Page:The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life .djvu/137

Rh and grandchildren were left to solve the problem of newly found liberty.

No doubt there were amongst those sable men souls of unquestioned courage, but I have laughed over the dismal howlings of those wounded so slightly that our merest boys would have blushed to notice it; and in the light attacks of sickness the contortions were like death to the uninitiated.

They were a careless, happy set, as they lolled by the river, and enjoyed themselves in camp. Their prayer-meetings often ended with dancing, and song, in which the negro element was exhibited in its perfection. They had many privileges, good rations—sometimes better than our own men, and were under far less restraint.

They wooed and wedded—had feasts and funerals, and the young ebonies sported by the water, oftimes tumbling in to the trembling horror of the maternal heart. One young fellow with his "girl" paraded our streets one day, and one of our nurses, a mere boy, thinking to tease him a little in his pomposity, made a pretence of falling in love with the dusky beauty, making soft, melting speeches to touch her heart. The negro, enraged, sprung upon him, opened his jack-knife, and with the ferocity of a savage cut the boy's throat from ear to ear.

The boy was taken up severely wounded, and months elapsed before his recovery. Some friends of the negro removed him secretly to Washington, to escape the vengeance which would have fallen on him had he remained at City Point. I never knew that