Tag: Union Soldiers

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John Patterson

John Patterson was an enslaved person who moved to Arkansas during the Civil War because his enslaver wanted to keep John and other enslaved people from being taken by Union soldiers.  In this excerpt he briefly shares this experience, as well as telling of some of the songs they used to sing while being enslaved.
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Excerpt:

I was born near Paducah, Kentucky. Mother was never sold. She belonged to Master Arthur Patterson. Mother was what folks called black folks. I’ve never seen a father to know. I never heard mother say a thing about my father, if I had one. He never was no use to me nor her neither. 

Mother brought me here in time of the Civil War. I was four years old. We came here to be kept from the Yankee soldiers. We were sent with some of the Pattersons.

. . . I forgot our plough songs:  ‘I Wonder Where my Darling is.’  ‘N***** Makes the Cotton and the White Man Gets the Money.’  Everybody used to sing. We worked from sun to sun; we courted and were happy. People are not happy now. They are craving now. About four o’clock we all start up singing. Sing till dark. 

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
John Patterson[Year (age at interview)]Irene RobertsonArthur Patterson
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Helena, ARArkansasPaducah, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, FamilyFirst person, dialect, Union Soldiers

Patterson_J_1

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Joseph Ringo

Joseph Ringo lived with the same enslaver from his birth until 11 years after the Civil War.  In this excerpt, he describes a visit the plantation received from Union soldiers and how the enslavers accommodated them out of fear.  He then describes his experience with emancipation, and how his family were all paid to stay on the plantation.  He finished by telling why and how he stayed on that plantation, getting paid and saving his money, for 11 years after emancipation.
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Excerpt:

I remember when the Yankee soldiers were camping’ around Minerva, Kentucky six of them came up to the big house one day, and put their horses in the stable, fed them, and then they laid around on our grass.  Finally, they got up off the ground and went to the house and asked for something to eat.  Ole Miss saw that they were getting food, ‘cause she was feared they’d do some damage if they didn’t’ get it.

I remember Master John calling us one morning and he sat on a stile and told us all we were free, and he said, “Now what are you all going to do?” He offered Eren $130.00 a year and clothes and board. Bill and me he offers $25.00 a year and board and keep, and Mother she is to get $1.50 a week and a place for her and the children, and clothes and a home for them.

We all stayed for one year, then mother and all of them went away, except me.  I stayed on for eleven years after that.  Master John French, he raised my wages every year, and I saved all I earned, or most of it. 

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Joseph Ringo86 years oldUnknownJohn French
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Clark County, OHOhioMason County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, Economics,First person, dialect, bound out after the war, Union soldiers,

Ringo_J_1

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Kisey McKimm

Kisey McKimm spent her entire enslavement (and some time after) on the same plantation.  In this excerpt, McKimm describes how her enslaver treated her and her family better than most enslavers, but how his son was cruel.  It describes an instance of the son whipping one of the enslaved.  The excerpt goes on to describe how McKimm’s family was given land after Emancipation, but when the enslaver father died, the son took over the land and kicked them out.
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Excerpt:

Master Jacob was good to his slaves, but his son, Clay was mean. I remember once when he took my Mammy out and whipped her cause she forgot to put cake in his basket, when he went hunting’. But that was the last time, because the master heard of it and cussed him like God had come down from Heaven.

. . . The great day on the plantation was Christmas when we all got a little present from the Master. The men slaves would cut a whole pile of wood for the fireplace and pile it on the porch. As long as the whole pile of wood lasted we didn’t have to work but when it was gone, our Christmas was over. Sometimes on Sunday afternoons, we would go to the Master’s honey room and he would give us sticks of candied honey, and Lord child, was it good! I ate so much once, I got sick enough to die.

One time, dey sent me down the road to fetch something’ and I heard a bunch of horses coming, I jumped over the fence and hid behind the elderberry bushes until they passed, and I ran home and told them what I had seen. Pretty soon they came to the house, 125 Union soldiers and asked for something to eat. We all jumped around and fixed them a dinner, when they finished, they looked for Master, but he was hidden. They were gentlemen and didn’t bother or take anything. When the war was over the Master gave Mammy a house and 160 acre farm, but when he died, his son Clay told us to get out of the place or he’d burn the house and us up in it, so we left and moved to Paris. After I was married and had two children, me and my man moved north and I’ve been here ever since.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Kisey McKimm1853 (84)Betty Lugabill (or Lugabell)Jacob Sandusky
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Paulding County, OHOhioBourbon County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, EmancipationFirst person, dialect, Union soldiers

McKimm_K_1

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Lucy Davis

In this excerpt, Ms. Davis describes her experiences during the Civil War and her Emancipation.  Of note is the fear that her enslavers had of the Union soldiers, and how she was put on lookout outside the property when they would come, allowing her enslavers to hide while the soldiers took what they wanted from the property.  She finished by retelling the reaction of her and her family when they were told they were free.
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Excerpt:

When the war came Ole Master didn’t go, but he was a regular old secesh! (Secessionist/Southern sympathizer) Young James Andrew went off to war and ole Missus used to grieve for him. We never saw fighting around our place but we could hear the big guns over at Columbus. When the soldiers were around the neighborhood, they’d always have me playing around the front gate so I could tell them when they were coming up the road. Then they’d go and hide before the soldiers got there. They were all scared of the soldiers. I was scared too, but they said soldiers wouldn’t bother a little black gal. The soldiers just came in and ransacked the house—they’d find something to eat and they’d look for money. They want money! But they don’t find any. Then they wanted to know where my folks were, but I told them I didn’t know, “They just left and didn’t say where they were going’.

