the kind of duty that Owens
detested. But fate was against him, and he and five others were
selected. He sullenly complied, and as he rode out of the ranks with his
face flushed and his head bowed, I heard him say, "I don't like this."
Someone said, "Owens, I'll take your place." He turned and gave him a
look that must have chilled the fellow's blood, and said, "_Didn't you
hear Capt. Gibson call me?_"

I saw the six ride off; Owens didn't even say good-bye to me. That night
one of Lee's noted scouts led these men, with others taken from other
commands, into the enemy's camp, and Owens never returned. He was shot,
and fell from his horse, dying either from cold or the wound. At
intervals during the night a citizen living near where he fell heard
someone calling, but was afraid to go out. The next morning he found his
dead body and buried it. I grieved very much over his death, occuring as
it did.

Now I want to say that I shall ever have a tender spot in my breast for
the colored people, owing to what I know of the race, judged from my
association with them from early childhood up to and including the years
of the Civil War, and, indeed, some years after.

My home in Loudoun county, on the border line between the North and
South, gave me an unusual opportunity of judging how far the negro could
be trusted in caring for and protecting the homes of the men who were in
the Southern armies. Scattered all through the South, and especially in
the border States, there were white men who were not in sympathy with
the South, and some of them acted as spies and guides for the Northern
troops as they marched and counter-marched through the land. But I never
knew of a negro being guilty of like conduct. They not only watched over
and protected the women and children in their homes, but were equally
as faithful and careful to protect the Southern soldier from capture
when he returned home to see his loved ones.

No soldier in Loudoun or Fauquier counties ever feared that his or his
neighbor's servants would betray him to the enemy. The negro always
said, in speaking of the Southern soldiers, "our soldiers," although he
well knew that the success of the North meant his freedom, while the
success of the South meant the continuation of slavery.

Another remarkable thing. No one ever heard of a negro slave, or, so far
as I know, a free negro of the South, offering an insult or an indignity
to a white woman. They were frequently com