Another negro, too old to take, spoke up and said: "What was dat de old man Kidd told you?"
"Why," I replied, "he said he had always been a Union man."
"DE LOR' BRESS MY SOUL! Did he say dat _he_ was a Union man?"
"Well! well! well! Dat he was a Union man! Well! well! well! And he's gwine to de Gineral for to tell him dat; and dat ole man is a member ob de Church! Well! well! well! Why, look heah, my Men', when de rebs was here only a few weeks ago--when dey was here, dat ole man got on his white hoss, and took de seceshum flag, and rode, and rode, and waved dat rebel flag and shouted, and more dan hollered for Jeff Davis, and _now_ he Union man! He wants de Gineral to gib up dese here colored people--_dat's what's de matter wid him_!"
In an hour after we arrived in camp, sure enough, the old Kidd and other parties were there, expecting or hoping to get their darkeys back; but General Steadman told them if the negroes _wished_ to return, they could do so, but, if they chose rather to work for "UNCLE SAM," why, his orders were to use them.
"Well, _Gineral_, you just tell my niggers that they can go home with me," said Kidd.
"O! they can if they want to." So, out goes Kidd, smiling as a "basket of chips."
"Boys, the Gineral says you can all go home _with me_."
"IF YOU WANT TO," was my addition _to his sentence_.
Not a negro stirred from the line. After a brief consultation, in an under tone, at which Kidd, I noticed, was becoming very impatient, Kidd broke the quietude by saying:
Jim looked over to Bob and said: "Bob, what are you going to do?"
Old man Kidd looked beaten. "Well, Jim, what will _you_ do?"
_This same old Kidd_ had been in the habit of going over the country enlisting recruits for the rebel service--telling them that he was an old man, or he would go himself; that the old folks expected to be taxed to take care of the soldiers' families; that if they wanted corn or any thing from his mill, while they were in the army, to come and get it. By such language he induced several men, who had only small families, to enlist. One of them was indebted to Kidd about thirteen dollars, and after he had been in the army a month or two, Kidd dunned him for the old bill, remarking:
