"Nor I either," said the Sergeant, "I didn't think when I enlisted that this was going to be made a nigger war!"
"For my part," I continued, "I'm getting tired of fighting for niggers, and if I wasn't afraid they would hang me for a spy, I'd go and join Billy Jackson's cavalry."
"And so would I," said the Sergeant; "I think I'd like the Southern people very much. I have often heard "Bunker" talk about them; he used to live in the South."
"Yes, I did, indeed! and I'm almost ashamed to be fighting against them. I used to live in Mississippi, and I have spent several years in Arkansas and Tennessee. I am well acquainted in Memphis. General, do you know Jim Ford and Charlie Ford, of Memphis?"
"Yes, I know them very well; they are wholesale dealers in produce. I get my supply of pork from them every year."
He then motioned to me and the Sergeant and one of the citizens in the room, who had been listening with a good deal of interest to our conversation, to accompany him into a back room, which we did. He then called for two bottles of wine, and asked us to drink with him, which we were not in the least backward about doing.
The citizen then said that he had not time to stay longer, and, shaking hands with us, bade us good-by, and went out.
"General," said I, when the citizen had gone, "do you know where Billy Jackson is?"
"Yes! He's not far off; if you want to join his cavalry you would have no trouble in getting to him."
"If I wa'n't afraid General Jackson would get me and hang me for a spy, I'd run away, and so would this Sergeant, and we'd join his cavalry."