. Reminiscences of the war of the rebellion, 1861-1865 . s when ashort time before they were all slaves, except that noslave-drivers whip was over them now. They still occu-pied the same old cabins, and divided generally into fam-ilies- the same little pickanninnies were near the cabindoors, rolling naked in the sand. In their freedom fromenforced labor, a large majority of the negroes were en-joying a life of indolence, simply working for an existence,and their necessities were very limited—a little baconfrom the razor back hog, many of which were running-wild in the woods, corn and sweet pot
. Reminiscences of the war of the rebellion, 1861-1865 . s when ashort time before they were all slaves, except that noslave-drivers whip was over them now. They still occu-pied the same old cabins, and divided generally into fam-ilies- the same little pickanninnies were near the cabindoors, rolling naked in the sand. In their freedom fromenforced labor, a large majority of the negroes were en-joying a life of indolence, simply working for an existence,and their necessities were very limited—a little baconfrom the razor back hog, many of which were running-wild in the woods, corn and sweet potatoes, made up theirdiet, and it was sufficient. It is not surprising that the negroes idea of freedomwas freedom from work, they knew nothing in life butwork; but the generation of negroes since the war are ona higher level, and have accomplished wonders throughout the whole South. I have said something of the arrangement for rationsfor the men of the regiment, and also of the officers was not quite satisfied to live upon the regular army 170. ON THE SEA ISLAND PLANTATIONS rations, and stretched a point in the matter of expense inmessing with the officers. The pay of the officers tookcare of their part of the expense, but it was nothing lessthan extravagance for me to keep up my end with them,and several times I resolved to economize and live uponthe army rations, only to give it up, and find myself back-in the officers mess. On one occasion I arranged withone of my friends, a member of the band, Karl Krebs, tohave a little mess of our own. Karl was a happy-go-luckyGerman youth who played the clarinet in the band, al-ways good natured and in for .a good time; he was quitean adept in the imitation of the Scotch bag-pipe with hisclarinet, assisted by the voices of the members of thel)and. We arranged to draw our rations regularly, andto add to it whatever extras we could get together, whichmeant sweet potatoes, an occasional chicken bought fromthe negroes, and whatever
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1911
