A Story of the War. Translation, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings

Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings
A STORY OF THE WAR

Translation

When Miss Theodosia Huntingdon *, of Burlington, Vermont, concluded to come South in 1870, she was moved by three considerations.  In the first place, her brother, John Huntingdon, had become a citizen of Georgia -- having astonished his acquaintances by marrying a young lady, the male members of whose family had achieved considerable distinction in the Confederate army; in the second place, she was anxious to explore a region which she almost unconsciously pictured to herself as remove and semi-barbarous; and, in the third place, her friends had persuaded her that to some extent she was an invalid.  It was in vain that she argued with herself as to the propriety of undertaking the journey alone and unprotected, and she finally put an end to inward and outward doubts by informing herself and her friends, including John Huntingdon, her brother, who was practicing law in Atlanta, that she decided to visit the South.

When, therefore, on the 12th of October, 1870 -- the date is duly recorded in one of Miss Theodosia's letters -- she alighted from the cars in Atlanta, in the midst of a great crowd, she fully expected to find her brother waiting to receive her.  The bells of several locomotives were ringing, a number of trains went moving in and out, and the porters and baggage-men were screaming and bawling to such an extent that for several moments Miss Huntingdon was considerably confused; so much so that she paused in the hope that her brother would suddenly appear and rescue her from the smoke, and dust, and dirt.  At that moment someone touched her on the arm, and she heard a strong, half-confident, half-apologetic voice exclaim:

"Ain't this here Miss Doshy?"

Turning, Miss Theodosia saw at her side a tall, gray-haired negro.  Elaborating the incident afterward to her friends, she was pleased to say that the appearance of the old man was somewhat picturesque.  He stood towering above her, his hat in one hand, a carriage-whip in the other, and an expectant smile lighting up his rugged face.  She remembered a name her brother had often used in his letters, and, with a woman's tact, she held out her hand, and said:

"Is this Uncle Remus?"

"Lord, Miss Doshy! How you know the old nigger?  I knew you by the favor *; but how you know me?" And then, without waiting for a reply:  "Miss Sally, she sick in bed, and Master John, he bleeds to go * in the country, and they took and sent me.  I knew you the minute I laid eyes on you .  Time I saw you, I say to myself, 'I lay * there's Miss Doshy,' and sure enough, there you was.  You haven't given up your checks, have you?  'Cause I'll get the trunk sent up by the express wagon."

The next moment Uncle Remus was elbowing his way unceremoniously through the crowd, and in a very short time, seated in the carriage driven by the old man, Miss Huntingdon was wheeling through the streets of Atlanta in the direction of her brother's home.  She took advantage of the opportunity to study the old negro's face closely, her natural curiosity considerably sharpened by a knowledge of the fact that Uncle Remus had played an important part in her brother's history.  The result of her observation must have been satisfactory, for presently she laughed, and said:

"Uncle Remus, you haven't told me how you knew me in that great crowd."

The old man chuckled, and gave the horses a gentle rap with the whip.

"Who? Me! I knew you by the favor.  That boy of Master John's is the very spit and image of you.  I'd have known you in New Orleans, let alone down there in the car-shed."

This was Miss Theodosia's introduction to Uncle Remus. One  Sunday afternoon, a few weeks after her arrival, the family were assembled in the piazza enjoying the mild weather.  Mr. Huntingdon was reading a newspaper; his wife was crooning softly as she rocked the baby to sleep; and the little boy was endeavoring to show his Aunt Dosia the outlines of Kenesaw Mountain through the puruple haze that hung like a wonderfully fashioned curtain in the sky and almost obliterated the horizon.  While they were thus engaged, Uncle Remus came around the corner of the house, talking to himself.

"They are too lazy to work," he was saying, "and they expects honest folks for to stand up and support them.  I'm going down to Putmon County * where Master James is -- that's what I'm a-going to do."

"What's the matter now, Uncle Remus?" inquired Mr. Huntingdon, folding up his newspaper.

"Nothing at all, Master John, exceptin' these your sunshine niggers.  They begs my tobacco, and borrows my tools, and steals my vittles *, and it's come to that pass, that I got to pack up and go.  I'm a-going down to Putmon, that's what.

Uncle Remus was accustomed to make this threat several times a day, but upon this oocasion it seemed to remind Mr. Huntingdon of somethig.

