University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I was born in South Carolina. My grandfather was stolen from Africa.

I was going to take a longer holiday than he thought for.

I WAS born in Columbia, South Carolina.

But thanks be to God that those days have passed, and we now live under the sun of liberty.

My only desire has been to do good.

When the yoke was taken from my neck I went to school in Columbia, S. C., awhile, then to Charleston.

My life had not been wholly uneventful; I had been of an observant turn of mind from my youth.

The place of my birth and the conditions under which I was born are matters over which, of course, I had no control.

I gave my services willingly for four years and three months without receiving a dollar.

I cannot express the pleasure I have had in sitting down, and recalling the incidents of my childhood and youth.

I always had plenty to do. Fast as one child would be walkin', then I would have another one to nurse.

I was very happy to know my efforts were successful in camp, and also felt grateful for the appreciation of my services.

It does not treat of campaigns, army maneuvers, or plans of battles, but only of the daily life of a common soldier, and of such things as fell under his limited observation.

A defect, from which the race suffers much, arises out of the fact that so little effort has been made to record and preserve the creditable history which the race has already made.

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