Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1887 — “CONTRABANDS OF WAR.” [ARTICLE]

“CONTRABANDS OF WAR.”

What the Federal Gun Boats Had to Encounter. Ph iladelphia Times. ’ ; Very Boon after the gun boats had forced their wav past Memphis the colored people of the ■ptentatiemrffoeked to greet them. In July, 1802, while navigating the great river, 1 saw a whiteJ draped precession streaming out across a sand. bar toward the bend aroaiui which we Were, passing. The river had fallen and the bars spread wide from shore to channel. The procession resembled one ot Cordelier monks, With their long robes flapping about their legs. The members of this ghostly procession gesticulated at our gun boat as they shaped their course to intercept us. When they reached the edge of the water they waded out toward us until submerged to the hips. They did not shout, hut simply waved their hands, i “What are those?” J asked. “Plantation nigs,” said pur pilot.“How queer!y theyare dressed.” “Them’s tow linen frocks; they’re mostly rigged so.” The drapery of slavery flapped in the wind, and there was a frantic beckon-

mg, but our steamer swept on unlieed ing. When our mute solicitors saw that they were unnoticed they halted, then took the back track and hastened for the woods. “Look at the blasted geese,” said the pilot. “They want us to take ’em aboard. Now they’ll skedaddle across the bottom to cut us oft t’other side of the bend.” When we rounded the bend, there, sure enough, was this fantastic company, river!s.Jbrink_ with outstretched arms. This silent appeal for rescue from these ignorant wretches was eloquent. They thought they saw liberty almost within reach, and they were reaching for liberty and life. For life indeed, for in many cases their homes had been abandoned by their masters, and these helpless beings, hitherto dependent upon the provision of superior intelligence, were left to their own resources, and were on the verge of starvation. Finally our navy was forced to help them. in January, 1865, when he anchored in the Yazoo, the influx of colored refugees was such that Admiral Porter, always compassionate to suffering, detailed a gun-boat to transport a load of “contrabands” to Cairo. We sent away only the aged, the intirm and the children. When the dusky cargo, numbering hundreds, was oil board, I ihspected it. These “fellow-creatures” seemed rather like brutes gifted with a little of the faculty oyiuman speech. They were ignorant and helpless as brutes. Squatted between a couple of howitzers I stumbled on one who was the oldest looking mortal I ever saw. He resembled a superanuatcd baboon. Father Noah beside him would have appeared youthful. He looked as if “eternity had snowed its years upon him, and the white winter ol his ai;e had come.” j “How old are you, uncle?” i ••Duuno, massa. Specs L’se done pas | two hundred.” , i “ W here-are you from ? y j “Up de Yazoo.’’ .. 8 j “Where,are you going?” j The Weared ey es gleamed up at me. i ‘G a ine to e, free.” Among all who Were intelligible I ’ found this senument— a dim but ! ine pn-gnosis of something blissful in ; store for them'. “De I.imkum gun-boats” |'ha ! come, “liberty” had come,ole massa ! was gone, and ‘Mis was-de day of de ! kmgeoui coming.” I saw them alter they reached their promised land. Crowded in Sllhv'barracks, starving on damaged pork and mouldy hard tack, swarming with vermin, rotting with smallpox and scurvey, they were even past pity. In contemplating their misery one could "only feel horror and amazement that such wretchedness [ could continue to exist. To very many I of the blacks the war was a frightful disaster. John L. Sullivan should take the contract to exterminate the English sparrers.