"Very well," he said, "I'll come around and help you pack up, but before you go I want you to tell Sister here how you went to war and fought for the Union -- Remus was a famous warrior," he continued, turning to Miss Theodosia; "he volunteered for one day and commanded an army of one.  You know the story, but you have never heard Remus's version."

Uncle Remus shuffled around in an awkward, embarrassed way, scratched his head, and looked uncomfortable.

"Miss Doshy ain't got no time for to sit there and hear the old nigger run on."

"Oh, yes, I have, Uncle Remus!" exclaimed the young lady; "plenty of time."

The upshot of it was that, after many ridiculous protests, Uncle Remus sat down on the steps, and proceeded to tell his story of the war.  Miss Theodosia listened with great interest, but throughout it all she observed -- and she was painfully conscious of the fact , as she after ward admitted -- that Uncle Remus spoke from the standpoint of a Southerner, and with the air of one who expected his hearers to thoroughly synpathize with him.

"Course," said Uncle Remus, addressing himself to Miss Theodosia, "you ain't been to Putmon, and you don't know where the Brad Slaughter place in Harmony Grove is, but Master John and Miss Sally, they been there a time or two, and they knows how the land lays.  Well, then, it is right along in there where Master James lived, and where his lives ow.  When the war come along, he was living there longer (than) Old Miss and Miss Sally.  Old Miss was his ma, and Miss Sally there was his sister.  The war come just like I tell you, and matters sort of rock along same like they always did. It didn't strike me that there was any war going on, and if I hadn't sort of miss the neighbors, and seen folks going out of the way for to ask the news, I have allowed to myself that the war was away off among some other country.  But all this time the fus was going on, and Master James, he was just itchin' for to put in.  Old Miss and Miss Sally,they took on so he didn't get off the first year, but by and by news come down that times was gettin' pretty hot, and Master James he got up, he did, and say he got to go, and go he did.  He got a overseer for to look after the place, and he went and joined the army.  And he was a fighter, to, man, Master James was.  Many's and many's the time, " continued the old man, reflectively, "that I had to take and bresh * on account of his abusin' and beatin' them other boys.  He went off there for to fight, and he fit.  Old Miss used to call me up Sunday and read what the papers say 'bout Master James, and it hoped her up mightily.  I can see her just like it was yesterday.

" 'Remus,' says she, 'this here's what the papers say about my baby,' and then she'd read out until she couldn't read for crying.  It went on this way year in and year out, and them was lonesome times, sure's you're born, Miss Doshy -- lonesome times, sure.  It got hotter and hotter in the war, and lonesomer and more lonesomer at home, and by and by along come the conscrip-man *, and he just everlastingly scoop up Master James' overseer *.  When this come about, old Miss, she sent after me and say, says she:

" 'Remus, I ain't got nobody for to look after the place but you,' says she, and then I up and say, says I:

" 'Mistress, you can just depend on the old nigger.'

"I was old then, Miss Doshy -- let alone what I is now; and you better believe I bossed them hands.  I had them niggers up in the field long before day, and the way they did work was a caution.l  If they didn't earn their vittles that season then I ain't name Remus.  But they was took care of.  They had plenty of clothes and plenty of grub, and they was the fattest niggers in the settlement.

"By and by one day, Old Miss, she call me up and say the Yankees done gone and took Atlanta -- this here very town; then presently I hear they was a marchin' on down towards Putmon, and, lo and behold! one day, the first news I knew, Master James he rid up with a whole gang of men.  He just stopped long enough for to change horses and snatch a mouthful  of something to eat, but before he rid off, he call me up and say, says he:

" 'Daddy' -- all Old Miss's children call me daddy -- 'Daddy," he say, ' it appears like there 's going to be mighty rough times around here.  The Yankees, they are done got to Madison * and Mounticellar *, and it won't be many days before they are down here.  It ain't likely they'll pester mother nor sister; but daddy, if the worst come to the worst, I expect you to take care of them, says he.

"Then I say, says I"  'How long you been knowing me, Master James?" says I.

" 'Since I was a baby,' says he.

" 'Well, then, Master James,' says I, 'you know'd it wasn't no use for to ask me to take care of Old Miss and Miss Sally.'

