effect until the spring of
1865.

Here I had less work than before the war, for the nearer the war
approached its close the less the slaves had to do, as the masters were
at the end of their wits what to do. In the latter part of 1864 Gen.
Sherman, with his army of a hundred thousand men and almost as many
stragglers, covered the space of about sixty miles in width while
marching from Georgia through South Carolina. The army camped around
Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, for a short time. Early in the
spring of 1865 the commissary building first took fire, which soon
spread to such extent that the whole city of Columbia was consumed; just
a few houses on the suburbs were left.

The commissary building was set on fire by one of the two parties, but
it was never fully settled whether it was done by Gen. Sherman's men or
by the Confederates, who might have, as surmised by some, as they had to
evacuate the city, set it on fire to keep Gen. Sherman's men from
getting the food. After this Columbia was occupied by a portion of
Sherman's men, while the others marched on toward North Carolina.

THE GLORIOUS END.

In closing this brief sketch of my experiences in the war, I would ask
my readers to go back of the war a little with me. I want to show them a
few of the dark pictures of the slave system. Hark! I hear the clanking
of the ploughman's chains in the fields; I hear the tramping of the feet
of the hoe-hands. I hear the coarse and harsh voice of the negro driver
and the shrill voice of the white overseer swearing at the slaves. I
hear the swash of the lash upon the backs of the unfortunates; I hear
them crying for mercy from the merciless. Amidst these cruelties I hear
the fathers and mothers pour out their souls in prayer,--"O, Lord, how
long!" and their cries not only awaken the sympathy of their white
brothers and sisters of the North, but also mightily trouble the slave
masters of the South.

The firing on Fort Sumter, in April of 1861, brought hope to the slaves
that the long looked for year of jubilee was near at hand. And though
the South won victory after victory, and the Union reeled to and fro
like a drunken man, the negroes never lost hope, but faithfully
supported the Union cause with their prayers.

Thank God, where Christianity exists slavery cannot exist.

At last came freedom. And what joy it brought! I am now standing, in
imagination, on a high place just outside the city of Columbia, in t