We arrived at our destination about four o'clock p. m. The Sherman contingency had burned the warehouse as they did all the others along their march. Consequently the railroad Company used passenger cars on the side track to transact their office work, while freight cars served as a warehouse until discharged of their contents. As I entered the office car a young man met me. I remarked, Are you the agent? He said, No, Mr. Mims is at Parson Johnson's house. What is your name? My name is Smith. Then you are the scoundrel that mutilated my goods, and I advanced. He run out of the door and slammed it to with such force that he shattered the glass panel into fragments. When I came out to where Perry was, he said, That's the fellow that cut the sacks, there he goes. Well Perry build a little fire by the side of this car for here we will camp until some one returns to deliver us the freight. The sun had set below the horizon and it had begun to get night, when Mr. Tom Wells, an acquaintance of mine, approached me. He was an employee of the railroad company also. Well Ike, old fellow, how are you getting along? All right Tom, how are you? I am all right. What brought you here, said he? I said business, I have goods here if I can find an agent to deliver them. I heard you came here for a difficulty, said he. I remarked, It seems I am already in a difficulty, I can't get any one to deliver me my goods. Well, I will tell you, Mr. Mims is a perfect gentleman. I am glad to hear it. Do you know him? No, I have never seen him, but up to now I can't have the same opinion of him that you have. I have not been treated right and I came here for justice. He said, Well, let me tell you; there are about forty employees here, hands and all, and they will all stick to him, right or wrong. I said, I came here to see Mr. Mims and I intend to stay here until I do see him, if it takes me a week. Well Ike, if you promise me that you will not raise a difficulty I will go after him and introduce you to each other. I said, Tom, there are other ways to settle a difficulty without fighting if men want to do right. Well I will go for him; I know Mr. Mims is going to do what is right, and you too. Mr. Mims came presently, and a whole gang following him. I said, Mr. Mims, it seems you and my partner had a difficulty. I do not know the cause and I do not care to know. He said you fellows double teamed on him and he got worsted in the fight. To avoid a recurrence of the difficulty I sent my driver to you and a note. You ignored my note and sent me a load of corn with all the sacks ripped open, more or less, with a knife in the hands of one of your employees. I berated my man for accepting goods in that condition and he stated to me how all of it was done. I am now here to see what can be done about it. I have never done you any injury to be treated in that manner. He said, Mr. Hermann, I am sorry it happened. I will see that it will not be done again. I said, Have you discharged the fellow who did it? He answered, No, not yet. I said, Well, I demand that it be done now. And what about the damage I sustained. He remarked that the road would run to Tennille by next Wednesday, a distance of 25 miles, and he would forward my two car loads of freight free of charge from Bartow to Tennille. I said that was satisfactory. I wanted to load my wagon; he said, we do not deliver goods at night. I answered that if he had been at his post of duty on my arrival I would have had plenty of time to load and be on my way back, and I wished to load up at once for the morrow being Sunday I did not want to be on the road. He delivered the merchandise and Perry and I passed Sunday with my friend B. G. Smith, who was glad matters passed off as they did. Monday morning we took an early start and by twelve o'clock I was at home. That was my last trip as a wagoner, but not as a soldier, as the sequel will show.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
When the commanding officers of the Confederate army surrendered and stacked arms the rank and file expected that the terms of the cartel promulgated and agreed upon would be carried out to the letter. The men laid down their arms in good faith, feeling as General R. E. Lee remarked in his farewell address to them, that under present unequal condition it would only be a waste of precious lives to continue the struggle. The following were the terms of the agreement entered into between General Grant and General Lee: The officers and men to return to their homes and remain there until exchanged and not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force in their respective states.
But the fellows who directed the ship of state and who were invisible on the firing line became invincible, when the South lay prostrated. The first order was from Secretary Staunton, for the arrest of our commanding officers. This order, however, was resented by General Grant as contrary to the cartel and should not be executed. This caused a rupture between the two and the order was finally rescinded. The next step was to disperse all State authority and appoint a military Governor. General Wilson acted in that capacity in Georgia. The same year, 1865, negroes were proclaimed free and military garrisons established in every town, city or village throughout the South. Under the superintendence of those militaries the Freedmen's Bureau was established, forcing negroes to migrate from one place to another, thus breaking up the good relationship still existing between Masters and servants. The bureau was seemingly gotten up for the protection of the blacks, as if they needed any protection, they to whom we owed so much for their good behavior during the time when every available man able to bear arms was at the front, leaving their families in charge of the negroes. The gratitude of our people was or ought to have been sufficient guarantee in that line. Such harmonious condition did not suit the powers that be, there was venom in their heart for revenge, and punitive measures were concocted. Never were captives bound tighter than the people of the South. Is it a wonder that the men of the South became desperate and used desperate remedies to oust more desperate diseases? The carpet baggers made their exit. The negroes' mind had been prejudiced under the auspices of those vultures. They were forced into societies, one of which was the Rising Sun. Some called it The Rising Sons. God only knows what ultimate result they expected to obtain. Drums and fifes were heard in every direction at night times. The woods were full of rumors that the negroes are rising. Men in towns made ready for emergencies, every one on his own hook; no organization for defense, in case harsher measures should be needed. When the author of this sketch took up the idea of a reunion of his comrades and inserted a call in the county's weekly, calling on the members of Howell's Battery for a social reunion, their wives and children, when other veterans suggested why not make it a reunion for all the veterans of the County. I was only too glad for the suggestion and changed the call to include all veterans of the county, and on the day specified there was the greatest reunion Washington County ever had. It was estimated that eight thousand people participated. There were over one hundred carcasses besides thousands of baskets filled to overflow with eatables and delicacies. The object of the meeting was stated to form an artillery company as a nucleus or rallying head and to meet organization with organization not as a measure of aggression but as a protection. The author was elected Captain. Under his supervision he built an armory and eventually the State furnished him with two pieces of artillery. The day he received the guns he had a salute fired. The boys in the rural districts had not forgotten the sound of artillery and the town was filled with enthusiasm. Some of the negro leaders called on me to know what all that means, I told them it was to teach their misguided people that we can play at the same game and if they don't stop beating their drums and blowing fifes in the night time when honest people are at rest I would shell the woods. This admonition had a splendid effect and the people of Washington have lived in peace ever since. The author resigned his commission in the year 1881, when Honorable Alex Stephens was Governor of Georgia. And Washington County has the honor of having inaugurated the first reunion of Confederate veterans. The citizens of Washington County and Howell's Battery presented the author with a gold headed ebony cane, beautifully carved, as a memorial and their regard for him as a citizen and a soldier. Being taken by surprise I had to submit to the caning.
The South passed seemingly through the chamber of horrors of the Spanish Inquisition and punishments administered by degrees. First robbing the owners of their slaves, of their justly acquired property, after they, (the North), received from the Southern farmer its full equivalent in U. S. money. Second, in the promulgation of the Civil Rights Bill, in April, 1866. Third, in forcing the Southern people to accept the 14th and 15th amendment to the Federal Constitution, not as a war measure, as Abraham Lincoln claimed, when issuing his proclamation to free the negroes, but as political measures to perpetuate themselves in power.
Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina and North Carolina refused to accept those conditions and in consequence were not admitted into the Union until 1868, although paying enormous taxes without representation, and finally had to submit in self defence. Virginia, Texas and Mississippi held out until 1870 before they succumbed to the thumb screw.