So
when
the
colored
troops
met
by
the
campfire
to
sing— and
it
was
their
favorite
way
to
spend
the
evening—they sang
made-up,
spur-of-the-moment
songs,
which
had
never existed
before
either
in
words
or
in
music,
songs
which
grew out
of
the
fire
and
the
night
and
the
dreams
and
hopes
which hovered
between
fire
and
night
forever.
All
of
the
colored
troops
were
officered
by
white
men,
and these
white
officers
listened,
fascinated,
to
the
campfire
singing,
and
when
they
wrote
about
it
they
tried
to
tell
why
it moved
them
so
deeply.
There
would
be
a
hundred
men sprawled
in
a
fire-lit
circle,
dark
faces
touched
with
fire;
and one
voice
would
go
up,
rich
and
soft
and
soaring;
I
know
moon-rise,
I
know
star-rise—-
and
half
a
dozen
men
would
come
in
with
a
refrains
—Lay
dis
body
down
a
The
singer
would
grope
his
way
two
lines
nearer
to
the thought
that
was
drawing
him
on:
I
walk
in
de
moonlight, I
walk
in
de
starlight-—
and
now
more
voices
would
sound
the
refrains
Lay
dis
body
down.
Finally
the
song
would
be
finished,
and
a
white
officer
who .
listened
said
that
the
chanted
refrain
would
sound
like
"a grand
creation
chorus":
I'll
walk
in
de
graveyard,
I’l
l
walk
troo
de
graveyard
To
lay
dis
body
down.
I
go
to
de
judgment
in
de
evening
of
de
day
When
I
lay
dis
body
down.
And
my
soul
and
your
soul
will
meet
in
de
day
When
I
lay
dis
body
down.
19
They
were
men
coming
up
out
of
Egypt,
trailing
the
shreds of
a
long
night
from
their
shoulders,
and
sometimes
they sang
in
the
wild
imagery
of
a
despairing
journey
through parted
waters
to
a
land
of
promise;
My
army
cross
over,
My
army
cross
over—
O
Pharaoh's
army
drownded—
My
army
cross
over.
We'll
cross
de
mighty
river,
We'll
cross
de
River
Jordan,
We'll
cross
de
danger
water
....
My
army
cross
over.
20
Most
of
the
men
were
straight
from
the
plantation.
On many
matters
their
ignorance
was
absolute.
Yet
they
were men
without
doubts,
and
always
their
faith
reached
out
to the
future.
A
man
in
the
VI
Corps,
talking
to
one
of
them, learned
that
men
who
could
not
read
one
word
of
Scripture could
cite
Biblical
authority
for
their
belief
that
the
North would
win
the
war.
There
was
a
prophecy,
they
said,
which foretold
that
while
the
South
would
prevail
for
a
time,
in the
end
it
would
be
overthrown.
The
VI
Corps
soldier searched
his
own
Bible
and
at
last
concluded
that
the
reference
was
to
words
in
the
eleventh
chapter
of
the
Book
of Daniel;
"And
in
those
times
there
shall
many
stand
up
against
the King
of
the
South:
also
the
robbers
of
thy
people
shall
exalt themselves
to
escape
the
vision;
but
they
shall
fall.
So
the King
of
the
North
shall
come,
and
cast
up
a
mount,
take
the most
fenced
cities;
and
the
arms
of
the
South
shall
not
withstand,
neither
his
chosen
people,
neither
shall
there
be
any strength
to
withstand."
21
A
Rhode
Island
soldier
who
had
served
along
the
Carolina coast
remembered
how
a
group
of
fugitive
slaves
had
come within
the
Union
lines
after
a
harrowing
nine-day
flight through
swamps.
One
man
explained
his
perseverance:
"I
seed
de
lamp
of
life
ahead
and
de
lamp
of
death
behind," and
another
said
that,
on
coming
up
to
the
Federal
outposts, "When
I
seed
dat
flag,
it
lift
me
right
up."
Even
before
they left
slavery,
they
had
their
own
idea
of
what
the
war
was about.
A
Pennsylvania
soldier
on
that
same
Carolina
expedition
asked
a
slave
if
he
knew
why
the
Yankees
had
come, and
the
slave
replied
that
of
course
he
knew—"to
kill
Massa and
set
de
darkeys
free."
A
Wisconsin
man
who
escaped from
a
prison
pen
in
the
Deep
South
took
refuge
in
the
hut of
an
aged
slave
who
had
never
before
seen
a
Union
soldier, and
he
asked
the
old
man
if
he
would
betray
him.
"No
sah," replied
the
old
man
emphatically.
"There's
not
a
slave
in South
Carolina
who
would
betray
you."
One
officer
discovered
that
before
the
war
the
Southern
slaves
had
known about
the
Fremont
campaign
of
1856,
and
the
campaign
of 1860.
Some
of
them
told
him
that
they
had
refused
to
work on
March
4,
1861,
expecting
their
freedom
to
date
from that
day.
22