925 E. 15th Ave., Pine Bluff, Ark.
Age: 92

"Well, I don't know how old I is. I was born in Virginia, but my mother
was sold. She was bought by a speculator and brought here to Arkansas.
She brought me with her and her old master's name was Ridgell. We lived
down around Monticello. I was big enough to plow and chop cotton and
drive a yoke of oxen and haul ten-foot rails.

"Oh Lord, I don't know how many acres old master had. He had a
territory--he had a heap a land. I remember he had a big old carriage
and the carriage man was Little Alfred. The reason they called him that
was because there was another man on the place called Big Alfred. They
won't no relation--just happen to be the same name.

"I remember when the Yankees come and killed old master's hogs and
chickens and cooked 'em. There was a good big bunch of Yankees. They
said they was fightin' to free the niggers. After that I runned away and
come up here to Pine Bluff and stayed awhile and then I went to Little
Rock and jined the 57th colored infantry. I was the kittle drummer. We
marched right in the center of the army. We went from Little Rock to
Fort Smith. I never was in a big battle, just one little scrummage. I
was at Fort Smith when they surrendered and I was mustered out at
Leavenworth, Kansas.

"My grandfather went to war as bodyguard for his master, but I was with
the Yankees.

"I remember when the Ku Klux come to my grandmother's house. They nearly
scared us to death. I run and hid under the bed. They didn't do nothin',
just the looks of 'em scared us. I know they had the old folks totin'
water for 'em. Seemed like they couldn't get enough.

"After the war I come home and went to farmin'. Then I steamboated for
four years. I was on the Kate Adams, but I quit just 'fore it burned,
'bout two or three weeks.

"I never went to school a minute in my life. I had a chance to go but I
just didn't.

"No'm I can't remember nothin' else. It's been so long it done slipped
my memory."

Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: John Young
923 E. Fifteenth, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 89

"I know I was born in Arkansas. The first place I recollect I was in
Arkansas.

"I was a drummer in the Civil War. I played the little drum. The bass
drummer was Rheuben Turner.

"I run off from home in Drew County. Five or six of us run off here to
Pine Bluff. We heard if we could get with the Yankees we'd be free, so
we r