we needed," said the now
white-haired man.

Only a limited memory of Civil War days is retained by the old man but
the few events recalled are vividly described by him. "Mother, my young
brother, my sister and I were walking along one day. I don't remember
where we had started but we passed under the fort at Wartrace. A battle
was in progress and a large cannon was fired above us and we watched the
huge ball sail through the air and saw the smoke of the cannon pass over
our heads. We poor children were almost scared to death but our mother
held us close to her and tried to comfort us. The next morning, after,
we were safely at home ... we were proud we had seen that much of the
great battle and our mother told us the war was to give us freedom."

"Did your family rejoice when they were set free?" was the natural
question to ask Uncle George.

"I cannot say that they were happy, as it broke up a lot of real
friendships and scattered many families. Mother had a great many pretty
quilts and a lot of bedding. After the negroes were set free, Mars.
Arnold told us we could all go and make ourselves homes, so we started
out, each of the grown persons loaded with great bundles of bedding,
clothing and personal belongings. We walked all the way to Wartrace to
try to find a home and some way to make a living."

George W. Arnold remembers seeing many soldiers going to the pike road
on their way to Murfreesboro. "Long lines of tired men passed through
Guy's Gap on their way to Murfreesboro," said he. "Older people said
that they were sent out to pick up the dead from the battle fields after
the bloody battle of Stone's river that had lately been fought at
Murfreesboro. They took their comrades to bury them at the Union
Cemetery near the town of Murfreesboro."

"Wartrace was a very nice place to make our home. It was located on the
Nashville and Chattanooga and St. Louis railroad, just fifty-one miles
from Nashville not many miles from our old home. Mother found work and
we got along very well but as soon as we children were old enough to
work, she went back to her old home in Georgia where a few years later
she died. I believe she lived to be seventy-five or seventy six years of
age, but I never saw her after she went back to Georgia."

"My first work was done on a farm (there are many fine farms in
Tennessee) and although farm labor was not very profitable we were
always fed wherever we worked and got some wages. Then I got