"Then he took and squeezed my hand and jump on the filly I been saving for him, and rid off.  One time he turn around and look like he want to say something, but he just wave his hand - so - and gallop on.  I knowed then that  trouble was brewing.  Nigger that knows he's going to get thumped can sort of fix himself, and I took and fix up like the war was going to come right in at the front gate.  I took all the cattle and horses together and drive them to the four-mile place, and I took all the corn and fodder en wheat, and put them in a crib out there in the woods; and I built me a pen in the swamp, and there I put the hogs.  Then, when I fix all this, I put on my Sunday clothes and ground my axe.  Two whole days I ground that axe.  The grindstone was in sight of the gate and close to the big house, and there I took my stand.'

"By and by one day, here come the Yankees.  Two of them came first, and then the whole face of the earth swarmed with them.  The first glimpse I catch of them, I took my axe and march into Old Miss' sitting room.  She done had the sideboard moved in there, and I wish I may drop if it wasn't fairly blazing with silver -- silver cups and silver saucers, silver places and silver dishes, silver mugs and silver pitchers.  Look like to me they was fixin' for a weddin'.  There sat Old Miss just as prim and as proud as if she owned the whole county.  This kinder hope me up, 'cause I done seen Old Miss look that way once before when the overseer struck me in the face with a whip.l  I sat down by the fire with my axe between my knees.  There we sat, whiles the Yankees ransack the place.  Miss Sally, there, she got sort of restless, but Old Miss didn't scarcely bat her eyes.  By and by, we hear steps on the piazza, and here come a couple of young fellers with straps on their shoulders, and their swords  dragging on the floor, and their spurs a-rattling.  I won't say I was scared," said Uncle Remus, as though endeavoring to recall something he failed to remember, "I won't say I was scared, 'cause I wasn't; but I was taken with a mighty funny feeling in the neighborhood of the gizzard.  They was mighty polite, them young chaps was; but Old Miss, she never turn her head, and Miss Sally, she look straight at the fire.  By and by one of them see me, and he say, says he:

" 'Hello, old man, what you doing in here?' says he.

" 'Well, boss,' says I, 'I been cutting some wood for Old Miss, and I just stop for to warm my hand a little,' says I.

" 'It is cold, that's a fact,' says he.

"With that I got up and took my stand behind Old Miss and Miss Sally, ad the man what speak, he went up and warm his hands.  First thing you know, he raise up sudden, and say, says he:

" 'What's that on your axe?'

" 'That 's the fire shining on it,' sayus I.

" 'It look like blood,' says he, and then he left.

"But bless your soul, that man wouldn't never left that day if he's knowed the workings of Remus' mind.  But they didn't bother nobody nor touch nothing, and by and by they put out.  Well, the Yankees, they kept passing all the morning and it look to me there was a string of them ten miles long.  Then they commence getting thinner and thinner, and then after a while we hear skirmishing in the neigtborhood of  Armer's ferry, and Old Miss allowed how that was Wheeler's men making pursuit.  Master James was with them Wheeler fellers, and I knowed if they was that close I wasn't doing no good sitting 'round the house toasting my shins at the fire, so I just took Master James' rifle from behind the door and put out to look after my stock.

"Seem like I ain't never seen no raw day like that, neither before nor since.  There wasn't no rain, but the wet just sifted down ; mighty raw day.  The leaves on the ground was so wet they don't make no fuss, and I got in the woods, and whenever I hear the Yankees going by, I just stop in my tracks and let them pass.  I was standing that way in the edge of the woods looking out across a clearing, when -- piff! -- out come a little bunch of blue smoke from the top of one of them big lonesome-looking pines, and then -- pow!

Says I to myself, says I"  'Honey, you're right on my route, and I'll just see what kind of burd you got roostin' in you, and while I was a lookin' out bus' (?) (past?) the smoke -- piff! -- and then -- bang!  With that I just dropped back into the woods, and sort of skirted around so as to get the tree betwixt me and the road.  I slid up pretty close, and what do you expect I see?  Just as sure's you're settin' there listenin', they was a live Yankee up there in that tree, and he was a loadin' and a shootin' at the boys just as cool as a cucumber in the jaw, and he had his horse hitched out in the bushes, 'cause I hear the creature trompling around.  He had a spy-glass up there, and whiles I was a watchin' on him, he raise her up and look through her, and then he lay her down and fix his gun for to shoot.  I had good eyes in them days, if I ain't got them now, and 'way up the big road I see Master James a-comin'.  It was too far to see his face, but I knew him by the filly what I raise for him, and she was a prancin' like a school-girl.  I knew that man was going to shoot Master James if he could, and that was more than I could stand.  Many and many the time that I nurse that boy, and held him in these arms, and toted him on this back, and when I see that Yankee lay that gun across a limb and take aim at Master James I up with my old rifle, and shut my eyes and let the man have all she had."

