Some former slaves interviewed in Indiana were too young to have fought in the Civil War. George Fortman, for instance, stayed home during the war, so he was able to report on changes that took place on the plantation at the beginning of the Civil War. Many slaves, he said, left the plantation and enlisted in the Union Army, believing it their duty to fight for freedom. His mother, too, took her family off the plantation to work in the broom cane; however, soon “she discovered she couldn’t make enough to rear her children, and we were turned over to the court to be bound out.” According to Henry Clay Moorman, slaveholders poisoned the minds of their slaves, and the slaves were in constant fear of Union soldiers. Once when some slaves saw around two hundred Union soldiers approaching, they hid in the woods and covered their small children with leaves.
Katie Rose said, “Everything was happy and lovely at the Holloway home until the Civil War started. Then some of the slaves enlisted to fight, and Young Marse John went to the war. Old Missus and Young Missus never seemed happy again. Things went from worse to worse, and soon the young marse was brought home in a coffin.” Elizabeth Russell noted that when the Civil War broke out, many slaveowners left their plantations to join the fight. Elizabeth’s owner, however, loaded his slaves in wagons and, with other slaveholders, headed for San Antonio, Texas, attempting to escape the Yankees.
Some plantation owners who fought in the war left their slaves in charge of their family, money, and livestock. Mollie Tate’s relatives, for instance, looked after their master’s wife and children: “A short time before the war closed, the master, Dave Tate, was conscripted and had to go. Before leaving he charged Uncle Isom and Aunt Nancy to care for his wife, two sons, David and William, and daughter, Tennessee. He never returned alive.” Alex Woodson’s mother’s owner gave her a large roll of bills, “greenbacks as big as your arm,” to keep for him when he was forced to leave his plantation. After the war, the Woodsons returned all the money. Figuring that Union soldiers would kill him if he stayed on his farm but would spare his wife, Mrs. Preston’s owner took his best horses and hogs to Frankfort during the war and left his farm and family in the care of an overseer. Ira Jones contended that when Union soldiers marched through Kentucky, slaveholder Tandy was so frightened that he hid in a thicket. W. F. Parrott said that slaves on his plantation supported the North and befriended Union soldiers, and toward the end of the war, when plantation owners knew that the South had lost, slaveholders themselves assisted Union troops. In fact, one slaveholder, apparently a Union sympathizer, was drafted as a picket in the Union Army.
Former slaves served in both the Southern and Northern armies. Betty Guwn recollected that “When the Civil War came on there was great excitement among us slaves. We were watched sharply, especially for soldier timber for either army.” Moses Slaughter contended that General Lee wanted to offer immediate freedom to all slaves who enlisted in the Southern army, but his proposal was rejected because large slave dealers opposed it. Slaughter claimed that after the U.S. Congress allowed slaves to enlist, many slaves joined the Union Army. George Washington Buckner noted, however, that whites were indignant because blacks were allowed to enlist.
According to Billy Slaughter, some slaves who wanted to join the Union Army were not allowed to because they were still under their masters’ control, and some slaves, he reported, were forced to join the Southern army. John Eubanks, however, said that when the North appeared to be losing the war, black regiments were formed, and slaves joining the Union Army were granted freedom. He joined the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War, when he was twenty-one. Eubanks’s master told him that if he wished, he could join the army instead of running away, as some slaves were doing, so Eubanks joined a black regiment located at Bowling Green, Kentucky.
The wives and unmarried children of black men who enlisted in the Union Army were given freedom, too. Billy Slaughter’s father joined the Union Army, so Slaughter’s father and mother and their unmarried children were freed. Slaughter maintained that black soldiers never fought in any decisive battles. Someone, he reflected, had to polish harnesses, care for horses, dig ditches, and build parapets. Slaughter’s father, however, was at Memphis during a battle there. George Morrison’s father also fought for the North. “Yes, ma’am,” he told the fieldworker, “the war sure did affect my family. My father, he fought for the North. He got shot in his side, but it finally got all right.” Francis Gammons’s husband ran away from the plantation and joined the Union Army during the Civil War because “He wanted to be free and declared that he was willing to take his share in securing this freedom, which he did by fighting for the Union.” Likewise, Betty Guwn’s husband “ran away early and helped Grant to take Fort Donaldson [Donelson?]. He said he would free himself, which he did.” Anderson Whitted’s uncle also ran away; he broke through the lines and joined the Northern army.
