L. P. Brockett, The camp, the battlefield, and the hospital: or, lights and shadows of the great rebellion

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[68] very thorough examination. Her first disguise was that of a negro boy. Passing safely through the Union lines, and past the rebel pickets, she entered the suburbs of Yorktown, and met with some negroes who were carrying out supplies to the pickets. Mingling with these, the pretended contraband soon attracted the attention of a young rebel officer, who demanded, “Who do you belong to, and why are you not at work?” “I doesn't b'long to nobody, massa; I'se free, and allers was; I'se gwyne to Richmond to work,” was the reply. The officer, apparently astonished that a free negro should aver his freedom, ordered him immediately set to work wheeling gravel up a parapet about eight feet high, for strengthening the works, and ordered that he should receive twenty lashes if he did not do his work well. The work was very severe, even for a strong and robust man, and though the negroes comprising the gang helped what they could, yet before night the hands of the pseudo-contraband were blistered from the wrists to the tips of the fingers, and she was completely exhausted. After resting a little, however, she made an inspection of the fortifications, sketched them, ascertained the number, size, and position of the guns, carefully concealing her notes between the soles of her contraband shoes. Securing the services of a young negro to take her place the next day on the parapet, she entered upon the easier service of carrying water to a brigade stationed near the rebel headquarters. Here she obtained some important information in regard to the numbers and intentions of the rebels, and detected a rebel spy, who, under the guise of a peddler, had often visited the Union headquarters, and who had caused the death of one of