When the war was over, Ole Master Joe came in and he said, ’Rose, you all ain’t slaves any more. You are all as free as I am.’ Then you should’ve heard my mammy shout! You never heard such shouting in all your born days. And Ole Missus, she joined in the shouting too. She was glad because now James Andrew would be coming home.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Lucy DavisUnknownUnknownJoe Mott
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Cape Girardeau, MOMissouriHickman, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, Civil War, Emancipation,First person, dialect, Union Soldiers, 

Davis_L_1

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Sebert Douglas

Sebert Douglas lived in Kentucky before and during the Civil War.  In this excerpt, he gives several brief recollections: of Morgan’s raid, enslaved persons who joined the Union Army, examples of KKK violence, and what he did after emancipation.
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Excerpt:

I remember [Confederate General John Hunt] Morgan’s Raid. I don’t remember what year it was but I remember a right smart about it. Cumberland Gap was where they met. The Rebs and Yankees both came and took things from old master. I remember three horses they took as well. Yankees had tents in the yard. They were in the yard right in front of the Methodist church.

My mother was Mrs. Hood’s slave, and when she married she took my mother along and I was born on her place. I was the carriage boy in slave times. My father did the driving and I was the waiting boy. I opened the gates.

I remember Billy Chandler and Lewis Rodman ran off and joined the Yankees but they came back after the war was over.

Pattyrollers were about the same as the Ku Klux. The Ku Klux would take the roof off the colored folks’ houses and take their bedding and make ’em go back where they came from.

We stayed right there with old master for two or three years, then we went to the country and farmed for ourselves.

I went to school just long enough to read and write. I never seen any use for figures until I married and went to farming.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Sebert Douglas82 years oldBernice BowdenGover Hood
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Pine Bluff, AKArkansasLebanon, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, Violence,First person, dialect, Klan/mob violence, Union soldiers,

Douglas_S_1

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William Ball Williams, III

William Ball Williams, III fought for the Union army in the Civil War.  In this excerpt, he describes the experience of being a formerly enslaved person in the Union army and the fear he always lived in.
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Excerpt:

I ran away to Louisville to join the Yankees one day. I was scared to death all the time. They put us in front to shield themselves. They said they were fighting for us–for our freedom. Piles of them were killed. I got a flesh wound. I’m scarred up some. We got plenty to eat. I was in two or three hot battles. I wanted to quit but they would catch them and shoot them if they left. I didn’t know how to get out and get away. I mustered out at Jacksonville, Florida and walked every step of the way back. When I got back it was fall of the year. My folks were still at my master’s. I was on picket guard at Jacksonville, Florida. We fought a little at Pensacola, Florida.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
William Ball Williams, III98 years oldIrene RobertsonRobert Ball
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Forrest City, AKArkansasGreensburg, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil WarFirst Person, Union soldiers

Williams_W_1

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William Emmons

William Emmons spent much of his early life enslaved.  He also fought in the Civil War, which he describes below, including being threatened while on the way to enlist, getting injured in battle, and the celebrations that followed the announcement of victory.  He finishes by describing briefly the work he did after emancipation.

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].  See more information.

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Excerpt:

I left and joined the army when I was 18. But forty of us from the plantation around near Carlisle went at the same time. When we went off for the army, going down a dusty road, three white fellers we knew came a riding up, and said, “Where are you [redacted] goin?”  We told them we were going to war and they tried to make us go back to the plantation. We told them we’d kill them sure if they kept on meddling with us, and they got scared and let us alone.    

In one the battles I got shot in the left hand, and I tied it up myself. The captain he noticed it one day, and he asked to see it. Then he sent me to the hospital. They thought they’d have to take my hand off, but I didn’t want them to that. So they kept me in the hospital for about thirty days and doctored it, and finally, I was back in the lines fighting.    

The day we were emancipated we were at Petersburg, Virginia, and I never heard as much shouting and hollering in my life. When the war was over, I went back to Emmonds plantation, and they asked me what I was going to do now that I was free. I told them I was going to work, but they told me no free [   ]could stay on the plantation.    

I went to Mason County and hired to a Major Read. He was an abolitionist and went about the country trying to get the plantation owners to hire the free slaves and help make good citizens of them. Major Read paid me $20.00 a month, and board and clothes. I was able to save a good little sum, and I left and went up to Ripley.    

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
William Emmons1845 (93)UnknownRoy EmmonsRiggs
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Springfield, OHOhioNicholas, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, EmancipationFirst person, Union soldiers

Emmons_W_2

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George Morrison

In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts in the first person George Morrison’s memories of the Civil War.
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Excerpt:

…Yes, ma’am [George Morrison is referring to the interviewer], the War sure did affect my family. My father fought for the north. He got shot in his side, but it finally got all right. He saved his money and came north after the war and got a good job. But, I saw them fellows from the south take my Uncle. They put his clothes on him right in the yard and took him with them to fight. And even the white folks, they all cried. But he came back, he wasn’t hurt but he wasn’t happy in his mind like my pappy was.

Yes ma’am, I would rather live in the North. The South’s all right but some ways I just don’t feel down there like I do up here…

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
George MorrisonUnknown (Unknown)Iris CookRay
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
New Albany, ININMorganfield, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, Union Soldiers, ConfederacyUnion County, First Person

Morrison_G_2

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