175                                HISTORY OF THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT O.V.V.I.

mistress, who, by the way, was a sullen, cruel looking woman, when all at once the old negress straightened herself up, and her face, which a moment before was almost stupid in its expression, assumed a fierce, almost devilish aspect.

           Pointing her shining black finger at the old man crouched in the corner of the fire-place, she hissed out: "What for you set dar; you spose I wait sixty years for nuttin? Don't yer see de door open? Ise foller my chile; I not stay. Yes, nodder day I goes long wid people; yes, sar, I walks till I drop in my tracks." A more terrible sight I never beheld. I can think of nothing to compare with it, except Charlotte Cushman's "Meg Merriles." Rembrandt only could have painted the scene, with its dramatic surroundings.            It was near this place that several factories were burned. It was odd to see the delight of the negroes at the destruction of places known only to them as task-houses, where they had groaned under the lash.

           We have had very little difficulty in crossing the Ogeechee. The Seventeenth Corps covered the Ogeeche river, where a light bridge was only partially destroyed. It was easily repaired, so that the infantry and cavalry could pass over it, while the wagons and cavalry used the pontoons. The Ogeeche is about sixty yards in width at this point. It is approached on the northern or western side through swamps, which would be impassable were it not for the sandy soil, which packs solid when water covers the roads, although in places there are treacherous quicksands which we are obliged to corduroy.

IN A FOG.

           Soon the fog, which settles like a blanket over the swamps and forests of the river bottoms, shut down upon the scene; and so dense and dark was it that torches were of little use and men were directed here and there by the voice.

           "Jim, are you there?" shouts one.

           "Yes, I am here," is the impatient answer.

           "Well, go straight ahead."

           "Straight ahead? where the thunder is straight ahead?"

AN ORIGINAL CHARACTER.

           At this station we came across an old man named Wells, who was the most original character I ever met. He was depot master in the days when there was a railroad here. He is a shrewd old man and seemed to understand the merits of the war question perfectly. He said:

           "They say you are retreating, but it is the strangest sort of a retreat I ever saw. Why, dog bite 'em, the newspapers have been lying in this way all along. They are always whipping the Federal armies, and they always fall back after the battle is over. It was that 'ere idea that first opened my eyes. Our army always whipping the Feds., and we always fell back I always told them it was a d—d humbug, and now I know it, for

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