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'They mustered at Corinth, where a great number had the measles, and James was detailed v/ith the sick when hi s regiment v.'ent on th Virginia. Of conrse he wanted to be in the fighting and was disgusted to be left in cam.p with sick men. It vrns his first as well ^s his l=*ct practice, for he abandoned his profession and vent into the ranks, serving through the campaign down on the Peninsula, then com*p.0,	to look after us, as the doctor?s health
was giving away and he had a stroke of paralysis in'Tarch ?62.
No one but a Confederate mother can know what the women of the South had to bear those four cruel, relentless years. Toil nnd anrietv and heartache, work and want and privation. The case or a larg'3 family, a11 the nen of which were in daily combat and exposure -- except for the helpless father who had to be cared for helped about. v,hen the strife began I was just fifty and, having a good con sti tut ion, was fat and v^in-bi 160 pounds, My long and luxuriant hair swept the floor when Charlotte brushed it, when I sat in a chai7". Four such years as we underwent reduced me to an old woman, thin and careworn, with gray h^jr thinning fast, hone and home and fortune all gone and inly an invalid to care for. But I shi.lnot grieve, for I ajn more fortunate than most; for I have still my 3or[ to depend uoon. Though severely wounded near Jackson, Kiss., as they fell back after vicksburg, we nucsed him back to health, tho he still had a slight .limn ip his "left leg.. He had. joined the calvary after the first vear so he could be at home occasionally to help me provide for the large family.
Our colored peonle knt?w thev T-:ou?ud be frae	the	conflict	was	ov^r,	but
I must say they were faithful to when there w?s not a man nearer than a half-mile, and gave me all the assistance possible in trying to help provision themselves. Resides the fields of cotton and corn, we raised potatoes in abundance, and cats and rice and rye; and e?ah family Viad their few acres to raise vegetables and corn for their hors and chickens; and T paid for rails that the men cut on. moonlight nights and half-holidays. Only one of our Negro men went from home, and he was captured on a waron and escaped from the army and came home soon-.
The boy, Henry Yancy, whom Janes took to Vi.rrinia with the 16th, was captured there and put on a man-o-w?r, so did not coma back. The others were faithful and T trusted them. vhen the raids came through the st-^te, the horses and mules '-?ere t^ken into th^ si>ramrs rind kept secreted until safe.
When lawless characters .v?re seen a^out for during the last year some tired of fighting and deserted, getting a living as best they could in the swamos and stealing -- mir -egro men took turns about night-watch on the stables and the house, and particularly the smokehouse. T,.e ^ad never a fear of insurrection or harm. f?he the Emancipation was announced by the poor stricken raster in very broken snd uncertain tones, not a dry eye was turned from his poor palsied hand which held a newspaper copy; hut faithfully they worked the year out at what w'\ge we could afford to pay them.
As the crops wer gathered in the men were paid and told now to look out for bhemselves; the old man was not master any longer; to go where they could do better or stay and work on shares ~s the last part of the vear had been arranged. James had some v5|OQ0 from the sale of cotton, ^nd with that arranged for a cotton place in Point Coulee Darish. All of the slaves went with him and some1 of the house servants. Charlotte, my housewoman, went to keep house for ham. The doctor took fhe parting from the old servants \?ery ^ hard; especially did he miss Charlotte, who ^ad been Vis faithful nurse for % four long years. Cam ilia had married in 1*6.? to Isaac	and	had	^
one little girl, born on January ?nd , 1/6^. TTr. V/ade h^d "contracted con-	?
tracted consumption	in the camp and was. now with	us. He vras not	st-ron^;	and. ^
one cold wet day in	Tarch the doctor saw Ike was	not i-'e?|l. enough	to ride	to
the fields to see about work, so ^ent	-.nfj t^ok a severe r'old. He
knew well it was his last i lines:- and only wai ted to see James who, answering his summons, came in time to be with us. Trouble and sorrow s^ept (bike an avalanche over us. The estate vras :-ll swent away to settle claims for goods never received during + he war. Counter-claims were instituted by his girls and neices ^or property of their mother?s. James hr=rj to put in one also to make the estate insolvent. There ^ ? nothing left but the farm to sue for. Such a worry, such trouble and hard feelinrr -- each felt as if he had been cheated -- whilst the ooor dear doctor had <-iven ^11 his time and health to rearing tViem all in conform, and living them every advantage* The end of it all was, Colonel Ct-ckdale, my friend and advisor, saved the land by mv do wer ^ and Fanny?s allowance of ?^600 from the courts for two years schooling. At the auction no one over-b^d the 600.
In the fall of 1.^66	^arah r?oved to -Tow Orleans to veep hoarders,	and the
others .joined her.	Odoli.a hod married after her	father?s death;	Cammie was
also a widow- with one child; Sarah?s husband, '"ill lam \r ^ Phelos, was drowned in ?6h in attempting to ret to New Orleans to his mother?s. William had been discharged from the army, Batson?s ^''t&llion, on account of his health.