tles across the pack horses, tie the littlest children to the
horses backs and get on the move farther into the mountains. They kept
moving fast as they could, but the wagons made it mighty slow in the
brush and the lowland swamps, so just about the time they ready to
ford another creek the Indian soldiers catch up and the fighting begin
all over again.

The Creek Indians and the slaves with them try to fight off them
soldiers like they did before, but they get scattered around and
separated so's they lose the battle. Lost their horses and wagons, and
the soldiers killed lots of the Creeks and Negroes, and some of the
slaves was captured and took back to their masters.

Dead all over the hills when we get away; some of the Negroes shot and
wounded so bad the blood run down the saddle skirts, and some fall off
their horses miles from the battle ground, and lay still on the
ground. Daddy and Uncle Jacob keep our family together somehow and
head across the line into Kansas. We all get to Fort Scott where there
was a big army camp; daddy work in the blacksmith shop and Uncle Jacob
join with the Northern soldiers to fight against the South. He come
through the war and live to tell me about the fighting he been in.

He went with the soldiers down around Fort Gibson where they fight the
Indians who stayed with the South. Uncle Jacob say he killed many a
man during the war, and showed me the musket and sword he used to
fight with; said he didn't shoot the women and children--just whack
their heads off with the sword, and almost could I see the blood
dripping from the point! It made me scared at his stories.

The captain of this company want his men to be brave and not get
scared, so before the fighting start he put out a tub of white liquor
(corn whiskey) and steam them up so's they'd be mean enough to whip
their grannie! The soldiers do lots of riding and the saddle-sores get
so bad they grease their body every night with snake oil so's they
could keep going on.

Uncle Jacob said the biggest battle was at Honey Springs (1863). That
was down near Elk Creek, close by Checotah, below Rentiersville. He
said it was the most terrible fighting he seen, but the Union soldiers
whipped and went back into Fort Gibson. The Rebels was chased all over
the country and couldn't find each other for a long time, the way he
tell it.

After the war our family come back here and settle at Fort Gibson, but
it ain't like the place my mother t