they were going to hang me; and I shall never forget her looks as she came out in the road to bid me good-by.  One of the soldiers was softened by her agony, and whispered to her:  “Don’t cry, aunty, we are not going to hang him—­we will only put him in jail.”  I saw this changed my wife’s looks in a minute.  I said a few words to her, and, with a prayer for God’s blessing on us both, we parted, and they moved on.  After we had gone about seven miles, we met two soldiers, who belonged to the regiment at Nelson.  They said:  “Hello! where you going with that nigger?” The two men in charge of me replied:  “We are going to take him to Panola jail.”  “Why,” said one of the soldiers, “there is no jail there; the Yanks passed through and pulled down the doors and windows of the jail, and let all the prisoners out.”  This caused a stop; and a council of war was held in the fence corner, the result of which was a decision to take me back to old Jack McGee’s.  After we had gotten back there, they took me and gave me another flogging to satisfy the madam.  I was never so lacerated before.  I could hardly walk, so sore and weak was I. The law was given me that if ever I was caught out in the public road again, by any soldier, I was to be shot.  Monday morning I was sent to the field to plow; and, though I was very stiff and my flesh seemed sore to the bone, my skin drawn and shriveled as if dead, I had, at least, to make the attempt to work.  To have said:  “Master, I am too sore to work,” would only have gotten me another whipping.  So I obeyed without a word.

* * * * *

Rebels Burn their cotton.

The capture of Memphis by the Union troops closed the principal cotton market of the country, and there was, as a consequence, an immense accumulation of the product in the hands of the farmers of that region.  They were, therefore, compelled to resort to temporary expedients for its protection from the elements.  Old Master Jack had his piled up in a long rick, and shelters built over it.  Other farmers did the same.  As cotton was almost the only source of revenue for the farmers, and as there was now no opportunity of getting it to market, there was such a dearth of money as had seldom, if ever, been known, and a corresponding dearth of those necessaries of life which money was the only means of procuring.  The accumulations of our family in this product were very great.  While the rebel farmers were waiting for a time when they could turn their stores of this valuable article into money, a proclamation was issued by the rebel government that all the owners of cotton that had it stored on their farms must prepare to have it burned.  Hundreds of rebel soldiers marched to every section of Mississippi that they could reach, and applied the torch to these cotton ricks.  The destruction was enormous.  This was to prevent the cotton from falling into the hands of the Unionists.  Jeff Davis said to his deluded followers that it was