I was a man grown when slavery was stopped. I was born on de plantation of John Paxton .  Twere in Marshall County, Tennessee, near Louisburg, de county seat. John Paxton owned a great big plantation. No sah, I don't know how many acres. John Paxton was de boss man and he had 'bout one hundred slaves. John Paxton died before the war started. Den dey appointed a guardian, a man named Hopwood to hire out the plantation and de slaves twel de youngest boy came of age. John Paxton had three boys and two of them, Jim and John , volunteered in the Confederate army. De youngest boy, I think it was Joe was too young for de army. De boys inherited all de slaves but dey never bought any. Dere never was any trouble with de slaves. Sometimes one of 'em was lazy or ran away and den dey sold 'im. Dere wasn't much whippin' only when de slaves was lazy. We got quarters dat's warm and dey is put together pretty good. De floors is planks. De houses has one room mostly but dey's some with two rooms. We all wuks in de field and in de barn. Dere's cotton and corn and vegetables on de plantation. De slaves does all de wuk. We makes de clothes for all de slaves and for de white folks too. De slave women puts de cotton on de spinnin' wheel we cards de cotton and de women weaves de cloth. Den for de slaves all de cotton's dyed wid copperas. So all de slaves got clothes de same color, brown. But de clothes for de white folks don't git dyed brown. We shucks de corn and cuts de oats. Dere's a machine to cut de oats. You see dis finger. I was cuttin' oats on de plantation, in de barn and de machine got sharp knives. Dis finger gits caught and de knife cuts de finger off. Yassuh, de finger grows back. He's a mite crooked too. Marse Paxton and de boys was mighty good to de slaves. Dey wasn't no schools for de slaves. I never learn to read and write till I enlists in de army. We has to learn to read and write so's we can read de articles of war and de other regulations. Sundays we goes to church on de plantation. De preacher's a white man. De white folks goes to church Sunday morning and de colored folks Sunday afternoon. We doesn't wuk much Sundays, only to milk de cows or hitch up de hosses. We's 'lowed to go huntin' too. We gits de guns when we goes out in de woods but we ain't 'lowed to pack de guns 'round. Dere's plenty food, milk and meat. Dere's plenty hogs on de plantation. None of de slaves knows how to read. We don't know when de war's over. Den de troops comes to de plantation. Dey got a paper. Dey tells de boss man he got to read de paper to de slaves. De paper say de slaves is free. When de boss man don't read de paper to de slaves de troops comes back. Den dey makes him read de paper. After de war de boss man hire me back and pay me wages just like anybody else. I stay dere till 1867. In 1867 I joins de army and learns to read and write. I enlists in Nashville, Tennessee. Den I goes to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where de regiment is organized. Dey sends us to Leavenworth, Kansas, where de Union Pacific is building a railroad to de West. We is divided into squads and we guards de workmen from de Indians. Dat don't keep de Indians quiet. Dey raids de camps and runs de horses off. We has de section of de railroad to de state line and den we turns de guard duty over to de other soldiers. Yassuh, de Indians kills a lot of de workmen and some of de soldiers. Den we's ordered to Fort Hays. Soon we gets orders to march to San Antonio. De first town we strikes after de Red River is Montague. Den we marches straight to San Antonio. Dere is Indians all de way. General Mackenzie is commander and Captain Henry C. Corbin is Secretary of War. Colonel Shafter leads de infantry and I fights under him. De cavalry is under Colonel Hatch .

We goes to Fort Clark and den to Fort Concho. Den we goes to Fort McKavett. De Comanches and de Cheyennes is fighting together to drive out de white men. Part time we guards de stage coaches and de mail trains. We don't meet no big bands of Indians till we comes to McClellan Creek near Indian Territory. On dis side of de river where we is dere's no trees. On de other side dere's plenty trees. De Indians is all on dis side where we is. Dere's three thousand Indians, Comanches and Cheyennes. We's ordered to surround de Indians. De Cavalry is down de river. De artillery is up de river. We stays in de center. Dat is de infantry. De Indians comes at us. Dey can't go down de river. Dey can't go up de river. Den we charges dem. We kills so many dat de river is filled with their bodies. Den de Indians what's left swims de river and gets away in de brush. We captures five hundred and takes dere rifles. Yassuh, dey got good guns. Only some of 'em. Others got bows and arrows. See dis knee? Dat's where a Indian arrow hit me. How'd de Indians get good guns? Dey captures some of de soldiers and takes dere guns. Yassuh, we got good guns. Dey is Springfield needle guns dat kills at nine hundred yards. De Indians fights plenty good. We didn't have no big fights after dat. Lotsa times we runs into small bands but after de big battle at McClellan Creek dey's not so troublesome. When we goes huntin' buffaloes we runs into Indians all de time. Yassuh de Colonel, Colonel Shafter , he's a general now, got to be in de Spanish-American War, he lets us hunt when we makes camp. (He didn't know General Shafter had died.) We hunts deer and buffalo and antelope. I'se must red out in 1872, Nossah I didn't leave de Army. I just re-enlists. De first time we enlists for three years and my time is up. I stays in de army till 1880, with de 24th infantry. Den I stays in Texas where I gits married. I been farming ever since. Yassuh I draws a pension from de government. I'se lived a long time. What's dat? Oh, yassuh, I drank plenty. I can smoke cigars too. Pipe. Thank you for coming to see me.