things that happened way back yonder."