slaves. At the appointed hour the twenty couples stood in a row, each
couple with right hands clasped; and among them one young couple, that
being their first marriage. All gave affirmative answers at the same
time; first the men, then the women. After the ceremony Chaplain Eaton
offered an earnest prayer; all kneeling. Then he shook hands with them
to signify his congratulations, and I followed him in like manner. It
was a novel scene, and yet solemn.

On the morning I was to leave Memphis I saw an old woman wringing the
bottom of her cotton dress a few rods from the door. I inquired how
her dress came so wet half a yard deep. "I come up in a leaky skiff
las' night wid six boys dat do oberseer whip de Yankee out, he say;
an' da say da go to Yankees now any how, an' I begged 'em to let me
come, for da knows I has sich hard times. But da say, 'Aunt Peggy, de
skiff leak so bad.' But I tole 'em I's comin' wid a basin, an' I
reckon I dip fas' enough to keep us 'bove water. An' da let me come,
an' it tuck all night to come seven miles up de river. Dar was forty
of us on dis plantation. Massa is a big man in Secesh army, an' sent
more'n a hundred of our people 'way off to de big plantation: an',
missus, da all wants to come mighty bad, an' begged us to go see de
big man right soon, an' tell him da wants to do any thing he wants 'em
to do, if he will only let 'em come. For missus is mighty rich, an'
don't need us, 'case she's got barrels of meal, an' flour, an' plenty
bacon in de smoke-house, da keeps locked up, da say for de Secesh
sojers. An' missus had us put a tin trunk of gole an' silver money,
an' a big ches' of all her silver plate way up in de lof' few days
ago. Missus, do please go tell de big man how da all begged us so hard
to ax him, soon as we got here, if he 'll let 'em come."

I told her I would see the colonel, and inquired for the boys who came