[449] particularly black and ragged slave, whom he compelled to sit beside the colonel; having done which, he left him. Half an hour passed by, when the Confederate officer returned, and inquired, with a grin at his white prisoner, how he liked his new comrade. “He is not such a person as I have been accustomed to associate with,” was the calm reply; “but he is a better bred man than the one who last sat beside me.” The monster shells thrown from the heavy guns of the Western gunboats, excited alarm and terror both in whites and blacks. The account of their effect on the former, given by an old contraband, is somewhat amusing: We were passing along the wharves, a few days ago, wondering at the amount of business that was there transacted. While standing observing a cargo of horses being transferred from a vessel to the shore, an “old contraband” appeared at our elbow, touching his fur hat, and scraping an enormous foot. He opened his battery upon us with the following:
Well, boss, how is yer?“Pretty well, daddy; how are you?” “I'se fuss rate, I is. B'long to old Burnemside's boys, does yer?” “Yes, I belong to that party. Great boys, ain't they?” “ Well, I thought yer b'longed to that party. Great man, he is, dat's sartin. Yes, sir. We waited and waited; we heard yer was comina but we mos' guv yer ”
