em up, sah, kill them in cold blood,
sah. Each one of those animals sah, would be a gold mine, sah, at this
time, to us who have come from the wah, sah, destitute, with nothing but
our bare hands to make a crop, to keep our families from want, sah."

The other gentlemen nodded at what the colonel had said, as though
that was about their sentiments. I told him that I felt about that way
myself, but there was an objection. If I gave the horses away, for use
on the plantations, and the animals should be used hereafter in the
confederate army, it would not only be wrong, but I would be liable to
be dismissed from the army.

The colonel said he should want to be dismissed from the Yankee army if
he was in it, but I might feel different about it. But he said he would
pledge me his word as a Southern gentleman, that if the animals could be
lent to them, they should never be used for war purposes. He said he was
poor, and his friends there were poor, but they would not take a horse
as a gift from a stranger, but if I would lend them the horses for a
year, they would use them, and return them to the proper officer a year
hence, if the army was yet in existence, or they would take them in
exchange for horses that had previously been stolen from them by our
army. He said there was not a gentleman present but had lost from two to
a dozen horses since the army had been in their vicinity. I admired the
dignity and honesty of the old gentleman, and I knew mighty well that we
had picked up every horse we could find, and I said:

"Colonel, here are about thirty horses I have been ordered to kill. If
I do not kill them I take a certain responsibility. I feel under
obligations to many Southern people for courtesies, and I feel that the
nursing I received during a recent sickness, from one of your Southern
ladies, about the same as saved my life. I believe the war is very near
over, and that neither you nor our men will have occasion for much more
active service. You have come home to your desolate plantations, and
found everything gone. This is the fate of war, but it is unpleasant all
the same. If you can use these animals for your work, in raising crops,
you may take them in welcome, and if there is any cussing, I will stand
it. My advice would be to take them to some isolated place on your
plantation, and keep them out of sight for a time. Our army will move
within a week, and perhaps never come back here. The animals are
branded 'U.