After that I runned away and
come up here to Pine Bluff and stayed awhile and then I went to Little
Rock and jined the 57th colored infantry. I was the kittle drummer. We
marched right in the center of the army. We went from Little Rock to
Fort Smith. I never was in a big battle, just one little scrummage. I
was at Fort Smith when they surrendered and I was mustered out at
Leavenworth, Kansas.
"My grandfather went to war as bodyguard for his master, but I was with
the Yankees.
"I remember when the Ku Klux come to my grandmother's house. They nearly
scared us to death. I run and hid under the bed. They didn't do nothin',
just the looks of 'em scared us. I know they had the old folks totin'
water for 'em. Seemed like they couldn't get enough.
"After the war I come home and went to farmin'. Then I steamboated for
four years. I was on the Kate Adams, but I quit just 'fore it burned,
'bout two or three weeks.
"I never went to school a minute in my life. I had a chance to go but I
just didn't.
"No'm I can't remember nothin' else. It's been so long it done slipped
my memory."
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: John Young
923 E. Fifteenth, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 89
"I know I was born in Arkansas. The first place I recollect I was in
Arkansas.
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