Thomas Ash recalled “how the grown-up Negroes on the place left to join the Union Army as soon as they learned of Lincoln’s proclamation making them free men.” When asked if he had served in the Civil War, Joseph Carter responded, “Of course, I did. When I got old enough, I entered the service and barbecued meat until the war closed.” Barbecuing was Carter’s specialty as a slave, so he did the same work as a Union soldier. Barney Stone was a soldier in the Union Army for nearly two years. He remarked that “After those experiences of sixteen long years in hell as a slave, I was very bitter against the white man, until after I ran away and joined the Union Army.” Stone swore that “hundreds of male slaves were shot down by the rebels, rather than see them join with the Yankees.” Moses Slaughter, who gave a long account of his Civil War adventures as a Union soldier, reflected that “Army life is a hard life no matter how well the men are trained. It seems you are always meeting with some unexpected occurrence.” Maybe that’s why George Beatty’s father chose to run off to Canada rather than serve in the Union Army.
Several former slaves served in the Southern army. George Morrison “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.” Candies Richardson said that her husband went off to war to be “what you call a valet for Marse Jim’s son, Sam.” Ira Jones said that one time some of the slaves were to be taken away to join the rebel army. His father was among the group, but he escaped and ran barefoot over frozen ground. When he returned home, his feet were so sore that he could hardly walk.
Former slaves who did not serve in one of the armies during the Civil War related personal-experience tales about the war, especially encounters with troops. Sylvester Smith recollected that soldiers leaving for the Civil War said that it would be only a “breakfast spell.” He was not old enough to serve in the war but saw a few skirmishes. Nancy Whallen remembered soldiers coming to the farm for food, camping on the farm, and teasing her. Mollie Tate gave a good account of both Union and Confederate troops pilfering food: “Every day spies were making their rounds, and often soldiers, both Yankee and Rebel, visited our cabin, taking what they could find—bacon, molasses, meal, anything they wanted. They’d fill their canteens with water and be off.”
Elvira Lee, who was about sixteen when the Civil War began, told about soldiers drilling in a large field belonging to her master. She said that during the war it was sometimes dangerous for officers to visit their families, and she related how on one visit she hid her master, a captain in the Confederacy, in her cabin most of the night. On another visit her owner was safeguarded by his wife, who kept the soldiers looking for him out of the house by telling them that her child had smallpox. Adeline Rose Lennox recalled hearing the distant roar of cannons, but admitted that at the time she “didn’t know what it was about.” She also recalled that Southern soldiers often came to the farm with wagons and carried off all the food they could find to feed the Southern army. Thomas Lewis said that his mother told Union soldiers “where the stillhouse was. Her master didn’t want her to tell where the stillhouse was because some of his rebel friends were hiding there. Spies had reported them to the Yankee soldiers. They went to the stillhouse and captured the rebels.”
Sarah O’Donnell remembered cooking a meal for General Jefferson С. Davis and his troops, but she was not quite sure whether they were Union or Confederate soldiers. She explained, “I hadn’t much time to look and see who all they were. They were in a hurry and hungry, and you know it didn’t pay to ask questions of soldiers, especially not of generals, as to who they were.” Preston Tate recalled a battle near Mossy Creek, Tennessee. He and other children were playing when they discovered that they were surrounded by soldiers. Frightened by “shells flying thick and fast,” they crawled unharmed behind trees and through thickets to escape the battlefield.
Confederate general John Hunt Morgan shows up in several of the WPA interviews with former slaves. When General Morgan, the famous Southern raider, crossed the Ohio and raided southern Indiana, John Eubanks was one of the black soldiers who, after heavy fighting, forced Morgan to retreat back across the river. Alex Woodson remembered hiding all night in the woods with his mother and other children when Morgan’s soldiers came. The raiders took all the horses and cattle and combed the woods for Yankees. Alex said that he saw Morgan from a distance riding a big horse, and he “was shore a mighty fine looker.” George Winlock noted that “General John H. Morgan made two raids through Kentucky. His trail could be followed from Glasgow to Elizabethtown. He was routed at Elizabethtown and hurried out of the state by way of New Haven and Burkesville by infuriated Kentuckians led by General E.H. Hobson.” Robert Barton recalled that Morgan once stayed all night on his master’s farm.
George Winlock thought that “the entire war was a mistake. The fight was not altogether over the emancipation of the Negroes, but resulted from the political quarrels and misrepresented facts. Many Negroes were happy while they were slaves.” Still, Winlock conceded that when Lincoln was assassinated, every Union soldier grieved, for Lincoln “had given his life for the cause of freedom.” Billy Slaughter agreed that “Freeing the slaves was brought about during the Civil War, but it was not the reason that the war was fought.” He said that the real reason for the war was that the South withdrew from the Union and elected Jefferson Davis president of the Confederacy. While Slaughter respected the federal government, he regarded John Brown as a hero, and among his prized possessions was a book about John Brown’s raid.