GDG- Civilians after the battle One Free Family of color was Lucky

[jack]

  Isaac Smith was a thirty-two year old black farm hand who remained with 
  his
  > employer throughout the invasion. On the morning of July 1, Smith was 
  > working in the fields west of town, when he witnessed the beginning of the 
  > battle:
  >
  >
  > A great many people had skedaddled, but. we were right there when the 
  > battle begun, and then we loaded up a wagon with provisions and gain, and 
  > got away with seven or eight of our houses down an old road into the 
  > woods. After we'd gone far enough to be well out of sight and hearing we 
  > unhitched the horses that drew the wagon. There I stayed fearin' and 
  > tremblin' and looked after the horses. If the Rebels had happened to come 
  > through they'd have took 'em and me too, but they didn't get there. The 
  > man's sons come back'ards and for'ards to bring me something to eat and 
  > make sure everything was all right.
  >
  >
  > Isaac Smith's wife was caught in a farmhouse behind Confederate lines 
  > throughout the battle. When the Confederate army occupied the house as a 
  > hospital, Mrs. Smith recalled: [I] got down into the cellar, and I crawled 
  > way back in the darkest corner and pile everything in front of me. I was 
  > the only colored person there, and I didn't know what might happen to me." 
  > A Confederate officer lay wounded upstairs, and he "wanted the women to 
  > come up out of the cellar to take care of him and do some cooking and he 
  > promised they should be well treated." Mr. Hankey, Mrs. Smith's employer, 
  > asked the officer "Would you see a colored person protected if she was to 
  > help with the work her? He said he would, and he sent out a written 
  > somethin' or 'nother orderin' the men to keep out of the kitchen, and he 
  > had the door boarded up halfway so they could hand in things to be cooked 
  > and we could hand 'em out afterward."
  >
  >
  > Not all of Gettysburg's African Americans were as fortunate as the Smiths. 
  > Young Albertus McCreary later recalled:
  >
  >
  > A number of colored people lived in the western part of town and when on 
  > the first day a great many of them were gathered together and marched out 
  > of town. As they passed our house our old washerwoman called out "Goodbye, 
  > we are going back to slavery." Most of them were crying and moaning. We 
  > never expected to "Old Liz" again, but the day after the battle ended she 
  > came walking in, exclaiming, "Thank God, I's alive again!" We all crowded 
  > around her, anxious to know how she had got away. The main fact was this: 
  > She was marched with the rest down the street and there was such a crowd 
  > that when they were opposite the Lutheran Church, in the confusion she 
  > slipped into church without being seen, and climbed up into the belfry; 
  > she stayed there for the two days without anything to eat or drink.
  >
  >
  >
  > THE EFFECT OF THE CONFEDERATE
  > INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA ON
  > GETTYSBURG'S AFRICAN AMERICAN
  > COMMUNITY
  >
  >>
  >
  > by Peter C. Vermilyea