"Do you mean to say," exclaimed Miss Theodosia, indignantly, "that you shot the Union soldier, when you knew he was fighting for your freedom?"

" 'Course, I know all about that," responded Uncle Remus, "and it sort of made cold chills run up my back' but when I see that man take aim, and Master James going home to Old Miss and Miss Sally, I just disremembered all about freedom and lammed loose.l  And then, after that, me and Miss Sally took and nursed the man right straight along.  He lost one arm in that tree business, but me and Miss Sally we nursed him and we nursed him until he done got well.  Just about that time I quit nursing him, but Miss Sally, she kept on.  She kept on," continued Uncle Remus, pointing to Mr. Huntingdon, "and now there he is."

"But you cost him an arm," exclaimed Miss Theodosia.

"I gin * him them," said Uncle Remus, pointing to Mrs. Huntingdon, "and I gin him these" -- holding up his own brawny arms.  "And if them ain't enough for any man, then I done lost the way."


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Mini-glossary

Bleedzd ter, or bleeds to, do something:  want very much to do it? has to?

Conscrip-man:  From conscription, the act of compulsory recruiting, signing up people for the military - the Draft.

In the South, the 1862 Conscription Act enacted by the Confederate Congress made men between 18 and 35 required to serve for three years.  This was needed:  compare manpower in terms of non-slaves North and South: North had 23 million people in 23 states.  South had only 9 million people, and of those, 3.5 million were slaves, see http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWconscriptionC.htm,  leaving an eligible population  (from that we have to back out the right gender-age bracket not calculated out here) 5.5 million total non-slaves South,  against 23 million total non-slaves North.

How many in each total population, North or South, were male and between 18-35, we do not know.

Bresh - refers to brush, or brushwood, so that to bresh would be to take some brushwood to someone, swat.  See Webster's Gullah-English Thesaurus Dictionary (2008)

Gin - as in "I gin" -- Not completely clear, but possibly am going to, as in give, as in the future.  See 'The word gine (as in "going to") is usually used to mark the future tense e.g. I gine and eat = "I am going to eat".'  See dialects and creoles at http://wapedia.mobi/en/Bajan/  Scroll down with a "find" at that site for "gin" and you will see "going".  The sense might be here that he gave the man in the tree his family and his arm, and did not take his life. Is that so?

Know someone "by the favor" - meaning the person favors or resembles another, in similar appearance, here Theodosia to the son of her  brother, Master Huntingdon: the little boy.

I lay - I bet.  A lay bet. See types of bets at http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/school/bet_types.php.  The "lay bet", however, is a bet that the thing will not win.  Not win.  Lay bet = Lay a horse and if the horse loses, you win.  Lay a horse and if the horse wins, you lose.  See Online Betting Guide. Other bets:  win, each-way, place, etc.

Madison and Mounticellar GA - Madison is a town about an hour away from Atlanta, that calls itself the town that Sherman refused to burn, see http://www.madisonga.org/  It has been the county seat since 1807. Mounticellar refers to Monticello GA, a town also nearby.  See http://monticelloga.org/

Miss Theodosia Huntingdon - Sister of Master John, husband of Aunt Sally, see http://books.google.com/books?id=L3qQYDOzXn0C&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=Theodosia+Huntingdon&source=bl&ots=xLybUQlf31&sig=ifCMR3M0oCqJrVGcsrajd7on6Jw&hl=en&ei=gcmXS_PbG8KUtgeY18TkAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCMQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Theodosia%20Huntingdon&f=false/

Overseer:  One who directs the labor of others.  See://www.thefreedictionary.com/overseer/.  This was often a White supervisor, lower class than the owner, often with whip, managing slaves in the fields.  See discussion of the role at Crafting the Overseer's Image at  http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/26.2/br_11.html/

Putmon County - we see Putnam County, south of Atlanta, halfway or so to Tallahassee FL, but not Putmon.  Putmon is a common last name, however.

Vittles - from 14th or 15th century words, "victuals", http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vittles; http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/victuals. Middle English vitaille, Anglo-French victuale; Late Latin victualia,  Supplies of food, provisions.