nly
four miles off, "scriptin' all the niggers dar was in de fields, and
a-runnin' 'em South." These were added to our stock in trade.

On our way back, a couple of old, sour-looking WOMEN were standing on
the steps that were built for them to _climb_ a _fence_, who, seeing
so many blacks, inquired what we were taking them for. "To work," was
the reply. "The rebels were about to run them South, and we wanted
them to work for us."

"Now who told you that?" they inquired.

"The negroes themselves, madam. Many of them came voluntarily, to
escape being sent South."

"O, yes! you Federals git your information from the _niggers
altogether_."

"Yes, madam!" facetiously replied Captain Dickerson, of the 2d
Minnesota Regiment, "that's a fact. All the _reliable_ information
does come from them."

On our homeward trip we called at what is known as "Kidd's Mills,"
between Concord Church and Nolinsville. There were there quite a
number employed upon the lumber and grist. A selection was made from
the lot. They _all_ wanted to come, but some were too young, and
others too _old_.

Old man Kidd said he had a "safeguard from the Gineral. The Gineral
had been up to see his darters, Delilah and Susan, and give him a
safeguard." Upon examination it was found to be a mere request.
Requests don't stand in military (not arbitrary enough). Then the old
man declared he had always been a Union man--"allers said this war
wern't no good--that the South had better stand by the old flag."

I at once told him if _such was the case_ he was all right--to just
get his horse and come with me, and if he had "_allers_" been a
"_Union man_" or a non-combatant, why, they would all be returned to
him.

The negroes were grouped around with anxious faces, and with rather
astonished looks; and, as Mr. Kidd went to the stable, a venerable,
white-haired old darkey, who had been told to stand back--he was too
old to join the Union teamsters--came forward, and begged to be taken.
"Why, I does heap o' work. I tends dis mill; I drives a team fustrate.
_Please take de ole man_, and let him _die free_!"

Another negro, too old to take, spoke up and said: "What was dat de
old man Kidd told you?"

"Why," I replied, "he said he had always been a Union man."

"DE LOR' BRESS MY SOUL! Did he say dat _he_ was a Union man?"

"Yes!"

"Well! well! well! Dat he was a Union man! Well! well! well! And he's
gwine to de Gineral for to tell him dat; and dat ole man